Part 3. Database Administration

Edited by Paul S. Randal and Kimberly L. Tripp

A database administrator (DBA) has a tiresome and sometimes thankless job—until things go wrong. It’s then that a DBA’s skills are most apparent. But the less frequently anyone has to visit their DBA, the better that DBA is doing! So how does a good DBA do it?

A good DBA works with actions rather than words: automating, monitoring, tuning, but above all learning and constantly realizing what they don’t know. No one can know everything, and a good DBA recognizes that—even embraces it. A good DBA is always looking to improve their systems, learn tips and tricks, and prototype new configurations. A good DBA sets up alerts to be notified of errors and problems as soon as they begin to happen, possibly solving them before they turn into disasters. Just as in life, the sooner you know there’s a problem, the easier it may be to fix! (Did you know that you can set up SQL Server Alerts based on error severity levels—not just specific error numbers? For severity levels 19 and higher, a generic alert should notify you that an error has occurred.)