Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

New Video Cards

When I want to upgrade hardware, I usually turn to Glenn Berry for advice. He’s the person I know that really watches, examines, and evaluates computer hardware. He gives good advice and upgrades often, so he actually uses the latest hardware.

One of the upsides of his hobby is that he is regularly replacing hardware. That means he regularly has older hardware. A few times I’ve asked for advice, I’ve actually ended up buying the previous generation from Glenn because he’s already upgraded. That works out well for me, since I don’t look to be on the latest and greatest.

Recently we had lunch and Glenn offered me his old Radeon R9 video card. It was ranked quite a bit higher than the GeForce GT 740 I bought last year. I didn’t need a replacement, but the price was right, and maybe I’d impress my kid a bit with the upgrade.

I went to lunch, and got a nice, geeky gift bag.

Inside was not one, but two video cards. Apparently Glenn’s MicroCenter Outlet was having a special.

The cards are on my desk as I need to some time to open up my case, replace cards, and then ensure everything comes back up correctly. I’ll need drivers, and no pressure to complete things quickly.

Hopefully I won’t need a new power supply, though I am tempted to get another monitor with all this horsepower and give Twitter and Spotify their own displays.

January 13, 2017
Do I have a Database Master Key in a database? #SQLNewBlogger

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

How can I tell if I have a Database Master Key in a database? It’s actually easy. I query the sys.symmetric_keys DMV for data. If I get a result that has a name of ##MS_DatabaseMasterKey##, then I have a database master key.

You can see this below. I’ve queried this DMV in my Sandbox database.

Now, what if I go to another database, say the Finances database. I see nothing.

Let’s add a master key here and then query. Note, I am not disclosing the real password here. Never do this, even in test systems.

This instance has been used with TDE, so if I go to master, I’ll get this:

You can see that I not only have a DMK, I have a Service Master Key (SMK), which protects the instance.

When I create my DMK, the only parameter I can provide is a password, after the optional “ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD” keywords. I don’t name it, so I can count on the naming being fairly consistent. I don’t think that the name would change from version to version, but it could.

I’d prefer that MS not create magic numbers or names, and instead, add a column to the DMV that denotes this is a DMK.

References

sys.symmetric_keys – https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189446.aspx

CREATE MASTER KEY – https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174382.aspx

Connect Item to add a flag – https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/3118588

January 13, 2017
Installing the SQL Clone Agent and the VC++ Runtime

I was trying to get SQL Clone working recently and had an issue with the Agent. If you haven’t looked at SQL Clone, it’s a really cool product from Redgate that’s in beta right now. It will help you build and provision those large dev, test, customer service, etc. environments with full size copies of data without using the space (or time) for the actual files.

In any case, when I downloaded the agent and ran the installer, I saw this:

That struck me as funny because I have all sorts of VC++ runtimes on my machine. In fact, in debugging, I saw all these:

After the download completed, I got an error.

This was strange, since I actually had a 14.3 version, but apparently SQL Clone doesn’t realize this is the case. This should be fixed soon, but for now, here’s what to do.

First, run regedt32.exe. The setup program is checking for an installation in a key. I had the keys in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC\Runtimes\x64, but not in the Wow6432 node.

Browse to HKLM\Software\Wow6432\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC. Here’s what I had:

Here’s my x64 folder structure:

In here I have the sub-keys and the “Installed” value.

Since I know I have a later VC++ runtime, I did this. First, create the “Runtimes” key under VC, then add a “x64” key below that. Inside of x64, add an Installed value as a Reg_DWord with a value of 1. You should see this:

Now run the SQL Clone Agent installer:

Everything works.

If you’d like to learn more about SQL Clone, check out this short video:

January 13, 2017
Vote for @SQLBits Sessions (pick me, pick me)

The SQL Bits sessions are out and it’s time to vote for me. Well, vote for the sessions you’d like to see, but certainly include me in the list. I’ve got a few new ones, and a few that have been popular at other conferences. I am hoping to return to Telford, find a new costume for the party, and have a great week of SQL Server debates, discussions, and inspiration. Last time I did visit IronBirdge. This time, perhaps the birthplace of the modern Olympics and a little running.

You can view the complete list of sessions and then vote for up to 10. There are some great ones, and honestly, it’s going to be hard to choose 10. I really appreciate how many people have submitted and the work they’ve put into crafting some really exciting presentations.

I’ve written it before, but SQL Bits is really my favorite conference. It’s large, but not too large. There are lots of people and it’s exciting, but it’s also not too crowded, nor is it a security cumbersome event. Spouses are welcome, even kids, and it’s got a casual atmosphere at night and highly charged with learning and talking SQL all day.

My hope is that I get to go again, and I get to see lots of you there this spring.

January 12, 2017