Beginning Admin: The Care and Feeding of SQL Server
Design and development may be exciting, but database administration is absolutely critical (and, reasonably well-paying!)
The care and feeding of a server tends to get short-changed or neglected. In this class, we’ll cover the basics of the big five administrator tasks:
· Backups– You must set up regular backups, to keep copies of your databases…just in case something breaks, or someone makes a bad, bad mistake.
· Integrity checks –Regularly and automatically check databases for corruption, which is when bits get scrambled, lost, and ruined.
· Index maintenance– Databases need regular upkeep so they’ll continue to run well.
· Disk management– It’s actually your job to find out about full disks before they happen. After all, databases grow!
· Alerting– Alerts tell you what’s wrong, so you don’t have to go looking for problems.
· I’ll also provide good references for the other two big basics of admin: security, and performance. Being a databaseadministrator is a big job, butwe can cover the extremely important parts in just one session!
Jen McCown is CEO of MinionWare, LLC; a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server; and an independent consultant. She is Senior Editor at MidnightDBA.com, where she creates training videos, the DBAs at Midnight webshow, blogs, reviews, and podcasts. Jen is a member, volunteer, and speaker in PASS, the North Texas SQL Server User Group, and the PASS Women in Technology virtual chapter.