Last week the SQL community and in particular the blogosphere, was buzzing with interest noise following the Microsoft Learning site publishing details of significant changes to SQL Server Certifications.

Here We Go Again

You know the drill. It’s the usual dance we go through every 5 years or so, where the Microsoft marketing machine spins into action to come up with even more buzz words and acronyms to confuse the life out of all hiring managers. Diminishing further the already futile hope that they have even the slightest idea of what it is that you actually do as a Data Professional.

Alas, I’m not going to talk about what exams you now need to take to achieve which shinny new certification, or what snazzy acronym you now get to have after your name. Plenty of other bloggers have covered those exciting details already. Kendra Little (Blog|Twitter) talks about them here. The comments are certainly worth a look for comedy value, just to see how much confusion these changes to SQL certifications are already generating.

Your Career Focus Is Shifting Has Shifted

What I want to bring to your immediate attention, is the fact that there is no longer a separate Certification path to follow for Database Administrators and Database Developers. These two camps have got a lot of history and have not always played nicely together. That’s all old hat though as far as Microsoft are concerned because these two forces have now been united under a common cause and the banner of Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MSCE). Confused?

This is a powerful statement from Microsoft who are essentially saying that they see the future role of the Data Professional as being a hybrid of both Administrator and Developer. Makes sense right, as a lot of us wear both of these hats already. Historically folks have felt the need to consider their core role (DEV or DBA) as being on one side of the fence or the other, as if there were actually some significant divide between the two. Arguably there perhaps was, albeit quite some time ago now. When I think back on my own illustrious professional career, sure I call myself a DBA but I can also work a little DEV magic too, as I imagine most of you can.

I think we all knew this role merging was coming and it probably already has done for quite a few of you. What I think is significant about these events is that Microsoft has now made it official. If you’re currently a DBA who has been ignoring the development side of things, especially when it comes to SQL Azure and the cloud, it’s time for to get your hands dirty or get left behind.

Your Head in the Cloud

Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, there’s already an abundance of information out there to help you get started with learning how to work with SQL Server in the cloud. With the shift in role focus for the SQL Server Data Professional and the inclusion of SQL Azure on the new examination syllabus, you really need to start sticking your head in the cloud if you have not done so already.

You don’t even need to deploy a database to the cloud in order to get started. Community champion Jamie Thomson(Blog|Twitter) has already done that for you, through his ingenious idea to host the AdventureWorks database on SQL Azure for the benefit of all. Now it’s important to keep in mind that although this is Free for you to use, Jamie generously stuck his hand in his own pocket (no small feat ) in order to make this service offering a reality for the community. A great idea deservers no less than great support, so if you find value in the service be sure to make a donation.

Go forth and stick you head in the cloud….

As the euphoria of SQLBits X sadly begins to fade, I wanted to take a moment to share with you my experience of Live Blogging the keynote of Europe’s largest SQL Server conference.

To be honest this was not something that I had planned to do but when I received an email from Chris Webb (Blog|Twitter) inviting me to be part of the Blogging/Tweeting panel for SQLBits there was only ever going to be one answer, “absolutely”! To be given an opportunity to author magic alongside community champions such as the likes of Jamie Thomson (Blog|Twitter) and Jen Stirrup (Blog|Twitter) is a privilege. Not to mention the hoards of Twitterati also in attendance, needless to say it’s a bloggers Wrestlemania (i.e. a very BIG deal).

This was my first attempt at Live Blogging an event. I had certainly not expected it to be easy but I did underestimate just how tough it would actually be. I want to share with my fellow bloggers what I did to prepare and what I learned from the experience.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

In order to successfully Live Blog an event you absolutely have to bring your A game. There are no second chances when publishing content live. Of course your readers understand this and the odd little typo here and there is not going to cost you in a big way but it will still cost you. It’s all about being professional so make sure you are ready to deliver.

• Keeping Up – Staying focused on an event (a presentation/speaker) can be difficult at the best of times, let alone when trying to publish a live blog in parallel. The most important thing you have to do is to remain engaged and to stay on point. If you loose this, you’re going to struggle for content to write about and lag behind. The trick is to not try to capture and communicate everything to your readers but just the pertinent points of interest.
• Preparation – Consider what you could do ahead of time in order to prepare for your live blogging experience. What research can you do, what references can you gather, in order to include and enrich your live blog content on the day? These little injections of added value will help separate your posts form the competition, as well as prove interesting reading for both live and future readers. Do some research on popular live blog posts and identify what made them so good. Perhaps you can adopt a similar style and try it out to see how it works for you.
• Practice – If you have never published a Live Blog before then how will you know what your performance will be like? You don’t! An excellent way to hone your craft before the big event is to practice. You can choose any event you like but the important thing is to practice at the pace and duration you expect to have to deal with. This will help you gauge what you can and can’t handle on the day, which leads nicely onto my next point about….
• Multi-Tasking – Listening to the speaker, taking photos, checking up on Twitter, soaking in the venue atmosphere, writing commentary, editing images, these are all things that you will likely be trying to do and in rapid succession, all the while remaining engaged and focused on the event. The mistake I made was trying to do too much. For beginners I recommend potentially ignoring Twitter completely and focussing on live blogging only. If you want to tweet your live blog entries, there are plugins you can use for this in WordPress but consider that your commentary format may not port well to Twitter.

Weapon of Choice

To live blog an event you’re going to need a device or two to get the job done.

• Hardware – What will be your weapon of choice be on the day? Whether you choose a laptop, iPad, or iPhone, just make sure that you are comfortable with your choice and that you have validated it will cater for all of your publishing needs before the actual event. In my case, I chose to use my laptop to author the live blog and my iPad to check on the status of the blog as the reader would see it and to check on Twitter banter.
• Connectivity – Arguably the most important requirement. If you can’t connect to the Internet then you won’t be publishing anything. Often the event venue will provide Internet access but consider you will be competing with a lot of other folks for bandwidth. If you are invited to live blog the event by the organises, you may be given an alternative means to connect to the internet in order to ensure your quality of access. Check ahead of time what Internet connectivity will be available. Rather than take any chances, I chose to bring my own 3G device to use in order to ensure the quality of my connection.
• Photos – Ideally you want to be using a camera that is appropriate for the event you are live blogging. If it’s an indoor presentation then you will want a camera that can take good pictures in low light quality. My photos were pretty bad. The Pros out there will bring a photographer and I think next time I will try and enlist a fellow community buddy to help me out with this. You want to be focusing on the event and blogging it, not messing about with SD cards and image optimization.

Monkey Wrench

Fortunately there are number of tools available to help the aspiring live blogger.

• Live Blogging – If you are using WordPress to host your blog then this is the plugin you will want to use. It allows you to insert micro/live blogs into posts with automatic updating of the content. Watch out for the Super Cache plugin playing up here. I had to manually drop my cache during the event to ensure readers where receiving the latest post content. When you’re logged in as an Admin, you won’t see this issue. Another reason why the iPad came in handy to check for this.
• CoverItLive – For those feeling particularly adventurous you will want to take a look at this powerful product. It creates an embedded application on your site and includes an awesome array of integration features for things such as Twitter. I actually tested this out as part of my live blogging practice but opted against using it for my first venture due to the complexity involved.

Further Reading

Fancy having a go at Live Blogging your next event or want to find out more. Take a look at some of these excellent resources.

• Tips on Live Blogging an Event – Great list of ideas over on ProBlogger.
• Complete Guide To Live Blogging – Hardly complete but certainly some good points.
• Liveblog for #SQLPASS 2011 Day 1 Keynote – Brent Ozar (Blog|Twitter) wrote this live blog for the PASS Summit last year. Check out the comments section where we discuss live blogging tips.

There’s no doubt that Live Blogging an event is an incredible amount of fun and hard work but it’s something I would suggest every blogger try their hand at. Share your Live Blogging tips and experiences in the comments.

To mark my 31st Birthday today(gifts are of course most welcome) here’s a SQL Server Crossword for you to enjoy. You can also find the previous crosswords here(#3), here(#2) and here(#1).

Same as before, the answers are all SQL Server words that you will be familiar with from your experience of working with SQL Server. It’s not easy and I’m not in the business of giving out clues. Good luck and enjoy!

Crossword Format Options

• For an interactive Crossword using JavaScript click here.
• For a printer friendly version click here.

Good luck and enjoy!

Last week the internet went crazy with the news of super cool new stuff for techies to play with.

If you’re having trouble viewing this post click here to see it in all it’s intended glory. I’m currently experimenting with some snazzy blog authoring widgets that may not port nicely to RSS/Email.

We had the Apple Fanboys getting all excited over the iPad 3 launch, which I’m told has resulted in an availability shortage of the product because it’s just soooo popular. Good to see the Apple Hype machine up to the same old tricks. We don’t care about any of that here though do we folks? No sir, we want to what’s hot with SQL Server 2012!

Microsoft released SQL 2012 to the world via their Virtual Launch Event last week. There was so much interest in the event that it actually brought the website down. There’s still time for you to catch the keynote, enjoy all the other sessions from the event and enter various competitions so be sure to take a look.

With so many folks excited about SQL2012 I asked the community on Twitter:

What SQL2012 feature are you excited about the most?

March 9, 2012 2:48 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@JohnSansom

John Sansom

Here’s what some of you had to say:

@JohnSansom "I think [execution_path] is the best new feature ... in Denali" http://t.co/YsJZfGOL (Yes, really.)

March 9, 2012 2:54 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jamiet

Jamie Thomson

@JohnSansom SSIS Improvements and spatial improvements #SQL2012 #ReallyGeneralLikes

March 9, 2012 2:49 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@onpnt

Ted Krueger

@JohnSansom AlwaysOn is pretty darned sexy. #sqlserver #sql2012

March 9, 2012 2:49 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@GFritchey

Grant Fritchey

@JohnSansom And I'm very excited about the Extended Events GUI #sqlserver #sql2012

March 9, 2012 2:50 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@GFritchey

Grant Fritchey

What I’m Excited About in SQL 2012

It’s great to see excitement for such a variety of features. It just goes to show the diversity of both the product and the professionals that use it.

As expected there’s a lot of excitement surrounding AlwaysOn technology in SQL 2012 and it’s something that I’m particularly interested in as well. I think it could potentially serve  as a replacement for some of the more common SQL Server Replication design patterns and I’m going to be doing some proof of concept work in the near future.

I’m also excited about the improvements to working with XEvents in SQL Server. This powerful tool has been perhaps a little tricky to get to grips with at first and it’s without a doubt worth the investment of your time to learn, especially when you consider that SQL Server Profiler will eventually be going away in a future version of the product. A great way to learn about working with XEvents is by visiting the blog of Jonathan Kehayias (Blog|Twitter). The man has a wealth of brilliant content for you to benefit from.

What SQL 2012 feature are you excited about? Let me know in the comments.

Most people in your organisation, never mind everyone else, have no real clue as to what it is you do.

It’s not because you don’t actually do anything, at least I hope not, it’s because the domain of responsibility for a DBA is both vast and varied. Ask any two DBAs what it is they do exactly and you can expect to get two broadly different answers.

For those new to the event, #mememonday is the community creation of Thomas LaRock (Blog|Twitter), the driving force of which is to encourage the SQL community to put virtual pen to paper. This months theme “List out all the little things you do as a DBA, since the term DBA means so many different things in each shop.”

In the spirit of adding to the confusion, here are some of the things that I do in my current role as a “DBA”.

• project management
• consulting
• server builds
• troubleshooting
• backups
• restores
• security
• compliance
• change control
• change management
• develop a hobby, preferably a full contact sport, to vent
• server specification and hardware procurement
• development consulting
• database design
• solution design
• team mentoring
• customer liaison
• release package development and deployment
• capacity planning
• ignore as many of the competing communication channels as possible
• wrestle daily with email volume and rules
• administer all database platforms not just SQL
• research emerging database technology
• ensure platform availability
• continually review existing solutions and processes for improvement
• devising elaborate methods to synchronise and initialize overly complex replication topologies

The astute reader amongst you will have noticed a degree of sarcasm sprinkled throughout the list. A sense of humour is a valuable character trait for a DBA, a survival skill that can see you through troubled times.

If you really want to learn more about the DBA game and what it takes, head on over to the How To Become A SQL Server DBA area on the blog. There’s a wealth of great content there from both myself and other community sources. As always if you cannot find the answer to your question let me know.

In the spirit of #mememonday I encourage you to put virtual pen to paper and add to the confusion by sharing some of the little things you do as a DBA.

As many of you already know, I’m a big fan of Automating Everything and so I’ve been learning to use PowerShell with SQL Server.

Interested to know what other DBAs are using PowerShell for, I reached out to the Twitterverse for insight.

@JohnSansom I use #powershell for #configuration purposes and quick #inventory of sqlserver stuff (settings, statistics, DMV queries, …)

— Johan Bijnens (@alzdba) February 27, 2012

@JohnSansom all sorts monitoring, data collection, general windows admin (AD stuff adding users computers etc), installs, etc…

— James Boother (@JimmyBoo) February 27, 2012

Clearly there are a lot of clever folks out there already taking advantage of PowerShell to administer SQL Server.

I think that I have now got to a point in my own learning where I’m dangerous enough with PowerShell for it to be worth sharing some of this knowledge with you. I recently had a need to script out all SQL Server Agent Jobs for a large number of instances. Deflated by the thought of having to do so manually, I instead chose to turn to some PowerShell magic in order to accomplish the task. Below you will find the PowerShell script to achieve this.

PowerShell Code to Script Out All SQL Server Agent Jobs

# Date:		23/02/12
# Author:	John Sansom
# Description:	PS script to generate all SQL Server Agent jobs on the given instance.
#		The script accepts an input file of server names.
# Version:	1.0
#
# Example Execution: .\Create_SQLAentJobSripts.ps1 .\ServerNameList.txt

param([String]$ServerListPath)

#Load the input file into an Object array
$ServerNameList = get-content -path $ServerListPath

#Load the SQL Server SMO Assemly
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo") | Out-Null

#Create a new SqlConnection object
$objSQLConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection

#For each server in the array do the following..
foreach($ServerName in $ServerNameList)
{
	Try
	{
		$objSQLConnection.ConnectionString = "Server=$ServerName;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
    		Write-Host "Trying to connect to SQL Server instance on $ServerName..." -NoNewline
    		$objSQLConnection.Open() | Out-Null
    		Write-Host "Success."
		$objSQLConnection.Close()
	}
	Catch
	{
		Write-Host -BackgroundColor Red -ForegroundColor White "Fail"
		$errText =  $Error[0].ToString()
    		if ($errText.Contains("network-related"))
		{Write-Host "Connection Error. Check server name, port, firewall."}

		Write-Host $errText
		continue
	}

	#IF the output folder does not exist then create it
	$OutputFolder = ".\$ServerName"
	$DoesFolderExist = Test-Path $OutputFolder
	$null = if (!$DoesFolderExist){MKDIR "$OutputFolder"}

	#Create a new SMO instance for this $ServerName
	$srv = New-Object "Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server" $ServerName

	#Script out each SQL Server Agent Job for the server
	$srv.JobServer.Jobs | foreach {$_.Script()} | out-file ".\$OutputFolder\jobs.sql"
}

If you would you like to read more posts on PowerShell let me know.

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital.

This post is part three of the series Your Road to Becoming a DBA, where I talk about how you can forge your very own career path toward becoming the DBA you want to be. You can find part 1 here where I talked about the importance of Laying a Strong Foundation and part 2 here, where I talk about why Acquiring Experience is Key.

In this third instalment I’m going to be talking about everything else that I wanted to cover in reply to the readers email, which is kind of ironic really because the first point I want to make next is about being organised.

Get Organised to Get Ahead

As you can see there’s a lot of things to consider when it comes to becoming a DBA and it can be easy to get a little overwhelmed by it all. In order to ensure you stay on the right path you have to have a plan. A plan for not only how you are going to get to your chosen destination but also the individual steps you are going to have to take along the way.

I’m a big advocate of writing out your goals, as well as the steps you need to take in order to achieve them. There are already a lot of excellent resources available out there to help you do this, so I won’t take up any more of your time discussing them here. If you’re not sure where to start, get yourself a copy of the book Eat That Frog or do a Google(insert favourite search engine) search on “Getting Things Done (GTD)”.

If you’re serious about becoming a DBA, you have to get serious about being organised.

Books for the Aspiring DBA

There are a tremendous number of books about SQL Server available for you to learn from but there is only one title that I recommend to all new DBAs. In fact it’s something that I consider essential reading for every Data Professional. It’s called DBA Survivor: Become a Rock Star DBA by Thomas Larock (Blog|Twitter) .

You can find more SQL Server books I have enjoyed reading as well as other Professional Development titles here.

Writing a Winning CV

What’s the point of a CV? What is the bottom line? To get you in front of the company for an interview! This is what you need a CV to deliver for you. So think about how you can write your CV to demonstrate irrefutably the serious amounts of value that you can deliver for the company.

If you are going for your very first DBA position then you need to work extra hard to demonstrate your cross transferable skills. Make it clear why project x you completed (which could be a completely foreign field to the interviewer) demonstrates that you have a talent for problem solving or excellent attention to detail, or are calm in a crisis or shows you have excellent project management skills etc.

I’m going to be controversial here and say that the vast majority of Data Professional CVs I see (and I see an awful lot) are not just bad but really bad! With just a little bit of effort and planning you can easily separate yourself from the pack and put together a winning CV.

My mind is going crazy right now with all the different things you should and should not do when writing a CV targeting a DBA position. I’m going to cut the discussions short here because I think this point needs an entire post on it’s own!

Travel the Path You Build

“If you can’t see the right road to take in front of you, then go ahead and build your own road to where you want to be!”

There is no right or wrong way to become a DBA. Every person I have met in our community has their own story about how they got to where they are today. Sure some may be similar but no two are identical. This means that you have the freedom to make your own way forward.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the sender for their email. You’ve sparked some very interesting discussions. I hope I have been able to provide you with some ideas on how your can move forward and I wish you the best of luck on your journey.

More Professional Development Posts

• The Art of the Outstanding DBA
• Look How Far You Have Come
• Top 10 Junior DBA Interview Tips
• 5 Days to Outstanding DBA Customer Service
• The Best Database Administrators Automate Everything

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital.

This post is part two of the series Your Road to Becoming a DBA, where I talk about how you can forge your very own career path toward becoming the DBA you want to be. You can find part 1 here where I talked about the importance of Laying a Strong Foundation.

Acquiring Experience is Key

It seems like all the opportunities that are available out there for DBAs require at least a number of years experience. Companies are not hiring folks that have no prior experience and then training them up to where they need to be. The dilemma of already needing a DBA job to gain experience but then experience is needed to gain a DBA job in the first place, is one that I have talked about before on the How To Become a SQL Server DBA area of the blog. You need to have at least the basics mastered in order to get your foot in the door.

So what’s a budding DBA to do in order to gain more experience? You need to learn, grow and build experience from other sources:

• Forums – I cannot begin to say enough good things about how valuable SQL Server Forums are. Each day I will hit the forums to learn something new about SQL Server and you should too. They are an immense source of knowledge. If you know the answer to the posters question great, you can go ahead and share it so that others can benefit from what you know, whilst at the same time reinforce the knowledge in your own mind. When you don’t know the solution you can subscribe to and follow the discussions to ensure you learn it. You can find out my favourites in my Top 5 SQL Server Forums post.

• Start From a Parallel Discipline – Talk to existing Data Professionals in the community about how they got started as a DBA and you will hear a lot of stories about how originally they were hired to work in a similar discipline, such as a System Administrator, Software Developer or maybe even the dreaded SAN Admin. These folks were given the task to look after/troubleshoot SQL Server in addition to their existing responsibilities and things grew from there. With this in mind one strategy for gaining more experience then is to reach out to teams in your existing company that are already working with SQL Server. Another possibility could be to use your existing skills to acquire a position within an organisation that is using SQL Server technology and to ensure your keen interest to make a lateral move is clear from the outset.

• Certifications – There’s a lot of different opinion out there on how valuable these are. Just having a certification is not going to get you a DBA gig but they can get you to the interview and make you stand out from folks that don’t have them. Now I am a firm believer in the “learning” value of certifications but this only applies if you do it right i.e. actually learn the material and practice implementing it.To find out how to get the most from SQL Server certifications and really learn the material take a look at My Guide to Passing Exam 70-432. (Preachy Tangent: I’ve interviewed a lot of Data Professionals that have certifications listed on their CVs and guess what, I ask them questions directly relevant to the material covered and they had better know their stuff! We all know there are brain dumps out there to cheat your way through some of the certs but any half decent DBA with experience will see past such BS immediately. Don’t be that guy. By taking shortcuts you’re only cheating yourself).

• Local Community Opportunities – The talents of a Database Administrator are always in demand. There are some great ways that you can give something back to the local community in your area, whilst at the same time developing your skills and bolstering the experience on your CV. In the UK for example, there are charitable organisations that often seek the support of the technology community such as iT4Communities or GiveCampUK.

• Build Your Own Lab Environment – There are a lot of different features in the product and there are not many companies using them all. A great way to learn about the different features and gain experience is by getting your hands dirty and implementing them. You can even take things further by breaking the environment and then fixing it again, no really. Practice the different ways you can restore a database. What happens if you fail over a Mirrored database that is also a Replication Publication? Experimentation in a safe environment is a great way to learn. Get used to testing things, it’s an essential part of any robust development cycle used in the field.

What are some of your favourite resources and methods for acquiring more experience with SQL Server?

“I really hope you enjoyed this post. You can make sure to catch all my posts as well as content exclusive only to the blog by subscribing via Email or RSS. Thanks for reading.”

Knowing precisely how to start on your next adventure is tricky. With so many options and decisions in front of you, identifying what is the best way to move forward for you is vital.

Last week I received an email from a reader who was looking for some advice on how to start their own journey on the road to becoming a DBA. I found this really quite inspiring and it got me thinking about how to go about forging the path to being the DBA you want to be. It reads:

Hi John,

I follow you on twitter and have recently discovered your website. I personally think it is very motivating and has a great layout. I will tell you a little about myself to start off and also attach my CV.

My name is **** ****. I am 21 and currently work in IT & Telephony support for a travel agent. I have gained a lot of my experience within IT by self-teaching, online tutorials, books and watching people when they work.

I am very eager to fulfil my passion to become a SQL DBA, a few reasons why I am choosing this path to take in life. I think this would be a very challenging and motivating career. One at the end of a project you will feel somewhat great about what you have done. I think it’s a occupation where I would always be learning and a great profession to work up as junior to the top.

I was wondering if you could help me to fulfil my passion to become a SQL DBA, tips, any companies you know off that is willing to take me on as a junior DBA, giving me to time and proper hands on training I need to show them I could become a great asset to their company, Book, Quick course I could be taking.

I appreciate all the help you can give. I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this.

Best regards,

First, congratulations are in order for having chosen to pursue the path of the DBA. You’ve made an excellent decision and one that I have no doubt will be very rewarding should you so wish. You raise some great questions. Questions that I myself have had and I’m sure other readers have had too. I’ll try to answer them as best I can and perhaps other readers would also like to share some of their thoughts.

To avoid bombarding you super busy readers with too much content, I thought it best to break things up into a number of smaller, more consumable posts and so over the next few days I’m going to share with you how to create your very own path to becoming a DBA. We’re going to look at:

• The importance of Laying a Strong Foundation
• Why Gaining Experience is the Key to getting started
• Books for the Aspiring DBA
• Writing a Winning CV
• How to Get Organised to Get Ahead

Here then are some of my own thoughts, that I wanted to share with you all here, on how you can go about building your own path to becoming a DBA.

Laying a Strong Foundation

As with any serious endeavour, you want to get yourself off on the very best possible start in order to ensure things can move forward optimally from thereon in. Becoming a DBA is naturally no different and there are couple of things that I personally consider important to creating a good strong foundation from which a DBA can grow.

• What’s the primary responsibility of a DBA? - I’m glad you asked because it’s from here that all other things DBA should exude from. In other words, what is the point of a DBA and why would a company need one? You can find out exactly what I’m talking about in my post The Database Administrators Primary Responsibility.
• Relational Theory – SQL Server and in fact all other RDMSs (Relational Database Management Systems) are built on the time tested concepts of relational theory. Learning relational theory will give you the fundamental knowledge you need to start to piece together what the majority of database systems are all about. Not to mention what fun can be had with Normalization. Relational Theory is a transferable skill and one that will give you an understanding that can be applied to most things database design you will do initially. In my opinion it is something that all good DBAs should know. You can learn most of this stuff from the Internet but I would suggest going out and finding a copy of a classic text, such as something that would be used for a University course, for example Database Systems by Connolly & Beg et al.
• What’s the current Landscape Like? - To get ahead of the curve, start learning about the more recent developments in this space now rather than later or when you actually need to on the job itself. The professional landscape that we DBAs operate in is changing and at a faster pace than it has done for quite some time. A lot of DBAs already established in the field are resisting change, use this to your advantage and start building the skills that will be required in the future right now. Think cloud technology or NoSQL solutions for example. What are they? How are they different and when might you want to use them?
• It’s Not Just About Databases – Sure being a DBA requires a good technical knowledge but that’s just one part of it. In order to be an Outstanding DBA your going to want to work on and develop a number of other desirable traits. See 10 Character Traits of Outstanding DBAs for more on this.

What do you think about creating a strong foundation as a Database Administrator?

Be sure to keep an eye out for part 2 to find out why I think Acquiring Experience is Key.

“I really hope you enjoyed this post. You can make sure to catch all my posts as well as content exclusive only to the blog by subscribing via Email or RSS. Thanks for reading.”

Many of you have first hand experience of our phenomenal sql community (affectionately labelled the #sqlfamily).

Your first encounter with it may have been quite subtle. Perhaps you were surprised by the generosity and willingness with which help can be found? Maybe it was that first SQL Saturday you attended? However you first experienced the power of the community, one thing is for sure and that is the spark which it ignites within you. You felt the buzz, experienced the camaraderie and could taste that there was more, a whole lot more, to this sql stuff. Something great and you wanted a slice of the action.

For those new to the event, #mememonday is the community creation of Thomas LaRock (Blog|Twitter), the driving force of which is to encourage the SQL community to put virtual pen to paper. This months theme “What do you want to do for your #sqlfamily in 2012?”

Successful communities are about relationships. All good relationships need a healthy balance of give and take in order to really flourish. Taking from the community is the easy bit! Maybe you attended a free webinar or the free community day at SQLBits where all the speakers generously give their expertise and time solely for your benefit. Maybe you read a blog post that showed you how to resolve your issue, or perhaps a flurry of experts promptly answered your query on Twitter(#SQLHELP). I bet if you think about it, you’ve probably taken quite a bit from the community. I know I sure have.

Here’s what I will be doing to give back to our #sqlfamily, what I will do for you in 2012.

• Reply to ALL of your emails – I will continue to reply to all of your emails. To answer your queries and to provide the advice you seek. Although I can’t vouch for the quality of said advice I will always give you my genuine and honest opinion. Sometimes, with your permission of course, I share your emails and my replies to them here on the blog.
• Say Thank You More – I endeavour to show gratitude, to appreciate and to thank my fellow family members more. It requires such a tiny amount of effort to say thank you to a forum reply, in a blog post comment or a to send a quick email note but it means such a great deal more to it’s recipient.
• Blog SQL Differently – Blogging about SQL Server often means content with a technical focus. It does not always have to be though! There’s so much more than “T-SQL Tips” and “How To” blog posts. I promise to continue to Blog, to share my honest thoughts and opinions with our family. To continue to attack topics that others have yet to challenge. To look at things differently and to share content that is fresh, unique and different.
• Be A Forum Champion – One of my favourite ways to share with our #sqlfamily is through the various sql forums, particularly MSDN and Stackoverflow. To be a trusted voice that takes pride in not only answering your questions but doing so in polite and courteous fashion. Forum etiquette has been loitering around in the dumps of late in my view(maybe a post is needed on this) and the best way to clean it up is to lead by example, to champion the cause.

The very best thing about our #sqlfamily is that it keeps on giving. Let’s make sure it stays that way! What do you want to do for your #sqlfamily in 2012?

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