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Monthly Archives: August 2012
Free Second Shot offer for Microsoft Certification Exams

Nothing for me to really say except if you mess up, you get a free second chance 🙂
Click HERE to see the details.
So get started on your certifications with the confidence of having a second shot just in case you don’t do so well the first time.
Take a look at my post from August 6 for study resources for the new SQL 2012 exams.
Create a SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Catalog Report in 15 Minutes

One big question I have gotten often is “I need data, what kind of reports do you have?” It is a valid question from a user, especially with a server that may gave hundreds of reports. The solution? Create a Reports Catalog Report. I have provided the simple instructions and code to create this report in 15 minutes or less.
8 Habits/Skills/Traits of Highly Effective DBAs

The whole “7 Habits” title is so cliché so I decided to make it eight! Plus that will probably relieve me from any copyright violations as well. So anyway, these are the eight habits/skills of Highly effective Database Administrators in my humble opinion. Although I come from the Microsoft SQL Server world, I believe most of these traits or skills can be adapted cross-platform.
Feel free to add your feedback in the comments section, this is after all just my own opinion.
Querying the Management Data Warehouse for Disk Usage over time (Data Collector)

A part of every DBA’s job is to justify all those disk space requests. The phrases “I just need it” or “Trust me this database is going to grow one terabyte this year” might not convince your boss.
Many people are under the impression that disk space is cheap since they base that notion off of the shell shocker they saw on NewEgg or the weekly circular from Best Buy. If you are using consumer SATA drives from retail outlets for your production databases please do the following:
1. Update your resume
2. Apply for jobs at least 1000 miles from your current location
3. Hope the next DBA that replaces you has more common sense
We’re in the times of SANs, iSCSI, SAS drives, SSD drives and RAID architecture! You should be forking out almost the cost of your server in disk space. Unless of course losing data is an option where you work.
Now that I’ve bored you or intrigued you (or something in between) I can get to my point. There is a wonderful tool that comes with SQL Server 2008 and later called the Management Data Warehouse (MDW) also known as the Data Collector.