SQL Server DBA services,
hand in hand with your team.
With the PSG DBA Pool, we take over the ongoing tasks of a database administrator: the system check on every business day, backups, maintenance, patches and permissions. Responsibility and decisions stay with you. We make sure nothing gets left undone.
- Overnight backupscomplete, all databases
- Availability Groupall replicas synchronized
- Index maintenance job38 minutes over its time window
- Data drive SQL0287% full, growing 1% per week
- Error logno new errors
- Ticket “Storage SQL02” created in your system
- Discuss the maintenance window on Friday
SQL Server is running. But who is looking after it?
Database administration is routine until something is missing: a backup that cannot be restored, an update that has been waiting for months, or knowledge that only one person has.
No DBA of your own
SQL Server runs alongside many other systems under your administrators. There is little time left for upkeep.
One DBA, too many tasks
Your DBA cannot cover everything. Vacation and illness leave gaps, and specialist topics get left undone.
Knowledge held by one person
Documentation has gaps and recovery has never been rehearsed. If that person is out, things get tight.
The landscape grows
More instances, Availability Groups and clusters, but the team does not grow with them.
Changes from outside
Development and vendors deliver scripts and releases. Who reviews them before they go into production?
Updates keep slipping
Cumulative updates are left waiting, a version is running out of support, and the move is not planned.
Your decisions. Our routine.
We work like a part of your team: within your processes, according to your approvals and with fixed points of contact. Every task has a clear place, with you or with us.
- Your decisions stay yours
We deploy changes to the system only after your approval. - Within your processes
Tickets in your system, your maintenance windows, your change rules. - Remote through your access
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CET/CEST, following your security requirements. - Closing gaps
You have a DBA? We take over what they cannot cover, and stand in for them during vacation and illness. - Performance engineers behind you
What stands out in the check is assessed by specialists from the same team.
A fixed rhythm instead of firefighting.
- 01
Every business day
System check: backups, jobs, error log, storage space and availability. Anything unusual reaches you as a ticket, with our assessment. In small environments, a weekly check is also enough.
- 02
Ongoing
Keep maintenance, permissions and jobs in order; handle requests from your team; plan patches and cumulative updates and apply them after approval.
- 03
Regularly
A status meeting with your team: what happened, what is coming up, where the environment is growing. Plus a restore test, so that backups are not only present but usable.
- 04
For projects
Upgrades, migrations, new instances or high availability: we support your SQL Server projects with knowledge of your environment.
- 05
Once a year
A look at the whole, following the framework of our Health Check. Afterward we adjust scope and tier.
checks 5 business days, 3 anomalies, all reported as tickets. backups Complete; restore test of the main database in 14 minutes. storage Data drive SQL02 still lasts about 12 more weeks. updates Cumulative update tested, deployment on Friday after approval. development Release script reviewed: one index without a maintenance plan, follow-up question sent. next week Adjust the maintenance window, have storage expanded.
Who does what is settled beforehand.
A starting point, not a template. We record how tasks are split in your case in writing at the start, and adjust it when your environment changes.
| Task | Your team | PSG DBA Pool |
|---|---|---|
| System check | receives results and tickets | checks every business day, reports and assesses |
| Backup & recovery | sets targets for data loss and downtime | monitors backups, tests restores |
| Patches & updates | approves maintenance windows | plans, tests and applies |
| Security & permissions | decides on access | implements and reviews regularly |
| Maintenance & jobs | names the business time windows | sets up, monitors, adjusts |
| High availability | decides on the architecture | looks after Availability Groups and clusters, supports failover tests (Silver and up) |
| Changes from development & vendors | approves | reviews in advance for risks to operations and performance (Gold) |
| Operations manual | keeps it themselves (Bronze, Silver) | maintains it for the SQL Server environment; your team can use it even without us (Gold) |
| Operating system, hardware, network | responsible, on its own or with your service provider | coordinates and supplies the SQL Server requirements |
Bronze, Silver, Gold.
The tiers differ in how large and how available your environment is and how much consulting you need alongside operations. Each tier includes the previous one.
Bronze
Individual SQL Servers, reliably maintained.
- Servers without high availability
- System check every business day or weekly
- Backup, maintenance, patches and permissions
- Regular status meeting
Fits when only a few servers are running and nobody in-house has time for SQL Server.
Silver
Larger environments and high availability.
- Everything in Bronze
- Availability Groups and failover clusters, with failover tests
- Our tools in your environment
- More room for capacity and upgrade questions
Fits when several instances need to run highly available and the landscape is growing.
Gold
Integrated into development and vendor dialogue.
- Everything in Silver
- Review of scripts, releases and schema changes before they are deployed
- Point of contact for your development team
- Coordination with your software vendor
- Maintenance of the operations manual
Fits when you develop yourself or work closely with a vendor.
We set systems, rhythm and consulting share in writing after the initial assessment. We then state the terms specifically for your environment.
Operations for your servers. Engineering for your application.
Both are ongoing agreements, but with different subjects. The DBA Pool keeps your SQL Servers secure and well maintained. PSG MX makes a critical application faster and more stable. The two can be combined.
| PSG DBA Pool | PSG MX | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | your SQL Server systems | a critical application and its workload |
| Guiding question | Are the servers running securely, well maintained and recoverable? | Is the application becoming faster and more stable, and does it stay that way? |
| Rhythm | every business day, plus your projects | monthly: at least three intensive months first, then ongoing |
| Typical work | System check, backup, patches, permissions, high availability | Queries, plans and indexes, actions agreed with development and vendor, measuring the effect |
| Result | a maintained, documented environment | implemented improvements with measured effect |
| Your contacts | IT operations and administration | application owners, development, vendor |
| Tiers | Bronze, Silver, Gold | MX-Intensive, then MX-Care |
Understand first, then take over.
We don't take over systems we don't know. That is why every engagement begins with an initial assessment. Whatever we find there, we clarify with you before regular operations start.
- Conversation
Your environment, how tasks are divided today and what should be taken off your plate. - Initial assessment
Following the framework of our basic health check: risks first. - Scope in writing
Tier, systems, responsibilities, maintenance windows and contact path. - Handover
Set up access, review existing documentation, put checks and monitoring in place. - Regular operations
The check on every business day, the status meeting, and once a year the look at the whole.
Relief in operations. And time for new things.
An IT service provider with its own development and its own operations: we take over ongoing maintenance and monitoring, administrators and developers gain time, and together we built a new SQL cluster.
“By taking over ongoing maintenance work and careful monitoring, our system administrators were relieved as well and were able to establish a new SQL cluster together with the PSG experts.”
Short answers.
Does PSG take on responsibility for our operations?
The DBA Pool is co-managed: responsibility, approvals and decisions stay with you. We take on the agreed tasks and keep you informed. Which tasks those are, we put in writing.
We already have a DBA. Does the DBA Pool still fit?
Yes. Then we close the gaps a single DBA cannot cover, for example in high availability or performance, and cover for vacation and illness. Your DBA gains colleagues, not competition.
When are you available?
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CET/CEST, public holidays as observed in Hamburg. We work remotely through an access that you provide. Availability beyond that we agree case by case.
What happens with performance problems?
In the DBA Pool they show up in the system check, and we assess them. For in-depth investigation, our performance engineers are available, as an individual performance analysis or on an ongoing basis with PSG MX.
How is billing handled?
Monthly, as a package depending on tier and environment. Larger projects such as upgrades or migrations we agree additionally as a project or through a block of hours.
How do we get started?
With a conversation about your environment and an initial assessment following the framework of our Health Check. Then we set tier, systems and responsibilities in writing.
Let's talk about your environment.
Tell us which SQL Servers you run and what gets left undone today. We will suggest a fitting scope.