Here is how a DBA can make each day of his work enjoyable. Craig has a set of 11 rules which he recommends to the DBA's , You can find these rules on MullinsConsultingInc with detailed explanation, I am thankful to Craig for letting me interpret his 11 rules in my words using my experience as a DBA.
Rule # 1 : Write down everything
Always carry a book, a pen and some rough sticky notes whenever you attend a meeting or perform your DBA tasks. You might come up with some doubts or might have different ways of performing the tasks. It hardly takes any time to scribble down few points which may help you in the longer run. I do scribble occasionally, I need to work on this rule.
Rule # 2 : Keep Everything
You might follow Rule # 1 but it will render ineffective if you don't store your notes. I need to work on this as well, most of my notes are not well organized,
Rule # 3 : Automate
Did you perform the task twice ? Yes ? Look for a scope to script the task. Try to reduce your workload, while automating you may learn and come across a lot of features in DB2 - Use rule # 1 and # 2. Automation comes at a cost to the organizations, the account where you automate a lot of day-to-day activities can result in reduction in team size etc, but then - continue Automating !! I started automating daily tasks a year back for the account that I support, the feeling when your script runs in production and benefits users is " unexplainable "
Rule # 4 : Share your knowledge
Sharing knowledge with others is wisdom. Cultivate the habit and you will not face disappointment at any stage. I share whatever I do with my colleagues either via email, chat, webinars or presentations. This year I presented 5 topics on DB2's got talent and made it to the finals. More then being a finalist - I was happy to share my knowledge
Rule # 5 : Focus your efforts
Pay attention to even the simplest of DBA requests, each task you perform should not have any variance in the level of attention you are paying to it. I follow it, strongly
Rule # 6 : Don't Panic
Anything and everything is solvable, if not by you - by someone else who is more knowledgeable to you, break the barrier of approach and seek advise from your peers and do not panic. It's solvable ! I used to panic in my early days, that's reduced.
Rule # 7 : Measure twice, cut once
Be prepared for almost everything, you have an excellent database and configuration. But a disaster is always on the clock, your documentations on Rule # 1 and Rule # 2 can be of great help for reviews etc. I am prepared for it, but I always try to ensure that such a day never falls in the calender by being careful by paying attention to details.
Rule # 8 : Understand the business
You are just '' a '' DBA if you do your regular DBA activities, You are '' the '' DBA if you know your client, business and application that you support. Don't you want to be " the " DBA ? Start understanding the business first. To start with - speak to your application developers about what their application does, you will understand your role better. It's important and I am in a friendly relation with the business
Rule # 9 : Don't be a hermit
Always be available for your developers, they may be new to the team and may ask you simple question - educate them and help them. They will like you and approach you, indirectly you get to learn what they do - for free !. My developers are happy that I am available for them, If I am not - I make sure someone else from my team is.
Rule # 10 : Use all of the resources at your disposal
Know your systems well, whom to approach when there is a outage. It saves you time and the organization - money. Not just your DBMS, have a repository for the entire point of contacts for your account. I keep a rep of all the contacts and constantly update it from the directories.
Rule # 11 : Keep-up-to date
Constantly Learn, it never stops until you stop it yourself.
Summary :
These are some great rules which a DBA or for that matter anyone in the information technology field should follow.
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