A good DBA is hard to find. This is because a good DBA wears many hats, often equating to 3 – 4 full time jobs. How can this be achieved or sustained? The secret is automation, and automation…
The Disappearing DBA: Embracing Automation to Advance Your Career — SolarWinds TechPod 054
The Disappearing DBA: Career Advice From a Data Janitor — SolarWinds TechPod 049
The DBA role is complex. Pitfalls exist everywhere you turn, and it can be difficult to survive and thrive. On this episode of TechPod, we’ll help accidental DBAs become a DBA survivors with career…
The Disappearing DBA: Nobody Goes to School to Become a Data Janitor — SolarWinds TechPod 045
Automation has been a disaster for the traditional database administration (DBA) role. As more systems and processes are automated away with code, the need for DBAs decreases. In time, the…
A DBA’s Habits for Success: CMMI (Part One)
Finding the perfect flow for your business can take time and patience. Like almost anything else in life, a business must go through stages of maturity before it reaches its…
7 Things DBAs Should Do Before Going On Holiday
Thanks to 2020, many of us don’t remember the last time we took a holiday or vacation. If you were able to get away from the office, kudos to you.…
Database 102 – Why Is My Query Slow?
As a database administrator (aka DBA, or Default Blame Acceptor) throughout my career, I’ve worked with a myriad of developers, system administrators, and business users who have all had the…
The Database Future Is in the Cloud
I’ve written before about the disappearing DBA, and how the database administration role itself is evolving. I believe the days of tuning indexes are ending, one page at a time.…
Databases 101 – Factors to Consider When Choosing a Database
In part one of this series, we discussed the different types of databases available on the market today. In part two, we discussed how to choose the right database for…
VMDK versus RDM: Which One Do I Need for SQL Server?
When it comes to disk configuration options for virtualized servers running on VMware, you have two options: VMFS virtual file-based disk (VMDK) or a raw device mapping (RDM). Which one…
Hardware or Code? SQL Server Performance Examined
CPUs are running faster now than ever before, solid-state drives are replacing spinning disks, and database servers have terabytes of RAM. Because these resources are plentiful and increasingly affordable, it can seem tempting to solve database performance issues with hardware. But consider this example: if CPU utilization shoots up to 90% on one of your servers and stays at that level for a day or two, is the problem lack of CPU power or something else?