Senior In Age / Pay Or SKILLS

SQL DATA Skills

Abstract: Your SQL Life Story

• Who this talk is NOT for: • Those of you that are “Getting Things Done” – blogging, presenting, and have

already established your career and you know the “end game”• Anybody not interested in a presentation that is not “hard-core” technical

• What it is about• Challenging your understanding of where you are currently• What the “ground rules” are to becoming a “Senior SQL RockStar” without

any regrets (omissions)

Challenge for all the Seniors (DBAs)

Question Area You (Today) You (6 Months) You (1 Year)

1 Design Tables

2 Write Queries

3 Deploy Changes

4 Tune Queries

5 Monitor Performance

6 Troubleshoot Outages

7 Install & Configure SQL

8 Design & Test DR

Design New Tables

1. Never, I deal with tables other people made2. A couple of times a quarter3. Once a month4. Every week – I’m very familiar with data modelling tools and I own

data modelling books

Write Queries

1. When you write, you use the same syntax you have been using for years

2. Using books and blogs on line – sometimes3. Regularly watch web casts or subscribe to blogs to improve T-SQL4. Present to local user groups

Deploy Changes

1. Make them live in production. What, is there something else?2. Script them out first and test them in development3. Script them out, test them, document the change that I’m expecting

and monitor afterwards to make sure I got the change I was expecting

4. Check the changes into source control, have someone else test them and then deploy them into automated fashion

Tune Queries

When I tune queries, I1. I feel like I’m back in high school, in the back seat of a car, fumbling

around in the dark, groping indexes and execution plans blindly2. I know when I should apply a missing index recommendation and

when I shouldn’t3. I know how to hand craft an index to improve a query even when

there is no missing index recommendation4. I can recognise when I’m getting the wrong join for a query, and I

know when I should influence the Server to pick the right one

Monitor Performance

When they say SQL is slow, I

1. Am completely surprised 2. Know which SQL server metrics to look at3. What my server’s normal baselines are for any given metric4. Tell them I already knew about it because I have alerting set

up correctly, with thresholds configured properly for my baselines and I don’t have email rules set up to push all alerts into a different folder

Troubleshoot Outages

When SQL goes down, I

1. Am completely surprised2. Remote desktop in and start poking around3. Have a rough idea of what logs I need to hit, in what order

and I am confident in how much time it will take to fail over to my secondary servers

4. Grabs my customized First Responder Kit and step through my well-rehearsed troubleshooting steps

Install & Configure SQL

When I install SQL Server, I1. Run setup.exe2. Google for a setup best practise checklist3. Grab my customized checklist that has my company-specific settings4. Get my prepped installation files off the file share and run an

automated installation

Design & Test DR

When I design SQL HA / DR, I:1. Wait, what do you mean design? My instances are standalone2. Use the same techniques I’ve been using for years3. Have a good idea of what my options are and work with the

business to pick the right solution4. Get the business’s RPO and RTP requirements in writing, then write

down a few options for them with budget estimates

How many Companies have these DBA Types

Your Life Story

• The decision you made or will make when answering these types of questions will be part of “Your Life Story”• Make sure that you don’t omit aspects of your story

• By doing something that you will be embarrassed aboutOR • By not doing anything and staying exactly where you are and have been for several years

• What story will your future tell?

• Lets look at some examples:• Joseph• Brent Ozar• Andy Leonard• Thomas LaRock

Joseph’s Life Story

• What could have been:• Victim – Brothers wanted to “Kill him or Sell him”• Deceiver – Slept with Potiphar’s Wife• Revenge Seeker – Exposed his brothers

• What he was:• Favourite Son• Head of Potiphar’s Household• Prime Minister of Egypt

Brent Ozar’s Life Story• The Past

• Aspects of his life that he doesn’t want to tell• “a whole lot of guilt from my upbringing. I’m overcompensating now and struggling through

adulthood.” • Recognized By Quest

• “They weren’t betting on my SQL Server skills – they were betting that I’d continue working hard on my communications skills.”

• Current Life Story• “Getting things done” – read “My Epic Life Quest”• Inspire others to “Get things Done”

• “The reality is that the people you admire are writing, presenting, and webcasting because they want to help you. They don’t just want to help you technically – they want to help you personally, too.”

• He has challenged me to assess:• Where I am now (“How to get ‘Senior’ in your Title”)• Where do I want to be in the future

Thomas LaRock’s Life Story• The Past• Aspects of his life that he may not want to tell

• Not realizing that someday has already happened or is currently happening• Not enjoying the “someday” time when it was happening

• Current Life Story• SQL Inspire – Focus is “SQL People”

• Recognizing “Someday”• Free to “Learn new things and think something different”• Remembered as good husband, spouse, father and SQL Person

• He has challenged me to assess:• My “somedays”• Technology is NOT the only relevant part of our jobs

Andy Leonard’s Life Story (@LinchpinPeople)

• The Past• Aspects of his life that he doesn’t feel proud of

• When asked to autograph a copy of his book - With a mixture of surprise and confusion I asked the requestor, "Why?!“

• Without Him, nothing you read in Part 2-4 would have happened in my life. I would have remained a bitter punk until death, and then I would have spent eternity separated from God in Hell.

• Current Life Story• Continuous Education – “part of the job” and has defined his career• “What a blessing it is to be able to help his customers solve their database problems”• Balanced life story – SQL & “I spend time with my family and engage in activities that I

deem important: farming, hobbies, faith”

• He has challenged me to assess:• The benefits of writing / presenting about all aspects of what is important in life

More Than Just Technology• Professional Development• Outstanding Customer Service: John Sansom – Taking It to the next level• Head in the Clouds – Eyes on the Books: Buck Woody

• Tim Ford, John Halunen, Dev Nambi, Grant Fritchey

• Working Smarter• Automate Everything• Top 10 Free SQL Server Tools

• Plan Explorer, sp_Blitz, sp_WhoIsActive, Management Data Warehouse, Index Defrag, sp_BlitzIndex, Compression Estimator, Central Management Server, ClearTrace, SQL DMV

• Mentoring• Once you become a SENIOR, the workplace doesn’t provide a mentor – you need

to find one• Another neat idea - The Mentoring Experiment• What Does a Good Mentor Do for You? (Kevin Kline)

More Than Just Technology• Character Traits• Example

• Excellent attention to Detail• Natural Problem Solver• Assertive• Tactful• Manage Relationships• Good Decision Maker• Humble• Calm Under Pressure• Business minded• Approachable

“If you are in the position where people will voluntarily use you as the first point of contact for database information rather than the last, then you are probably an exceptional DBA”

More Than Just Technology• Knowledge Management

• Personal Knowledge Management• Personal Measurements

• Applicability – documentation apply to large set of conditions or only a specific few• Verifiability – documentation cross-referenced to other documentation & publications• Currency – documentation up to date• Reference Or Task-Centric – documentation mostly reference or task driven

• Organizational Learning• Standardize problem resolution & the process of root cause analysis• Continuous Improvement

• Make the process repeatable• Standardize & Centralize Processes and Documentation• Manage – continuous review of processes & documentation

• Metrics & Dashboards• User Dimension – Transaction Rates, ThruPut, Perceived Elapsed Times• System Dimension – Resource Usage, Availability of High-Performance Access Paths, Clustering• DBA Dimension – Utility Scheduling, Knowledge of Tables & Code

DBA Types: Kitchen with multiple Fridges

Developer: Chef

Remove ingredients

Add finished goods

DevOps: Industrial Engineer

Position the fridge

Control movement in & out, between

fridges

Ensure patron’s experience is

worth-it

Development:Cook

Organize the Fridge

Buy ingredients

Clean it Out (Archiving Strategy)

Production:Fridge Techie

Concerned about the Back-Side of

the fridge

Ensure temperature is

correct

Doesn’t cook (Cooking cant stop whilst somebody fixes the fridge)

Fundamental Tensions (Dev & Production)

• Development• Continuous Change & Enhancements• Mission: Meet Schedule Targets

• Production• Stability• Controlled Change• Mission: Meet Reliability Targets

• DevOps• Remove Silos between Dev & Production

• Change Management• Focus on Company Business Mission: End-User Experience

DBA: DevOps

• SDLC – Integrate Silos• Continuous Development, Integration & Deployment

• Direct monitoring visibility• Self-sufficient Developers: Performance Observations• Performance Functional Requirement

• Breakdown barriers between Development & Production• Developers are NOT “Time Sinks”• DBAs are not “Gatekeepers” but have final control on production

• Shared Metrics• Consistent & Complimentary Functional Goals between Development &

Production

DBA: Development

• Database Code compiles with Company Standards (QC)• Provide Top 10 Resource-Intensive Queries & Ways To Improve• Design Indexes – Choose when to Add / Remove• Query Performance• Developer Education• Database Services & Internals• Database Design

DBA: Production

• Backup strategy meets business RPO & RTO objectives• Troubleshoot SQL Server Outages• Monitoring Utilities – reduce false alarms• Choose HA solution• Determine most effective way to increase performance• Hardware• Configuration Changes• Index / Query Changes

• Document database environment

DAMA & SQL Server: 10 Cores Principles

T-SQL

DBA

DQS

MDMSSAS & SSIS, PDW

FILETABLE,SharePoint

INFORMATION_SCHEMA,New PowerBI Tools

Schema, Roles, Permissions,Encryption……

Data Management Professions• Data Analyst• Data Architect• Data Modeller• Data Governance Manager• Data Operations Manager• Data Scientist• Data Steward• Database Administrator• Information Architect• Information Security• Metadata Modeller• Chief Data Officer