Wednesday night, I presented my "Nitty Gritty of Database Backups" to the local SQL Server users group. In contrast to the small group attending my Crystal Reports presentation, there was about 40 people in the room. I felt pretty good. As an actor, I usually like to connect to my audience, hear them react. But the room was, after the first few minutes, absolutely silent.
I hope it was because they were just that engrossed in my presentation and not because they all fell asleep. Though I did have one of the attending recruiters (recruiters always attend these things) tell me this was the first meeting he’d been to in a long time which he actually understood. So I count that as a good thing. Also, the fact that 95% of the group raised their hands when the meeting leader asked them if they learned something new makes me feel better.
The funny about all this is I was answering questions on SQLServerCentral.com in the backups forum for a couple of days before this presentation and saw a lot of questions which related to my backup lesson. And even some of the questions that came up in the meeting I saw on SSC.com the very next day. From different people, though. Still, it leads me to wonder just how it is that one of the most important subjects for a DBA to know (and one of the simplest) ends up being the subject so few people actually know anything about?
If you don’t know basic backup theory, you can’t do your job properly. DBAs have been fired for not being able to recover their database, even if the disaster was not their fault. If you are or you’re going to be a Database Administrator of any flavor, the two things you should have a solid grounding in are 1) Backups and 2) Security. Without basic knowledge of those, you’re practically shooting yourself in the foot.
So, for any SQL people reading this blog, a few quiz questions for you:
1) How do you do a Point in Time recovery for a database in Simple Recovery Mode?
2) If your database is in Full Recovery Mode, what kind of backups should you be doing?
3) Do you have a backup strategy?
4) Are you doing backups? What kinds and how often?
Extra Credit) If you answered "no" to questions 3 & 4, how much money do you have in your savings account? It had better be enough to survive on for a year at least, because I promise that when that disaster comes, you’re going to need the extra cash to take care of expenses while you look for your next job.
Umm, don’t really answer the Extra Credit. It’s rhetorical and I’m just using it to illustrate a point.
BTW, if you live in the Jacksonville, FL area and like SQL Server, check out our local group on LinkedIn and http://www.jssug.com. In August, I’ll be presenting on Security. Be there or be squarish-shaped. @=)
