Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Daily Coping 19 Jul 2022

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to put a problem into perspective by seeing the bigger picture.

    Our fridge died recently. We came back from a trip to find it had died. After moving some things to the garage fridge, and throwing out a lot, we called the manufacturer as this is under warranty. Two weeks later we’re still working through what they will do to fix or replace the fridge.

    In the meantime. I trek in and out of the garage for things. It’s a pain when trying to cook. Everyone is annoyed, especially the middle kid. I half think he might just buy a fridge because he’s salaried and living at home.

    However, I remind him, and myself, this is a small problem. There are people who can’t afford to replace a fridge and are in our situation. There are people who struggle without a fridge, or for that matter, without food.

    The bigger picture is this is really a small annoyance and we can deal with it.

  • Speaking at SQL Saturday LA

    SQL Saturday is coming back in-person to Los Angeles. I’ve been to this event a few times, and was sad when the pandemic pushed it virtual. However, 2022 is the year to restart.

    I’m speaking, and my flights are booked. If you will be in LA and want to come learn about data, databases, DevOps, and more at Loyola Marymount on Aug 13, register and come on down.

    There are still a few speaking slots, so if you want to present, submit here: https://sessionize.com/inperson-2022-data-sql-saturday-la/

    Register for SQL Saturday Los Angeles 2022 today.

  • Database Search in SQL Monitor

    I learned something new recently. I can search in SQL Monitor for a database name, not just a server or instance name.

    I tested this over at monitor.red-gate.com recently after a developer mentioned this feature. If you look at the Global Dashboard, there are a lot of machines. You can see 28 instances monitored, but many more databases.

    2022-07-12 09_20_30-Global Dashboard — Mozilla Firefox

    If I were looking for the DatabaseWeekly database, I would need to know which instance this was hosted on. I do know, but someone in our IT support org might not.

    However, if they start typing in the search box at the, the instances shrink. This is the top left box that has “Filter by name” in light text. If I type “database”, you can see fewer instances.

    2022-07-12 09_22_07-Global Dashboard — Mozilla Firefox

    If I add the weekly, then you see there is a cluster of two machines that have this database.

    2022-07-12 09_22_17-Global Dashboard — Mozilla Firefox

    If I pick one of these machines, I can see the databases with this name listed.

    2022-07-12 09_25_56-ssc-db-n1_(local) - Server Overview — Mozilla Firefox

    A handy little feature I knew nothing about.

    Give this a try if you have SQL Monitor and save even more time digging into performance issues. If you don’t have SQL Monitor, download an eval today and give it a try.

  • The Limited Cloud

    The cloud is truly someone else’s computer, and it’s not limitless. From the perspective of the individual, it might seem like you could scale infinitely if you need more boxes, storage, or networking, but ultimately the cloud vendor (Azure, AWS, GCP, etc.) needs to have spare machines around. Many of them do, and that works well at the scales in which they operate.

    To a point.

    Azure is having capacity issues in some of its data centers. I’m sure that all of the major cloud providers buy lots of hardware constantly, but there have been shortages during the last year, which has meant for Azure that DCs are running out of capacity. At least for the rest of 2022, which is likely driven by both a limited supply of new machines and the growth of cloud usage by their customers. I know I’ve seen continued growth in companies moving to the cloud for various services, including their data services.

    I haven’t seen reports of large AWS issues, though they do have plenty of instances of insufficient capacity errors and solutions. GCP has similar reports.

    Truly, the cloud is the cloud vendor’s computer. It’s also the cloud vendor’s infrastructure with lots of tooling to help you manage software configured networking and storage in addition to compute engines. It is limited in capacity, especially when lots of customers want to use these resources in one particular data center. That capacity is usually quite high, but there is definitely a limit.

    Does this mean that the cloud isn’t better than your data center? That’s an “it depends” questions. The cloud is great in many ways, and far superior to a lot of private data centers (or colocations facilities) that I’ve worked in or seen. I think the cloud is fantastic, but it’s not perfect. There are limits and issues at times, and you should be ready to work within or around those limits.

    Steve Jones

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