I'm a new SQL DBA

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I'm a new SQL DBA, I am the only one in the company, and am finding it hard to do any work. We only have 2 SQL servers with only a handful of users one each with about 4 databases on each server. I want to get more experience but it's difficult, when I don't have a lot of work to do on them! Please can you give me some tips on what I can do to help me and the company use SQL more effectively.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001

Answers

Amanda,

Congratulations! You have the time to cover the basics. Some people don't have that luxury.

First, make sure that you are doing logging and backups properly. The only way to verify that your backup work is to restore from them. Make sure that you regularly take a copy of your backups offsite. Also, schedule jobs to keep a disk copy of the backup handy for a very quick restore when needed.

Check that your databases have no size or performance issues. Schedule jobs to notify you if size ever becomes an issue.

If you haven't already done so, apply the latest SQL Server Service Pack. Consider upgrading to SQL Server 2000 if you are not yet at that version (and you are not running third pary applications that depend on a previous version). Microsoft has released a Service Pack for 2000, so it is now considered stable.

I noticed that your company, Bookham, has offices in the UK, US, Japan, and France. That being the case, I would think that replication and perhaps even data warehousing and OLAP could be in your future. Study up on and experiment with those technologies.

Hope this helps,

Eric

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2001


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