InstantForum.NET v2.9.0SQLServerCentralhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/notifications@sqlservercentral.comTue, 21 May 2013 10:16:26 GMT20http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxIf you're referring to the Netapp snap manager for sql stuff, no we haven't instituted it yet. As a production DBA I was all set to take some training and/or do extensive reading to get familiar with the software, but now I'm hearing my manager say he doesn't want his DBAs involved in backups and restore -- he views that as infrastructure team duties -- at least in our environments with large sql databases.So we're at a bit of a standoff, Systems Admins wanting to do netapp snaps for everything except databases and DBAs being told not to get involved.Mon, 03 Sep 2012 21:07:32 GMTIndianrockhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspx[quote][b]Indianrock (9/3/2012)[/b][hr]As far as Systems Admins taking over sql server support duties, I think that can work as far as infrastructure and backups ( where backups are handled by something other than native sql tools ).We've gone down that road twice, due to decisions being made by IT managers in the absence of any DBAs or DBA managers. The first time native sql backups and log shipping were replaced by Commvault backups administered by Systems Admins. This time we're headed towards Netapp snap backup and its not clear yet if the DBAs we now have will be involved in that or not.Our System Admins have so far steadfastly refused to get involved in the nuts and bolts of sql server which means they could not manage maintenance like reindexing and update statistics in any reasonable way.[/quote]Have they ever tried doing a restore to make sure it all works as advertised? Any DR drills to make sure DR is actually working?Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:01:47 GMTJeff Modenhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxAs far as Systems Admins taking over sql server support duties, I think that can work as far as infrastructure and backups ( where backups are handled by something other than native sql tools ).We've gone down that road twice, due to decisions being made by IT managers in the absence of any DBAs or DBA managers. The first time native sql backups and log shipping were replaced by Commvault backups administered by Systems Admins. This time we're headed towards Netapp snap backup and its not clear yet if the DBAs we now have will be involved in that or not.Our System Admins have so far steadfastly refused to get involved in the nuts and bolts of sql server which means they could not manage maintenance like reindexing and update statistics in any reasonable way.Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:24:33 GMTIndianrockhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspx[quote][b]TheSQLGuru (1/29/2010)[/b][hr]I know a production DBA who just moved to a new job because he had gotten his former company so stable and everything running so routinely that he became bored and unchallenged.[/quote]Nothing wrong with that - but, it would tell me that company isn't growing and expanding. A company that is growing and expanding will be bringing in new systems, new applications, building out their DR site, etc...In fact, a growing and expanding company would definitely have lots of opportunities for growth - especially in the areas of system integration, data warehouse, reporting and other BI related processes.And just about the time you get caught up with all of that, is the time you start rolling out the old hardware and building out the replacement systems where you have the opportunity to take what you have learned over the past 3-5 years and apply that to the new systems.Now, if you are really stuck in a 'Production Support DBA' role - where you cannot even think about working in any of the other areas then I would say he did the right thing. That can become very boring - very quickly...Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:10:41 GMTJeffrey Williams 3188http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspx..Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:03:07 GMTsona.akhihttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxI know a production DBA who just moved to a new job because he had gotten his former company so stable and everything running so routinely that he became bored and unchallenged.Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:12:39 GMTTheSQLGuruhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxIt depends on where you are a Production DBA. Production DBA is not the same thing from company to company. The depends part, comes down to how well you like it at the company where you are a Production DBA.Is it a worthwhile career choice - IMHO - yes.Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:12:22 GMTSQLRNNRhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxBeing a production support DBA is like any other 'niche' title/occupation within IT. There are always tradeoffs in salary, working hours and benefits both within a given company and between your company and others. I personally have been a DBA for 28+ years, all but 5 of them as a 'pure' production support DBA. My limited development DBA time was rewarding but was too political and schedule driven basically leading to tremendous swings in stress based on where things were in relation to the project life cycle. As a production support DBA things are actually more predictable. Sure there are cycles related to business activities, scheduled maintenance and upgrades. Needles to say the potentially ever present, all important issue of dealing with outages that can crop up at any time. But how is that different from issues that a development DBA faces ? Sure, both have 'expenses' associated with them for the company's bottom line. In production, outages cost revenue. In development bad queries, tuning and other issues cost developer/development time which is also money. Missed deadlines, over scheduling and long hours during 'project cram time' also ramp up the 'cost' paid by the company. Oh, did I mention that 'stress' is a given no matter what since you are the DBA.The real question to ask is 'Will this role be fulfilling for me ?'Above all, 'Know Thyself' !Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:52:17 GMTrudy - Doctor "X"http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxInteresting thread.I have done both and continue to do both in some sense.I think which one is for you depends on what you like to do.Production Support DBA can be ugly. Users can blast a table where a restore is required...unfortunately because you cannot restore just a table from a backup, well...you have to restore a database on a server which has enough space...and then bcp out the data.While this seems easy -- you'll just have people calling you left and right wondering when it will get done. Performance and Tuning can all of a sudden become a big issue on a given day. You have to grudgingly hack through bad code and determine why some sproc that ran "well" is taking a hit all of a sudden....on the bright side, doing this kind of prod support makes you into a better "developer DBA" -- you'll know for your app what tables to "backup" through BCP cause you'll understand how long a restore can take.You'll write better sprocs, and more importantly create better indexes after having gone through tuning somebody else's bad sproc.Personally - I prefer being a dev DBA because I like seeing the data -- and understanding how it can tell a story. Understand the data, and you can create a good db structure. Also - while you may encounter similar thing as a Prod DBA...for a dev dba...well...different types of data kind of make your job more interesting.my two rupees :)Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:28:58 GMTsamir-847608http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxPersonally I wud prefer being a production DBA but you should be ready to ->1) work under pressure2) should be having a depth knowledge on Database structure and3) ready to pick the calls at anytime :hehe:Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:38:34 GMTTushhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxHow many database servers do you support? How many DBAs your company has?I am not particularly a jack of all trades but do different things and do both production and development. One DBA for too many servers.~LeonWed, 27 Jan 2010 09:28:35 GMTLeon . Orlov .http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxI myself have always been the "jack of all trades" DBA, production, development, data architect and even some programming. I have been of the belief that the production DBA is slowly being phased out. I've worked a lot places where the System Admins maintained backups and routine maintenance and just used me as a reference as I focused on other things. I have always considered by wealth of different experience to be an asset, but at times it leads me to tasks that I don't feel are that of a DBA, but in the end get to learn something new and of value seems to be a good tradeoff. Having said all that, you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity as long as you can stand it and then hopefully move up and on to something that excites you and is even maybe a little less stressful. I have found stress in every area at sometime in my career.Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:22:47 GMTKen Overtonhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxThere are more and more companies offering production dba support as a service. Thus I think this class of employee will be less in demand with laid-off types bloating supply. Not a good career path IMHO.Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:06:10 GMTTheSQLGuruhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxwww.salary.com has data on pay and benefits for various careers/jobs on a per-location basis. Plug in your data, get a comparison. If it's just about the money, that's where I'd go for data.From what I've seen, production support often gets higher pay right now, but also has the highest stress and off-hours stuff. Dev often has a slightly lower payscale, but requires less weekends and evenings (except during crunch time, if your company works that way).I do both, and don't mind the odd hours they sometimes require. I like working for small/medium companies, where I can have some variety in my duties on any given day, instead of doing the same thing all the time. I make less money that way, but it's worth it to me.Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:02:23 GMTGSquaredhttp://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxI think it all depends on the company you work for and how they define your responsibilities. I just went to work as a Prod. Support DBA and work in a team where I am only on call once a month for a week. If you are on call 24/7/365 with the company and no comp time or compensation for the extra hours then that would suck, but maybe it's time to look for a better company environment. You are the only one who can determine if you prefer development work or prod support work better. Both are viable career paths and there should be plenty of opportunity for both.Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:36:19 GMTmelmore-776372http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxBoth of them are going to be in demand in the future, it really depends on the size of the organisation you work for. Quite often the same dba does both, as well as designing and developing the database.You really have to look at what you enjoy doing, if you say that doing production support is making your life miserable then maybe it is not for you.Though i don't think it will hurt your career to do get some production support experience.If you want to make a career out of being a development DBA then it would be good to learn about all aspects of software development and it wouldn't hurt to learn a specifc dev language like c# or vb.netSQL careers can vary greatly and you should look at working the field that you enjoy or no matter how many £££ you make you will still be miserable.Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:44:11 GMTsteveb. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxI support all production servers of a particular client. There are about 40 servers. All of them are being used in different timings , i.e. round the clock.The other thing which I fear is that .. whether being in production support is good career option or not as compared to a development DBA's profile ?Which of the two is in demand these days..and what is predicted for the furture ?Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:32:12 GMTansz5http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspx[quote]life is miserable for production support...as one needs to work in odd hours too !! [/quote]Do you go to different clients site to fix when they have issues?Or do you "look after" the production server of one particular client?Other than odd hours, do you face any other issues?Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:03:43 GMTSuresh B.http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic527067-146-1.aspxI have just started as a Production Support SQL Server DBA . Earlier as I Was working as a development dba.Personally I enjoyed work as a development dba but then ..as they say...Grass is always greener on the other side..I switched to Production support... but now I think....life is miserable for production support...as one needs to work in odd hours too !! I would now stick to the career path which is going to be more n demand and would yeild good benefits too, in terms of $$$$ !:DPlease advise.Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:37:25 GMTansz5