DBA Survivor is a feel good book. If you’ve just found yourself tossed into the role of database administrator, then LaRock (Blog | @SQLRockstar) offers some solid advice aimed squarely at that initial period when everything feels overwhelming.

The book itself can be broken down into two major parts: the hard and the soft. The hard is the first seventy percent. It’s about checklists and audits for the first day; laying out a schedule to learn about your systems; working with your customers (or as we call them in the non-profit world, constituencies); the importance of documentation; the importance of service level agreements and managing expectations; and a roundup of basic troubleshooting techniques.

It’s all the meat-and-potatoes kind of stuff that you’d want to know the first couple of weeks on the new job, especially if you aren’t prepared for database administration. At the same time, all the tips shared by LaRock are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m taking most of the instruction in these chapters as a placeholder from which to launch additional research.

The remainder of the book is the soft. Just as communication is a “soft skill” for an IT professional, the tail end of the book offers sage advice that doesn’t necessarily relate to becoming a rock star DBA directly, but makes that path a hell of a lot easier. From eating right and staying active, to joining and becoming active in professional associations, the myriad of tips and tricks offered here can be used to bolster both your career and your day.

So should you buy the book? I think it’s always a good idea to support the community, especially since the community will be there to support you in return. As one gains more experience, this book does become less useful. While I would have maimed for a solid list of items to audit nearly a year ago, many of those initial checks have been handled. Similarly, since becoming more active in the online community, I’ve discovered other information that has been discused in this book. And that’s it: if you’re willing to upfront your time to do the research, you can find everything to help you become a DBA Survivor. It’s just a matter of knowing who to ask and where to look, a task that LaRock has completed for you.

But that isn’t to say I didn’t learn anything. When I take over new systems, I now have a checklist that I can work through. This is in contrast to the list that I use now, which is more or less all in my head. My head has been known to have memory failures. (Ba-dum-chnk)

What I enjoyed most is the narrative. It doesn’t matter that I’ve heard it a hundred times already: near everyone has become a DBA by accident. Even when they are working towards that milestone, the pieces seem to fall into place in an unplanned manner. It gives me hope that I’ll be a decent administrator one day, and I’ll have both the confience and the skills to back it up. Or, you know, a large enough network on Twitter to call for reinforcements.

I’d recommend that you buy the book. Especially if you’re still in your first year and even more so if you haven’t had the time (or want) to draft your initial checklist. Sure, the book is a quick read and I finished it in a couple of hours, but it contains the collective conversations and wisdom of the community as distilled through LaRock’s pen.

Lessons Learned

• I support four or five systems in different capacities. I have zero service level agreements. Sure, things seem to happen on a laidback schedule most of the times, but it really would be nice to have that piece of paper to say that I’m covered or that we should bring in additional help or that someone else entirely should be handling the problem.
• I’ve gleaned a bit more for how my troubleshooting process should run. Like I’ve said before, I’m going to need to follow it up with research, but now my first step isn’t going to be hitting Google.
• No one is going to advocate for me. While I already do a good amount of documentation, I’ve got to get better at tracking how I improve the quality of the systems and what that means for the Foundation overall.