February 11, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I would like any information or general direction on trying to figure out how many DBAs my company needs. We have 2 production sql servers, and the time spent on maintenance is basically being cut. I'm trying to explain to my boss the time required to do certain necessary tasks to keep the servers up and running, and would like to find some documentation or benchmarks on this job role.
Thanks for the help
February 11, 2009 at 2:16 pm
It's the infamous "it depends" answer. I have 10 production servers, and maybe 15 dev/test servers and from an administrative standpoint, maintenance takes about 10% of my time. My jobs are automated and are checked for successful completion (mostly emails of failures) and I'm done. I know when my jobs run and what is expected from them. The rest of my time is spent developing or planning server upgrades/installs. But from a purely administrative perspective, minimal time spent on my part. Of course, there was maximum effort intially to get things to where they are today. Just my 2 cents....
-- You can't be late until you show up.
February 11, 2009 at 7:56 pm
If you are organised, a single DBA should be able to manage dozens of servers. I was the sole DBA at a site with about 50 servers in about 45 locations - admitedly, most of the servers were very similar which made the job a bit easier since the same set of scripts could be installed on each of the servers.
February 12, 2009 at 6:01 am
That was my point exactly, however I failed to state that I am the only SQL DBA at my job too. A lot of the administrative stuff becomes redundant and MS has made it easier to do/monitor, allowing us to have more time for more important stuff - like posting on web-boards! 😀
-- You can't be late until you show up.
February 12, 2009 at 6:27 am
As the above posts its always depends, I worked for a company before where i had around 250 servers, we were 2 DBA's there. but only 1 hour a day i spent in maintaining (Which i think can have been reduced) , the company i am working now has got only 5 servers, but there is nothing in place, i am almost spending every single day in tuning and making it perfom better day by day, now some structure is in place still a long way to go. 😀
February 12, 2009 at 7:34 am
What I am looking for is some documentation or suggested best practices on how much time the job will take. We have database projects being impemented on a weekly basis, while other projects are taken offline. On one server we have 60 SQL Agent jobs running, some run every hour. We have 125 DTS packages, some of which are not running, etc. etc.
February 12, 2009 at 7:43 am
There isn't a "best practices" rule that I'm aware of. Workloads are way too company-specific to really have a rule like that, or at least to have a rule that makes sense.
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February 12, 2009 at 9:06 am
It is certainly going to vary from company to company and industry to industry. It will also vary based on the abilities of the person. What may take me an hour because of lack of experience may take another DBA a 1/2 hour.
It can also vary based on job description. Are you a production DBA responsible for keeping servers running optimally, maintaining disaster recovery, and managing security or are you a development DBA who writes, reviews, and optimizes code and interfaces with developers or are you a hybrid?
I would recommend spending a few minutes each day, maybe before lunch and at the end the day, documenting what you have done and how much time was spent on it and creating a list of things that need to be done on a regular basis and how much time they take and see what you come up with for hours needed. You may find there is only a need for one DBA or you may find tasks that can be scripted and automated that reduce the hours needed.
Jack Corbett
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February 12, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Some of you guys got your work out ha..........Is the Only DBA too....10 servers. Most of time everything is automated with alerts and emails daily. Runs itself most of time just need to check everything daily, backups, errors...run some restores now and again on test, new logins etc..patches..
One good DBA beable to do most of it...........
You have to decide if the DBA is a DBA or is going to be writting many many scripts etc...for applications then this becomes a bigger task. If this is so perhaps a scripter and a DBA is required.
If you have a lot of applications self written then the programmer of the apps should know how to write the SQL..
February 13, 2009 at 7:36 am
One DBA can take care of quite a few Servers if everything is Automated. The problem comes when you have a 24/7 operation, One DBA and the DBA wants to take two weeks vacation. At that time the management gets paranoid.
-Roy
February 13, 2009 at 9:40 am
Man...they allow you to take vacation........u are lucky 😀
February 13, 2009 at 9:45 am
Another task you could add to your list is investigation of new technologies and upgrades. If you are not using RS or BIDS then this could be part of your time. Also, planning for and executing upgrades.
How about those tasks that you never seem to have time for like documentation and recovery testing?
If your job is on the line, figure out what you can do to add value to your company. Maybe it could lead you into a side area that may change you job title, but be willing to make changes and you can pitch that you will be around for a backup to the other DBA of they take a vacation or get hit by a bus.
Steve
February 13, 2009 at 9:57 am
I have to agree with Roy's earlier post. You really need a minimum of two DBAs if you ever want to take a vacation. An alternative could be to cross train a DB Developer or Engineer but sometimes they tend to get a bit cavalier with Production deployments. Chances are that documentation and automation is lacking with one DBA. What are the risks to the company if you were to contract a serious illness or injury?
I will admit that with the proper automation, you should be able to handle the one server yourself but what if you are not available? They would have to bring in a contractor and who would screen their capabilities?
Just my 3.14159... cents :).
Ken
February 19, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Hi,
Thanks for ur valuable information.
Its is possible to recover deleted records or deleted one table without backup(in Oracle having Flashback Query or Flashback Table or Recyclebin option)
What about SQL Server?
My mailid:tkrajasekar@gmail.com
I am waiting for ur reply.
thanks and regards
Rajasekar
February 20, 2009 at 2:08 am
tkrajasekar (2/19/2009)
Hi,Thanks for ur valuable information.
Its is possible to recover deleted records or deleted one table without backup(in Oracle having Flashback Query or Flashback Table or Recyclebin option)
What about SQL Server?
My mailid:tkrajasekar@gmail.com
I am waiting for ur reply.
thanks and regards
Rajasekar
Please start your post in a different thread.
No, it is not possible without a backup in SQL server. Bu, it is possible in Explicit transactions where you roll back a transaction. Why would want to modify a table without a backup anyway? It's not a good practice.
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