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Audit – Which tables have Primary Keys
List of every table and if it has a Primary Key or not… (read more)
A Full-Time SharePoint or SQL Server DBA Required?
I had a great question posed by a reader yesterday. I was related to my question of what types of things you find yourself doing that are different administering a SharePoint installation, vs. a SQL Server installation, especially in relation to the database. The question was whether a full-time DBA was required for a SharePoint installation (or SQL Server for that matter) and, at the risk of making comments that are too sweeping, I’ll start with the most often used answer to this type of question.
"It depends."
Sorry, but it’s really quite true in this case as with many configuration, management, tuning and overall best practices type discussions. It’s hard to say whether a full-time admin is needed to watch over a particular installation because there are so many variables.
– How many users are on the system?
— Pertains to volume questions and likelihood that you’ll need to be providing support.
– Is the information mission-critical or secondary to your business?
— Pertains to the importance of recovery plans and uptime requirements.
– Can you afford to lose any of the information on the system?
— While this seems obvious as a "no" answer, it drives the decisions surrounding your failover and management requirements for the system.
Many more, to be certain, but you can quickly see that there’s not really an easy, obvious, "do this, do that, do the other, you’ll be fine" type answer. Your systems can be very self-managing to a point. You’ll have to spend some time automating processes, setting up alerts and making sure things are operating in line with your policies and best practices. This isn’t to make it sound impossible, just that by putting the time in up front, you’ll be able to let the systems do the work and help you in watching over things.
It’s likely there will come a time when a full-time admin is needed, assuming you have a system that grows, that increases its server footprint, that increases in the number of users and so-on, but if you’re starting small, there shouldn’t be a requirement for a full-time admin.
… at least that’s how I see it. 🙂
Agree? Disagree? Drop me a note, let me know.