Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Quick Elevators

    I’m at the Renaissance in Seattle for a couple days, stuck on the 14th floor. That’s higher than I normally like to stay, preferring low floors. However there is something that makes a huge difference here.

    A fast elevator.

    Traveling is often an inconvenience for me. It’s a hassle, it disrupts my schedule, and I feel like I waste a lot of time getting places. Last week I had a 10 minute walk from the convention center to my hotel room, and they were in essentially the same building! But they drag you through the casino, and it’s designed to tempt you on the way, so it ended up being around 1/2 mile. And I had a slow elevator.

    Today I got up to run, and then fitness center is on the 28th floor, top of the building. My trip on the elevator, nonstop, was about 15 sec. That’s doors closing and all. Last week the doors would stay open for 10 sec or so, perhaps in expectation of people enjoying themselves a bit much in Vegas, but it was annoying. Here the doors open and almost immediately start to close if no one is there.

    I noticed it because on the way back up from breakfast we stopped at floors 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, and finally 14. I was starting to get annoyed, but it was almost as quick as my 1 to 4 to 5 trip last week because of the delays in the doors and the slower elevator.

    Little things make a difference, and surprisingly to me, the fast elevator here makes a difference.

  • Should You Write Down Your Passwords?

    Today’s editorial was originally published on June 27, 2005 and is being reprinted today as Steve is out of town.

    According to Jesper Johansson, senior security program manager at Microsoft, the security industry is giving out the wrong advice by forbidding people to write down their passwords. Strong passwords are impossible to remember and lead to people picking easy passwords or using the same password across all the systems that they access.

    And using the same password across all systems us poor security. I tend to agree with that in most cases because if one system is compromised then all of them are. However, for the administrators, it’s problematic if all systems have different passwords. Then the cost (in time) of administering these systems goes up. I admit that in most of my jobs I’ve used the same sa password on all servers and the same administrator password on all systems. The caveat is that we change those passwords often, usually every 30 days and always when an administrator leaves. While a security breach would leave all systems vulnerable, the window of opportunity is fairly small.

    Bruce Schneier says that it’s impossible to remember strong passwords. And now password cracking programs are hip to the 3 for e and 0 for o replacements (and others). Plus with distributed cracking programs and cheap hardware, it takes less and less time to crack passwords for anyone that truly wants to get at your systems.

    It’s quite a quandary for people. To me there are two problems we are trying to solve. One is protecting systems for the administrators. These are more technically competent people and should be required to build stronger passwords. The system that I liked the best over the years was the central storage of all our administrator passwords (Windows Admin, SQL, Exchange, service accounts, etc.) in a central storage file. We used Password Safe for this on a network share accessible to administrators only. We changed the file password periodically and scripted changes of the various passwords every 30 days. Usually we’d solicit some theme and assign an administrator to change the passwords.

    The other problem is how to get users to create and deal with complex passwords. Of all the suggestions that I’ve seen, I think writing them down is a good idea. Make stringent requirements, 12 characters, mixed case, numbers, etc., require changes often, but allow them to write them down. Not on sticky notes, not posted, but maybe a card that they keep in their wallet or purse. Or these days, maybe their cell phone.

    Now if we could just somehow secure your cell phones. Maybe outlaw Bluetooth?

    Steve Jones

  • The Tapestry

    270px-ST-TNG_Tapestry[1] When I run on the treadmill, I have a TV and DVD player down there and have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation over the last few years on and off. I recently saw an episode called Tapestry and it really made me stop and think.

    In this episode, Picard is killed, or dying at the beginning, pulled into Sick Bay. As he fades, we cut to a scene with Q where Picard is told he’s dead. The story goes on to give Picard a chance to change his life, taking him back to the time when he’s newly graduated and just before he’s stabbed in the heart. Picard shows some regret that he started a fight then, and had to receive an artificial heart. You can guess that he relives the scene, but doesn’t get stabbed, resulting in a history he doesn’t like.

    As I watched this over a few days, I kept thinking about my life, and regrets. Would I want to go back, with different knowledge, and change anything? I know I have some regrets, some actions that I’m not proud of, but I wouldn’t change anything. The place that I am in today is because of all the choices I made in the past. The good ones, the bad ones, they’ve contributed to the person that I am today.

    I’m not a fatalist, but I have an acceptance of life as it is. I strive to do good, to be better, but I understand I’ll make mistakes and I’m frail. I do the best I can at each moment, knowing that sometimes that isn’t my best, and that I might change how I view the world as I grow and learn.

    The tapestry of my life is somewhat woven, with more being added each day, but I wouldn’t go back and change anything. If I died today, I would accept that I’ve lived a good life, without wishing for the chance to change my past.

  • Enterprise Management

    One of the things that I’ve had to do in my career is manage large numbers of servers. There was a time when two of us managed several hundred instances of SQL Server, and managed to do it very well with a lot of automation. Recently I saw someone post a note about having 400+ servers to manage, and they were wondering how to perform enterprise management. In Oracle environments, they mentioned using OEM, RMAN and other tools to manage backups centrally and wanted to know what SQL Server solutions were out there.

    I know things have changed quite a bit from the SQL Server 2000 days when we had to build all our own tools, so I wanted to ask the question as a poll this Friday:

    What do you do for central management of lots of instances?

    If you have more than 50 instances, what tools do you use to try and ensure you have a well managed environment. With the addition of the Central Management Server and Policy Based Management  to SQL Server, it definitely is easier to handle a larger load of instances

    This Friday I’m wondering what tips and techniques you think work well for managing lots of instances. Any tricks you’ve used? Any third party products that are very handy? Share you knowledge this Friday.

    Steve Jones