Maxx Dopp here. This morning, activity at TechEd has picked up. We have been getting lots of questions about SQL Server. Some of the questions have included:

How do permissions on linked servers work?

How do I use SQL Server encryption?

How do I convert DTS packages to SSIS packages.

How do you find object dependencies in databases?

How to you rebuild a corrupted transaction log?

As a DBA, how do you ensure that all critical organizational data is backed up, even when you don’t have direct control of it?

Of the above questions, the last one was the most interesting to me, as it is a common problem. As DBAs, it is our responsibility to protect the organization’s data. But often, we don’t have physical access to all the data we are responsible for. For example, there may be SQL Servers in remote offices that you manage, but you can’t control how backups are done. But when a database fails, and nobody has made backups as they should, you are blamed for the problem. This is a tough problem to deal with. One solution is to require that all databases be located in a central data center. Another option is to allow the DBA to be responsible for backups of remote databases. Each of these solutions has pros and cons from the perspective of the DBA. In most cases, it is politics, not practical realities that determine the answer to the above question. If you have any comments on this issue, please post them.

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The questions still all seem to from novice DBAs. In fact, some of the most popular DBA-related sessions have been on basic subjects. This is telling me that many of the DBAs who attend TechEd are novice DBAs rather than seasoned DBAs. This is an interesting revelation to me, as I had not really thought this would be the case. I am learning all kinds new things at my first TechEd.

More later,

Maxx

10:45 AM Orlando, FL

Wednesday, June 06, 2007