Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Back from My Sabbatical

    It’s been six weeks away from work, but I’m back now. It was a great break, I’m refreshed, and I am ready to get back to writing, speaking, and working with the data platform again. I haven’t done much SQL Server work, but I have been busy. With this being my first day back, I did spend a few minutes looking back at what it was like to have a voluntary, extended break from work.

    The time away was very refreshing. I was able to spend days on my own personal growth in a few areas as well as tackle personal projects that my wife and I have wanted to do around the house. I avoided the computer for the most part, only using it for personal tasks, like watching guitar videos on YouTube. I used my hands often, rarely sitting at a desk.

    At the same time, this was an enlightening break. I realized I enjoy my job, and I enjoy technology. During a two day stretch near the end of my time away, I attended a conference and spoke. I engaged with other technologists and realized that I really enjoy working with and talking about databases and technology.

    I am ready to go back to work and looking forward to what 2020 brings to my career. I’ve missed Redgate, and I’ve missed interacting with many of you on a daily basis.

    Perhaps the best part of the sabbatical was that it have me a glimpse of retirement. I puttered around the house, did things I wanted to do, at my pace, without pressure. I handled it well, though I also think I do need a little more purpose or focus when I do retire.

    It was a good break for me, and I’m looking forward to the next sabbatical in a few years. In the meantime, I’m ready to get back to writing and speaking and SQLServerCentral.

    Thanks to Kathi, Kendra, Grant, and the others at Redgate for covering my work while I was away, and I hope everyone out there enjoyed their stewardship if the community.

    Steve Jones

     

  • Day 32, Sabbatical Part Deux

    This is the last post of my second sabbatical, covering the last few day so of week 6. I got sporadic near the end, for a few reasons, but this looks back at days 29, 30, 31, and 32.

    Day 29 was a bust. After finishing up at the Oracle conference on Day 28, I felt sick. I woke up worn out, with a running nose. I ended up staying in bed all day, playing a little guitar, but mostly just sleeping and trying to get better. It helped, as I felt OK for Day 30.

    Day 30 came with a lot of snow. It covered the property, and while no cars were stuck, it was a mess. Friday’s are my wife’s day to feed, and I agreed to help and try to dig things out. I ended up going through and trying to plow out some of the property. I got a bit done, but some was too covered. As a result, we ended up putting out large bales. That means I start here:

    20200221_120129_HDR

    and end up here:

    20200221_120937

    Then I drive this out to somewhere and leave it for horses to eat from. I joked with a few friends on Facebook that not only is this a skill I never expected to learn, it’s one I never knew existed.

    I ended up spending about 3 1/2 hours on the tractor trying to get things cleaned up and organized, including moving snow on the driveway to ensure my wife could get out Saturday morning with a trailer.

    From there, a little yoga, coaching, and then finally an evening out with my wife watching George Lopez.

    The weekend and Days 31/32 were spent in the mountains. My son and I got up early Saturday and drove up to snowboard. We had a great time on a rather warm day, going up and down at Keystone.

    20200222_121314

    We then retired to a house that my sister in law had rented for a week. She’s on vacation, and we went to spend time there. It was a beautiful place, and we enjoyed it.

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    Everyone arrived Saturday night or Sunday night and we ended up with about 7 of us spending time there. Monday and Tuesday were very cold (around 0F) and windy, so we didn’t ski. Instead, it was good to catch up with family and friends. Rather than working at all, I enjoyed the last two days of my sabbatical with a relaxing morning each day. I cooked breakfast for everyone, which is relaxing and enjoyable for me. I also did one dinner.

    20200224_092104_HDR

    The days were spent talking, laughing, playing games, and wandering around Breckenridge doing a little shopping and eating. A bit too much indulgence, but I’ll get back to the routine now and improve the diet and exercise time.

    I wished I had brought a guitar, but it was a good time, and very relaxing.

    Day 1 back at work was getting up early and driving home.

    That’s it for my time away, and I’ll summarize a few things in another post. A few thoughts in today’s editorial, but now I’m looking forward to the next sabbatical in about 4 years.

  • DevOps Deja Vu with Oracle

    While I was out on sabbatical, I took a two day break to attend an Oracle conference and speak. The Rocky Mountain Oracle User Group Training Days 2020 was held a week ago a little North of Denver and I was there to speak about DevOps.

    In many ways, this was similar to the talks and discussions I’ve had with SQL Server developers and DBAs across the last seven or eight years. What was different, and fascinating, is that most of the Oracle people were in the place that lots of you SQL Server people were about 3-4 years ago.

    Not that we’re all in the same place, but between the work I’ve done with Redgate and the messages from Microsoft, many SQL Server users get the idea of better development and now are trying to work out the mechanics of implementing things. In the Oracle world it seems that many people are still trying to decide if they should change any development practices and what options are out there.

    It wasn’t just me. I watched 3 other DevOps talks and they all were similar. The message was more on what DevOps can mean and how it changes your work building software. In the MS world, we’re more often focused on the mechanics of specific ways to move to a more DevOps style work environment.

    Redgate is moving to release more tools for Oracle and other platforms, and we’re evolving the way we build these tools to help more groups. I’m looking forward to spending more time with Oracle procs and brushing up a little on my PL/SQL skills.

  • Day 28, Sabbatical Part Deux

    Two days of work in the middle here, which is a nice break from my break. If that makes sense. I left early yesterday to drive up to Westminster for the Rocky Mountain Oracle User Group Training Days. I spoke here a few years ago, bringing some SQL Server knowledge to the event. This time I’m representing Oracle as Redgate expands into that area. I’ve been excited by the work that our Oracle group did in 2019, and I submitted last year to this event, in anticipation of them releasing something.

    They did, and here I am. Yesterday was plowing through a few emails and then practicing the Oracle demo for today. Today was an early talk. I gave a DevOps for Oracle talk, which went well. Other than SQL Developer being much worse in high DPI situations than SSMS, things worked well. I had a few good questions, though overall, it seems that Oracle people (devs + DBAs) are behind the SQL Server world in terms of trying to adopt better practices.

    I also watched the keynote, which was on data analysis in the cloud. It was from someone working at Snowflake and was a good, pragmatic look at the cloud. Again, Oracle people want to stick with Oracle, and there were some questions asking if the Oracle cloud and sticking with Oracle products works well compared to AWS/Azure/GCP. It seems there is this preference to stick with the Big O, but the presenter did a nice job of trying to get them to think about getting things done, and using other tools where appropriate. This has been the message from MS for a few years. Use what works, even if it’s not an MS solution.

    Overall, this made me realize a few things. One is I miss working for Redgate. I really enjoy talking with customers and clients and helping them work through issues to build better software. I’ve been out of that world for a couple months, and I’m ready to go back.

    Two is that I enjoy the technology. Listening to people talk about this stuff is fun and exciting. I see downsides, challenges, security issues, privacy problems, overblown and hyped marketing, but I’m genuinely excited by the possibilities for the future.

    I only spent a half day here before heading to the gym and then coming home. I’m still under the weather, with a dripping nose, so I bailed. Still, a nice break from the sabbatical.

    Now it’s back to volleyball tonight, a little guitar practice, then more cleaning tomorrow.