Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • T-SQL Tuesday Topics – Feb 2011

    I was looking for a static list of all the T-SQL Tuesday topics and couldn’t find one. The domain moves around to the current hosting blog, so when it was my turn to host it, I made a list just so I could reference what was out there.

    After a few more months, I decided to update my list with the latest topics. That will give me the chance to plan for my own future hosting of the party if Adam will have me again.

  • OldSQL

    Support is expiring for SQL Server 2005. Does it matter to you?

    Support for SQL Server 2005 is due to expire in a few months, which means that no new patch work will be performed on that version for the general public. Some people might sign extended support agreements, but most won’t. If you are unsure of whether you should, this blog post might help you understand the implications of not having an extended support agreement.

    There have been quite a few blogs, tweerts, etc. about this date, asking people to  consider upgrades to SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2. It is good to see some awareness being brought to the situation, since many DBAs do not think about their version falling out of support, and assume they can get patches from Microsoft at any time.

    They can’t, but does it matter? I know there are still plenty of people running SQL Server 2000 right now and it performs well. They have stable applications, and stable hardware, and with virtualization, they could potentially run stand-alone systems on old versions of Windows or SQL Server forever. I even know of people still running SQL Server 7, or SQL

    Server v6.5 today in support of some applications.

    If you have a stable codebase, and your application has been running on SQL Server 2005, or even SQL Server 2000, I don’t think that support timelines necessarily mean you should upgrade. At some point you should upgrade, to ensure you can take advantage of new connection technologies, or better security, or some other feature, but not just because support is ending.

    Evaluate your environment, and upgrade when you think it benefits your business and you get value from the new version. Otherwise you are allowing your budget to be managed by someone else, on their timetable, not yours.

    Steve Jones

    (published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72436/)

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

  • I make myself smile

    Sometimes, usually when I’m editing video, I see myself do something silly. Today was one of those times, and these two bloopers, kind of a spur of the moment thing while I was recording, came out funny.

    OldSQL

    My son thought this was pretty funny as well.

  • You Should Know

    Are you building your knowledge?

    What skills don’t you get taught about being a good database developer? If you are like most people, there is a whole list of things that are good practices for writing code, but you weren’t aware of. And like most people, you might be confused about what things you ought to start learning because of the huge amount of advice from people that are sure “their” way of building software is the best way.

    I ran across a great article that tackles this subject, and talks about a few fairly critical things that many developers don’t learn. Or maybe they learn them, but don’t believe they provide benefits (like version control). It’s amazing how often I find developers, and DBAs, reinventing some process, or struggling through the same tasks over and over because they haven’t bothered to build a repeatable process.

    The best quote in the article is this one:  Setting up a staging server should be easy.  If it is not easy, you already have a problem in your infrastructure…” It’s absolutely true, and if you don’t think this is an issue for your company,  I have two words for you.

    Disaster recovery.

    A staging server is the equivalent of setting up your system again in a DR scenario. If that’s not easy, then the likelihood of you doing it in a timely, efficient, and acceptable-to-your-boss manner in an emergency is pretty low.

    Do yourself a favor at get a staging/QA/UA server set up in your environment. In today’s multi-code, hypervisor-ridden technology shop, there’s no good excuse not to.

    Steve Jones

    (published at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/72413/)

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts