Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Daily Coping 12 Feb 2021

    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 share what you’re feeling with someone you really trust.

    I don’t have a lot of people that I trust too much, but I do have a few. One person in particular outside my family is a good friend that I don’t get enough time with. We’re both busy, physically separated, and not always in contact.

    However, I did take some time recently to sit and chat, and let them know some of my struggles with life and the pandemic. I’ve mostly had a good year, but it’s been very hard, stressful, and at times, very unproductive.

    I don’t know that I’ve been depressed, as Paul Randal wrote, but  I’ve not been much better for some stretches. Sharing that with someone helped me feel a little better about the struggles I’ve had.

  • Column vs Row

    I’ve been working with databases for a long time. They’ve always been relational databases to me, unless they were a key-value, document, or NoSQL class of store. A few years ago at the Pass Summit, David Dewitt gave a keynote on changes to storage that Microsoft was implementing, talking about columnar storage.

    At first the structure felt confusing, but as he proceeded, it started to make sense. We don’t like SELECT * for many reasons, but one is that lots of unnecessary data gets moved off disk, into memory, and across a network. This is the nature of a row based store, which is what we usually have in relational databases.

    The columnar store puts all the columns together. The row values from different columns are separate, but if you are aggregating values in columns, the columnar store works very well.

    So well, that we have columnstore indexes in SQL Server, which copy your data into a column-oriented format. While this might seem wasteful, you decide what gets copied, and you get the benefits of this format, which dramatically speeds up some types of queries.

    The reason we have both stores is that we have a need for both to fulfill different query needs. I wouldn’t keep both stores for every table, but for some, it’s the best way to ensure your clients don’t spend a lot of time waiting for results.

    I see more clients using columnstore indexes, and I was still seeing some sessions, but not as many as a few years back when the technology was new. If you’ve never tried building a columnstore index, this might be something you experiment with in development systems and understand how this can change your query performance and storage needs. We have a great Stairway Series to get you started, so take some time this year and read through it and practice the examples.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 11 Feb 2021

    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 make an effort to have a friendly chat with a neighbor.

    Most of my direct neighbors, at least those whose property is adjacent to mine, keep to themselves. We all have our own tasks and work, and we’re rarely outside. Unlike previous places I’ve lived, I can’t call out to someone if I do see them outside, as they’re 1/4 mile or more away.

    There are also few of us. My road, which is a cul-de-sac, only has 5 properties on it, and I rarely see cars going to and from any houses.

    However, recently I was in the feed store getting a few things for my wife and I did see a neighbor in the aisle I walked by. I stopped for a few minutes and chatted, asking about his kids, who I hadn’t seen in years.

    It was a nice catchup, and a welcome break from the routine of sitting at my desk or quickly getting in and out of stores.

  • Daily Coping 10 Feb 2021

    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 send someone a message to say how much they mean to you.

    For many people, this is likely something with family or close friends. It certainly is for me, but I like to also reach out to others at times.

    Today, I sent a note to a friend that I’ve known for many years. Someone I’ve seen at events, and someone that has been to my house. Not many can say that. However, I wanted to just tell this person that I’ve enjoyed their company and thoughts in the past, but during this pandemic, I’ve appreciated and enjoyed the things they share about their life, that lets me keep in touch with them and remain somewhat close, even though we’re separated.

    Touching the important people in your life is incredibly helpful to coping, and to enjoying your life.