PASS SQLRally

Wow!  My presentation on the Enterprise SQL DBA was voted for the first PASS SQLRally in Orlando, FL. This will be a wide-topic presentation discussing how best to manage a large number of SQL servers (300 +).  I will also discuss things like team dynamics, working with vendors, working with customers, and the politics of large corporations. The presentation dates are May 12-13.

Now comes the first lesson in corporate politics: how to get funding for a trip......

MSSQLTip Article

Here's a link to my most recent MSSQLTip article.
http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=2220&home

I've had a lot of good responses to it. This is a tough and confusing topic for DBA's (including me!). I expect to write more to help generate more discussions and good advice.

Etiquette for the New Year

It's difficult as a DBA to come back from an extended holiday vacation.  You go to work and find your email full of non-critical but critically annoying monitoring event notifications, messages from business analysts asking about project updates, infrastructure folks looking to have SQL installed immediately, and a lot of drive-by's. So, what are some good pointers?  Here are a few I've come up with:

1. Think before executing that drop statement. New Year revelries can dull the brain and lead to problems.
2. Make sure backups are working. Though always a good thing you just want to be extra vigilant to correct   backup failures immediately because they might have been occurring for awhile if you've been away.
3. Be nice to people. No sense in spreading the tension. No one else wants to come back to the office so might as well not make things worse for them. 
4. Breathe deeply. Take your time. Organize your inbox into what is most critical and work your way down the list.
5. Don't expect a whole lot from anyone the first day back. Take your time building your expectations. Others won't want to work overtime on Monday and hopefully they won't expect it from you.
6. (Optional) Liquid lunches are perfectly acceptable on the first day back from the New Year holiday. If your boss complains just tell them I said so.

These pointers may be good anytime but put them in bold for the first day back from vacation. Be careful out there! You only get one day to set an example for the rest of the year.