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Eduard Doru Wagner
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SQL Server DBA

Senior SQL Server Database Administrator

15 years keeping SQL Server estates healthy: installs and upgrades, Availability Groups, backups that actually restore, migrations into AWS and Azure.

The environments keep changing. On-premises, then AWS, now Azure. The job underneath stays the same: know what is running, keep it recoverable, and write down what you did.

Based in:
Timișoara, Romania
Currently:
UNICC · freelance
Cloud:
Azure · AWS
Escalation:
L3
Get in touch Download CV LinkedIn
A SQL Server estate and the work that keeps it running Applications connect to a SQL Server core instance running on Windows Server. Four areas of operational responsibility branch off it: Availability Groups and clustering, backup and restore, monitoring, and security and access. The estate is hosted on-premises, on AWS EC2, or in Azure. SQL SERVER ESTATE Applications clients, jobs, reports SQL SERVER Core instance Windows Server Availability Groups clustering, failover Backup and restore DR sync, tested restores Monitoring capacity, alerts, agent jobs Security and access logins, permissions HOSTED ON On-premises AWS · EC2 Azure
The shape of most estates I have looked after.

Practice

What the work looks like

Not projects with names. Estates that have to stay up. Most weeks are some mix of these six things, and the good weeks are the quiet ones.

backup_check.sql T-SQL 
-- databases with no full backup in the last day
SELECT d.name,
       d.recovery_model_desc,
       MAX(b.backup_finish_date) AS last_full
FROM sys.databases AS d
LEFT JOIN msdb.dbo.backupset AS b
       ON b.database_name = d.name
      AND b.type = 'D'
WHERE d.database_id > 4
GROUP BY d.name, d.recovery_model_desc
HAVING MAX(b.backup_finish_date) < DATEADD(day, -1, GETDATE())
    OR MAX(b.backup_finish_date) IS NULL;

  • Builds and upgrades

    New instances, patching and version upgrades, standalone or clustered, plus the change-management paperwork that has to go with them.

  • High availability

    Availability Groups and failover clusters: design, build, and the part people skip, which is checking that failover works before you need it.

  • Backup and recovery

    Backup strategy, restore testing and DR synchronization. A backup nobody has restored is a guess, not a plan.

  • Performance and capacity

    Indexing, log growth, integrity checks, storage forecasts, and working out what actually changed when a server slows down.

  • Cloud and migration

    On-premises into AWS on EC2, built with CloudFormation, and SQL Server services in Azure from feasibility through to support.

  • Support and handover

    L3 escalation, problem management, and documentation the next person on call can follow without ringing you.

Experience

Where I have done it

15 years on SQL Server, and close to four before that running Lotus Domino at Siemens. Expand any role for the detail.

  1. UNICC

    SQL Server DBA

    Freelance

    Jan 2022 – Present 4 yrs 8 mos Valencian Community, Spain · remote

    Day-to-day ownership of the SQL Server estate: builds, patching, high availability, disaster recovery, migrations and Azure work, with standby cover outside business hours.

    What that involved
    • Install and configure standalone and highly available SQL Server environments, coordinated through change management with the infrastructure and business groups.
    • Run problem management end to end: detection, categorization, investigation, diagnosis, resolution plan.
    • Own patching, version upgrades, environment migrations and the consolidation of separate SQL estates.
    • Configure databases, logins and SQL Agent jobs, and keep disaster recovery synchronization working.
    • Assess, deploy and support SQL Server services in Azure.
    • Capacity planning and storage reporting, plus the diagrams and runbooks that go with each build.
    • Standby cover at weekends, public holidays and out of hours.
    SQL ServerAvailability GroupsAzureMigrationsL3

  2. Azets

    SQL Server DBA

    Full-time

    Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 2 yrs 1 mo Timișoara, Romania

    Moved on-premises SQL Server into AWS, then supported it there. Infrastructure defined as code rather than clicked together.

    What that involved
    • Designed SQL Server environments in AWS and migrated on-premises workloads onto EC2.
    • Built and deployed those environments with CloudFormation, versioned in CodeCommit.
    • Day-to-day support of SQL Server on EC2: service requests, service restoration, disaster recovery.
    • Consolidated scattered SQL Server infrastructure and reported on storage and capacity.
    • Deployed operational tooling and wrote up the install and process documentation behind it.
    AWSEC2CloudFormationMigrationsDR

  3. Microsoft

    SQL Server Support Engineer

    Contract · contingent staff

    Jul 2019 – Jan 2020 7 mos Timiș County, Romania

    Seven months on Microsoft’s SQL Server support team, working corporate customer cases on on-premises SQL Server. A short role, but a dense one. A steady stream of other people’s production problems teaches you to diagnose quickly and to explain clearly.

    What that involved
    • Worked customer cases by phone, email, Skype and Teams, often on systems that were down and under commercial pressure.
    • Took cases through to resolution with the team and documented each one thoroughly.
    • Joined case triage to spread diagnoses and fixes across other engineers.
    • Wrote up best practices and technical articles for colleagues and customers.
    TroubleshootingCase triageCustomer supportDocumentation

  4. Atos

    SQL Server DBA

    Full-time

    Oct 2011 – Jun 2019 7 yrs 9 mos Timiș County, Romania · remote for the last two years

    Nearly eight years of L3 administration across a large managed estate. Clusters, Availability Groups, and the routine maintenance that keeps them uneventful.

    What that involved
    • Designed, installed and maintained failover clusters and Availability Groups.
    • Configured and tuned SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
    • Owned backup, restore and disaster recovery: strategy, monitoring, reporting and tested recovery plans.
    • Routine maintenance: SQL Agent jobs, alerts, re-indexing, integrity checks, log file monitoring.
    • Acted as third-level escalation during SQL Server patching campaigns.
    • Reviewed access permissions and privileges, and set up recurring export/import reporting between databases.
    SQL Server 2012–2017ClusteringBackup / restoreMonitoringL3

  5. Siemens

    System Engineer

    Full-time

    Jan 2008 – Oct 2011 3 yrs 10 mos Timiș County, Romania

    Lotus Domino and Notes administration on Windows Server: L2 support for roughly 6,000 users across 12 application and mail servers, on a 24/7 rota.

    What that involved
    • Administered Domino and Notes 6.x, 7.x and 8.5 across a mixed R6, R7 and R8 estate.
    • Reviewed and aligned mail and mail-in database ACLs.
    • Reclaimed disk space by clearing orphaned mail files and stale mail-in documents.
    • Rebuilt missing replicas and ran compact and fixup maintenance.
    Lotus DominoWindows ServerL224/7 rota

Credentials

Certifications and education

Microsoft

  • MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance
  • MCP: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases
  • MTA: Database Administration Fundamentals
  • MCTS: Microsoft Exchange 2007, Configuration

Service management

  • ITIL Foundation Certificate

Education

  • Universitatea Tibiscus din Timișoara

    Bachelor’s degree, Applied Informatics

    2014 – 2015

  • Politehnica University of Timișoara

    Associate’s degree, Information Technology

    1998 – 2001

Languages

Romanian (native) · English (professional working)

Contact

Open to SQL Server work

Freelance or permanent, remote or hybrid from Timișoara. Email reaches me fastest. Happy to talk through an estate before either of us commits to anything.

edy.wagner@gmail.com LinkedIn Download CV
Location
Timișoara, Romania