Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • 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.

  • Bringing the Redgate Seminar to Brisbane

    We’ve been on a Redgate tour this year, running lots of events to interest, educate, and inspire customers. We know that there are challenges in building and operating database software, and our goals are to help you get better.

    I’m heading to Australia in a few weeks. Hopefully on a slightly larger plane (and inside).

    AUS02694

    The Redgate Seminar is in Brisbane on May 2. It’s an all day event where we’ll talk about how Redgate can help you solve your database management challenges, as well as bring DevOps to the database.

    We’ll open the day with a keynote on the state of the database landscape, looking at some of the things we’ve learned from research (our own and industry pieces) as well as from customers. The world of databases is on a journey and I’ll talk through some of that.

    The rest of the day has a number of sessions on products as well as panels where you can hear from not only me, but also industry experts that will join us. We’re also partnering with Octopus Deploy, and you’ll hear from their engineers as well a few of ours.

    If you can get to Brisbane, come join me. Register today and  I promise you a day of fun at the Pacific Hotel in Spring Hill. Redgate Software is a great host at events, and this is a chance to enjoy our hospitality.