Build a regular cycle of activity around the following tasks:
- Capacity planning: Observe long-term trends in system performance and keep track of the growth of database volumes. Plan to schedule any new data feeds and new projects that increase the rates of change. This is best done monthly so that you monitor what has happened and what will happen.
- Backups, recovery testing, and emergency planning: Organize regular reviews of written plans and test scripts. Check the tape rotation, confirm that you still have the password to the off-site backups, and so on. Some sysadmins run a test recovery every night so that they always know that a successful recovery is possible.
- Vacuum and index maintenance: To reduce bloat, as well as ...