Hi everyone,
I wanted to throw this question out for wider rumination, as it's something that came up for me recently. I know a lot of us act as database managers for a variety of reasons, and may be the only person with a semblance of 'back end/technical' skill at the organization. But we're also humans and can get sick, or (gasp!) go on vacation. So, who covers YOU? I found myself writing a very lengthy out-of-office message, linking to all kinds of documentation and websites, hoping that nothing blew up while I was out of reach of my computer while away for a few days. Luckily all was well, but it got me thinking - how many of us are in the same boat, and how do we deal with stepping away for a few days/week or two?
When I was preparing to go out on parental leave for the first time (which seems like ages ago with my tweens!), I wrote up a document that listed out every task that I did on a regular basis with some background info, instructions, who should take the task on if I were away for a certain period of time, etc. Since then, my co-workers have added to the document for their tasks as well, and this feels like good insurance for our small technical team of 3.
As others have said, I've automated everything that I possibly could, including scheduling utilities and reports but also scheduling db scripts to run and only email me/our help desk if there's anything that needs to be looked at.
While I don't have a backup DBA on staff, I rest assured that if I were unavailable and some custom functionality were to break, my team would be able to shut off our custom SQL jobs until I was available or someone with more SQL expertise could take a look. And of course, for custom but especially canned issues, knowing that TN is able to help is huge!
One other thing that I do to help balance work/life that I don't think has been mentioned yet is that I never deploy anything the day before the weekend/vacation/conference. If I'm not going to be available to troubleshoot for the next few days, it can wait until I'm back in the office. (I also don't have my work email send notifications on my phone, but I realize that's not possible for all of us. Setting that boundary for me, though, did wonders for that balance!)
Here's a sample of my team's recurring tasks/"win the lottery" doc: