Last week, we talked about the two paths a DBA's career can take: the reactive, problem-fixing "Mechanic" and the proactive, system-designing "Architect." You're here because you know the future is in building systems, not just fixing them.
But the journey from Mechanic to Architect can feel daunt...
It's 10 PM. An alert fires. The production database is down. You jump on, work your magic, and by 10:45 PM, you've saved the day. You're the hero.
But what if being the hero is actually holding your career back?
Let me introduce you to two career paths that are typical for DBAs:
- The SQL S...
A few weekends back, I posted the question below on LinkedIn.
"Quick question for DBAs and DBREs.
Are most of you building out new SQL Server environments using group managed service accounts or still using standard service accounts with passwords?"
Overwhelmingly, group-managed service accoun...
Over the past several blog posts, I've been talking about patching. More specifically, patching SQL Server Availability Groups using the rolling update method. We defined the inventory file, tasks, and built supporting PowerShell scripts along the way. But, I'd like to back up a bit. Why would y...
The following information is based upon SQL Server 2025 CTP 2.1 and is subject to change upon release.
Recently, I've been updating the Ansible playbooks and the mssql Ansible role to support SQL Server 2025. This role and playbook are used throughout the Ansible for SQL Server DBAs course, and I ...
If you're automating your SQL Server 2025 installations on Windows with Ansible over SSH (passwordless login), you might hit a cryptic error that stops you in your tracks. I recently ran into this, and the solution is all about understanding Kerberos delegation.
The Problem: A Cryptographic Failure...
In my last post, we defined the prerequisites needed for patching. Before applying the patch, we need to make sure the variables are set and that we're dealing with a healthy AG. With those out of the way, we're ready to build out the remaining tasks.
- tasks/cleanup.yml
- tasks/failback.yml
Defining the prerequisites before you start patching is extremely important. I'm not talking about making sure your Ansible control node is set up and testing access to your SQL Server AG replicas (very important as well, but a different subject).
Nope, I'm talking about making sure that the exe...
Ansible's inventory file is fundamental for defining and organizing the servers to be managed in a SQL Server Availability Group. It serves as the "address book" for Ansible to use when patching these instances.
Next up are roles.
We'll build an example role as part of this blog series (disclai...
In my previous post, we explored the concept of rolling updates for SQL Server Availability Groups and how Ansible can transform this complex process into a streamlined, repeatable operation. We discussed the benefits of automation and outlined a high-level strategy for implementing this approach.
...
Over the past few weeks in the AutomateSQL Insiders Community, we've been discussing SQL Server patching. More specifically patching Availability Groups in a rolling fashion. This technique keeps your replicas up to date while maintaining minimal downtime.
Automated patching is nothing new. You...
Service management is a pretty common task for both DBAs and Windows administrators. If you're like me, you've spent countless hours remoting into servers just to check the status of a service or to manually restart it. Perhaps you've needed to disable a service briefly while troubleshooting or ch...