DBA First Date

Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous, since
there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could someone
told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for starting? I
read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be a
development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to get to
practice myself for this new job requirements?For starters, try to keep in mind the most important things to the
organization:
-Backups. Make sure all your important databases are being backed up
regularly, and test the restores. Monitor and get very familiar with them.
-Maintenance plans. Make sure that appropriate maintenance windows are
taken for reindexing, updating stats, integrity checks etc.
-Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
desktop machine. That way you'll often be aware of performance issues
before you get a phone call.
-Make sure your SQL boxes are regularly patched, ideally in a test
environment first.
-Make sure all your servers are on the latest service packs (assuming
you don't have any applications that would break with a new SP).
-Pick up an administration book to get familiar with all of the regular
routines a DBA has.
HTH,
Rubens
"tulip" <tulip@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1AC1B73B-B186-4E55-A8BB-178FCE0BA8B6@.microsoft.com...
> Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous, since
> there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could
> someone
> told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for
> starting? I
> read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be a
> development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to get
> to
> practice myself for this new job requirements?|||This role also require to hand reporting service, so anyone has
experience on handling both? thank you
On Mar 3, 5:25=A0pm, "Rubens" <rubensr...@.hotmail.com> wrote:
> For starters, try to keep in mind the most important things to the
> organization:
> =A0 =A0 -Backups. =A0Make sure all your important databases are being back=ed up
> regularly, and test the restores. =A0Monitor and get very familiar with th=em.
> =A0 =A0 -Maintenance plans. =A0Make sure that appropriate maintenance wind=ows are
> taken for reindexing, updating stats, integrity checks etc.
> =A0 =A0 -Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
> desktop machine. =A0That way you'll often be aware of performance issues
> before you get a phone call.
> =A0 =A0 -Make sure your SQL boxes are regularly patched, ideally in a test=
> environment first.
> =A0 =A0 -Make sure all your servers are on the latest service packs (assum=ing
> you don't have any applications that would break with a new SP).
> =A0 =A0 -Pick up an administration book to get familiar with all of the re=gular
> routines a DBA has.
> HTH,
> Rubens
> "tulip" <tu...@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:1AC1B73B-B186-4E55-A8BB-178FCE0BA8B6@.microsoft.com...
>
> > Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous, sinc=e
> > there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could
> > someone
> > told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for
> > starting? I
> > read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be =a
> > development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to ge=t
> > to
> > practice myself for this new job requirements... Hide quoted text -
> - Show quoted text -|||when Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
desktop machine. If there are about 20 servers, how do you monitor all of
them from my desktop? thank you
"Rubens" wrote:
> For starters, try to keep in mind the most important things to the
> organization:
> -Backups. Make sure all your important databases are being backed up
> regularly, and test the restores. Monitor and get very familiar with them.
> -Maintenance plans. Make sure that appropriate maintenance windows are
> taken for reindexing, updating stats, integrity checks etc.
> -Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
> desktop machine. That way you'll often be aware of performance issues
> before you get a phone call.
> -Make sure your SQL boxes are regularly patched, ideally in a test
> environment first.
> -Make sure all your servers are on the latest service packs (assuming
> you don't have any applications that would break with a new SP).
> -Pick up an administration book to get familiar with all of the regular
> routines a DBA has.
> HTH,
> Rubens
> "tulip" <tulip@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:1AC1B73B-B186-4E55-A8BB-178FCE0BA8B6@.microsoft.com...
> > Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous, since
> > there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could
> > someone
> > told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for
> > starting? I
> > read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be a
> > development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to get
> > to
> > practice myself for this new job requirements?
>|||That's a bit of a tough one. I am lucky enough to have an additional
desktop machine aside from my laptop with a decent sized monitor. Even
then, I can only effectively see about 8 servers at a time. That being
said, you could still all add the servers (in blocks of 8), you'd just need
to scroll through them once in a while to see how they are doing. And if
someone called you with a performance issue, you could quickly flip over to
that particular one...
Rubens
"tulip" <tulip@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7314E503-7223-47CD-B73F-19F6D3907216@.microsoft.com...
> when Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
> desktop machine. If there are about 20 servers, how do you monitor all of
> them from my desktop? thank you
> "Rubens" wrote:
>> For starters, try to keep in mind the most important things to the
>> organization:
>> -Backups. Make sure all your important databases are being backed up
>> regularly, and test the restores. Monitor and get very familiar with
>> them.
>> -Maintenance plans. Make sure that appropriate maintenance windows
>> are
>> taken for reindexing, updating stats, integrity checks etc.
>> -Setup perfmon counters that you can watch in real time from your
>> desktop machine. That way you'll often be aware of performance issues
>> before you get a phone call.
>> -Make sure your SQL boxes are regularly patched, ideally in a test
>> environment first.
>> -Make sure all your servers are on the latest service packs (assuming
>> you don't have any applications that would break with a new SP).
>> -Pick up an administration book to get familiar with all of the
>> regular
>> routines a DBA has.
>> HTH,
>> Rubens
>> "tulip" <tulip@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:1AC1B73B-B186-4E55-A8BB-178FCE0BA8B6@.microsoft.com...
>> > Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous,
>> > since
>> > there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could
>> > someone
>> > told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for
>> > starting? I
>> > read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be
>> > a
>> > development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to
>> > get
>> > to
>> > practice myself for this new job requirements?
>>|||Hi
http://vyaskn.tripod.com/sql_server_administration_best_practices.htm#Step1
--administaiting best practices
http://vyaskn.tripod.com/sql_server_security_best_practices.htm --security
best practices
"tulip" <tulip@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1AC1B73B-B186-4E55-A8BB-178FCE0BA8B6@.microsoft.com...
> Hi, I am going to start as the only DBA in a company, very nervous, since
> there is no peer at the company and no transition from the job, could
> someone
> told me when I start, what would be the initial steps to take for
> starting? I
> read some article about daily activities on the job, since i used to be a
> development dba, now into a produciton dba with 15-20 servers, how to get
> to
> practice myself for this new job requirements?