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what are the critical issue you faced as a dba
Hi All Recently I have attended a job interview for sql server database administration and was asked to speak about one of the critical issue you have faced as a dba. I have explained of one of the issue I had faced in my environment. I spoke of database was suspect and I was able to recover from backups and I have explained the root cause of the issue stating that it was disk issue which caused the problem and told that we replaced the disk and we are able to restore the tlog backups + taillog backup and I was able to bring the database online. I don't know why the interviewer wasn't impressed with the answer. I want to know from exceptional dba's, normally when they ask such questions, what kind of answers or scenarios are they looking for ? Appreciate your inputs.
Most of the days, crazy things won't happen. But when they do, it's your job as a DBA to have planned also for an unexpected scenario. You should plan for most scenarios, have routines for them and most importantly test your routines by simulating the unexpected events. If you do that, unexpected events (even those which you do NOT have routines for) will appear less critical. There will Always be a DBA who have experienced cooler disasters than yourself. But that's not really a measure of how good a DBA you are. If you know that your routines are slightly better than your SLA, you'll have the ability to stay calm during what might seem to be a disaster to someone else. I would want to hire a person who can do that. Not necessarily a DBA who have experienced an explosion in a datacenter :)
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