Hawaii .NET Users Group

SPEAKER:
Brad McGehee, Microsoft SQL Server MVP

TOPIC:
Essential DBA Skills: Best Practices Every SQL Server Developer Should Know to Administer Their SQL Servers

DESCRIPTION:
With the continued popularity of SQL Server, more and more people are becoming SQL Server DBAs, whether they planned to or not. Many of these DBAs don't have formal training, but are doing the best they can under the circumstances. Most of these DBAs want to do a good job, but just don't know where to start. While Books Online is a great reference tool, it doesn't tell new DBAs what they need to know about commonly established best practices that experienced DBAs know by heart.

The focus on this session is on describing best practices every SQL Server DBA needs to know. These are foundational best practices that, if not followed, could have a significant negative effect on the performance and availability of their SQL Servers. As such, this session is targeted towards those who have less than one year's experience as a SQL Server DBA.

This session focuses on key fundamentals, such as: Installing & Upgrading SQL Server; SQL Server Configuration; User Data and Log File Management; Database Configuration Settings; Configuring Critical Maintenance Jobs; Setting Up Alerts for Critical Errors; Security Basics; Implementing a Backup and Restore Strategy; Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan; Testing; Monitoring; and Documentation.

Because of time considerations, and the amount of content to be covered, the focus will be on explaining what needs to be done, not how to perform each task. By learning the best practices suggested in this session, DBAs will be able to go back to their organizations and begin to immediately implement them.

BIO:

Brad M. McGehee is a MCSE+I, MCSD, and MCT (former) with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration. Currently the Director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software, Brad is an accomplished Microsoft SQL Server MVP with over 15 years SQL Server experience, over 6 years training experience, and has been involved in the industry since 1982.

Brad is a frequent speaker at SQL PASS, European PASS, SQL Connections, SQLTeach, devLINK, SQLBits, SQL Saturdays, TechFests, Code Camps, SQL Server user groups, and other industry seminars, where he shares his 15 years' cumulative knowledge.

In 2009, Brad made 33 public presentations to a total of 1,853 attendees, in six different countries. Brad was the founder of the popular community site SQL-Server-Performance.Com, and operated it from 2000 through 2006, where he wrote over one million words on SQL Server topics.

A well-respected and trusted name in SQL Server literature, Brad is the author or co-author of more than 15 technical books and over 250 published articles. His most recent books include How to Become an Exceptional DBA (2nd Edition), Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008: The Top Ten New Features for DBAs, Mastering SQL Server Profiler, and Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans. These books are available free in PDF format at: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Books.