Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Networking at the PASS Summit: First timers

    The PASS Summit is just over a week away, and one again Andy Warren and I are hosting a networking dinner on Monday night. This is a free, informal event to help people get to know each other. Whether you are new to the community or have been to many events, you’re welcome to attend. We are targeting first timers, so if you’ve never been to the Summit, and don’t know what things you can do, if you don’t have other plans, come on by.

    We want to ensure that people are taking advantage of their time at the Summit, while encouraging them to do more than hang out with themselves or friends. Many of us have done that, but there are better things to do, like meet your colleagues.

    Andy and I will greet people and introduce some of you to others. Networking is easy, and this is a chance to meet some new people and make some contacts in the community. We’re providing a time and location, you just have to show up, and of course, pay for your own food and drinks. If you want to buy someone else a round, that’s a great way to make new contacts.

    Register and come if you are in town Monday night. There’s no charge, but we’d like to have an idea of how many of you will come by. It’s a Buffalo Wild Wings in Charlotte, from 6-9. The address is below:

    400 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
    Charlotte, NC 28202

    I don’t know how much I’ll get to talk to most of you, but I’d like to shake your hand and say hi.

  • Common Problems with Backup and Recovery and How to Handle Them

    The basic concepts behind taking a backup are well understood, but people are frequently surprised by the many ways backups can go wrong. First, we’ll explore the most common problems around SQL Server backup and recovery, so that you can spot any issues in your own environment. Then, we’ll talk about how to prevent these issues in the first place. The foundation of disaster recovery is having a verified backup in place, so the knowledge you’ll gain from this session could help to save your business.

    We will look at issues with:

    • file backups
    • disk space
    • backup chain issues
    • full transaction logs
    • off-site storage
    • more

    Slides:

    SQL in the City – Common Backup Problems SitC_sj.pptx

     

  • Best Practices for Database Deployment

    The easiest part of any deployment is running the deployment script on production. But what have you done to prepare that script for production? Was the script tested? Is the script tightly coupled with the application code?

    The difference between a successful deployment and a failed or problematic deployment is all the preparation work you’ve done to ensure that you’re deploying the right script, the right way to your production environment. This session will explore best practices that you can implement to ensure that your deployments are as successful as they can be.

    Slides:

  • Automated Build and Test

    Continuous Integration (CI) is a well known process in the software development world, but it’s not often implemented with databases. This is despite the fact that database code could benefit from the practice of checking the changes on a regular basis for potential issues. This talk will show how to implement continuous integration for databases and include more realistic testing of the code for potential issues.

    We will set up CI for a SQL Server database project, using the following tools:

    • Team City (CI Server)
    • Subversion (VCS)
    • SQL Automation Pack (database -> CI integration)
    • tSQLt  testing framework
    • SQL Data Generator

    Slides