Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

SQL Saturday #131 – Phoenix Schedule Posted
I got an email today from the SQL Saturday #131 crew with the schedule posted, showing me listed for two sessions. I’m delivering these items:
- Encryption in SQL Server
- Branding Yourself for a Dream Job
These are sessions I’ve done elsewhere and they’ve been popular, so I’m hoping they go over well.

The event is Apr 28, just a few weeks away, in Phoenix, AZ at Chandler-Gilbert Community College Pecos Campus. I like Phoenix, and it will be nice to go back. I’ve been there multiple times for vacation and for baseball. Unfortunately, this will be a short trip, with lots of other stuff scheduled.

If you will be in the area on Apr 28, and want to learn a little SQL, think about registering and coming by the event.
April 2, 2012
Skipping April Fools
Sorry, no joke: no April Fools stories this year.

Over the last decade, we’ve had some good April Fool’s Day stories at SQLServerCentral. We’ve had Decoding the SQL Server Index Structure, Open Source SQL Server, Database Wars Coming for the XBOX 360, and more. I think my favorites was SQL Server on Linux, which still gets hits today. The best jokes seem to go over on a Monday, but today I’ve decided to skip April Fool’s Day at SQLServerCentral.

Coming up with something plausible, exciting, but unrealistic is a good challenge for me every year. The people on the team will exchange some ideas throughout the year, and I’ll usually put together in February or early March, trying to contain my worry that the joke will not go over well. I think I’ve done a good job over the years, and I have a few good ideas for next year.

However April Fools isn’t on a weekday this year. It was yesterday, Sunday, and the idea of a joke the next day didn’t sit well with me. “It’s April Fools” as a response to something run on April 2nd just doesn’t have the same zing, the same excitement. It seems too contrived for me, so I decided to sit out this year.

Next year April Fools is on a Monday, and with all the changes we’re likely to see over the next year as SQL Server 2012 matures, SQL Azure changes, and Windows 8 comes out, I’ll be ready with a few new stories that will have you anxiously wishing for an RTM date as you read. Until you hit the “April Fools” message near the end.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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April 2, 2012
Spring SQL Server Connections / DevConnections

I returned late last night from the Spring DevConnections event, delivering three sessions in the SQL Server Connections conference. I talked about Encryption, Filestream/Filetable, and Contained Databases. Always cool to see your name in print

It was a nice event, with decent crowds in the SQL Server. I didn’t have a ton of people, but when you’re competing with the SQLskills crew, Brent Ozar, Allen White, Glen Berry and a few others, it’s hard to draw a large crowd.

Grant and Brad both presented as well, filling up the slots in our SQLServerCentral track, and talking about a wide range of topics. Grant’s talk on continuous integration and deployment was really good, with lots of interesting information. It was good to hear from a few people in the audience that face challenges on this particular topic. We have a whitepaper from Red Gate that talks a little about how we solve this, but Grant gave some other alternatives that you could use to tackle this.

The show was at the MGM Grand this time, and I have to say I really like that resort. Things seemed a little closer together, more food/dining choices, and close to other places on the strip. A walk to the Bellagio was no big deal. There were also three of my favorite morning stops on the road

It wasn’t just me that liked the hotel. I left Paul Randal, Kimberliy Tripp, Brent Ozar, and Glenn Berry at Craftsteak Thur night to go to the airport. I say down before my flight to see a tweet that the First Lady of the US was having dinner that night in the restaurant.

The sessions I attended and delivered were interesting. Lots of system administrators and developers mixed in with the DBAs, looking for information on various features. It was a twist to get questions that sometimes were more basic for DBAs, and at the same time, had a different view and some challenges when presented from another perspective. On a panel with Grant Fritchey and Brent Ozar, we had some interesting HA/DR questions from the audience about 2012 as well, things that made us think a bit.

The exhibition hall was a little small, but it’s nicely set up with long breaks between some sessions for people to wander around and see what new third party tools are available. I spent a little time at the Red Gate booth and had some very interesting conversations with people, including a nice long one about .NET development.

As I do everywhere on the road, I start the mornings out with a run. This time the loop around the MGM complex is a little over a mile and a half, which I enjoyed all three days with Allen White at 6:30 every morning. #sqlrun in Las Vegas!

This time the Windows and Visual Studio tracks were on another floor, and with three sessions to prepare for, I didn’t get the chance to visit those tracks. I did see a great talk from Allen on Server Core, which I’ve been wanting to experiment with. Look for most of my future server VMs to be Server Core, which should make things run faster on my little Air.

I also saw a couple talks from Mark Minasi on Windows 8 and that looks rather interesting in a few ways. I’m not sure I like the client interface, but some of the architectural changes look like good moves on the part of Microsoft. The server side, especially seems like it will end up being a good server OS for management by IT staffs.

The other great thing about a show in Vegas is the wide variety of shows. I asked in my sessions and a few people saw Ka, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. Someone saw David Copperfield as well, which I would have liked to see. Oh well, there’s always next time.

My entertainment this time was a wonderful dinner with Brent Ozar and Grant Fritchey at e by Jose Andres in the Cosmopolitan. Brent invited us and I wasn’t sure since it’s a very fancy dinner. However I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not sure I’d go back myself, but I’d take someone else, just for the experience. The food was very interesting (I’m not a foodie), and the presentation amazing. I had a great time. Here was one of our “courses”

Overall a great show, and a fun time. SQLServerCentral is one of the sponsors, and we have a track there every show.

We should be back in the fall, this time at the Bellagio, Oct 29-Oct 1. Hopefully you can join us, and we look forward to seeing you then.

March 30, 2012
Backup and Restore

The team at Rainbow Six has to be prepared for a disaster anytime.

Today’s editorial was originally published on May 13, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is at SQL Server Connections.

I think that it’s important to practice restoring and rebuilding your systems. You never know when you’ll encounter problems and need to restore your data onto another piece of hardware. It’s definitely something that people don’t often practice and with documentation not usually being up to par, it’s something that people should be comfortable with performing.

I saw this article for CIOs that seemed to suggest that IT people aren’t testing their systems enough. The statistic in the article was that 89% only test once a year. Also that 67% were only minimally confident that their disaster recovery system would work as planned.

I think it’s pretty good that 89% test their systems. I’m guessing that 11% do it more than once a year, but I’d be concerned if 89% hadn’t tested it at all! I think once a year is a pretty good plan given the hectic scheduled, heavy workloads, and the lack of buy-in by many executives for a DR plan. It’s not like we’re the guys from Rain bow Six that could be called on multiple times to perform this year. In all likelihood most of us will never encounter a disaster in our careers.

And if you do, it won’t go as planned. I’ve had disasters and disaster tests in my career and none of them goes as planned. It’s like I’ve seen quoted: “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” We could easily paraphrase this for IT and note that no DR plan will every survive a disaster. You need people that can adapt, think in the heat of the moment, and get things working when the plan doesn’t cover every contingency.

As DBAs I think most of us tend to practice the DR stuff on a more regular basis as part of our jobs. Many of us are constantly restoring databases for QA and development, getting practice that sysadmins don’t usually get. We also have the advantage of being separated from the hardware and we can install SQL Server and restore databases on any Windows server host.

I think you should practice your DR skills in little bits. Maybe grab the tail of the log and do a point in time restore for your next QA cycle. But practicing a full plan more than once a year isn’t practical for most of us.

March 30, 2012