Is Work/Life Balance for DBAs Just a Myth?
Many database administrators started their careers in the exact same way: 80-hour work weeks, routine overnight gigs, no life outside the office—this was simply what was considered “normal.” Today, with careers underway, how do DBAs build a life outside of their data?
In our webcast next Wednesday, Meredith Ryan-Smith, who is a frequent SQL Saturday presenter and a senior production database administrator for The Bell Group, will share the tips, tricks and tools she has discovered and used to create a work/life balance to feel fulfilled and refreshed outside the office. The tips she provides help attendees maintain their effectiveness as a successful data professional.
Click here to register for the webcast. It’s free for full SSWUG.ORG members and only $29 for non-members.
System Testing
Probably the most complicated part of system testing when working with data persistence is to establish a consistent baseline for your tests. There are a lot of ways to solve this problem of which I am aware, and I am hoping someone writes in with new techniques.
- Create test scenarios and apply them to a testing database
- Take a production database, sanitize the data, and save it as a baseline
- Have the tests perform necessary data creation themselves
These techniques create data for system testing. There are also techniques for setting up the database for each System test execution.
- Restore from a baseline test backup at the beginning of each run
- Create a brand new database from creation scripts at the beginning of each run
- Rollback modifications made to the database during the testing process restoring it to the pre-test state.
Jonathan writes in with a link to a tool his company provides that tracks modifications made during tests and backs them out after everything is complete.
[I] saw your posting today on SSWUG. well, just wanted to let you know we have a nice sql server tool relevant for testing: it just records states and allows to view changes to your database during a test, and then rollback. just a free tool we put out there for the common good 🙂
http://nobhillsoft.com/DataProfiler.aspx
I have used a couple of products from NobHillSoft in the past with good success. I’m not endorsing this product since I haven’t used it myself. Feel free to drop me a note if you have taken it for a test run.
Do you have other techniques you like to use for test setup? How about tools like Visual Studio Team, or nDBUnit? Have you used test data generation tools? Drop me a note and share your experience with our readers by sending an email to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
SSWUG TV
With Stephen Wynkoop and Sam Brace
What is the future of Business Itelligence in 2012. You can hear about Tableau Software’s 2012 Business Intelligence predictions in this edition of SSWUG TV.
Watch the Show
$$SWYNK$$
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