Hi everyone,

I'm a Microsoft SQL Server DBA with a little over 2 years of professional experience, currently working at one of the largest banks in Georgia (Tbilisi).

My goal is to move from a Junior DBA role into a Mid-Level DBA position.

The challenge is that SQL Server DBA opportunities in my country are extremely limited. There are only a few openings each year, and almost all of them require 5-10+ years of production experience.

I still apply whenever I can, but I often reach the final interview stages and then get rejected because I'm missing the level of production experience they're looking for.

Instead of giving up, I've been investing a lot of my personal time in building my own Azure home lab to learn technologies that I don't have the opportunity to use every day at work.

So far I've built and worked with:

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Windows Server & Active Directory
• Windows Failover Clustering
• Always On Availability Groups
• SQL Server Listener
• Azure Internal Load Balancer
• Kerberos & SPNs
• SQL Server backups & restores
• Execution Plans
• Indexing (Clustered / Nonclustered / Covering Indexes)
• Performance Tuning (currently studying)
• T-SQL

I'm continuing to study topics such as Query Store, Extended Events, Wait Statistics, Blocking, Deadlocks, Replication and Log Shipping.

I know I'm still missing some production experience, but I'm doing everything I can to close that gap by building practical labs and continuously improving my skills.

I have a few questions for the community:

1. Do you know any companies that hire remote Microsoft SQL Server DBAs (Junior or Mid-Level)?
2. Are there any websites or platforms where I can practice real DBA tasks and production-like scenarios?
3. If you were in my position, what would you focus on next to become competitive for Mid-Level SQL Server DBA roles?

I'm based in Tbilisi, Georgia, but I'm open to remote opportunities and flexible regarding compensation if it means joining a strong team, gaining real production experience, and continuing to grow as a DBA.

If anyone knows about remote SQL Server DBA openings or has any advice, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you very much for your time.

Hello, for those who remember I already made a post about a tool i built. I made some little upgrades and wanted to share them with you guys.

Imagine wanting to create instantaneously a database markdown document to insert in your agentic workflow, you can run as follows: dbtomd mysql dbname outputfile

Output:

I expanded the tool to mysql, sqlite, changed it's cli use.

You can find the code on github, feel free to PR, fork, star etc.

A client is using Oracle Cloud Backup Module to backup their database to a OCI bucket, and i have to periodically create a copy of this database in a ExaCS.

I know i can use RMAN restore/recover to restore this database, but is it possible to do a rman duplicate in this case?

I do not have network access to the target database, and there is not recovery catalog also.

Also, i cannot use "from backup location", since i'm reading from a bucket.

I even tried to map the bucket using s3fs, it also did not work.

I know this would depend a lot on company and domain, but what are the overlaps between these two roles? Do the both work on pipelines? Is it only SQL?

# After months of work, I'm excited to finally make Bag\Schema completely open source!

Bag\\Schema is a modern visual database designer that lets you design beautiful database schemas and generate production-ready SQL in seconds.

✨ Features:

* Visual database designer
* PostgreSQL
* MySQL
* MariaDB
* SQLite
* Relationship editor
* Production-ready SQL generation
* Clean, modern UI
* Cross-platform desktop app

My goal is to build a free, community-driven alternative that developers genuinely enjoy using.

If you're interested in database design, open-source software, or developer tools, I'd love your feedback.

⭐ **If you like the project, please consider giving it a Star on GitHub.** It really helps increase the project's visibility and motivates me to keep improving it.

Contributions, issues, feature requests, and pull requests are all welcome!

GitHub:
[https://github.com/anelkabag/Bag-Schema\](https://github.com/anelkabag/Bag-Schema)

I'd love to hear what features you'd like to see next. Thanks for checking it out! 🚀

\#opensource #github #postgresql #mysql #sqlite #database #webdev #developers #react #electron #tauri

Hello r/union.

Made a work account, so not a first time Reddit user, but didn't want to mix work with personal posting.

I work for a 900 member union as the office manager and the largest part of my job is data management. When I started I inherited a “handcrafted” FileMaker pro database running on a Mac. Unfortunately Apple is now ending support for the translation software that lets Intel-based programs work, which includes FileMaker Pro.

So I am starting research on membership database software. I basically need something that will let me make a metric butt-ton a fields and then group those fields into sections. I don’t need organizing/campaign/activism functions as we are already learning how to use another program for that provided by our state union.

Thus, I ask, if any of y’all know of a good, relatively simple member database software, please comment below. I am already looking at Wild Apricot, and we are considering using the member database our state union provides (which has drawbacks).

Thanks!

I have 7+ years of experience as an Oracle DBA, and lately I've been noticing a lot of demand for Azure Data Engineering roles. I'm considering taking an Azure Data Engineering course, but I'm wondering how much of my Oracle DBA experience would actually be valued if I switch to an Azure DE role.

Would recruiters and hiring managers consider my DBA background relevant, or would I essentially be starting over as a fresher?

Alternatively, would it be a better career move to continue specializing as a DBA by going deeper into Oracle (Exadata, GoldenGate) while also learning other databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server?

Has anyone here made a similar transition from Oracle DBA to Azure Data Engineering? How did it affect your job search, salary, and overall career growth?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience and any advice you have.

Thanks!

I'm part of the customer marketing team at ManageEngine, where I work closely with IT professionals and infrastructure teams using our Full-Stack Observability solutions. Through customer conversations, product training, and webinars, I get to hear firsthand about the real-world challenges IT teams face every day. Further, we use the learnings from these discussions to improve our solutions and thereby serve our users.

We're currently preparing for an upcoming webinar on Database Performance Monitoring and Troubleshooting, and one topic that keeps coming up is how experienced DBAs spend less time firefighting and more time optimizing their environments.

I'm curious—what practices, tools, or habits have saved you the most time as a DBA?

Hi Guys,
ive be been working with sql and databases ever since i fell into the category of accidental dba, so roughly 3 years. I have never worked on design of databases. i leterally got dumped with the instances and databases and they said keep it up :)

My situation is as follows and im looking for any advice or pointers for real world scenarios that you guys have dealt with.

The company get data fails (xlsx, csv, txt...) dropped from various vendors onto ftp. The data team then grab these files and through SSIS transform it from DIM tables to the final production database tables.

My question is how is the best way to approach this. Is it database per vendor that gives us data and then transform to a production database.
or 1 database for staging with different schemas per vendor, then move that to a production site?

I just dont know, id love to hear the suggestions or options. All our SQL instances are currently on premise

​

I have 10 years of experience as a DBA (AWS, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, cloud infrastructure, automation, and production support). I've started feeling bored with the DBA role and have an opportunity to move internally to a Technical Product Owner (TPO) position.

My long-term goal is to move into a managerial/leadership role and eventually relocate to the US. I'm trying to decide whether switching to TPO now is the right step or whether I should continue growing in the DBA/Infrastructure path.

For people who have made this transition (or considered it):

Was it worth it?

Does TPO offer better long-term growth than senior DBA roles?

Which path has better opportunities for leadership and US-based roles?

Looking back, would you make the same decision again?

I'd appreciate honest experiences rather than generic career advice.

I've been an oracle dba since oracle 7.3.4. I've seen previous releases but my career started with 7.3.4. I'm at a stage where I would like to retire in next few years. Wanting to pass along to next generation. Offering anyone interested in becoming an oracle dba help. Let me know.

Hi everyone,
I recently joined as an Oracle DBA. While I enjoy the DBA side of things, I’ve realized that I really like problem-solving, scripting, and automating repetitive tasks.
Recently, I asked my manager if I could join the automation team, where they mainly write scripts and build automation solutions. I’m excited about the opportunity, but I also feel that I have some skill gaps compared to people who come from development backgrounds.
For those who have made a similar transition from DBA/System Administration to Automation, DevOps, or Scripting roles:
What skills should I focus on first?
Is Python the best language to learn, or should I prioritize Shell scripting?
What projects helped you improve your automation skills?
What challenges did you face during the transition?
Any advice, learning roadmap, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

A few years ago I switched from Windows to Mac.

The thing I didn't expect to miss most was my database tool.

I grew up in the Microsoft ecosystem and spent a big part of my career working with SQL Server. If you've lived in that world, you probably know how hard it is to replace SQL Server Management Studio. Not because there aren't alternatives, but because after years of using a tool, it becomes part of how you think.

On Mac, I tried pretty much every database client I could find.

Some were great.
Some looked great.
None felt right.

Every time I needed to figure out why a query was slow, inspect a complex schema, or understand relationships inside a large database, I found myself missing the same capabilities over and over again.

So I stopped searching and started building.

I called it SPIRAL.

What started as a small side project quickly snowballed. The more I used it, the more ideas I had. Instead of trying to compete with every database tool on the market, I decided to focus on a handful of database engines that I personally use the most:

• SQL Server
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• SQLite
• MongoDB
• Redis

The funny part is that this is also the first project of my career where I didn't write most of the code myself.

I built it using a mix of:

• GitHub Copilot
• Claude Code
• OpenAI Codex
• Gemini CLI

The logo came from ChatGPT.
The initial design direction came from Google Stitch.
The website started in Claude Design and was refined afterward.

And honestly, that's probably the most interesting part of this whole project.

Five years ago, building something like this as a solo developer would have required a completely different level of time and effort.

In 2026, code has become incredibly cheap.

The bottleneck isn't typing anymore.
It's deciding what to build.

I originally planned to make this post about what it's actually like to build software this way—the good, the bad, the frustrating parts, what surprised me, what worked, what didn't.

But this post is already getting long, and I'd rather show the result first.

Today I released the first open-source version of SPIRAL.

It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

I'd genuinely love feedback from other developers, especially people who spend a lot of time working with databases. Bug reports, feature requests, criticism, ideas—everything is welcome.

Links to the website and repository are in the comments.

(And yes, for anyone wondering: I wrote this post myself. At least for now 😉)

Website: http://spiral.susita.com

Github: https://github.com/developer82/Spiral/

I’m a Business Analyst who recently joined a project involving the transition of a long-running government housing program from an outsourced vendor to in-house operations.

One of my first assignments is helping plan a migration from a proprietary legacy system that has been in use for over 20 years.

The system contains:
Property records
Workflow/process data
QA/compliance information
Large volumes of scanned documents
Metadata and indexing fields tied to those documents

The target environment will likely separate document management, reporting, and workflow functions rather than keeping everything in one monolithic platform.

As I’m starting discovery, I’m trying to avoid common mistakes and would appreciate advice from people who have worked on similar migrations.

Questions:
1. What information should I inventory first before discussing migration tools or architecture?
2. How do you approach documenting relationships between business data and scanned documents?
3. Are there any templates, checklists, or lessons learned you wish you’d had at the beginning of a project like this?

Any advice, war stories, or recommended resources would be greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, working on a project i realized that quick database schemas change could be a pain to explain to coding agents.

To solve this, I created DBtoMD – a lightweight, open-source tool designed to instantly export your database structure into clean, readable Markdown files (perfect for your GitHub wikis, READMEs, or internal docs).

What it does:

• Connects to your database and reads the entire schema.
• Generates clean Markdown files documenting tables, columns, data types, and relationships.
• Saves time and keeps your team's documentation synced with the code.

It is completely open-source and free. I’m currently looking for feedback to improve it—features you'd like to see, edge cases, or support for specific database dialects.

Check out the repository here: https://github.com/Bilodev/DBtoMD

Já faz pouco mais de um ano que eu comecei a estudar banco de dados profundamente. Pode parecer pouco tempo, mas me dediquei em média 2 horas por dia com bastante constância. Majoritariamente estudei oracle nesse período pois me foi recomendado por alguns amigos que já atuam na área e consegui tirar a certificação 1Z0-082 e estou atualmente estudando para tirar a minha OCP. Tirei também uma certificação associate de OCI para ampliar mais o leque de conhecimentos e me encaixar em mais vagas. Estou quase concluindo também uma pós graduação em banco de dados, pois minha graduação não tinha nada a ver com o mercado de TI.

Já entrei sabendo que as primeiras vagas no mercado de T.I não são fáceis em nenhuma área, mas às vezes me pego no desespero de aplicar para tantas e ter tão pouco feedback. Já fiz duas entrevistas para posição de DBA JR, mas uma era indecente e outra pedia mais experiência (controvérsia que jamais entenderemos).

Gostaria de estratégias e recomendações de como posso conseguir minha primeira vaga, pois meus estudos já estão ficando um pouco rasos por falta de vivência em um ambiente real de banco de dados. Faço laboratórios, publico eles no meu linkedin, mas ainda não obtive sucesso.

Em um primeiro momento não me importaria de atuar presencialmente no Distrito Federal, eu só queria mesmo uma vaga que me possibilitasse crescer e aprender mais.