Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Help with testing Denali, SQL Server 11

    Earlier this week, Dan Jones, one of the Microsoft employees on the SQL Server team, wrote a blog post asking about testing the next version of SQL Server, Denali. Dan is trying to ensure that there are not surprises from customers because of a bug that wasn’t caught in testing.

    I know, I know, how can Microsoft, with billions of dollars being spent on this product miss a bug. It’s easy, coordination is hard, and despite the hundreds, or thousands of machines testing SQL Server, it’s not possible to hit every combination. People stress the software in all kinds of unusual ways, and it’s good to get some testing.

    So, if you have some free time at work, and can space some hardware, even a VM, get get the CTP and install it. Upgrade one of your databases, and run a workload. Even a profiler trace and see if things error out. Run the new SSMS tools and report any issues on Connect. As Dan notes, Connect sends bugs right into the Team Foundation Server that the SQL Server developers use.

    There’s even a Feedback Challenge, where you can win a prize if you get moving now.

    If you’re worried about installing Denali, there’s a nice post from Andrew Fryer on installation.

  • The Talent Crunch

    IT Jobs are everywhere. Check out the listings on any of these sites.

    Is it a good time to be in the technology business? I think so, as the US unemployment rate stands at just above 9%, but the rate in IT is listed as about 4%. There might be some errors in how they are classifying and counting IT jobs, and the unemployment is not evenly distribute across the US, but that still seems like a significant difference. As a comparison, much of the medical profession is similarly employed, as are teachers (yeah!), but construction trades are showing  > 20% unemployment.

    Not only are there lots of jobs in the technology area, but overall technology pays a much higher salary (or wage) than many other industries. Whether you think you are paid well or not, peruse some other professions on Dice, Monster, or another job board and compare salaries. Keep in mind the US median income is $48k, meaning half the people make more and half make less. I suspect most IT workers are in the “more” side of that range.

    I think it’s also likely that the unemployment rate in technology could decline further. There’s an interesting report from Dice (2MB PDF) that indicates we are in a talent crunch as well that could become more problematic in the future. More than a few places predict that we will have a shortage of skilled technology workers in the future. Some of those predictions are based on enrollment in college math and science programs, which can be faulty. IT work doesn’t require a college degree, and perhaps shouldn’t.

    However it does seem that we have an ever increasing need for people to work in technology. I’ve had friend worry that our own efforts to improve and automate things would result in fewer jobs, but it seems that’s not the case. The gains in individual productivity in both the development and administrative areas are easily outstripped by the huge growth in the numbers of applications and servers to manage.

    Hopefully you have a good career in IT, and will have one for as long as you want one. I’d caution you to think carefully about the title of this piece. There’s a crunch for talented people, not just people. You need to work on your technical skills, and your soft skills, regularly if you want to be in demand in the future.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • Virtual Security

    The State of New Mexico is being careful with virtual machine security

    I have a few friends that are working virtualize almost their entire computer infrastructures.  They work in large and small companies, but there is a constant push to avoid the bare metal installation of any operating system onto physical hardware, making every Windows or Unix machine a virtual machine on top of a hypervisor. I was surprised to hear that companies were being to aggressive, but the cost benefits can be huge, and when virtualization is done in a smart way, performance doesn’t suffer.

    However virtualization can change security, especially when you have VMs that are allowed to move from physical host to physical host. The state of New Mexico embarked on a similar project, and were concerned over security of the virtual machines. Their department had dismissed some employees because of a security breach a few years earlier and security was on the forefront of their minds. Additional security as well as network controls were used in their project, and I hope they also implemented strong auditing procedures.

    As we move to newer infrastructures that include virtualization, physical security becomes more important, and additional controls are needed. The ability for someone to potentially move a VM outside of a data center, or even to a less secure remote data center becomes a point of concern. Moving the storage itself might be an even bigger problem as virtual storage becomes more commonplace.

    Ultimately, however, we can’t all have dedicated security employees, nor can we expect every DBA, sysadmin or even security officer to be able to protect against and mitigate all attack vectors. Auditing is ultimately the best way to handle breaches. We can’t prevent all of them, but responding quickly, learning, and perhaps more importantly informing the appropriate people to be ready to respond to the information disclosure.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • A Flock of SQL Servers

    Check out the #sqlhelp hashtag on Twitter

    Twitter is an amazing application. I still remember hearing about it in the spring of 2008 as some type of “let others know what you’re doing” service. It seemed a little silly to me and I couldn’t understand the value. My first tweet is lost for now, but I know that I struggled to find a use for the service at the beginning. Like many people, I ended up updating my status with inane things like “Getting a latte from Starbucks.”

    Since then I’ve found Twitter to be a very exciting way of keeping in touch with people around the world, learning new things, and even getting information at various events. It’s the ultimate water cooler that makes me smile, laugh, and share interesting information. There is a great SQL Server community on Twitter, and an amazing hashtag (#sqlhelp) that might help you solve some complex SQL issue. It’s happened before, and it’s amazing when it does, especially considering that responses are limited to 140 characters.

    It seems that there are any number of ways in which people use the service to spread information and interact with others. However there are security implications in using Twitter, and that leads me to this week’s poll:

    Do you want your SQL Servers tweeting?

    If you find some way in which it might be useful for your database server to send information out through a broadcast service, would you want to use Twitter? Are you worried about potential security implications, or maybe just the potential load from a large number of broadcasts. Would you ever consider letting your application or database server read twitter updates and respond to them?

    If you haven’t tried Twitter, I’d recommend you do so. It isn’t for everyone, but I’ve found a lot of value and inspiration from the service.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts