Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

Looking Back at 2010–Goal Review
I had 8 goals for 2010, which I posted at the end of last year. That reminds me, I need to work on goals for 2011

These were a variety of work, community, and professional goals that I set with, thinking that I would be able to achieve these in the year. As with many things, I was wrong and didn’t end up I the place that I expected. Some of this was due to my poor time management, some due to changing situations, and some due to a changing of my feelings towards the end result of these goals. Here are my final comments on the goals:
1. Forums – My original goal was to post less, but keep 300 posts a month average. About 40-50 of those are set (editorials, handling issues), so it’s really a 200+ technical posting. I managed to make that average, with a wildly varying level per month.
2. Blogging – I wanted to blog 5 times a week, each week, with at least 2 being technical. I think I made this, outside of vacations, and most weeks I did manage to get a couple technical posts. In some ways, I think this is an artificial goal that forced me to look for technical items, but it also resulted in some less than stellar posts. I think I need to re-examine what I am trying to accomplish here for 2011.
3. Learn Reporting Services – Fail. I was hoping to devote 1-2 hours a week, a fairly small goal, to this. However besides getting this setup no 3 machines, building some basic reports, and fighting through non-domain security issues, I didn’t accomplish a lot here. Part of the issue is that I had no focus on “what” I wanted to do with SSRS and no work to produce. I think this was my learning goal for SQL Server, but it wasn’t well focused or developed. While I think these are good skills, and worth learning, it wasn’t a good choice for me. In short, a bad goal to pick, and one that was easy to let go as my life became busy.
4. Attend one SQL Saturday – A huge success, and I actually attended 7, along with a couple other events. I spoke at:
5. Write a book – I made progress here, devoting a few afternoons here and actually working on two separate items at the same time. However what ended up killing me here is no enough of a focused effort, enough times. If I had spent 15-20 days on this, it would be done. I think that I moved some of this time to speaking events, and building presentations.
6. Build 2 new presentations – I actually built 3 this year. Two on basic SQL Server (one non-technical, one technical), and one on Common SQL Server Mistakes. I have another in progress that I want to get ready for 2011. Again, need to make focused time.
7. Take all my vacation in 2010 – Close. I didn’t make it, and again, work is interfering with my ski-Thursdays this winter. However I did manage to get in 4 vacations this year: St Martin, Las Vegas, Winter Park, and Steamboat Springs. I’ll call this a success, assuming I can free up 3 days each month in Jan/Feb/Mar.
8. Travel to one new city for work – Charlotte, Kansas City, Las Vegas, New York (for SSC) were new trips for me. It was good to me to visit with people outside of the areas I have tended to go (Seattle/Orlando) over the years.
So was it a successful year? It’s hard to say. It certainly was a busy one, and that impacted some of my personal goals. I think that overall I did well, and some of my failings were a lack of a well-focused goal.

In 2011, I want to look for goals that produce some result, and not arbitrary goals like blog every day. I am looking to better define a goal that will make my career grow, as well as contribute in a positive way to the community for SQL Server.
December 29, 2010
The Office

The subheading for this article caught my eye. Sixty percent of workers think they can be productive outside of an office in a survey conducted of 2,600 IT professionals. Most of the these people also said that they tended to work extra hours each day outside of the office. The majority also said they would take a lower paying job if they could access the information they needed outside the office.

That’s actually a smaller percentage that I expected would want to work away from an office, though more than I expected would actually take less pay to do so. As least in America, it seems that people are very concerned with their salary, and reluctant to ever take a pay cut. I’m glad it seems that some people are starting to understand that value of their time to themselves and their families.

It’s hard to work at the office, as Jason Fried said recently in a TED Talk. I haven’t worked in an office in some time, but I do remember a constant stream of interruptions. An hour of time without someone talking to you was rare, and I assume that the situation is similar with many knowledge workers today. We have people that we pay to think, and solve problems, but we don’t give them the time to actually work on those problems.

Steve Jones

December 29, 2010
Getting a Dedicated Admin Connection

Did you know you can easily get a Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC) in SSMS? I didn’t assuming that I’d need to use a command line and SQLCMD. However while studying for the MCM, I learned that there’s an easy way.

I tested this on a SQL Server 2008 instance, having a normal connection, as seen in the lower status bar:

Right click in the query window, and select “Change Connection”. In the dialog, not add “Admin:” before the server name, as shown below.

When you connect, you’ll have an admin connection, which you can see in the status bar.

Pretty cool.

December 28, 2010
Strike Force

Would you want to be part of an elite strike force inside your company? An IT team that can solve complex problems and save the day when there’s a crisis? Or even a large challenge facing your department?

It sounds cool, and there’s a neat description of an “A-Team for IT” in this article, talking about the types of people that are needed. Overall I think this is a more a list of the ideal types of people that are important for almost any project, especially one that might involve significant investment from a company.

This started me thinking about the type of person I have been in the technology world. I haven’t provided air support, or been the Über hacker or Fearless Leader that does something amazing. For the most part, I think I’ve been the infrastructure sherpa. Quietly working along, providing support where it’s needed, and just making sure things get done.

That’s what I think most of us do on a daily basis. We grind away at work, building and fixing things that many people appreciate, but don’t stand out. We don’t get the spotlight, most people in the company aren’t aware of what we do, and that’s fine. Being part of a crisis or strike team sounds cool and exciting, but I think most of us would rather do a solid day’s work for an honest days pay and then go home and get on with out lives.

Steve Jones

December 28, 2010