Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

The Redgate Hub

It’s live, but we are having a livestream event to launch this officially to the world. On September 6, 2017, I’ll be in Cambridge at the Redgate office to host a live event.

Register today and join us for one of the two times to watch what’s new at Redgate.

The Redgate Hub is the place we’ll have most of the Product information and knowledge customers need, with the goal of making it easier for you to learn about and use our tools.

I’ll do some writing there, and answer questions when I can, but check out our Livestream and visit the Hub.

August 29, 2017
The World of MySQL

I had two different people ping me on the same day with MySQL questions. One was a former co-worker, asking for some query help, and one was from the Boy Scouts of America, also asking for some query help for a few reports. Strange that both requests came on the same day.

I didn’t have a MySQL install on the latest incarnation of my desktop or laptop. I did pop MySQL Workbench on a laptop last year, playing with Azure deployments, but no server. I deployed a MySQL instance on an Azure VM, but I had trouble connecting. Either the Ubuntu instance didn’t have the MySQL ports open (should have in the template), or I typed the password wrong. Either way, I just decided to delete that resource group (I love resource groups) and download the MariaDB server.

It’s a standard download from Mariadb.org and it’s not too large. In fact, it took longer to download than install. The install was a standard msi installer, and ran in a minute or two.

From there, I started up MySQL Workbench, which I’d downloaded and installed. I entered my user and password, using the default ports for the server.

And things worked, as they should in 2017.

From there, I selected the data import and chose the file I’d been sent. It was (supposedly) a MariaDB dump, but listed as a .sql file. Looking through it, it has SQL and data inserts, so I ran it with the Data Import.

This ran for less than a minute and things were complete.

And sure enough, some MySQL syntax (googled to remember) works.

Now to debug some queries for a friend.

August 28, 2017
Responsible Log Growth with dbatools

I really like the dbatools project. This is a series of PowerShell cmdlets that are built by the community and incredibly useful for migrations between SQL Servers, but also for various administrative actions. I have a short series on these items.

I love dbatools, and I’ve been trying to explore the various cmdlets over time, both to practice my PoSh and see if there are easier ways of accomplishing some tasks.

Recently I was browsing the dbatools.io site to see what’s changed and noticed a new cmdlet, Expand-DbaLogResponsibly and just had to check this one out.

Often I’ve considered proactive space management a part of my DBA responsibilities that is core to a well run system. I don’t look at storage every day, but I usually try to look monthly, with an eye towards keeping about 3 months worth of data growth as a pad in most systems. That’s a general guideline that varies by system.

However, logs can be different. They are sized based on workload and backup schedule, which usually works. However, sometimes there are issues and I want to grow my log quickly. If you’ve read about growing log space (like this piece), you’ll realize that there are a variety of things to consider. And the rules change by version, or even patch level, of SQL Server. A lot to consider.

Fortunately, this cmdlet wraps those things up into a command. Just call it with the server, database, target size, and optionally log FileID. It will capture the rules for growth and take appropriate actions.

NOTE: This does not look at the current number of VLFs. You need to be sure you’ve managed your log file.

If you wonder how this works, or if the rules are appropriate for your system, check out the code at Github. I’m sure you’ll find that this is the easiest way to manage a log file.

August 25, 2017
Back from the DPS 2017

I was honored to visit the Data Platform Summit 2017 and get to speak at the event. Since this was in India, on the other side of the world (12 hours from Denver in time zones), I took an extra week of vacation with my family before the event. India was amazing and we all enjoyed the trip. It’s a culture shock for a US guy that lives in a rural area, but I really enjoyed the experience overall. Traffic, however, was a shock.

The event was fun, and well attended. It was held in a conference center in Bangalore, with quite the entrance for everyone walking in each day.

There was also a large display at the parking lot.

The schedule was interesting for me, with lots of commitments. I tend to speak 2-3 times at most events, but here I had a pre-con + 5 other sessions. Granted, 3 were shorter ones, but still, that’s a lot.

There were normal, 75 minute sessions, which are what most other conferences schedule. However, alongside these were 30 minute sessions, which were held in a number of smaller rooms. Some were open talks, which are lectures. No screen, no computer. Others were chalk-talks, where a whiteboard was available, but again, no slides/computers.

The idea was that we’d just talk about a topic and answer questions from the audience. I wasn’t sure how the Indian attendees would respond. In some countries, people are very quiet and shy. In others, they don’t hesitate to ask questions. That meant I had to prepare an outline, which was similar to other talks. The good thing was no demos. The tough thing is that I need to be able to explain things without the crutches of images and code.

Everything went well, and I am thankful for the opportunity to present. I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to go back, but I certainly would if the stars align.

August 22, 2017