Some questions about SQL

[Sphexi]

frankly i disagree with you, but it varies with the size and needs of the organization. i am a dba on a team of around 20 people (all oracle and 4 whom are sql server).
we manage hundreds of databases. we help developers design their systems properly so that the developers don't have to research all the elaborate ways to do things. the dba knows the best way.

A dba is more then knowing sql, but we don't deal with BI. atleast not in my workplace. a DBA does need to know how to program, how to tune, how to backup, to design and implement a system. These aren't trivial or easy things.

If a developer comes to you with extreme requirements (hundreds to thousands of users per database server, hundreds of millions of records per hour that need to be inserted and so on),
it isn't trivial to deliver, and you can't just throw a mainframe at it.

Our DBA knows absolutely nothing about .NET or any kind of programming language, he's strictly T-SQL/SQL. He's also paid as much or more than most of the developers, as he's taken processes that used to run for hours before down to just minutes, and our entire business is built on timing.

Unfortunately getting him to answer my many questions isn't going to happen

 

[ForumMaster]

Our DBA knows absolutely nothing about .NET or any kind of programming language, he's strictly T-SQL/SQL. He's also paid as much or more than most of the developers, as he's taken processes that used to run for hours before down to just minutes, and our entire business is built on timing.

Unfortunately getting him to answer my many questions isn't going to happen

that's a shame. all most everybody on our team knows programming to a degree. a couple also have a degree in CS. is it essential? maybe not. does it help? absolutely. you need the background to understand what the developer is doing in order to help them.

i remember last month, when we sat down with the head of small development team to discuss some design issues. turns out they have no idea how to use odp.net.

we invested an entire day and taught the development team how to properly use odp.net. what is a nested table. the basics of plsql and so on.
when they need help, they ask and we're glad to provide it.

imo, a dba should be more then just plsql/tsql. otherwise he can't see the bigger picture.

 

[Ghiddy]

From my experience, you'll need minimal knowledge of transact SQL to get a job as a DBA.

The really good SQL guys consult.

This pisses me off because I have to work with people who don't know the bare minimum in their job description and more often than not, I have to tell them what to do while they hold the keys to do it.

Please don't be one of "those" guys. Get some real learning. Stop posting on forums unless it supplements your real training.

Oh man, I had the same problems. I was a developer at one company where we had tons of database problems. The IT guys claimed our apps were running shitty and had problems because we couldn't code. But I delved into things and basically systematically exposed the DBA's as useless assholes who were not doing their jobs at all. I made them set up indexing maintenance, archiving, performance optimizations.

Had similar experiences with sysadmins too. These guys were huge pricks who held the keys to do anything, and held back productivity because to get anything done you had to go through them, and often their ways of doing things were very inefficient because they were ultimately lame IT guys who fell into those types of jobs because it didn't require any intelligence to get their jobs.

Sometimes some of the guys knew what they were doing and were great to work with though, but at least half of them fall into the first category I described.