What is your definition of DBA?

Original link: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/160538/

Original Ben Kubicek

Today we have a guest to travel to England, he is editor Steve.

Well, I know the simplest answer is the database administrator, but what does it really do? What would you say if you had to describe it as a non-technical person? A DBA has a number of different roles and functions. I've seen some roles or features do: Install SQL Server Management Server performance including disk space utilization, backup, administrative control, and user access rights/roles, manage replication and uninterrupted/multiple failover clusters and performance tuning/indexing, SQL work, alerts, Database Mail, publish database scripts. I think these can be described as the responsibility of the core DBA.

I've also seen that depending on the size of the company you work for, some of the DBA's additional responsibilities. Things can be described as more database development members such as creating tables, views, functions, and storage parts. Or something more in the data architect domain, such as database design, schemas, tables, normalization keys, and indexes. Sometimes, DBAs may manage SSIS packages to make data and/or from the database. Other times you may need to do some reporting may use SSRS or other reporting tools. When you move to the bi landscape, there may be data Warehouse ETL package management. I believe there are other aspects of the DBA that I may have missed.

In my previous job I was hired as a net developer who also did database development. That's a very small shop, most of my database experience. I knew before I installed SQL Server, set up backup and manage SQL Server performance, and so on. I spent nine years on that job, and about two-thirds of my work was done by DBAs, database architects or database developers working for the companies I worked for, or for their customers. No one asked me to do it, I just jumped in the need I saw.

Now there are some people, the lowest goal of the job. They just keep the view under radar skating, and these people, when their DBA, may be doing a proper job. The database server runs and so on, but this is not what I want to define a DBA. I think defining a good DBA, people are willing and ready to go beyond their job description. They manage the core responsibilities but are also willing to lend a helping hand to some of the other aspects mentioned above that can be thought of as DBA work. They are not afraid to learn to try new things. They are team members and want to see a project succeed and they are willing to roll up their sleeves and get dirty hands in the process.

How would you define a DBA? What are your real roles and responsibilities in your work?

What is your definition of DBA?