Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Monday Monitor Tips: VLF Alerts

    A recent change made to Redgate Monitor to add a new alert for VLF count. This post looks at the change.

    This is part of a series of posts on Redgate Monitor. Click to see the other posts

    Tracking Virtual Log Files

    Virtual Log Files (VLF) are sections inside of your physical log file (.ldf). These have no fixed size or number per file, but there can be many. The architecture of the log is explained in this doc and it varies according to a number of factors.

    That doc also explains there are issues with too many VLFs inside of a log file. There are plenty of other posts about this (Brent Ozar, Kimberly Trip) and it is somethin you want to keep track of.

    Redgate Monitor changes and grows every week with new releases and one of the resent releases (14.0.41) included a new alert for VLFs.

    2025-02_0318

    To configure this, select the gear icon in the upper right of Redgate Monitor.

    2025-02_0319

    On the configuration page, select the Alert settings. This will bring you to the details for your alerts.

    2025-02_0320

    There are a number of items on the Alert Settings page, but scroll down to the bottom of the SQL Server Alerts section. The Virtual log file count is the last alert.

    2025-02_0321

    The default setting is to raise multiple alerts here. The settings are:

    • low: 100
    • medium: 300
    • high: 1000

    These may or may not be appropriate  for your system, and for me, I don’t know I’ve ever had time to worry about this and I might disable a low level alert and only have two, but you can decide what’s important to you.

    The important thing is that if you worry about VLFs in your environment, you can get alerted and track this over time.

    Redgate Monitor is a world class monitoring solution for your database estate. Download a trial today and see how it can help you manage your estate more efficiently.

  • Watch Technology Has Advanced

    Today I wrote an editorial about my watch failing and getting a new one. I likened this to the changes in tools, which many of us deal with in technology. Certainly Visual Studio has changed a lot if you’re a developer, and you might even be using VS Code. For database people in the SQL Server world, we’ve gone from isql to Enterprise Manager to Management Studio to ADS to no-ADS.

    In any case, I’m still not sure that I like the Garmin Venu2SQ. If you’ve never had a smartwatch, or a Garmin, this might not mean much to you, but I’ll write a little about things I noticed with tech changing. These are things that stood out to me, which aren’t necessarily good or bad, but just are.

    The Look

    There’s two things here: the shape and the display. The shape is square, and my wife noticed the difference right away. My old one was round and looked like a watch. It had an always on display, so during the daytime I could see it.

    It looked like a watch.

    This one is square, the display turns off, and it seems like a device. Similar to an Apple watch or Galaxy watch.

    I have to admit I hadn’t thought about it, but after years of various Timex’s and the old Garmin Forerunner, it does look different and I notice now that my wife pointed this out.

    The other thing is the display. On one hand, it’s colorful and bright. That’s new. On the other, I haven’t found a watch face that I like. The old one I had selected and used for 7+ years isn’t available anymore, or I can’t find it. The Garmin store is crowded with watch faces, and I’m a little overwhelmed. I’m trying a few, but so far nothing is amazing.

    Ergonomics

    One of the reasons I liked my old watch is that it had a number of physical buttons, which make it easy to pick things. At the same time, sometimes there were too many things to pick from (a long list or a circular display of options) and it was a lot of presses to pick something.

    This new watch has a touch screen and only two buttons. One button will show me my fitness activities (press) or various controls (long press). The other is a “back” button (press) or a settings button (long press). I thought that would be non-intuitive, but once I’ve learned this, it’s only slightly distracting.

    The screen is a touch screen, and scrolling through things works well, which I was surprised to see. There is often a virtual button at the top or bottom of a display that lets me easily open a menu of options. I was surprised how well this works, as well as how little I mess up the actions. I change alarms often as I travel and setting a new alarm on the watch works well.

    I thought I would miss more buttons, but I don’t.

    The one part of the touch screen I don’t like is at times I lift my wrist to check some notification, usually a text, and my coat sleeve catches the screen and dismisses the notification before I can read it. Or before I can press the menu to respond. That’s a minor issue, though one thing I don’t like about touch screens.

    Battery Life

    This is amazing to me. I loved my old Forerunner which lasted 4-5 days between charges, which was useful as I traveled. I had a lot of trips where I didn’t need to charge, though I carried a second charger as sometimes I’d forget to charge before I left.

    This new watch has been running for 6 days and I have 50% charge. To be fair, life now is a little busy and I’m doing less gym time and no GPS, but the battery is rated close to two weeks, with a color touch screen. That’s amazing.

    Features

    I picked the Forerunner as it had a NFC payment and music capabilities. At the time I thought I’d connect Bluetooth headphones at the gym and not need my phone. I’ve learned that I really don’t do that, especially as my phone is my car key, so I am rarely without it.

    This new watch doesn’t have music downloaded, but it does have a wallet, and a few of the apps I’ve used on the old watch. At 1/3 of the price. It’s somewhat amazing that this much tech is packed into a watch, with better battery life.

    The way I manage apps and watch faces has changed, depending less on the app and more on a link through my phone to the store, but I get that probably saves them some software engineering of the app.

    What I learned most of all is that I really just need to track my sleep, stress, heart rate, and exercise, all of which are available.

    Learning Curve

    As I wrote in the editorial, I’m not sure I’m using a lot of the watch, but I do slowly figure things out as I need them. This week I was looking to get music controls on the watch, so that when I’m doing chores and my phone is buried in a coat, I can change tracks. It took me about 5-10 minutes of searching to find out how, but once I enabled this, it worked great.

    Slowly I’m coming to accept this watch, and will just keep changing watch faces every week or so until I find one I like.

    Finding The Tech Fit

    I see people doing other things on their watches, but I don’t find myself jealous. My wife can answer a phone call on her watch and talk through it, but I don’t have that need. I’m rarely on a horse, and need hands free access. I don’t constantly look for information other than the time or my health.

    What’s amazing to me is how much cheaper the tech is and how long my battery life is, and how little I do on the watch. After making a snap decision, this has turned out to meet most of my needs across the last month.

    It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough and that’s OK with me.

  • Moving On After a Technology Fail

    Recently my smartwatch broke. I was coaching volleyball and demonstrating something to a few kids when a ball hit the case of my watch just right and broke a corner there the watch band attaches. I’ve been playing and coaching with my watch in this way for many years and never had an issue, but apparently there was enough material fatigue that this time something snapped. I was very sad as this was my ten-year gift from Redgate, which I’ve loved, used, and cherished for 7 years now.

    I wonder if there’s a 20-year gift …

    In any case, I lived for a day before I realized I really depend on my smartwatch. I quickly realized that I constantly look at my watch to check the time, run a stopwatch at volleyball, track my heart rate and exercise for health, and most importantly, wake me up with a vibration in the morning. Before I had this I set an audible alarm, which my wife hated. At the time the case broke I was very busy, and after a quick set of searches and very minimal evaluation, I just bought a Garmin Venu 2Sq as a replacement. It was inexpensive, but appeared to do most of what I wanted. If I decided I didn’t like it, I wasn’t out a lot of money.

    I contacted Garmin, but they said they wouldn’t repair or replace cases. Maybe they assume technology that is more than 5 years old is too prone to failure and not worth fixing? Maybe they just want to sell new products and not support old ones? I get all that, but this age of disposable digital tech is a bit annoying and mildly upsetting to me. I constantly fix old things on the ranch and I like keeping devices going as long as possible. Why not make cases replaceable? I feel the same way about a few devices that have embedded and built in cords. One of my Google cameras had a cord failure when a cat chewed it and the entire device is not junk because I can’t repair this tiny cable and Google won’t. But I’m getting distracted here.

    This new watch is very different. Less buttons, more touch screen, and a different type of OS. I am having to learn how to use a new tool, which is both exciting and annoying. I am less productive in some ways as I learn a new tool, and I’m sure I’m missing things because I just want the tool to work rather than invest the time to learn about (potential) ways to use it. I know that there might be plenty of features I learn about that I’m uninterested in using, and I’ll have wasted time.

    I see this often in technology. Many of us get used to working with tools in a certain way, and we learn to be productive. We get comfortable, develop habits, and work around annoyances. If the tool changes, or we are forced to use a new one, often we don’t like the change. We may feel lost and not see the advantages of a new tool.

    I see this all the time as I work with customers. Sometimes I can see better ways they can accomplish tasks, and sometimes I see the cost of change is too high. Even a more efficient way of working can’t overcome a loss of productivity for a long period of time if too much change is required. Leaning on existing tools, skills, and habits can be efficient and comfortable. Going through the hassles of change can be worth the effort. Like most things in the database world, the devil is in the details and the answer to the value of changes is it depends. Sometimes a new tool is valuable and sometimes it is not worth the effort.

    Almost a month into a new watch, I’m unsure of whether I like it or not, but in the short term, I’m too busy to spend time looking for a new tool. Unfortunately, that’s the state of the world often for many of us. We live with good enough.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

    Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

  • A New Word: Tangency

    tangency– n.  a fleeting glimpse of what might have been.

    I tend to live in the real world as it is, not too dreamy or wishful that things were different. I tend to accept things as they are.

    I don’t see a lot of tangency, as I am more appreciative of where I am, knowing that if things had been different in my past, I’d be in a different place.

    I’m happy now, so I’m happy with the path I walked.

    However, I do see some tangency when I coach. Not for me, but for the kids, because I know that having some success breeds more desire and confidence. I want these young ladies to grow up strong and able to make the life they want.

    There are moments when I see the indecision or the lack of reaction or the mistake. Once in awhile there’s a split second where you think you’ve won, only to have the referee let you know you haven’t. To me, that’s a fleeting glimpse of what might have been.

    From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows