Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Have You Designed a Database from Scratch?

    One of the things that I try to regularly promote is the #SQLNewBlogger project from Ed Leighton-Dick (and #SQLNewBlogger hashtag on Twitter). In keep a column open scanning for the tag and try to respond to those that post. I also write a series of posts under that tag, mainly beginner type posts, that showcase things I think are good, basic topics that I’d want a DBA or developer to know about SQL Server. These are exactly the types of posts that you write for your next resume (or next hiring manager).

    I saw recently someone begin their blogging journey with a new post about designing a database. What struck me was this person with a lot of experience noted they had never designed a database from scratch. I’m sure that most of you have worked with a database, and have even modified various objects inside of a schema. Certainly you’ve changed the code of stored procedures or functions. I’m even sure many of you have modified tables, adding columns where you need them. After all, that’s a favorite first technique for many people that need a place to store data.

    Probably the majority of you have built tables, at least temporary tables. I’m sure you spent a few minutes thinking about the columns, datatypes, etc. I’d also hope that most of you have added indexes and constraints to tables. Those are certainly skills that more people should better understand, especially the developers that work on software powered  by SQL Server. Above all, please learn how to index OLTP tables.

    However, have you designed a database from scratch? Not a standalone database, but a database the actually has an API or application built against it. Have you tried to use the database and found places where your modeling was lacking? Did others complain about your design?

    I know that lots of school coursework requires people to design parts of a database, but what about a full, complete database. One that fulfills the requirements to actually manage a set of data well? I’ve done a few, though admittedly, with input and help from other DBAs and developers. I am better for that, and I think that a good design requires some interaction and input from others.

    With that in mind, whether you’ve built one or now, what about tackling this as a project for your own blog? Certainly there are some good problem sets out there, but I’d actually give you a new one if you’d like. The SQL Saturday site for PASS has a database behind it. How would you design a database, given the requirements that you need to support that site, and actually generate out the XML feed for the Guidebook app? Maybe that would be a fun, multi-part series that looks at your decisions for the various entities required. You’d learn something and get lots of feedback.

    If you’re like to publish a series here at SQLServerCentral, let us know. We’d love to have some design series on databases that back applications, especially if you have a side project with an application.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Why Use R Services?

    I ran across a blog post from the very talented Joe Sack recenty, who I hope makes a few more minutes for me the next time we’re in the same town together ;).

    The post is a look at some of the customers that are using R Services in SQL Server 2016. As you might expect, there are highlights from customers that show dramatic improvement in performance. Going from 200 valuations/hour to 12,000/minute and taking a process from 2 days to 1 hour. I’m sure not all operations improved that much, but I bet most had some improvement. R Services is a big improvement in the way data is analyzed with the R language.

    What I really like, however, is that the piece includes some of the gotchas customers experienced, with links on how one might go about fixing the issues. There are also hints on visualizations and performance tuning options. I like looks at technology that include some details on those items that work well or don’t work well. This is a good overview that I hope gets more customers interested in using R services.

    But, I hope that we see deeper pieces that can give technical guidance on specific scenarios. Which models scale well and which don’t? Which options in some analysis improved (or hurt) performance? There are plenty of items which are best answered with specific examples, rather than general advice. With all the customers and data Microsoft gathers, especially for companies that might use R Services in azure, I’d expect that we could get some useful, detailed examples on how this (and other) technologies actually work in the real world. I’d like to see this guidance, not just with R Services, but with other technologies as well. Certainly providing some sample data sets and code that performs well really (or tuning options), is what most of us want to see.

    Of course, I’d like to see more of these stories and details at SQLServerCentral as well, so if you are solving problems and want to publish something, drop us a note. We’d love articles from the real world, whether on SQL Server 2016, or any prior version. The more reference problems and solutions we have, the more people learn to code better.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.1MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • A Beautiful Google Mind

    I read a quote a few years ago that really resonated with me. The quote is attributed to Jeffrey Hammerbacher, an early Facebook employee that left to found Cloudera, a data analytics company. The quote went like this:

    “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.”

    That actually dovetailed with something I’d heard in the mid 2000s, when someone lamented that the best technical minds in computer science weren’t working to further our industry or even just produce amazing software. Many of them had left industries to work inside financial institutions, manipulating our stock markets and money systems to make millions.

    I can’t blame anyone for choosing to engage in a business that will reward them. That’s the beauty of capitalism. I think you can go too far, but I’d hope that most people, while pursuing their success, would look beyond just money. At least at some point. I would like to believe that most of us find there to be things at least as, if not more so, important than money.

    Larry Page founded Google, and is one of the richest people in the world. I ran across an article on his beautiful mind, which looks at the ways in which Mr. Page is trying to change the world. Perhaps he has an eye on profit, but my impression is that he also wants to make life better for more and more people around the globe. His focus happens to be ways technology might help us, and I’m hoping he succeeds. Much like I admire Bill and Melinda Gates are trying to improve health around the world. Those aren’t my passions, but I’m glad someone is driven by them.

    Many of us aren’t financially secure for life or able to fund whatever endeavor comes to mind. However, we can make a difference in the world. We can be examples that show there is something beyond making money at work. We can also volunteer or donate some of our time to help others. We can all be a Larry Page in some way, impacting the world in a small way to make it better for everyone.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Updates During Outages

    Slack went down on June 10, 2016. I noticed, which is funny, since I don’t necessarily use the tool every day. I tend to still communicate with email, but more and more people like using Slack at Redgate, so I do pop over there. It’s also a good way to drop a quick note and perhaps get a quick reply. In this case I’d asked a group to do something and hadn’t heard back. Since my request didn’t generate a ticket, I didn’t want to send another email, which could result in more delays if someone isn’t processing email. However, that’s not important.

    What was interesting is my Slack web page didn’t connect, and when I pinged @slackhq on Twitter, they directed me to status.slack.com. That’s where they post updates. That site was also down, which somewhat defeats the purpose of having a separate location for updates.

    I’ve experienced this a few times, where someone (sometimes me) has built an update or notification mechanism that is dependent in some way on the actual service we’re updating. Often this has been because the same http server is being used, but sometimes it’s the same database instance is used to allow non-technical people to post updates. In all those cases, at some point the update mechanism has broken.

    I’ve learned to actually separate my update broadcast mechanism from the production server. We’ve done this in a few ways. I’ve had includes of a simple text file in Web applications in addition to a static page that can be served from a web server. I’ve learned to use a separate physical host that can be moved to the proper IP address in the event that our firewall or load balancers don’t work. They key, I’ve learned, is separation. Have a separate resource that can manage a simple message back to users. Perhaps even a small database that can respond to queries with a “we’re down” reply.

    Downtime is never good for users, and rarely are people pleased with being unable to access their system, but good communication goes a long way to soothing the hurt feelings. Most of us accept that systems go down and problems occur. What we’d like is a short note (and updates) that let us know something is being done.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.2MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn. feed