Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a good Xmas, ate too much, drank too much and are still telling yourselves that this year you will stick to your New Year’s resolutions (ha).

I didn’t blog in December because…I moved to Ireland to start a new job. I’ve always wanted to work abroad and for a Brit, working in Ireland is like abroad lite. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of differences between Britain and Ireland but there are similarities which I find comforting (being able to get the same TV channels is a big one).

I’ve been in a hotel for the last several weeks whilst I removed all my furniture from my old flat in England (which I’ve geekily referred to as decommissioning) and whilst I searched for a new one in Ireland. But I’ve got a flat now so can start to relax a little bit on the personal front and start to concentrate on my new position.

I don’t want to blog about my new position or the company that I’m working for but I do want to talk about how I approach a new position in general. DBAs have a tendency to want to change things immediately when starting a new job, for example implementing their own backup and maintenance procedures.

In the past I have spent most of the first couple of weeks reviewing the environments in a new position, mainly to familiarise myself with them but also to make any notes for any changes I am going to recommend. After that I’ll speak to the incumbent DBA about any recommendations I have and go from there. For example, I like to disable the SA login but there may be apps that have been setup to use that account so simply disabling it may not be an option.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that it’s not a good idea to go into a new job “all guns blazing”, wanting to make radical changes immediately. This can be difficult for me and I have had to restrain myself in the past but all it will do (at best) is make people think, “Who does this guy think he is?”

Introducing changes slowly with sound evidence for the reasons behind them will not put anyone’s nose out of joint and will also get your new colleagues to respect the knowledge that you are bringing to the table.

There is a wealth of information about SQL Server online. Absolutely hundreds of blogs, white papers, editorials, the list goes on and on. Trying to filter out the really useful, accurate (!) information from the not so useful (or just plain wrong) can be tricky. There are conflicting opinions out there which can be really confusing when you are researching a problem you are experiencing.

Below are just a few of the sites that have helped me in my day to day work immensely.

SQL Server Central
Contains an absolute wealth of knowledge on SQL Server. Articles, editorials, training and a question of the day. I use the forum on this site more than any others.

Microsoft SQL Server Forums
The official Microsoft SQL Server forum. Loads of people willing to help you out with any problems/queries you may have.

Brent Ozar
These are the guys who wrote sp_Blitz. I’d definitely recommend downloading this proc, it’s a great way of getting a quick overview of a new SQL instance. The site also has a good blog.

Adam Mechanic
Download sp_WhoIsActive. A really useful proc that shows information on currently executing queries.

Twitter
#SQLHelp is a great way of asking quick questions regarding SQL Server

PluralSight
This site provides online training for a monthly fee. It’s not expensive and the information you can get out of the courses is invaluable. However, try not to end up (like me) buying a month subscription and only doing half a course!

SQL DBA With A Beard
An old colleague of mine who is an absolute powershell whizz. If you don’t know how to use powershell, you should start learning!

If you are going to learn powershell you could probably start here powershell.com but Rob’s blog has a lot of good information specifically aimed at DBAs.

SQL Server Central and Brent Ozar’s site send out weekly newsletters which I would strongly recommend that you sign up to. I have learnt so much from both these sites.

Obviously I’ve not even scratched the surface of what is available on the internet regarding SQL Server but the sites listed are an absolute must for your bookmarks.

As my first post, I thought I’d list a few points that I would say to any new DBA. I’ll probably turn each one of these into a post on its own but for now here they are:-

Backups
Of all the tasks that you perform, making sure that there are recent, valid backups being taken is the most important. If something goes wrong, a restore is required and there is no valid backup, guess who will get the blame?

Production
Be paranoid, as the saying goes ‘Hope for the best, plan for the worst’. You are responsible for the security, resilience and performance of the live environment(s). Carefully review anything that is going to be deployed and make sure you have a rollback plan.

Research
There is a wealth of information on the internet regarding SQL Server from Books Online to blogs this like. When asking questions about SQL Server, the most common answer you are going to come across is ‘it depends’. For any questions that you have, collate information from multiple sources and then test, test, test, test, test (you get the idea)…

Mistakes
At some point along the line, you will make a mistake. Everyone does. I’m not saying this means you can start working rashly without care but even if you are the most diligent DBA in the world one day you will make a mistake. It’s how you react to it that matters, suck it up and learn from it (I know everyone says this, but what else can you do?).

Training
We are in a profession which relies on technology that is ever evolving, meaning that even if you’ve been working with SQL Server for 20+ years, there will always be something new to learn. I’d have a look at the Microsoft approved entry level course:- http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/Course.aspx?ID=40364A

As your knowledge grows you can attend more advanced courses.