Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Rebuilding my laptop

    I finally got around to adding the new memory (16GB), removing the old 4GB and then replacing the DVD drive with an SSD. Now he hard part: rebuilding the machine.

    In order to use the 16GB, and get VMs to run more smoothly, I need 64 bit Windows 7. I had left the x86 install when I received it since I was worried about my Google calendar sync, and at the time I had a few 32 bit programs that didn’t work well with my 64 bit desktop.

    Almost a year later things are fairly smooth on the desktop, and since I plan on doing more presenting, and more VM work, I need to take advantage of the RAM. Which means a rebuild.

    First step is to back up my machine, which I’m doing now using my Windows Home Server. The next step is to then clone my drive to be safe, and finally I’ll do a reinstall of Windows and begin setting everything back up.

  • The Twelve Days of (SQL) Christmas

    Once upon a time a group of twelve bloggers agreed to each pick a post (or posts)  they found interesting from the previous year, blog about them, comment, and call attention to them. I was tapped to summarize things, and here we go.

    On the twelfth day of Christmas Stuart gave to me, the ghosts of SQL Christmas past, present, and future to read. (A few posts that remind us blogging is a great way to save code)

    On the eleventh day of Christmas Mike Walsh gave to me, a post that I’d like to read to thee. (It’s a great one, well written, and enjoyable on backups)

    On the tenth day of Christmas Chrys Manson gave to me, a reason the transaction log we need… (OK, a bad rhyme, but a great look at why the log is required)

    On the ninth day of Christmas Kendra Little gave to me, a deep dive into locks that we can’t see (a look at shared locks, or those missing locks)

    On the eighth day of Christmas Karen Lopez gave to me, the rules of design that so many don’t seem to read (over normalization, is it possible?)

    On the seventh day of Christmas Yanni Robel gave to us, a reminder of all changes we must not trust (production needs to be controlled)

    On the sixth day of Christmas Tim Ford gave to me, the advice that I need to learn to heed. (listening is a skill we can all improve)

    On the fifth day of Christmas Erin Stellato gave to me, a series that teaches parallels in threes. (a great series on parallelism from Adam Machanic)

    On the fourth day of Christmas Andy Leonard gave to me, a look forward to what SSIS really needs. (Denali SSIS parameters)

    On the third day of Christmas Dave Stein gave to us, a post that covers SSIS over lunch. (Todd McDermid looks at SSIS)

    On the second day of Christmas Grant Fritchey gave to me, a way to execute Powershell from the lee. (remoting with Powershell)

    On the first day of Christmas Jeremiah Peschka gave to me, a way to find a table lost at sea (or in this case, you’ve deleted it).

    It has been a wonderful year for blogging, speaking, and the general sharing of information with others. The SQL community seems to be unlike any other technical community, much more willing to share, help, and work with each other in a way that reminds me of an extended family. It is wonderful to be a part of this community, and I look forward to an even great 2011.

    Happy Holidays and don’t forget to set some goals for the next year, and maybe become a part of the 12 days in 2011.

  • The MCM Journey

    I’m not really planning on getting the MCM. Perhaps I’ll change my mind, but it’s not the time for me to do it. I’m not consulting, and not planning on doing it anytime soon. If I studied enough to pass the lab, likely my skills would atrophy without some real work. At this point in my life, I don’t have the time for getting real work.

    Actually, I don’t have the time for real studying, either. However MVPs have the chance to take the written exam for free, instead of $500, and I can’t really justify passing up this opportunity. I scheduled it in January, and last week started studying by downloading some of the MCM Readiness videos from SQL Skills.

    I’ve been slowly starting to watch them, and I realize how much I don’t know about SQL Server as I go through them. It’s not all bad news as I also realize how much I do know in terms of general concepts and understanding of how the pieces and parts work.

    I don’t expect to pass, especially after seeing that someone like Jason Strate didn’t on his first try, but this is a good chance for me to focus on a task and also to get an idea of where I stand.

  • Call in the Experts

    Today we have a reprint of an editorial from Feb 1, 2006 as Steve is on vacation.

    Since my data center move last weekend the servers seemed a touch slow. Actually once I checked the mail server I noticed it was substantially slower. With my 100kbps connection on Sunday and Monday, everything seemed slow to me. I solved that DSL problem noting that the satellite receiver didn’t have a filter on it. Once I fixed that, the site was slow, but it was useable. I still wasn’t sure that it was me.

    But I got a few emails from people, so I called my network guy because I wanted him to check things. He said he’d be happy to meet me at lunch to check things since we didn’t have remote switch access (yet). We meet at lunch, me with a couple extra cables just in case. We log in and immediately see that there are tons of CRC errors coming from the switch to the firewall. He knows what it is: duplex mismatch. We open the cage, use a serial cable to connect, and see that the switch is set to 100 full and the firewall is auto. Apparently the negotiation when things don’t match drops to 10Mbps half duplex and can generate lots of CRC errors. We reset it and things are running quicker now.

    The point of this editorial isn’t so much that I’m an idiot about networking or that you should check your switches and NICs to be sure that they are set to match, but more that you should know what you don’t know.

    And quickly call someone in.

    It’s one thing to try to figure things out yourself, work through issues and learn on the go, but you should know the limits of your knowledge. In most areas I can quickly tell when I don’t know something and should just ask. But even in SQL Server I usually have a feel within an hour if I can solve the problem or I’m out of my league. And when I am, I call support or a consultant to help.

    Too often I see people beat on a problem for too long without calling in help. Sometimes they call too soon, but usually they work a problem too long because they are afraid to ask for help. Maybe they think they’ll look bad or the boss will wonder why he’s paying them. I don’t think it’s a knock against you to call for help periodically. I’ve been a DBA a long time and it hasn’t hurt me.

    In any case, knowing what you don’t know is a valuable skill. A skill I’d highly recommend you learn.