Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Getting Fired

    Have you ever been fired from a job? I hope most of you never have as it’s a somewhat traumatizing experience. I’ve been let go from one (and asked to leave another), and even though I didn’t like the job and wasn’t sorry to be gone, I didn’t like getting fired.

    Awhile back I saw Brent Ozar ask the question on Twitter: “when do you fire a DBA?”. There were a number of answers, and he ended up writing a post that summarized some of the reasons as responses. You can read the post, and the various reasons. I think for most of them, I’d disagree if any incident were the first occurrence of the situation. I know people will make mistakes, and if I don’t forgive accidents, I’ll never have anyone trust me as a manager.

    I also don’t think you let someone go for ignorance. They might never have had to deal with a situation. I don’t think you let them go if they don’t dig deep into systems and find problems. It’s always possible they haven’t gotten to the one item that causes a disaster.

    To me there are two certain places where I’d let someone go. The first is willfully taking part in any illegal activity. I don’t think an officer of an organization can allow that to take place. The second is more subjective. I would have to let you go when you’ve repeatedly shown that you’re not becoming a better employee and making the same mistakes over and over again.

    Failure to learn is not an option.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • SQL Scripts Manager

    We have Down Tools Week multiple times per year at Red Gate. This allows various employees to spend a week on a project, working to build something new and interesting that we rarely have time to spend our limited resources on. Past projects have resulted in SQL Search, a mobile view of Simple Talk, and a number of internal tools that have proven very beneficial.

    Last year one of our developers embarked on a project for SQLServerCentral to provide a plug-in for Management Studio to allow access to the scripts on our site. This wasn’t quite complete enough to release, but when Down Tools week occurred recently, a few developers collaborated to complete this project.

    We’re releasing this Management Studio plug-in today, SQL Scripts Manager, along with our framework to build your own plugins.  You can download the tool from this link, and a link will also be placed at the top of our Scripts section at SQLServerCentral. Once you have this plugin installed, you can search for and download scripts inside SSMS, and access your briefcase without ever switching applications.

    I think this is really amazing, and I’m hoping that many of you find it useful. It’s a great way to easily access your collection of scripts from anywhere, getting the latest versions of the code from SQLServerCentral that you find really useful.

    If you have comments, suggestions, bugs, etc., please feel free to post them in this thread.

    We’ve worked hard at Red Gate to not only build useful tools that help you build software, but also teach you how to better create your own applications. We’ll have more information and more details on the framework coming soon as well, and we look forward to seeing what types of enhancements you’ll create for SSMS. If you create something really useful, send us a note and we’ll feature your tool on the site.

  • The Endless Upgrade Cycle

    Security posts are always interesting to me, and this one on Tesco security is no exception. It’s an analysis from the outside of a number of problems that are blatantly obvious with the way Tesco deals with passwords for their web systems. A great read, one that even your managers might use to better understand why some security processes should be followed. Developers certainly should read this as well, and I’d recommend this as one post to pass around.

    There is one point in the piece that I want to talk about.  In the post, Mr. Hunt mentions that the server software and development platform in use are old, 7 and 9 years old respectively. This section rightly points out that these technologies have been vastly improved, and security has changed. The company should have upgraded.

    Or should they? Obviously if they were really worried about the security of their systems they should have, but how often do they upgrade? When is the upgrade treadmill from software vendors a costly path with little benefit and when is it really necessary? I’d argue that some of the security issues in software should be back ported and fixed. After all, vendors sold these products with the promise they’d work and be supported. Microsoft offers 5 years of mainstream support and 10 years of security support, so at least for the web server, Tesco should be OK.

    I find myself torn on this issue. I certainly understand that software companies need to sell new versions of their products to maintain their businesses, but I also think they bear some responsibility for the security worthiness of their previous versions. Where and how we draw this line, I’m not sure, but I certainly don’t think the answer is as simple as “just upgrade.”

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • Encryption in Las Vegas – SQL Saturday #295

    I enjoy Las Vegas, usually trying to see a show of some sort when I’m there. I’ll have the chance next week, when I’m in town for SQL Saturday #295 on Apr 5. It will be a fairly quick trip for me, but I’ll see if I can find something fun to do. Perhaps Penn and Teller.

    The first SQL Saturday in Nevada (knocking another state off the master list) will be taking place and while it’s a small event, it has a packed schedule of SQL Server experts. I’ll be talking encryption and you’ll have the chance to learn Hadoop, dimensional modeling, database design, monitoring and more. It’s an amazing lineup with many out of state speakers traveling to help the SQL Server community in Las Vegas learn more. Pat Wright, Russ Thomas, Allen White, Joey D’Antoni, Jason Horner, Tom LaRock, Reeves Smith, Tamera Clark, Mike Fal, TJay Belt, David Klee and more are on the schedule.

    This will be a fun event, and I’m looking forward to this trip, even if it will be a little quick for me. I hope you’ll join us if you’re anywhere in the Las Vegas area, and please stop me to say hi if you see me.