A common-sense list of 10 or so dos and don’ts of being a DBA that I have realized over the years. It includes rules such as:
* When someone says “just test that on the production database”, don’t.
* Debugging and optimizing SQL is a fun and easy way to impress people.
* Monitor everything that could possibly go wrong so you can fix problems before anyone else notices.
* Insist on chocolate as payment for helping developers in case they believe you.
[youtube 5JANApteJzQ]