Helpdesk to DBA in 60 Tips & Tricks for the new DBA Meredith Ryan-Smith # 73

Meredith Ryan-Smith 12 years in IT, 5 years as DBA at The Bell Group Chapter Leader of the PASS WIT VC http://meredithryansmith.wordpress.com/ http://twitter.com/#!/coffegrl coffegrl@gmail.com # 73

First Things First: Don’t Panic! # 73 http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperpariah/2417220138/in/photostream

Learn what your scope is Hardware forward OS forward SQL forward # 73

Get to know your instances # 73

Other methods Where is SQL installed? Ted Krueger’s blog using SQL Ping 2: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/DataMgmt/DBAdmin/scan-network-for-sql-server-instances Buck Woody’s blog uses Power Shell and WMI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2009/03/11/find-those-rogue-sql-servers-in-your-enterprise-with-powershell.aspx SQL Discovery, Discovery Wizard # 73

Who uses it? Talk to your customers to get the real story. What applications depend on your instances? What are the Service Level Agreements? How is it performing now? # 73

Learn the basics Management Studio is a beginners best friend Wizards get the job done and sometimes they can be quicker than scripting. Focus on the features that you use today # 73

Mike Walsh on where to start SQL University http://sqlchicken.com/sql-university/ Mike Walsh on where to start http://www.straightpathsql.com/archives/2009/03/where-do-i-start/ Brent Ozar on where to start http://www.brentozar.com/sql/becoming-a-dba/ # 73

Community to the rescue! The SQL community lives to help you learn. # 73

SQL Server Central http://www.sqlservercentral.com/ SQLServerPedia http://www.sqlserverpedia.com/ LessThanDot http://lessthandot.com/ #73

Learn to love Documentation http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahnmyrrh/3634153932/ #73

Should be complete and concise Level of detail depends on the complexity of your systems Keep a physical copy – electronic won’t cut it in a disaster # 73

Needs to be considered a ‘living document’ and updated frequently One set of documentation for each server Database details live inside the server’s documentation # 73

Jorge Segarra’s Runbook template http://sqlchicken SQL Doc from Redgate http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Doc/index.htm Use Visio to map out your integration points – translate that whiteboard map into something less volatile # 73

Turn this… # 73

Into this. # 73

Automate yourself out of a job Backup jobs Index maintenance Integrity checks Event/error notifications Any other repetitive tasks Gathering baselines # 73

Michelle Ufford’s index maintenance script Ola Hallengren’s Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization solution http://ola.hallengren.com/ Michelle Ufford’s index maintenance script http://sqlfool.com/2010/04/index-defrag-script-v4-0/ # 73

Ted Krueger’s blog on setting up email notifications http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/DataMgmt/DBAdmin/lazy-dba-email-this-stuff Grant Fritchey’s blog on automating Server Side Traces http://www.scarydba.com/2011/02/08/tsql-tuesday-15automation-in-sql-server/ # 73

Next steps: Act on the info you collected from user base Remediate any issues Performance tuning Plan for future growth Look at ways to simplify and standardize your environment # 73

Thank you and Feedback Thank you for attending Helpdesk to DBA in 60 Minutes at SQL Saturday #73 Please make sure to fill out the session evaluation and place it in the box in the back of the room # 73