September 2011 – Ramblings of a Crafty DBA

DBA – Introduction

September 27, 2011October 15, 2017 admin

Today, I am going to start writing another topic thread for Database Administration (DBA). I do alot of DBA work among many other things at my current job. I am going to cheat a little by copying a list from a renown SQL Server MVP named Paul Randal. This list was published in a TechNet Magazine article in November, 2010. To be a succesful database administrator, you should start working your way through the following tasks (secrets) to manage choas at your organization.

10. Take Inventory
9. Standardize Configurations
8. Understand the I/O Subsystem
7. Create a Customized Maintenance Plan
6. Ensure the Security of Your System
5. Get on Good Terms with Your Developers
4. Develop a Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Strategy
3. Take and Test Regular Backups
2. Monitor and Maintain Performance
1. Know Where to Find Information

10. Take Inventory

9. Standardize Configurations

8. Understand the I/O Subsystem

7. Create a Customized Maintenance Plan

6. Ensure the Security of Your System

5. Get on Good Terms with Your Developers

4. Develop a Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Strategy

3. Take and Test Regular Backups

2. Monitor and Maintain Performance

1. Know Where to Find Information

In the coming weeks, I am…

Selecting Data – Part 4

September 26, 2011September 26, 2011 admin

Today, I am continuing our exploration of the SELECT reserved word by talking about sub-queries. A sub-query is a query that is nested inside a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement, or inside another sub-query. Sub-queries can be used anywhere an expression is allowed or can be nested inside another sub-query. I will be using the AdventureWorks Sample database supplied by Microsoft during this talk.

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Lucida Console; font-size: small;">-- Use the correct database
USE AdventureWorks2008R2
GO
</span>

<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Lucida Console; font-size: small;">-- Use the correct database

USE AdventureWorks2008R2

</span>

One usage a sub-query is with comparison operators in the where clause. The example below returns all the sales people by name and id…

Selecting Data – Part 3

September 20, 2011September 26, 2011 admin

The SELECT reserved word is part of the Data Manipulation Language (DML) defined by Codd and is used to query data from the database. Because of its popularity, there are many clauses and functions that can be used to construct a query to retrieve data. Today, I am continuing our exploration by reviewing SELECT queries that aggregate data. Data aggregation is the process of converting many records into a few records with special meaning. Many of the functions used in aggregation have statistical meaning such as minimum value, maximum value,…