Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Familiar Sights

    Yesterday was a long day in London. I arrived late in the am, and as I was walking from the plane to the border check, I went down the escalator on the entering-the-country side of the terminal. I had this view:

    20240415_121436

    There’s nothing special here, but through the glass there are the outbound escalators that I’ve taken up and a Caffe Nero coffee shop. That’s a place I used to stop often on my way out of the UK early in my time at Redgate.

    I used to always stay at a hotel near the airport, first the Renaissance Hotel with Brad McGehee and later at the Hilton or DoubleTree with Grant. I’d often have an early flight, which meant getting up and trying to catch the Hoppa bus or get a cab. The hotels usually didn’t have breakfast ready then, so I’d stress over the transport, which could be funny, get to the airport and through security and then stop here for a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant.

    Hectic, but very impressionable trips on me. So many memories of sitting near a gate, eating and looking forward to coming home. I didn’t travel much those early days outside of a few UK trips, and it was a relief to be going home.

    The last 5-6 years, with a direct flight to Denver and more airline status, I get a late flight, enjoy the lounge, and skip Nero, but I always reflect on my memories there as I think of the early days, paying with coins or bills, or swiping my American credit card and having to sign, something so few European travelers did.

    Hotel Confusion

    I spent the night in the Hilton at T4, which is one of two hotels I use now. There is a Garden Inn at T2 as well, which I often pick when leaving since I can walk to the terminal. Yesterday, arriving tired in the morning, I was on autopilot and walked to the Garden Inn. They said they didn’t have a reservation for me.

    Doh! I hadn’t even checked, assuming I was there, but when I looked in the app, I realized I was at the T4 Hilton, which is a nicer hotel, just a bit of a trek. I walked back, found a train and was at the Hilton 30-45 minutes later. Not a long time, but also not quick for a tired traveler.

    A nap, some work, and a workout made me feel more human, but still a long day. Plus I had a 730p call in Denver, which was 230a in London. It’s been a long 24 hours.

    However, I had a quiet dinner in the hotel and snapped this picture after.

    20240415_220258

    This large atrium has a lot of memories for me. I’ve been here often, including quite a few times with my wife. We’ve eaten in this spot, grabbing dinner after a trip in the EU somewhere, having a quiet night before a morning flight. While this hotel is a walk and train to T2, in the morning, it’s an early morning and stressful, so an early night here is often on our agenda.

    This hotel also has a special place in my mind as the gym is on the ground level (this is the first floor), but it’s on the side of the hotel with no windows. It’s a dark, quiet spot, and it’s where I once got up at 430a to run.

    I had a long running streak (day 1000 here) where I ran at least a mile every day. I did this for 1564 days, over 4 years. During that time I had a few trips to the UK and back, with the return trips back being hard. Depending on weather and equipment, I’ve had 20+ hour trips. Most of the time I’d get home and manage a jog at home, though one time at 1130p at night. Rather than chance things, I got up one time in this hotel, the only person on a treadmill at 435a trying to get a mile done before heading to the airport.

    That sticks with me.

  • Starting a Wild Stretch of Travel

    Today starts a wild stretch of travel for me. I land in London today, having left the US after coaching the final volleyball tournament of the season yesterday. I’ll spend the week in London for the Redgate Summit, with a quick trip to the office for a day to see some colleagues. I return home Friday and then leave Monday for Australia.

    That doesn’t sound too crazy, but I’ll be back in London the first week of June and on the road most of the time until then. My schedule:

    • Apr 15-19 – London
    • Apr 19-22 – Denver
    • Apr 22-May 10 – Australia
    • May 10-May 13 – Denver
    • May 14-20 – New York
    • May 20-28 – Denver
    • May 28-30 – Chicago
    • May 30-Jun 1 – Denver
    • Jun 1 – June 15 – UK and EU

    Then I’m home. At least I think I’m home for a few weeks. Nothing planned yet, but things might change.

    It’s not all work. My wife and I will take about 8 days to of holiday in AUS, and another 6 in the EU. The NY trip is to see my daughter graduate college.

    Overall, it’s a wild time, it will be hard, but also very exciting.

    My plan is to rest regularly and work out regularly, likely with walking and biking so I’m not overloading myself, but not sitting still either. I’ll be looking to drink water and eat lots of salads and proteins as well, trying to limit the carbs, though I’m sure I’ll indulge a few times. I’m also packing lots of vitamins to try and keep myself healthy through this stretch.

    Hopefully I don’t drop any balls along the way.

    BTW, think this thing will get from Denver to the UK?

  • A New Word: the Wends

    the wends– n. the frustration that you’re not enjoying an experience as much as you should, which prompts you to try plugging in various through combinations to trigger anything more intense than roaring static, as if your heart had been inadvertently demagnetized by a surge of expectations.

    That is quite a definition. I don’t know if I experience the wends often, or not to that extent, but I do sometimes look at an experience that everyone around me seems to be enjoying. Or many people I know are enjoying.

    And I’m not. Or not much.

    Sometimes this is music, where lots of people like something I don’t. Maybe it’s a place or experience.

    Maybe it’s me.

    I try to step back and think about what other people see, or why they like it. Maybe that is the wends.

    From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

  • Manually Updating Redgate Monitor/SQL Monitor Patch Info

    This post looks at updating the patch information for SQL Monitor/Redgate Monitor without using the automated process. I have other posts on SQL Monitor as well.

    I heard from a customer recently that saw on their SQL Monitor (soon to be Redgate Monitor) Estate screen that the latest patch for SQL Server 2019 was CU24. I knew that was wrong because I’d updated my build list with CU25. On monitor.red-gate.com we show the same thing.

    2024-03-25 13_28_12-Installed versions — Mozilla Firefox

    I suspected that their web server wasn’t updating for some reason, which is possible. We have plenty of customers that wall off their SQL Monitor install from the public Internet, and they have to manually update the system.

    Getting the data

    We store this info in a JSON file that the web server downloads, but you can download it yourself at: https://assets.red-gate.com/products/dba/sql-monitor/assets/files/SqlServerVersions.json?_ga=2.168000097.1575041045.1711384591-1774306502.1648754310

    If you look at the file, you see that there are versions, levels, etc., and in the SQL 2019 area, there is a CU25.

    Once you have this, you drop this on your SQL Monitor web server. The location is: C:\ProgramData\Red Gate\SQL Monitor\SqlServerVersions.json. You can replace the contents of that file with this one.

    SQL Monitor will re-read the file within 6 hours, or if you restart the server, it will re-read the file.

    That’s it. If your system doesn’t have internet access, you can still get up to date info. FWIW, this is documented at the bottom of this page: https://documentation.red-gate.com/sm13/sql-server-versioning-and-patching-195789945.html

    SQL Monitor is a top-notch system for monitoring your SQL Server and PostgreSQL estates. Oracle and MySQL coming soon. If you haven’t tried it, download an eval and give it a go or play with the demo system at monitor.red-gate.com.