There is a new meme started by Mike Walsh (Twitter, blog). He tagged Brent Ozar(RSS, Twitter) who tagged me amongst other.
Here is the the basis of the meme to quote Mike.
When I wrote about empirical evidence and learning through trying (instead of asking only), I got thinking about things I wish I knew when I was a Junior DBA that I know now.
So here is what I know now that I wish I knew then(and usually learned the hard way).
Microsoft Project is your friend.
I have written about this before but it is worth it to revisit. I started out making big production changes to mission critical systems with nothing but a task list in my head. I evolved to notepad and then excel. My success % improved with each jump. Now, I can floor my boss and customers with downtime estimates accurate the minute. On top of that, I can establish doable timelines and get more resources if my time line does meet expectations.
You can be your worst enemy.
Ego can make a brilliant employee a liability. It manifests is several ways( at least for me).
Life is so much better when you are modest rather than smug.
If the hole is round, a square peg may not be the best fit.
I have officially become platform agnostic. SQL Server will always be my first love and what I am best at but there are other products out there. Not that I know everything there is about SQL but I don’t learn 10 new things about it everyday like I used to. As a n00b, I learn 30 new things a day about MySQL\Oracle. There are valid reasons to go MySQL or Oracle over SQL Server. That is just the way it is. Imagine rewriting the DAL layer for Wiki or Wordpress just because you had to run it on SQL Server. If you drink that much koolaid, more power to you. I think knowing the features and limitations of other platforms helps me as a SQL Server DBA as well.
The GUI is not your friend.
I used to be an enterprise manager DBA. When I learned how to admin from TSQL, that is were the Senior DBA level skills came in. I still use the GUI if it a click or two vs. several lines of code but I know how to write it and, if need be, automate it. If you can’t, learn.
Know X as good or better than the subject matter experts
Where X is technology that interacts with the database: The OS, hardware, SAN, network, and application code. Of course, this is not always feasible. I have never jumped on a switch to prove it is not a SQL Server problem but I have gotten pretty close. Once when all fingers pointed at SQL Server, I had them check the switch for errors and sure enough the firewall was set 100/half duplex. If nothing else, learn the hardware and OS inside and out.
Next Victims
Jonathan Kehayias(RSS, Twitter)
Jason Strate(RSS, Twitter)
Rob Boek(RSS, Twitter)
posted @ Wednesday, February 11, 2009 6:22 AM by Brent Ozar
posted @ Friday, February 13, 2009 5:00 PM by Strate SQL
posted @ Friday, February 13, 2009 6:01 PM
posted @ Monday, February 16, 2009 5:15 PM by Strate SQL
posted @ Monday, November 23, 2009 8:51 PM
posted @ Monday, November 23, 2009 8:58 PM
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