Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

The Cost of Switching

I read the book Space Prison a few years ago. It’s about a group of humans, attacked and left as prisoners on a harsh planet. There’s a few hundred of them, many dying in the first few weeks. They must fight just to survive against the planet’s weather, as well as it’s plant and animal life. However they persevere and get revenge on the race that left them there. Not the survivors themselves, but their descendents, hundreds of years later. It’s a story about a group of people truly investing for the future. Not one they’ll see, but one their children’s children’s children will experience.

I thought about that when I saw a post from Ray Terrill asking for AlwaysOn Availability Groups to be a part of Standard Edition in the next version of SQL Server. He makes a few arguments, but one that is interesting is the idea that the other possibilities for databases with good HA/DR cost less. I certainly agree that the cost of switching, and retraining (or rehiring) is high, it’s all about how you approach things.

If a company really wants to play long ball, to look to the future and start making decisions for not the next year or two, but for ten years in the future, then is the cost of switching high? Imagine I’m a medium sized company with 500 employees. I have some IT staff (10-20) and say 20 SQL Server standard instances for various things. Replacing one SQL Server that provides basic database services now with something like PostgreSQL might slow me down in development for a couple years, but my staff would gain experience, and I’d have options. I might easily be able to replace more of, or all of, my instances in the next five years. Every decision from then on might be whether I get value specific to SQL Server, or can I use another platform that costs less.

I know that overall SQL Server provides fantastic value and there isn’t anything else that can replace it wholesale, but the base level of database services that many applications need can be provided by other products, and unless Microsoft gives us good value in Standard Edition, I think it’s a matter of time before the people writing the checks start to think about other options. Good security, encryption, and HA/DR are becoming not “nice to haves”, but necessary for many applications. However not so necessary that I think I want to pay Enterprise Edition prices for most of my applications.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.4MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

January 20, 2015
Upgraded SSD

I was going to call this an upgraded HDD, but that’s not right. Technically it’s a drive update, but really it’s an SSD upgrade.

My new Portege Z30 came with a 128GB drive. I could have had Toshiba upgrade it, but it was more expensive than the deal I got before Christmas. Instead of Toshiba’s $400 for a 512GB upgrade, I paid $220 for a 512GB mSATA drive, and I also will have the 128GB one that came with the machine as a spare.

I decided to upgrade the drives this weekend and was surprised how easy this actually was. I probably need to wipe the existing OS and reinstall a cleaner version of Win8.1, but for now I wanted to duplicate things.

After powering on the machine and getting things setup (Which was easy, having my old settings of my Lenovo T430 pulled from OneDrive during setup), I needed to clone the drive. There are ways of doing this, but I settled on using the Macrium Reflect method from this MaxiumumPC article.

I downloaded Macrium Reflect and installed it. It’s a simple GUI and connecting my new MSata drive in the external enclosure, I set things duplicating while I went off to watch my daughter’s volleyball tournament.

The next day, I fell in love with YouTube and the community again. I found this teardown video that shows how easy it is to open up the Toshiba and get at the memory and drive. This is a slightly older model, and I didn’t need to the TORX screwdriver, but it was good to see someone show me without fumbling around or digging through poorly written documentation.

This morning I started making coffee. I have a BUNN maker that brews a pot in about 5 minutes from start to finish, and it’s hot. I turned that on and then broke out a screwdriver. I didn’t take pictures, but it took me about the same amount of time as the coffeemaker to get done.

I removed all the screws. I had one false start when the bottom didn’t lift up. I had missed two screws under the rear rubber feet, so I had to pry those off and remove the screws. I also needed a set of pliers to help turn one of the screws holding the drive in. This includes swapping the drives in my external case.

I screwed things together and booted up the machine and it looked exactly like it had with the 500GB drive as it had with the 128GB one.

Now to clean the OS and build things the way I want them.

January 19, 2015
Taking Care of Things Today

I get the weekly SQLskills newsletter, which I always find interesting. There’s usually a video on a topic that teaches me something, and as an avid reader, I enjoy hearing about the books that Paul Randal has read. However the main part is called Paul’s Ponderings and often has some thoughts that really make me think.

In one of the recent newsletters, Paul talked about carpe diem, seize the day, and how we shouldn’t let things slide to tomorrow if we can do them today. The examples relevant to DBAs are some maintenance or preparation items that can be tedious or onerous (Paul’s words), like practicing restores for DR, checking indexes, and tackling some documentation.

Many of us procrastinate tasks at times. Some of us procrastinate constantly, and if we don’t have any impetus pushing us to complete an item, we may delay it indefinitely. I’ve certainly been guilty of that, but I also have learned that I need to tackle some of those tasks regularly. I certainly want to be sure that my instances are healthy, and for me that’s often meant the tedious tasks of checking backups, space, and indexes as well as practicing restores, even when things were running smoothly. These can be mind numbing tasks, especially when you have scripts that do much of the work, but they really do ensure things continue to run smoothly for long periods of time.

There are plenty of methods for motivating yourself, but I’ve found that setting a few monthly reminders and bunching up smaller tasks allows me to get all the busy work over with at one time. Being a DBA requires some creativity and skills, but it can also require a nose to the grindstone on a regular basis, no matter how boring that may be.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

January 18, 2015
Technology Advances – mSATA external case

I had an SSD die last year. It was one of my traveling SSDs, where I keep spare copies of my VMs and presentations. Fortunately I didn’t need the backup that trip, and when I got home, I switched out to the second drive and carried that along.

I wasn’t planning on replacing the SSD too quickly, but when I saw a sale from Crucial over Christmas, I ordered a new mSATA drive. I hadn’t really paid attention to the format, thinking this would be similar to my other small SATA drives, but it wasn’t. It’s a card, as in a small SD card sized device.

I can’t believe how small a 512GB drive has become.

I also ordered an external case for is, a Sabrent one that was highly rated on Amazon. Here is the collection of the case and drive. For scale, my Bluetooth headset is in the picture.

When I opened the case, it’s essentially a card that slides out. The mSATA card clips in there, much like a memory stick.

Once I clipped it in, I slipped the insert back in the case and used two tiny screws (almost eyeglass size) to lock things together.

The connection to a computer is with a USB3->SATA cable, the same format as my previous drives. That cable might be the bulkiest part of this ensemble as the drive could really be seen as 1/4 the size of my iPhone 6.

My desktop recognized it right away and things look good. I didn’t do anything with that as I’m planning on sliding it into my new laptop and then using that 128GB drive as my backup on the road for talks and the main VM I need.

I’m still considering grabbing a small PC like a Gigabyte BRIX as a spare device for me to present from. I’d love a tablet like the Surface Pro 3, but until I find an ultrabook or convertible with 16GB, I’m limited on choices.

January 16, 2015