Solutions:
Ola Hallengren‘s free scripts & solution for SQL native backups, index & statistics care-and-feeding, and a generally awesome replacement for native maintenance plans. If you’re stuck on native, at least upgrade to this.
Or, if you have a little dough, check out Minionware! Database maintenance by DBAs, for DBAs. Their staff is super responsive and helpful.
Podcasts:
{CodingBlocks}.net
Three down-to-earth, funny & sharp guys who make the world of software development a little better by taking deep dives into coding topics with an honest & realistic perspective. Leave ’em some 5-star love!
Find it on iTunes
Subscribe directly from iDevice
SQL Data Partners
Want to learn more about the various features and technologies in & around SQL Server? Check out these interviews and discussions.
Find it on iTunes
SQL Server Radio
A little more “internationally flavored”, these guys really know their stuff – not only with SQL Server itself but other relevant happenings and tech in the data storage/science space.
Find it on iTunes
Data Driven
Andy Leonard and Frank LaVigne explore Machine Learning, AI, and Data Science. And Data Engineering, which is just a fancy word for what DBAs have been doing for decades. 😉 Excellent blend of really short ‘DataPoint’s ~5 minutes, with the normal hour-long interview-style episodes.
Find it on iTunes
The Cynical Developer
Offshoot of CodingBlocks community, James interviews actual developers making real-world use of various technologies to explain “why you should bother with them”, but also does terrific soft-skills talks to help you be more productive and effective.
Find it on iTunes
MS Dev Show
Another great software dev podcast, helping you keep up with the tech & trends in modern web & app development.
Find it on iTunes
Brent Ozar Unlimited [EXPIRED]
If you’ve ever had problems with your SQL servers, this is the first place you go!
Find it on iTunes
Kendra Little’s Dear SQL DBA [EXPIRED]
Co-founder & alumni of Brent Ozar U, she has her own excellent podcast to help you learn more about SQL Server and the DBA’s daily grind.
Find it on iTunes
Datanauts [EXPIRED]
Infrastructure engineering podcast with entertaining personalities and solid interviews.
Blogs (which aren’t already covered by Podcasts links):
- Jon Skeet, who needs no introduction
- Adam Machanic, of
sp_WhoIsActivefame - Aaron Bertrand, of SQL Bad Habits fame and
dba.stackexchangeanswerer-extraordinaire - Steve Stedman, who makes a terrific free DB health check/reporting tool
- Glenn Berry, whose diagnostic scripts I trust
- Kevin Feasel, not only for CuratedSQL, but also a fabulous set of presentations with some stellar content
- Erin Stellato @SQLSkills (check out all the SQL Skills blogs)
- Kendra Little‘s SQL Workbooks training
- Shane O’Neill @SOZDBA
- SQLEspresso (@SQLespresso)
- Deb the DBA
- The Database Avenger
- Data-Miners (Gordon Linoff)
- Anybody else I follow on Twitter!
Developer blogs from the Coding Blocks community:
- codeshare.co.uk (@prjseal)
- dotnetcore (@gaprogman)
- rion.io (@rionmonster)
- lukewarren (@lukejkwarren)
- dotnetevolved (@binarynexus)
- nick.sarbicki (with an excellent post on Kubernetes)
- lemonylimes (@LemoneyLimeLime)
And general community:
- T-SQL Tuesday community blog event (rules), in which I have finally participated!
Final bits:
- A fascinating little blog post praising the merits of SQL
- A nice bullet-point article on finding out a bunch of meta-info about your SQL servers & databases, sometimes called an “environment survey” or “inventory”.
- A nice yet abandoned post on legacy LiteSpeed for SQL Server (a Dell/Quest product) extended stored-procedure (xp’s) documentation. Handy when you’re running a significantly old version that is no longer found in official docs.
- And, last but not least, my own 10 Commandments.
Read, learn, enjoy!
