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 database administrator is a big job, but we can cover the extremely important parts in just one session!
Jennifer McCown
Jennifer McCown is an independent consultant, Microsoft SQL Server MVP awardee, developer, and DBA. She's senior editor at MidnightDBA.com, where she creates training videos, the "DBAs at Midnight" webshow, blogs, reviews, and podcasts. Jennifer is a member, volunteer, and speaker in NTSSUG, PASS, and the PASS Women in Technology Virtual Chapter.