After completing this course, students will be able to:

Analyze storage, CPU, memory, and network capacity needs.

Design a strategy for data archiving.

Design a strategy for database server consolidation.

Design a strategy for data distribution.

Design a database server infrastructure.

Design a strategy for data recovery.

Establish database conventions and standards.

Before attending this course, students must:

Understand the tradeoffs among the different redundant storage types. For example, what RAID levels mean, and how they differ from Storage Area Networks (SAN).

Understand how replication works and how replication is implemented.

Be familiar with reading user requirements and business-need documents. For example, development project vision/mission statements or business analysis reports.

Have some knowledge of how queries execute. Must be able to read a query execution plan and understand what is happening.

Have basic knowledge of the dependencies between system components.

Be able to design a database to third normal form (3NF) and know the tradeoffs when backing out of the fully normalized design (denormalization) and designing for performance and business requirements in addition to being familiar with design models, such as Star and Snowflake schemas.

Have monitoring and troubleshooting skills.

Have knowledge of the operating system and platform. That is, how the operating system integrates with the database, what the platform or operating system can do, and how the interaction between the operating system and the database works. For example, how integrated authentication interacts with Active Directory directory service.

Have knowledge of application architecture. That is, how applications can be designed in three layers, what applications can do, interaction between applications and the database, interaction between the database and the platform or operating system.

Must already know how to use:

A data modeling tool

Microsoft Office Visio (to create infrastructure diagrams)

Be familiar with SQL Server 2005 features, tools, and technologies.

Have a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 credential or equivalent experience.

In addition, it is recommended, but not required, that students have completed:

Course SST9/2778: Writing Queries Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Transact-SQL.

Course S9IM/2779: Implementing a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database.

Course S9MA/2780: Maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database.

This course is intended for current professional database administrators who have three or more years of on-the-job experience administering SQL Server database solutions in an enterprise environment.