Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The 10X Programmer

    Is there such a thing as a 10x programmer? It’s an interesting idea, and one that is discussed from a few perspectives in this Q&A. There’s some talk about how to define “x” as well as the idea that the environment and project might make a big difference in productivity. Certainly the baseline of the staff measured makes a difference. If most of your programmers aren’t very productive, then a more talented developer might easily outperform the average by a factor of 10. Depending on how you measure productivity.

    I wonder, though, is there a 10x DBA or database developer? What would that look like? If we examined the effectiveness of a DBA managing systems, I have seen DBAs that managed 10x the absolute number of databases and instances. Working inefficiently, connecting the individual systems to apply updates or check statuses could easily make you ten times less efficient then the DBA making use of scripting and the ability to apply changes across many systems, not to mention managing them for issues.

    In terms of database development, if we have some programmers that can produce code using 10x less resources than others, I’d consider that a 10x programmer. Given the state of questions I see asked on SQLServerCentral and other sites, it definitely seems that there are plenty of developers being paid to produce poorly written T-SQL code. We don’t have great definitions of how we can measure productivity, but there is plenty of code posted that can be dramatically optimized. It’s the rare week that I don’t see someone noting they’ve reduced the runtime of some code from hours to minutes. Isn’t that 10x more productive?

    Ultimately one of the amazing things about software is that we aren’t bound to a particular structure once it’s created and used. We can quickly, and easily, change the way the code is built so that it works differently, does more, runs efficiently, or really anything we want. Of course, testing that the code produces the desired effects and deploying that to different environments in a way that minimally impacts clients is a challenge, but a challenge many in our industry work on constantly, seeking improvement.

    I think there are definitely 10x programmers, but that really depends on your situation and how you utilize the people working for you.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio.

  • Why We Need Backups First

    One of the things I show when I talk about TDE is that the backup of the certificate is very important. When you create a certificate, SQL Server warns you right away that a backup of the certificate is needed. Following Murphy’s Law, if you continue on with enabling TDE, right after the encryption is completed, your master database will become corrupt and you won’t be able to get to your data. It just takes a few seconds, so back up your certificates.
    I was reminded of this while reading a short piece on some police body camera footage being lost. I don’t want to focus on the police actions or cameras or anything but this statement: ” A backup system had been purchased but hadn’t been set up. “
    That’s a fairly egregious breach of duty for some IT personnel in this case. The system was installed in 2009, and this event apparently occurred during a software upgrade in 2012. While I understand a backup system might not get configured immediately, I think 3 years stretches the limit of an acceptable delay. However, even if the backup system were not in place at the time of the software upgrade, wouldn’t a backup before upgrade be required? Isn’t that a standard practice?
    There have been other reports of similar issues, which is disconcerting. It appears the use of technology for archival of data isn’t well developed, or properly understood by the IT staff in charge of the process. Of course, this happens in plenty of enterprises and other organizations where IT staff seem to think that backups are important in and of themselves. In case you’re confused, they are not. Restores are the important things to have, which means you must verify your backup process allows the data to be retrieved.
    Many of us have scripted methods that practice this regularly, refreshing other environments, restoring databases for DBCC, or some other task. Few of us actually practice this ourselves across all databases on a regular basis, ensuring our skills for tail log backups, NORECOVERY and STANDBY restores are fresh and ready for emergencies. However, we should not take this task lightly. It is important that we are able to recover data in almost all situations.
    If we can’t do that, then we are truly disregarding our duty as the custodians of data.
    Steve Jones

  • The Danger of xp_cmdshell

    Securing a computer is a challenge. There are all sorts of potential issues in every platform, and ensuring safety for your data can be less a reflection of your ability and more the good fortune there isn’t a focused effort to attack your systems. However, we certainly also face issues with inside users, many of which may make mistakes that are accidental more than malicious. It’s for these reasons that we look for secure by default applications and a reduced surface area for any system.

    Many people refuse to turn on xp_cmdshell as an option for scripting in SQL Server. This is disabled by default, and quite a few DBAs are glad of this setting. However, there are plenty of people that think xp_cmdshell isn’t a big security risk. There are certainly ways to mitigate the usage by non-privileged users, and this can be a tool that is very handy for accomplishing work without a lot of development time.

    This week, as security issues become more important to us all, I’m curious how you feel.

    Do you think xp_cmdshell is dangerous?

    I have to admit that I’m torn. I don’t think this inherently dangerous. It does open up some attack vectors, but the last few versions of SQL Server have allowed some limitations, so I would enable this if needed to solve some issues without too many concerns. However, I wonder if many of you feel the same way.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio .

  • Data Science Education

    One of the good skills to have for a data professional is how to analyze data. Most of us could learn more about data science and data analysis for some aspect of our jobs. We are data professionals, so we should understand how to analyze data. I’d expect that a competent data professional would be able to put together a report on some set of data that means something to an end user. If we administer systems, then analyzing usage (index, space, etc) is a skill we need. If we write code, sooner or later we’re going to write some report for a client. Either way, we need to perform some sort of analysis.

    How can you learn more? There are lots of resources available. I thought it was interesting that Microsoft has teamed up with edX for their own data science degree. While there are mixed feelings on this, I think edX has a good platform and strong partnerships for teaching. There are other places, such as Coursera, that are doing the same thing, offering a variety of courses online.

    In fact, it appears that quite a few educational institutions and businesses are starting to increase their data science related offerings. There’s a good summary of some of the options in a piece from Dataversity. In response to all the demand, or at least perceived demand, there is everything from a boot camp getting you up to speed on some quick analytic techniques and tools to full degree programs. Some programs have different levels, depending on the amount of statistical knowledge you have.

    Learning something about statistics is probably the best way for most people that would like to get started. I’ve seen quite a few people start learning by reviewing some statistics techniques. From Buck to Mala, putting your own learning down in a blog will force you to ensure that you actually understand the principles. As for getting started, there are lots of great books you can buy, or read information online. One note, be careful and double check the information written on random blogs. Or check out places like the Khan Academy.

    In some sense this reminds me to the rush to get a CNE in the early 90s, or the many boot camps that appeared to help people a MCSE certification in the mid to late 90s. Lots of people passed the tests, but weren’t very qualified, which has contributed to the general distrust of certifications today. I hope that doesn’t happen too much today, though I’m sure it will to some extent. The chance to make more money, or just find a job, will drive lots of people to look for quick wins.

    While I’m sure some of you will get better jobs, perhaps making a lot of money with minimal data science experience, I hope many of you continue to learn and improve your skills in the data analysis area over time, whether you are paid to be a data scientist or not.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.5MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio .