DBA skills are important only if your company’s data is important. Basic skills like backup and restore are the minimum but sometimes you have to understand the technology involved to make decent business decisions. Recently, I was at a client with a blown cluster. They weren’t too worried since they had a replicated copy of the database at another location they could use. Replicated as in SQL Replication. When I pointed out that this did not include and foreign key references or unique constraints, they didn’t completely freak out. They did lose it when I showed that not one single trigger made it across. You see, SQL Replication copies the DATA, not the DATABASE. There is a very important distinction which is totally lost if you don’t understand the technology. Data is useful for reports. A database is essential for operating a business. This is not the first time I have run across an attempt to use SQL transactional replication as a DR solution. 

The real punchline? It was a “DBA” at that company that told the CIO that SQL Replication was a DR strategy. 

Legacy Comments

Neil 2010-11-15	re: Why DBA skills are important (T-SQL Tuesday) It is a DR solution just obviously not the type they're DBA wanted.