Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

Bringing Database Devops to DevConnections

Another alliteration post. Maybe I’ll make all my titles tongue twisters to test your talents?

This is my new favorite session. I’m slated to deliver this at a few different conferences this fall, and hopefully you’ll come see it in Las Vegas at DevConnections on Oct 10-13.

The talk is called Bringing DevOps to the Database, and this presentation is designed to show how many of the software development processes that we take for granted with .NET, Java, and other front end applications can be applied to the database. I’ll cover how version control, Continuous Integration (CI), and Release Management (RM) can be applied to database changes.

This has been a focus of mine as an evangelist for Redgate Software, and I’ve found a number of ways that you can adopt common, best practice software engineering in the database development process. I’ll show how Redgate makes this easy, but I cover the process in a tool independent way. You’ll learn what needs to happen. How you get that working is up to you, but if help is needed, Redgate can cover that part.

If you’re looking for some training, some inspiration, and are a full-stack developer, or multi-technology IT worker, think about coming out to DevConnections. There are a slew of technologies being covered (VS, ASP.NET, C#7, Azure, PowerShell, AWS, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Exchange, Hyper-V and more).

Register today, use 500SPKR to save $500, and I’ll see you in Las Vegas this October.

September 13, 2016
Bringing DevOps to the Database
Abstract:

DevOps is a hot topic in today’s software development world. However most of the knowledge and experience with DevOps is based around application software and ignores the database. We will examine how the concepts and principles of DevOps can be applied to database development by looking at both automated comparison analysis as well as migration script management. Automated building, testing, and deployment of database changes will be shown.

Level: 200 – Not to technical, but you should have some idea of how software development works to get something out of this talk.

Goals:
1. Conceptually understand how DevOps principles can easily be applied to the database in either state based or migrations based changes.
2. Learn how databases can be automatically built and tested in a CI/CD environment
3. Understand how database releases can be automated, but are different than those deployment/releases made for other software.
Demos:

This presentation has a few demos where I show how I stored database code in a VCS, perform an automated build, and use a scripted release process to move code from one database to the next. The demos are pre-built, so I just show how they work. I can do this with:
- git, VSTS Build and VSTS Release
- git or SVN, Team City, and Octopus Deploy
Downloads:

There are a few versions, as this talk has evolved.

GroupBy – Bringing DevOps to the Database Groupby.pptx

Live!360/VSLive – VSLive-Orlando 2016.pptx

SQL Saturday Cambridge – Bringing DevOps to the Database.pptx
September 12, 2016
Learning All About Always Encrypted at DevConnections

Like the alliteration in the title? I almost removed it, but decided it had a nice ring. Maybe that should be the title of my IT/DevConnections (Oct 10-13, 2016) session other than End to End Always Encrypted in SQL Server 2016.

I loved seeing encryption being natively built into SQL Server 2005 (and beyond), but the addition of Always Encrypted in Azure SQL and SQL Server 2016 really intrigued me. In fact, I think many people were very excited about this feature. In End to End Always Encrypted in SQL Server 2016, I cover the detailed workings and setup of the feature and how it can be included in your applications. There’s a lot to think about with encryption features, and I hope to both inform attendees as well as ensure they have a healthy respect for the limitations.

I’ve given variations of this talk in 2016 and quite a few people have walked away excited, but also re-thinking the “it just works” message from Microsoft’s marketing people.

If you’re looking for some training, some inspiration, and are a full-stack developer, or multi-technology IT worker, think about coming out to DevConnections. There are a slew of technologies being covered (VS, ASP.NET, C#7, Azure, PowerShell, AWS, SQL Server, Sharepoint, Exchange, Hyper-V and more).

Register today, use 500SPKR to save $500, and I’ll see you in Las Vegas this October.

September 6, 2016
Team Purple

This is Down Tools Week at Redgate Software, and I’m visiting the office. I had hoped to dive into a team and participate, but scheduling and other commitments mean that I’m only working with a team part of the time.

We had our first standup yesterday. They tried desperately to clip me out of the picture here.

After some morning setup, we walked down to the atrium and gathered in a group, talking about our plans and the work for the afternoon.

We’re using a kanban board, which will live on the glass wall of our conference room. One of the team is “Doing” work on the “doing” part of the wall, filling in the letters. I don’t see a post-it in the “ToDo” section, so we’re already off track. Hopefully when he gets to “Done”, we’ll get a ticket in that column.

We have a number of people working full time this week on a few items, with support from other teams that we’ll need API help from. The developers are pair programming, in 3 groups, with really three goals for the team. They are thinking to switch a few times so that each group gets to work on each part of our project.

Breaks are frequent since the coffee machine is downstairs.

We have a couple of people helping to coordinate and keep things on track, and luckily we got the conference room with the couches.

I’ve been in and out, helping work on the presentation that we’ll give on Friday. Hopefully we’ll have some real, tangible results to show as well as a talk. So far things look good, with lots of progress on the first integration point with another product.

September 6, 2016