So You Want To Be a DBA?

I recently was contacted by SSWUG.org to write a few articles. Its with trepidation that I accepted this challenge. There will be 6 articles in a 6 month period with various topics.

The first of these topics was what i thought it meant to be a DBA, and advice I could give others about this job, its tasks, and what motivates me to do it.

I sat down a couple times to write this article. I had a couple failed starts, like most writing inspires from time to time. However, as I thought about it, and about what inspires me, I was reminded of the tale I have been telling folks for years now. That I feel as if I am in charge of keeping a light on in a room in my company. That's the simplest explanation I have repeated over the years. Not a lot of glory, but its a necessity. As I thought about this, I expanded this tale into a couple of sentences and then a few paragraphs. This became the intro to my article.

I was worried about the word count. When one is given an arbitrary number of something to create, it always seems to worry me. 750 words seemed like a huge amount of words. The end article ended up having 3600 words to contain all the spewing about the subject I could muster. After a lot of editing, and tweeking, the count stood fairly high. They were all important words. They conveyed the meaning I wished to convey. So I went with it.

The article basically tells the tale I mentioned above, embellishing a bit to paint the picture in your mind. It then breaks down the tasks into 2 main tasks. Learn about your Data and Love your Data. Within each of these, you can further break down more individual tasks.

The article was broken up into 3 parts and will run 1 each week for 3 weeks. I hope that you enjoy it. Enjoy my perspective. Enjoy my tale and my verbiage. Enjoy the information that I hope to help you learn. Enjoy my article.

Here's my article

swwug 2011

I have been invited back to present for the SWWUG vConference in April. I will be flying down to Tucson on March 8th and recording my 4 sessions. These are not the exact titles, but from the top of my head.

Documentation. You know you love it.

Data file sizes.

Profiler / Traces

DBA Tasks

At this point, Documentation has been completed, and actually practiced as a presentation already. The others are nearing completion. I had set a goal to have them completed by this last weekend, and failed to accomplish that goal. I have a bit more work to do on some of them. But most are already well planned and created. Just need to be fluffed up at this point.

One of the tools that I used to help me was a mindmap software where I simple was able to link ideas together and list them all out. I used a couple different versions of the software, and a few different computers, including my Galaxy Tab, to simple brainstorm with myself and come up with the skeleton for each presentation. I believe that I will actually use this document in the the Documentation presentation, as an example of how to simply start documenting. Its been a work in progress, and the mindmap software allows me to simply keep adding ideas to the map and utilize those when the time comes to flesh out the presentation.

I'm nervous and excited, as always, as the date approaches. I love the creative process, I love actually presenting, I love teaching and talking and always hope that i can do a descent job and help folks. However, its still a nerve wracking process. Once its all done, I always appreciate the effort put into it, the experience as much as I do that its over. Its a funny process to look forward to something that scares you, kinda like a rollercoaster. I keep getting back in line for another ride, but am scared while in line and on the ride, yet I always return to the line and ride.

#TSQL2sDay: Resolutions

For this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, Jen McCown asks:

So tell us: what techie resolutions have you been pondering, and why? Are you heading for a certification? An award? Are you looking to pick up CLR because that guy at the Summit said it’s “bitchin’”? Go crazy…

What is T-SQL Tuesday? Let's read from the master's blog ( Adam Machanic (Blog| Twitter) ) the following :

Each month a blog will host the party, and about a week before the second Tuesday of the month a theme will be posted. Any blogger that wishes to participate is invited to write a post on the chosen topic. The event is called "T-SQL Tuesday", but any post that is related to both SQL Server and the theme is fair game. So feel free to post about SSIS, SSRS, Java integration, or whatever other technologies you're working with in conjunction with SQL Server. Even if your post includes no T-SQL we still want to see it.

I thought that the idea of doing these T-SQL Tuesday blog events was a grand idea, and couldn't wait for my first opportunity to contribute. You may notice that its been going on without my contributions for quite some time. I am finally contributing.

Last year, around this same time, there was a rash of resolution blog posts making the rounds. I thought long and hard on what I wanted to accomplish, and posted these here in a blog entry. My goals then, as in previous years, surrounded 10 distinct items. I would like to continue with these this year, albeit with modifications.

1. Local User Group
2. Produce presentations. 4-6 presentations for the year
3. Speak
4. Perform Regional Mentor Duties
5. Blog
6. Articles
7. MVP
8. Read
9. Topics
10. #InboxZero

1. Contributing the the local User Groups is paramount. Be it thru UG meetings, simply being part of peoples lives that are members, SQL Saturday events, Code Camps, and so on. There are many opportunities to contribute, and this last year I did so in some of these ways listed above. I strive to continue to do so this year. I will be branching out a bit, as money permits, to attend regionally local SQL Saturday events as well.

2. Presentations are a good way of documenting what you know, and sharing it with others. Its a good way to learn a subject more fully than you currently know it. I have had good success with SSWUG presentations, an will continue to pursue this avenue, as well as others that come my way. I love to learn, and love to share that knowledge with others. Presentations are an obvious outlet for this activity.

3. I had this goal more specific last year, indicating speaking at SSWUG. I have removed that specificness this year, and simply want to speak more, including SSWUG, SQL Saturday events, and the like. I would simply like to stretch those speaking and presenting muscles more and more.

4. As a volunteer with PASS, its important to define an avenue for your work, then contribute as much as you can to this. I am a Regional Mentor for the Southwest region, and I, along with my colleague Andrew Karcher need to support these Chapters and ensure that whatever they need, they can be provided with. This is a fun job, although I often do not busy myself as much as I feel I should with these duties. There are some side projects in the works as well that are fairly exciting.

5. Writing in a blog can be an interesting endeavor. I will often go days, weeks, dare I say, even months without posting something here. This is not to say that I do not find value in blogging, but simply that I often find value in only posting what I believe is necessary to share, or im simply to busy to do so. So, as in previous years, I vow to post more here, to glean more information from my day to day tasks that are worthy of this forum. Not to simply post to post, or get quantity. I'm going for quality. And in come cases, I need to prod myself to generate that quality, more often.

6. This last year, I did not write as many articles as I was happy with for myself. I vow to set this as a goal again, and produce, as mentioned, more content that is valuable not only to myself, but to others.

7. Nothing will change for this goal, as its a passive goal. All the other tasks will occur on their own, and this is simply there as a carrot.

8. Again, this goal fell short last year, and will remain on my list for the year coming up. I have extended this from simply reading books, to include other mediums as well, and have imported books to my android phone and other devices, with the intent of having them more readily available, and actually carving out time away from the TV to read more.

9. This year, with this new job, I am trying to be more open to topics that were previously shut off to me for various reasons. One of these is PowerShell, and I have actually started using this more already, and hope to do so more this year. Another topic that has come my way is simply general documentation. I have spent a lot of time in my last job documenting many many things for DB systems. I will implement this skill in my current gig to document everything that is missing documentation, which right now is everything.

10. I love that this goal has made it to my list, and will forever remain. This is the ever present goal of cleaning up my email, managing my email, and imply organizing myself, accomplishing my tasks at the same time. With a new job comes new vigor to keep the inbox down to zero. Home has suffered for far too long, and will be high on my list to sort thru these emails and get them processed as well.

Well, there you have it. 10 items that I have found that are important to me, that I have continued to promote as my resolutions through a few years, with modifications as time marched on.

I hope to accomplish these in the coming years. Or at least, to stretch myself to become closer to attaining whatever task or goal each one indicates. Its good to have goals, ans we in our family just recently discussed this, coming up with spiritual as well as personal goals for each member of the family.

I challenge you to read thru my list, see if any of these things ring true for you, or impress you to set your own similar goals. Come back often and reference this, and ensure that you are accomplishing them as the year marches on.

Trackback to original blog : http://www.midnightdba.com/Jen/2011/01/tsql-tuesday-014/

SSWUG presentations October 2010 - LIVE!!

I actaully am sitting in the Bits on the Wire studios at this very moment, gearing up to present 3 sessinos. I will be speaking about GoldenGate SQL Server Replication Configuration, Database Switch preparedness, Profile and Trace.

I am always honored to be selected to present in this virtual conference and love to do it. It kicks me in the butt to get some topics prepared, and then to get them polished to the point that they may make sense to others. I simcerely hope that my knowledge can be shared with others thru these presentations and help others out there that are struggling with similar items that I work with daily.

I sit here writing notes on paper, to ensure that I actually cover everything I want too. Its tough to get all the information distilled, then ensure that its actually covered.

Just wanted to say some of these things to the blog and document it. So, when i am at home sometime, preparing a presentation, i can recall these excited moments just prior to going live.

SQL Query Processing doc

just a few minutes ago, i completed presenting on SQL Query Processing for SSWUG vConference.
One of the attendees was unable to download the word doc that contained the steps. I'm posting them here, so that this attendee, and any others, can grab a text version of it, and keep it for themselves


Logical query processing steps

(8) SELECT (9) DISTINCT (11) Top
(1) FROM
(3) JOIN
(2) ON
(4) WHERE
(5) GROUP BY
(6) WITH {CUBE | ROLLUP}
(7) HAVING
(10) ORDER BY

SSWUG vConference is coming, again!

The SSWUG Ultimate Virtual Conference starts October 21st and runs for 3 days. I had the opportunity of participating last time (April) for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and think that a nitch has been created and filled with a virtual conference, that still lends itself to a lot of social interaction between presenters and attendees, and even between attendees. And all this can be done from the comfort of your favorite chair and computer.

If you have not registered yet, do so. Here is a link

There are many reasons to go. Check out the website for more information.

To plagiarize the SSWUG website,
Learning, learning and more learning

Being able to watch videos of prerecorded sessions, and interact with other attendees and the presenter, from wherever you want to watch the conference, is an incredible opportunity. You can ask questions, get clarifications, even rewatch sessions over and over. There are many sessions, and they are repeated a few times, giving you ample time and opportunity to learn.

SSWUG October 2009

I recently had the distinct privilege and honor to return to Tucson, Arizona to record 4 sessions for the upcoming virtual conference. This is my second time, and i loved it even more than the first time. This time around, I knew what to expect, and was more at ease. I was able to prepare 3 new presentations and 1 I had had presented previously in User Groups and at work. I spent a fair amount of time preparing these presentations, and worried about how to best present these topics. Knowing that the presentations are combined with forums and the attendees get the opportunity to speak about the topics amongst themselves and the presentor, helped me try to interact more with the audience than the first time thru. I hope that I was able to accomplish this, and bring the audience more into the presentation and forums. Speaking to an audience is always, for me, a scary proposition. Someone once told me that I do it well. This was a long time ago, I was young, and it was at church. I believed them, and have tried to improve this ability over time. I do enjoy it, and its such a learning experience for me, that I am selfish in pursuing it.
The presentations I chose were, SQL Query Processing, On Call Duties, Release Process and Professional Development and Social Networking. The first presentation is a book report about chapter 1 of Itzik Ben Gan's book on SQL Server 2005. Each time i present this, I remember all the things I learned and forgot and relearned. On Call Duties brings to light the tasks we should think about and prepare for if this task lands in our lap. There are many things that can be prepared and practiced to make yourself more ready to perform these duties. Release Processes have been around in each company I've been at. Each company dealt with these in different ways, and I hope to share these ideas with you thru this presentation. The last topic is near and dear to our hearts as we have all embarked on this new fangled social networking fad, but i attempt to show that this is just a new way to do an old trick.

There is a code that can be used to sign up for the vConference that will get you a discount. If you have not attended this conference before, you should really check it out. Being able to sit at your own desk, and participate in a well organized conference is a great boon to your career development. Being able to join in on the forums with other attendees as well as the presentor allows you the chance to interact with folks as well as you do in a physical conference. There are many sessions available, and unlinke a physical conference, most are re-presented if you could not make an earlier session. Check it out. Learn, interact, grow!

SSWUG Virtual Conference

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure and privilege to goto Tucson Arizona and present on some topics for their Virtual Conference occurring in April 22, 23 and 24. Back in December, Chris Shaw contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in speaking for their organizations virtual conference. I was humbled and surprised to be requested. I prepped a bunch of presentation ideas, abstracts, and submitted them to Chris. I had 7 accepted, 4 for the Virtual Conference, and the others for the ITUplink. So, for the past few months, I have been preparing presentations, practicing, adding demos, and trying to perfect them. It does seem that each time I look at a slide deck, I find a way to alter it, perfect it a bit more. At some point, I have too stop editing them, and simply give the presentation.
I had the chance to practice a couple of these on my User Group, and glad that I did. The more practice, the better. I worked out some kinks, and got further ready to present to the larger audience. Even though, while doing it, there is no audience. You have to imagine it. They will be there, but not when you are recording it. Practicing in front of an audience, large or small, really helps. But presenting to no one is useful too. I've presented a few times to a phone. Or a live meeting with no one talking to you or giving feedback. Each type of presentation is unique and rewarding in its own way. But each is very different.
Presenting for the SSWUG organization is in its own sphere, similar to the other ways described, but unique as well. Having to look into a camera, well, thats something that is not normal for the DBA. If anything, I am usually behind the camera in my personal life, taking pictures of my family. I rarely end up in front of the camera. And especially not in front of nice cameras like the ones at Bits on the Wire. And 3 of them. One on the right side, one on the left, and in the far left, another one that is stuck in the corner, and apparently black & white. While you are presenting, and trying to not lean on the table in front of you, and remember where you are supposed to stand, and the fact that you have no audience to give you feedback, you also have to remember which camera to look into. If you forget, the fine folks in the recording booth will flash a light on one of the cameras to remind you which one you should be looking into. In between the two color cameras, there is a screen with a clock. It lets you know how much time you have used. I would end up looking at it on occasion, and out of the corner of my eye, see a flashing blue light reminding me the camera to look at.
I should backup and describe my experience more fully, though not too detailed. Just the highlights. I chose to film on a Monday, so that I didnt eat into too much work time off. I had to fly out Sunday night to ensure that I reached Tucson to film on Monday. I got in late Sunday, went down the stairs of the airport, and was greated by a gentleman that gave me a ride to the hotel. I had secretly hoped I'd see my name on a paper, cause I've never had that happen to me yet. But a paper with Bits on the Wire was close enough. After getting into the hotel, I had some time to chill and get to sleep. Not terribly eventful. The next morning, I had the entire morning to do nothing, as I was to report to the studio around 1pm. Waking up late seems lie a luxury these days, and I took full advantage of that Monday morning. Waking up late, wondering downstairs to get a free breakfast, with no one telling me what to do, seemed like the most glorious of vacations. After eating, I returned to my hotel room and prepped my presentations. As I have mentioned earlier, I kept making more and more changes.
Before I knew it, it was time to shower, grab some food and then meet my ride to the offices. Once there, I was able to meet Stephen Wynkoop and the rest of the crew. Stephen even sat with me and interviewed me for a bit, making me feel like a celebrity he was excited to finally meet, just as I felt it was to meet him, finally. We had a great little discussion, followed by me jumping right into my presentations. After a quick practice start to ensure I knew which camera to look at (I would later forget), we jumped into the real presentations. The first one that I recorded was the most prepared and ready. This was planned by me, so that I could get an easy one under my belt, before struggling a bit on some parts of the other ones. One after another we cranked them out. In between I would grab my BlackBerry, send a quick tweet, and check for missed calls or emails. Just a quick glance, then back to the sessions and onto the next one. Before I knew it, I had finished 4 presentations, taking close to 5 hours of time. Whew. It was pretty intense, pretty enjoyable, pretty wild.
Once it was all over, a euphoria overcame me. I had one of those natural highs for a bit. I tried to sit back at the hotel, but became bored with TV. Hungry. Yeah, thats it. Venturing out into the outside world, I soon found food. At sometime afterwards, I started to come down from my natural high. Work crept into my world at this time, and I spent a few hours connected to work via VPN until it was bed time. Rising early the next day, I went to the airport earlier than i needed too, and awaited my flight. Once on the ground again in SLC, it was back to normal and back to work.
All the while, before, during and after, I tweeted my journey via Ping.fm. Posting went to Facebook as well as LinkedIn and Twitter. People in all those worlds were able to follow my progress and adventure, adding to my trip with their insights and suggestions. I love being alone, yet connected to so many people, all at the same time.
I hope that my sessions prove to be helpful for people, once they are released in the virtual conference. In the meantime, take a peek at what has been posted as a preview of one of my sessions.


I have a discount code for the SSWUG Virtual Conference. You can register for the conference here and make sure you use my code 'SPVTBESP09'.

More information here : http://tjaybelt.blogspot.com/2009/02/sswug-vip-code.html