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(Continued from previous question...)
A project manager needs a new SQL Server. What do you ask her?
Use a brochure from any third party application (like Microsoft Project Server or Blackberry Enterprise Server) and say the project manager wants to set this up. The DBA should ask questions like:
How big will the database be? (Leading to questions about whether we can add the database to an existing server)
How critical is the database? (Leading to questions about clustering, disaster recovery, high availability)
What’s the company standard on virtualization? (Can we save money by using a virtual server)
If the senior DBA candidate comes back with a shocked look and doesn’t know where to begin, then they haven’t done a lot of deployments. That might be fine if your shop rarely does new deployments, or if you’re hiring a development DBA, but they still should have some basic knowledge about sizing.
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