What are the best practices for organizing your work as a DBA?

In my experience, below are useful tips to make my DBA work more efficient and effective: 1. Maintain an inventory of the list of databases that is under your charge across the organization, alongside their business criticality. 2. Automate and schedule tasks that perform status checks on the databases' service availability. Alerts will be useful to notify you of any anomaly or suspected incident. 3. Always plan, and test for version updates and upgrades systematically. Keep a SOP of the commands that will be used.

Não podemos ver o DBA como uma função isolada das outras, por vezes ficamos no meio para manter o que já funciona e ou projectar novos projectos, e isto envolve tempo e várias equipas. Portanto, apoio a iniciativa de que devemos pegar as objectivos gerais e desintegrar elas em pequenos pedaços, e analisar se serão viáveis ou não, ou ainda quais recursos serão necessários para implementar a solução seja para manutenção, melhoria ou ainda para desenvolvimento.

Desde el punto de vista del mantenimiento de Infraestructuras previas y siguiendo más o menos lo que ITIL dice, se debe tener una lista de todas las instancias SQL,versiones de SW, BBDDs, servidores y app de negocio. Esta información debería que ser la misma que tenga el sistema de ticketing y de monitorización donde las alertas, sobre instancias, servidores y BBDDs deben estar correctamente definidas. Sería necesario que todos los sevidores aceptaran comandos remotos (winrm, ssh, ...) para poder automatizar operaciones. Inicialmente se debería comprobar que servidores (HW) e instancias SQL, BBDDs están correctamente dimensionadas para la carga de trabajo prevista. Tener un plan tanto de updates como de upgrades para el SW bajo el alcance.

Always consider the output or the USE of the data to be collected. There's no worse feeling of developing a database and then finding out it never been used as it has no real traction with users

As a DBA, one can organize his or her work effectively and efficiently by 1. Performing health checks every morning before business starts. 2. Use the 3-2-1 backup rule (always have a backup of the database on disk, tape, remotely kept safe with retention policies applied to it) 3. Always think of the CIA as a DBA in your daily administration. (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability)

Get everyone to sign off every definitions, formulas, exceptions, and the expected format (i.e. dates and acronyms). Then get a data dictionary that shows the lineage from source to ETL to joins and lookups to what shows up to end users. Security must also be accommodated, hiding data and/or making it anonymous. Then ask, Do you want to see the data as is now? Or as it was locked last month/period? Or compare different points in time, which requires maintain slowly changing dimensions and historical snapshots. Who owns the living document and must update changes to any definition and process. Who owns the evolving controls for legal accessing-looking and deletion of the data. Lastly, think of future impacts like mergers and changes.

If time doesn't allow, start with bullet points: - Drop something into OneNote when you overcome a challenge. OneNote's search is fast and effective. - Details help, but even a sparse outline can spark recall of critical details. - Screenshots age poorly, but a picture is still worth 500 DWORDS. Use Greenshot to quickly mark up the image with numbers, arrows, boxes, etc. - Demo the documentation for someone else on your team. For a truly humbling experience, shadow her while she uses the document to perform an unfamiliar task. - Add context. How many applications, processes, use-cases, etc. do you support? Help the reader orient themselves in the landscape with an architectural or process flow diagram.

Here comes something pretty valuable. Document everything you do, as you might expect to find out the documentation of something new for you. Think about it. This is a great way to contribute on building and sharing a powerful knowledge and experience with others.

In my day-to-day work as a DBA, it is essential to always have each activity and database object well documented and standardized, so I can quickly understand the structure and functioning of the system. Standardization in object names and naming conventions makes maintenance and understanding easier for all team members, ensuring that everyone is aligned with the processes and dynamics of activities.

Rule of thumb: 1. Keep everything. Even some small item will be a great information to solve a critical issue. 2. How to keep everything? Automate it :) 3. Follow standard/basic baseline. Will cut shot and organise how to search it back

I'm a huge fan of automation, but it's essential to document your automated code/processes. The best way to do this is to store all your code in source control, like GitHub. This way, you can document, update, or recreate your automation more efficiently. It's simple enough to script out agent jobs for SQL Server or Runbooks for Azure SQL Database. I would take it further and use Terraform to create and maintain these resources. You can store all your Terraform code in GitHub. Terraform can be used for all flavors of RDMS, so it can carry you through most, if not all, of your automation needs.

Beside applying the DB admin's tasks like Database file management, backup and recovery, rollback segments and redolog , it is also important for an Database admin to know the application using the Database which can use the massive queries or bulk insert/updates or frequent on-line transactions, so according to this data it is good to tune the Database to have the performance.

Automation is good but with detailed documentation alongside. It's very important to have link some explanation in description / comments of automation task/job/script about what is the purpose (link to corresponding task), what are thresholds, schedule, dependencies etc. and why and history of changes. When all of this stuff is present in all automation tasks it will be a lot more easier to maintain it in future.

La automatización de procesos en la empresa no solo me brinda la oportunidad de concentrarme en nuevos proyectos o en el desarrollo de habilidades, sino que también optimiza el tiempo que, de otra manera, se dedicaría a procesos manuales. En resumen, la automatización de procesos representa una evolución significativa.

Cómo equipo nos resulta útil la automatización por ahorro de tiempo y nos libera de concentrarnos en otras tareas. Utilizamos software de terceros que nos válida con condicionales si fue satisfactoria la tarea o si tuvo algún inconveniente.

Version control and change management are crucial not only for DBAs but also for DevOps, Developers, SRE etc. You can even implement Infrastructure as Code for your databases scripting all server-level and database-level objects and store them in Git. But be careful not to store sensitive data in version control system.

In my work as a DBA, it is essential to combine technical, organizational, and communication skills. To stay organized and manage all the demands, I use the Flyway tool, which allows me to control and automate changes to the database schema.

Desde mi perspectiva, considero que la gestión y documentación de cambios es sin duda uno de los temas más complejos y a menudo pasados por alto en las empresas. No obstante, debería ser un aspecto primordial y crucial en cada proyecto y área, ya que el potencial de una gestión adecuada y la documentación efectiva de cambios pueden convertir a la empresa en una de las mejores en su ámbito.

Todo cambio debe ser documentado con un registro de cambio desde la versión hasta una actualización etc. Lo mismo un cambio en un scrip o procedimiento almacenado tiene que estar comentado en el codigo y documentado.

The best way to handle something like this is a 3rd party tool, like Flyway, with the scripts stored in GitHub. This way, you have a history of the schema, its changes, and a way to approve changes before they move through the environments. I've mainly used this for schema only, but it could also work for data if something static needs to be placed into a table.

Always work with application and business teams to keep the database lean specially for oltp environments. The leaner the database is, the better it’s going to perform. The best way to keep the databases leaner is to keep archiving unnecessary data from the databases. Also look for opportunities to tune queries rather than throwing hardware to solve the problem.

Enable Query Store at the database level to capture query execution details, including execution plans, runtime statistics, and wait stats. Utilize Query Store reports and DMVs (Dynamic Management Views) to analyze query performance trends, identifying top resource-consuming queries and their execution frequencies. Use the built-in SQL Server dashboard to identify missing indexes, waits, latches, and IO stats. Utilize various views in the dashboard to analyze expensive queries from different perspectives, such as CPU usage, IO activity, and execution times. By leveraging Query Store alongside the server performance dashboard, we can effectively monitor performance, identify resource intensive queries, and optimize database performance.

Database monitoring is a key role of DBA's operations. After clusters provisioning, database monitoring and alerts should be in place to ensure database health, resources utilisation, throughput metrics, backup jobs and to figure out any anomalies. The monitoring tools like Datadog, Splunk or any database specific tools like Datastax Opscenter, OEM are a good investment to avoid any potential outages for real time business.

Monitoring and optimizing database performance are critical responsibilities for a DBA. Utilizing tools like dashboards, graphs, and logs helps monitor key performance indicators such as response time, throughput, availability, and resource utilization. This allows DBAs to proactively identify issues and trends, ensuring databases remain reliable, available, and scalable.In addition to monitoring, DBAs employ various optimization techniques such as optimizing queries, creating and maintaining indexes, and partitioning data to improve performance. These efforts focus on reducing latency, improving efficiency, and increasing capacity to meet the demands of growing data volumes and user requirements.

It's also important to configure alerts for metrics which can potentially have big impact on overall performance with priorities and SLA for dealing with such alerts based on their priorities.

Continuous learning is an integral part of every truly professional IT specialist. As a modern DBA, you must have a wide range of knowledge and skills in many areas, such as cloud architectures, cybersecurity, DevOps principles, and the list goes on.

Knowledge and experience must be shared. Every member of the DBA team has strenghts and weaknesses, but none of them should be left alone with a task not capable of fulfilling. Careful consideration is required who is a proper candidate to take care of a critical system-one bad step may cause an even bigger problem. Properly documented processes and checklists should help in such a scenario, practicing them will build confidence.

The best way to improve your skills is to get into the tech you want or need to learn and start typing or clicking. Having some courses, articles, or books to guide you can be helpful, but the best learning is via experience. See what works and doesn't, and try new things to keep your skill set fresh. Add new perspectives by sharing your knowledge. Of course, all this experimentation is preferably done outside of a production environment. Set up a separate space for testing so that you don't have to worry about breaking anything.

Tu vigencia en el mercado profesional estará definido por tus conocimientos y más aún en lo cambiante y cíclica que se ha vuelto la tecnología. Por eso, siempre debemos vernos motivados a nutrirnos de nuevos conocimientos y mantenerlos actualizados de cara a las tecnología que manejamos.

É importante estudar para certificações oficiais, pois elas validam seu conhecimento diante do mercado. Além disso, realizar cursos, participar de eventos, etc, são atividades fundamentais para gerar novos conhecimentos e validar seu aprendizado como DBA.

Start from the End. 1.Define Your End Goal: Articulate and identify your end goal. This is your guide throughout the process. 2.Task Breakdown: Minimizes the overwhelming nature of larger objectives. 3.Do not solve all your problems at once: Pre-mature problemsolving is counterproductive. 4.Flexibility in End Goals: Be open to refining your goal as innovation unfolds. 5.A setback is a Catalyst for Innovation: Embrace challenges as the catalyst for creative problem-solving. 6.Continuous Learning: Be open to new ideas and continuous learning. Embrace the journey as a learning process and allow insights to shape your path. 7.Embrace the Journey: Find joy in the creation, failure, problem-solving, and subsequent iterations.

Making good use of whatever ticketing system your company uses can be a great way to organize work. Requests for help codified in the form of a ticket are a great way to be make notes about what the issue is and what the solution is. Those notes can then become documentation for how to solve issues. The ticketing system also can be a great way to assign priorities to the various tickets. In doing so, it directs the DBA and their team to what is most important to work on.

Experiencing new role model would be part of learning and experiencing. It challenges the DBA person’s mind to face new situations and helping to see a problem from different perspectives. For example, if the DBA person is a leader in higher education, looking at the situation from the students , or stakeholders’ perspectives assisting him to see their expectations and adjust to a balance when bringing a solutions.

Always keep a fire extinguisher close to hand. These are also good for high impact percussive maintenance routines, where a traditional kinetic impulse generator might send the wrong message.

Durante mis estudios universitarios, no sentía afinidad por la materia de bases de datos. Sin embargo, mi perspectiva cambió radicalmente cuando, debido a mis responsabilidades laborales, me vi inmerso en ese campo. Fue entonces cuando descubrí un fascinante mundo de datos, experiencias y oportunidades que transformaron mi percepción inicial.