SQL Stuff Learned Today

Being away from a technology as vast as SQL Server for a few years is like reacquainting with an old friend you haven't seen since childhood. Your friend has matured and added a lot of sweet features to his/her list of mad skillz. Getting back into the SQL groove in the middle of 2008 R2's lifecycle and now almost Denali isn't exactly like riding a bike, but the core passion and love for this line of work is fueling my learning and resolve to take the product serious this time. I feel like I've been given a second chance with Database Administration and I aim to invest the time to truly master it.

Speaking of Master, Kendra Little (blog|twitter) received her Microsoft Certified Master designation in SQL Server today. A very big CONGRATULATIONS to her, because it really is a big accomplishment. :)

Fellow Dallas/Fort Worth resident Sean McCown (blog|twitter) has posted couple of great articles recently from his daily experiences and highly animated conversations (smack-downs, really). From these, I learned that if full backups can be restored then ALL of the data is available regardless of source filegroups or server. Also, how to troubleshoot contention in the TempDB. Great reads; follow the post links [1], [2].

Also I learned from Books Online that if you have databases in a Simple Recovery Model, the transaction log is truncated at every checkpoint rather than after every backup like myself and a few other non-DBA types thought. This further supports the reality that changes made to a database will be absolutely lost since the last full or differential backup up to the point of failure. If the business cannot tell you how valuable their data is, then it's best to err on the side of caution and set your databases to the Full Recovery Model.

Lastly, I learned that the #sqlhelp hashtag is awesome. It's like a Bat Signal to DBAs. Pose a SQL question on Twitter with that tag and you WILL get help.

Until next time, PEACE!

Two Days In: Getting Oriented

Second full day as a bonafide Database Administrator has been completed and I am mentally stretched and swimming in an ocean of question marks that are beginning to form coherent questions, soon to be addressed with my new team members. The mental stretching actually feels good (at the end of the day) and is making me realize that I haven't been really exercising my brain for the past few years. I may have been extremely busy supporting many IT infrastructures at a basic level, but focusing on database technologies for one customer (my employer) at a much deeper level is causing me to really think (Like).

Through conversations with the Data Team Leader, I know that she expects me to ask questions without actually telling me that she wants me to ask questions. I only asked a few questions today which were at a very high level. At the time, my meager interrogation felt inadequate given the mountain of infrastructure, process and history I have to learn. But after thinking about it tonight, the effort was appropriate for my sixteen-hour tenure; I have to understand the basic framework of my environment first before I can ask the deeper questions with any sensibility. I now understand that I'm probably being to hard on myself and should let the enthusiasm and passion for my craft fuel learning and excellence, rather than forcing the knowledge which can lead to burn-out, mediocrity and failure.

The SQL Server environment I am working in is a legacy SQL 2005 environment supporting high-volume ad-hoc reports development that has mushroomed over the years to support the demand. Also, the organization has been in operation for over 10 years and they are now realizing the benefits to employing an Enterprise Data Warehouse (in it's early stages) which means a lot of SSIS learning is in my near future.

So far, I have been getting familiar with my new surroundings: discovering the low-down on the backups situation and gathering the basic information on the SQL instances and databases. I have been methodically using the scripts in Rodney Landrum's most-excellent eBook "SQL Server Tackle Box". I highly recommend that you read it and test out the scripts in a sandbox environment first, just so you can get used to the outcome and know what to expect before executing them on a production box.

Once again, major props to the SQLPASS community, SQL Server MVPs and the whole #SQLSERVER gang on the Twitter-nets. I am just about reaching "stalker status" with many of you ;) Until next time, PEACE!!!