Senior DBA Interview Questions

[usenet]

I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would like to
obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.

Thanks,

[usenet]

x"Joe K." wrote in message
news:BAE930ED-C333-4182-BD13-4EEC6FCBEAD3@microsoft.com...
>
> I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would like
> to
> obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.
>
> Thanks,

"Why should you not put a clustered index on your Identity column?"

(this should generate a good discussion since it's not an absolute answer.)


--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

[usenet]

And then later in the interview ask:

"Why should you put a clustered index on your Identity column?"
--
HTH
Kalen Delaney, SQL Server MVP
www.InsideSQLServer.com
http://blog.kalendelaney.com


"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
news:upWkX5IWIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> x"Joe K." wrote in message
> news:BAE930ED-C333-4182-BD13-4EEC6FCBEAD3@microsoft.com...
>>
>> I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would like
>> to
>> obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.
>>
>> Thanks,
>
> "Why should you not put a clustered index on your Identity column?"
>
> (this should generate a good discussion since it's not an absolute
> answer.)
>
>
> --
> Greg Moore
> SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
> Email: sql (at) greenms.com
> http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html
>
>

[usenet]

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:59:26 -0800, Kalen Delaney wrote:

>And then later in the interview ask:
>
>"Why should you put a clustered index on your Identity column?"

And to top it off:

"Why should you not use an Identity column?"

--
Hugo Kornelis, SQL Server MVP
My SQL Server blog: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/hugo_kornelis

[usenet]

"Kalen Delaney" wrote in message
news:ejZp3NJWIHA.4532@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> And then later in the interview ask:
>
> "Why should you put a clustered index on your Identity column?"

That's just plain mean.

I like that.

Seriously, having just interviewed a number of DBA candidates, I found
either variation on the question to be useful to ask.

How they answer gives good insight into how they think about problems.


Another good one:

What's the difference between DBCC DBREINDEX and DBCC INDEXDEFRAG?


> --
> HTH
> Kalen Delaney, SQL Server MVP
> www.InsideSQLServer.com
> http://blog.kalendelaney.com
>
>
> "Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in
> message news:upWkX5IWIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> x"Joe K." wrote in message
>> news:BAE930ED-C333-4182-BD13-4EEC6FCBEAD3@microsoft.com...
>>>
>>> I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would
>>> like to
>>> obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>
>> "Why should you not put a clustered index on your Identity column?"
>>
>> (this should generate a good discussion since it's not an absolute
>> answer.)
>>
>>
>> --
>> Greg Moore
>> SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
>> Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html
>>
>>
>
>



--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

[usenet]

And then you might ask the Senior DBA candidate why defragging databases can
be a bad practise?

Regards,
Greg Linwood
SQL Server MVP
http://blogs.sqlserver.org.au/blogs/greg_linwood
Benchmark your query performance
http://www.SQLBenchmarkPro.com

"Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in message
news:uFpiD3JWIHA.2000@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "Kalen Delaney" wrote in message
> news:ejZp3NJWIHA.4532@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> And then later in the interview ask:
>>
>> "Why should you put a clustered index on your Identity column?"
>
> That's just plain mean.
>
> I like that.
>
> Seriously, having just interviewed a number of DBA candidates, I found
> either variation on the question to be useful to ask.
>
> How they answer gives good insight into how they think about problems.
>
>
> Another good one:
>
> What's the difference between DBCC DBREINDEX and DBCC INDEXDEFRAG?
>
>
>> --
>> HTH
>> Kalen Delaney, SQL Server MVP
>> www.InsideSQLServer.com
>> http://blog.kalendelaney.com
>>
>>
>> "Greg D. Moore (Strider)" wrote in
>> message news:upWkX5IWIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> x"Joe K." wrote in message
>>> news:BAE930ED-C333-4182-BD13-4EEC6FCBEAD3@microsoft.com...
>>>>
>>>> I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would
>>>> like to
>>>> obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> "Why should you not put a clustered index on your Identity column?"
>>>
>>> (this should generate a good discussion since it's not an absolute
>>> answer.)
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Greg Moore
>>> SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
>>> Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Greg Moore
> SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
> Email: sql (at) greenms.com
> http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html
>
>

[usenet]

> why defragging databases can be a bad practise?

Why or when would defragging databases be a bad practice?

I'm curious to find out more.

Thank you

[usenet]

Joe
http://vyaskn.tripod.com/iq.htm



"Joe K." wrote in message
news:BAE930ED-C333-4182-BD13-4EEC6FCBEAD3@microsoft.com...
>
> I have to give a Senior SQL Server DBA interview next week. I would like
> to
> obtain a list of Senior SQL Server DBA questions.
>
> Thanks,

[usenet]

DRP or report server synchronisations solutions such as Log Shipping,
Mirroring and Replication can be brought down by the massive levels of
tlogging generated by index rebuilds. This is a very common cause of lost
sleep amongst DBAs around the world.

The crazy thing about defragging databases is that it generally helps
queries which are fully scanning tables which can be easily tuned with
indexes. So, although defragging sure can help the performance of a well
tuned database (because queries are hammering the disks) it usually doesn't
do much for well tuned databases. Unfortunately, many SQL DBAs have
developed a dependance on defragging databases rather than fixing the real
underlying problems.

Regards,
Greg Linwood
SQL Server MVP
http://blogs.sqlserver.org.au/blogs/greg_linwood
Benchmark your query performance
http://www.SQLBenchmarkPro.com

"serge" wrote in message
news:07823A1C-3B51-4AF9-A912-29BABC01C4AE@microsoft.com...
>> why defragging databases can be a bad practise?
>
> Why or when would defragging databases be a bad practice?
>
> I'm curious to find out more.
>
> Thank you
>

[usenet]

In addition to Greg's great comment , I'd prefer to identify heavely
fragmented tables / indexes and run ALTER INDEX ... command
And I'm fully agree with Greg that we need "fixing the real underlying
problems"




"Greg Linwood" wrote in message
news:OfRGKSOWIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> DRP or report server synchronisations solutions such as Log Shipping,
> Mirroring and Replication can be brought down by the massive levels of
> tlogging generated by index rebuilds. This is a very common cause of lost
> sleep amongst DBAs around the world.
>
> The crazy thing about defragging databases is that it generally helps
> queries which are fully scanning tables which can be easily tuned with
> indexes. So, although defragging sure can help the performance of a well
> tuned database (because queries are hammering the disks) it usually
> doesn't do much for well tuned databases. Unfortunately, many SQL DBAs
> have developed a dependance on defragging databases rather than fixing the
> real underlying problems.
>
> Regards,
> Greg Linwood
> SQL Server MVP
> http://blogs.sqlserver.org.au/blogs/greg_linwood
> Benchmark your query performance
> http://www.SQLBenchmarkPro.com
>
> "serge" wrote in message
> news:07823A1C-3B51-4AF9-A912-29BABC01C4AE@microsoft.com...
>>> why defragging databases can be a bad practise?
>>
>> Why or when would defragging databases be a bad practice?
>>
>> I'm curious to find out more.
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>
>