Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • What’s Next for SQL Clone?

    I think SQL Clone is a useful, handy product. It’s what I’ve needed in a number of organizations, or it’s what would have saved us (literally), $100,000s of dollars by avoiding larger SANs with snapshot technology. At one company, we actually bought a second six-figure SAN when our customer service people wanted a copy of our SQL Server database from a point in time overnight that they could use to respond to customer requests and test issues on the next day.

    Now that v1 is out, and many of you were impressed by the demos and details from our Livestream launch, what should we do to the product?

    Let us know: sqlclonefeedback@red-gate.com.

    We are getting feedback from some customers, we are getting a few questions here and there in presentations, at conferences, and on Twitter. However, it helps to give feedback directly in a way that we can tally things up.

    Do you need more than 2TB clones? Send us a quick email.

    Do you need better permissions and security? Send a quick email.

    Is there something else?

    As much as I like getting feedback, and Grant does, it’s good to vote with your voice and send a note to the company. If you want a louder voice, send a few emails to the salespeople. They can really put some emphasis on feature requests.

  • DevOps at VSLive–Austin

    You can see me in May at VS Live in Austin, where I and many others will be talking DevOps. There are lots of sessions to choose from, including some all day pre-cons. If you work in multiple areas (data, development, ops), or want to get ideas about how to better build and manage software, come to VS Live in  Austin.

    auspk14

     

    Use my code, AUSPK14, to register and save $400. We can talk about DevOps and enjoy some Austin TexMex.

  • The Foundry–Data Masking Research

    For most of the time I’ve been working for Redgate, we’ve had some sort of R&D group that tries out new ideas. Over the years we’ve done this in a few ways, evolving things over time. I had the chance recently to meet with The Foundry, which is formally investigating ideas for feasibility, interest, and general knowledge. Not all their ideas will move forward to actual pieces (or parts) of software, but it was interesting to meet with them.

    One of the areas they’re investigating is data masking, which is a much larger topic than you might think. I got the chance to review some of their research areas and thought a few of you might be interested in helping research and giving your thoughts.

    Data Masking Demos

    In looking at data masking, the group spent some time getting feedback from individuals, trying to understand the challenges and possible solutions, and then build some interactive demos. These aren’t really software, but they are a bit more than wireframes. you can see all the demos in the Data Masking Demo section of their site.

    Each of the items deals with a different aspect of data masking. The demos aren’t completely intuitive, which is both interesting and frustrating. It’s good that there is some open-ended-ness that gets me to think. Hard that I don’t always quite get the intention. I had the luxury of getting some time where someone would sit down and explain a scenario, but I’d be curious what some of you think.

    If you have a few minutes and want to play with potential areas of data masking research, try a demo and give some feedback. I particularly think the Manage Test Cases and Realistic Generation demos are things I’d like to see engineered, particularly together. I would really like the idea of some production-like data and some real test cases being moved into good, not-production, data sets that I can use for development and testing. I’ve given some feedback, but I’ll play more and leave notes here, and at foundry@red-gate.com .

    If you have a few minutes, maybe you want to do the same.

  • Tell Me a Joke

    It’s April 3rd today, and I’m a little sad. We missed April 1 here at SQLServerCentral. The date was on a Saturday, and we don’t send a newsletter on that day, so there wasn’t any opporunity for a prank. Running one today just doesn’t seem right, so we’re foregoing our fun in 2017.

    Over the years, we’ve had some good ones. My favorite was SQL Server on Linux, one of the most popular articles for years, unitl it finally came true. There was my decoding of the DTUs and MySQL supporting T-SQL from last year. Where was also the time we took over PASS. In previous years, I’ve shown you how to throttle a query in mid-execution and  how to get your Service Broken messages in order, and let you enter C# into stored procedures. Do you remember the Easter Egg in SSMS?

    We’ve learned about SQL Server having an open source alternative and the way an index really works. That last one made me proud since I suckered in a few SQL Server experts.

    It’s not just me, Gail Shaw, Paul Randal, Grant Fritchey, and more have participated in April Fools, with some funny ideas, just real enough to be true. I’m always looking for more people to come up with creative April 1 prank, so if you have a good idea, think 2018…

    With Apr 1 being on a holiday, and since I was by myself in the UK (I did run a 5K and work on presentations over the weekend), I thought I’d ask if you had any good links or jokes that appeared on your screen. Anything sucker you in? Anything disappoint you because you wished it were real? Let me know today.

    Steve Jones