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What Counts for a DBA: Amnesia
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What Counts for a DBA: Amnesia
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Louis Davidson (@drsql)
Louis Davidson (@drsql)
Posted Saturday, January 05, 2013 12:41 AM
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Last Login: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 7:50 AM
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item
What Counts for a DBA: Amnesia
Post #1403200
emmchild
emmchild
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 9:41 AM
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Bravo Louis!
I will share this with my team. I currently practice a valuable piece of information you gave me years ago. You said don't design based on how much work its going to take to complete the solution. This post is an excellent approach to that philosophy. Focusing on the original problem and selectively ignoring things that don't work is the way to maintaining sanity.
So many of the problems that exist are the result of improvisation that didn't really solve the original problem on a long term basis. Thanks for your leadership!
Post #1403336
Jack Vamvas
Jack Vamvas
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 10:26 AM
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Good article. The DBA job is significantly easier in the long run , if discipline and sound priniples are applied.
Many DBAs are pragmatic - i.e they work in a resource constrained environment - with the number one priority being to keep Production systems alive.
This leads to short cuts and sometime pain the future
Jack Vamvas
sqlserver-dba.com
Post #1403339
Jeff Moden
Jeff Moden
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 2:16 PM
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Jack Vamvas (1/6/2013)
Good article. The DBA job is significantly easier in the long run , if discipline and sound priniples are applied.
Many DBAs are pragmatic - i.e they work in a resource constrained environment - with the number one priority being to keep Production systems alive.
This leads to short cuts and sometime pain the future
How do you figure that trying to keep Production systems alive "leads to short cuts"?
--Jeff Moden
"
RBAR
is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for "
R
ow-
B
y-
A
gonizing-
R
ow".
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
Stop thinking about what you want to do to a row... think, instead, of what you want to do to a column."
For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
For better answers on performance questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/
Post #1403354
Jeff Moden
Jeff Moden
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 2:41 PM
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What I've found is that a DBA is usually the voice-of-one against many and that the DBA is usually the only one with a mind out for silly little things like performance, scalability, useablility, archivability, and ease of modification. I certainly can't speak for all DBAs but thank goodness I don't actually have amnesia so that I can remember all of the seemingly little stupid things that have caused huge pains in the future. You know... little things we've suggested like "No. Loan Number from a bank isn't good enough to be a Primary Key" or "No. No permutation of first and last name is good enough to be a Primary Key" or "No. Storing multiple addresses and phone numbers on a single row in the Customer table is a really bad idea".
I think that any DBA that has developed a sense of amnesia has yet another hard lesson to learn.
--Jeff Moden
"
RBAR
is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for "
R
ow-
B
y-
A
gonizing-
R
ow".
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
Stop thinking about what you want to do to a row... think, instead, of what you want to do to a column."
For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
For better answers on performance questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/
Post #1403361
Sineetha Parveen
Sineetha Parveen
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 11:45 PM
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Last Login: Friday, May 17, 2013 3:30 AM
Points: 419,
Visits: 103
Nice article Louis
Post #1403423
Jack Vamvas
Jack Vamvas
Posted Sunday, January 06, 2013 11:52 PM
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Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 11:44 PM
Points: 25,
Visits: 245
@Jeff - "short cuts" , in this context means : a) Increasing time pressure on the Production DBA with limited time to plan and apply principles adequately. b) Many DBAs I know , are frustrated by increased responsibilities but with insufficient increased resources to tackle these responsibilities.
Maintaining Production environments in a complex , constantly changing environment , with SAN , network, VM - upgrades, fixpacks - creates extra workload for the DBA - regarding troubleshooting , capacity planning etc. As a result , developers in lower environments don't receive the necessary attention from the DBAs.
Jack Vamvas
sqlserver-dba.com
Post #1403426
TravisDBA
TravisDBA
Posted Monday, January 07, 2013 7:31 AM
Ten Centuries
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Last Login: Thursday, May 09, 2013 9:23 AM
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Jeff Moden (1/6/2013)
What I've found is that a DBA is usually the voice-of-one against many and that the DBA is usually the only one with a mind out for silly little things like performance, scalability, useablility, archivability, and ease of modification.
I can definitely agree with this. Many times, we are the only voice of reason that protects the integrity of the production databases which we are the caretakers of. Managers, developers, BI folks, etc tend to want what they want when they want it. I have a big sign over my desk for all to see that states: "This is NOT Burger King. You can't always get it your way."
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...
"
Post #1403601
Louis Davidson (@drsql)
Louis Davidson (@drsql)
Posted Monday, January 07, 2013 8:32 AM
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Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 7:50 AM
Points: 65,
Visits: 55
@jeff moden,
So, I should note that I don't indicate that you should forget everything you know :) Just that "we have to forget the
pain
of past failures".
If you are a sports fan, you can think of it just like a receiver. They have a difficult job in that they have to concentrate on the ball coming to them and protecting it once they catch it, but "forget" that they are about to be hit by a small freight train sized opponent, and that the last time they did it hurt really so bad they dropped the ball and lost the game.
They still should remember the lesson of that failure (that they have to protect the ball), but not dwell on the failure or they will do everything they can to not be in the position to even catch the ball so they won't get hurt.
Failure is a big part of the educational process (http://www.simple-talk.com/blogs/2011/04/16/what-counts-for-a-dba-failure/) but failure can lead you in two ways and fear will hopefully not be the one you choose.
Post #1403655
SQLRNNR
SQLRNNR
Posted Monday, January 07, 2013 10:17 AM
SSCoach
Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 1:07 PM
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Visits: 12,332
Jeff Moden (1/6/2013)
What I've found is that a DBA is usually the voice-of-one against many and that the DBA is usually the only one with a mind out for silly little things like performance, scalability, useablility, archivability, and ease of modification.
+1
Jason
AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
I have given a name to my pain...
MCM SQL Server 2008
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw
Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden
Hidden RBAR - Jeff Moden
VLFs and the Tran Log - Kimberly Tripp
Post #1403735
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