Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Standard Limitation

    Is 64GB of RAM enough for a SQL Server instance? It was in the past for most servers that I’ve developed software on or administered. These days I know some people have 2TB of RAM in their big database servers, which makes 64GB seem paltry. After all, I’ve had 32GB in a laptop before. However I know most of the SQL Server databases out there, in absolute numbers, are fairly small. In the low GB in size. I’d think 64GB isn’t too much for these.

    The reason that number comes up is that it’s the limitation for SQL Server’s Standard Edition (SE), and apparently, it’s my fault the number is set so low. Not just my fault, but all of you out there that keep buying SQL Server licenses. I’m not sure I agree with Brent’s verbiage, but I do agree with his conclusion. As long as SQL Server sells, and it’s selling well, why wouldn’t Microsoft push people to buy Enterprise Edition and pay more to use larger servers?

    Personally I think we should be charged by the scale of the system we use, rather than this weird, limited feature/scale list that MS has. They could easily say that SQL Server is $2000/core and $500/4GB. They could play with the numbers and come up with something that might be cheaper for some, more expensive for some, but it would allow us to easily buy more capacity and pay more as we needed to add hardware.  That’s how the cloud works, and even how many of our virtualized systems work. Want to move from 4 cores and 16GB of RAM to 16 cores and 64GB of RAM? Flip some switches. Depending on the version of Windows, you might not even need to reboot.

    I know some of you think SQL Server should be $5000 and we put it on any size hardware we like, but that’s certainly not going to happen in today’s world. We tend to value computing resources by scale, and I think that’s a reasonable way to examine software.

    Steve Jones

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    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

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  • Separation of Duty

     In the Vietnam war we found people gathering data that had to support the analysis or decisions of the leaders. That’s a fundamental problem. Arguably this led to the extension of the war, and more lives lost, without more decisive actions being taken.

    We should not have the people or systems designed to collect data that supports a particular position. We want data that is accurate and complete, which can then be used for analysis. We ought to have people gathering data separate, both in terms of hierarchy and process, from the people that analyze and make decisions. We know that keeping them in the same area leads to data that supports what the boss wants, or what the bonus warrants, rather than what the data can show.

    Have you heard of the Franklin Gambit? I was reminded of that recently while reading Obliquity, a book that examines how we pursue goals and achieve success. Franklin’s Gambit says that we often use data and explanations to justify a decision we’ve already reached, rather than actually prove that some choice is the best one. I’m sure most of you feel you don’t live your live this way, but as I’ve thought about some of my decisions, I think this isn’t necessarily true.
    It’s a natural tendency of humans to do justify their actions, regardless of the data, and I suspect many of us suffer from it. I think it also can extend to the data analysis and interpretation that many of us perform at work. We’d like to think that our reports and even data gathering are objective ways to examine a problem, but it can be easy to influence the data, especially in the way that data is gathered if we are not careful.
    We want to separate the data gathering from the analysis. It might not ensure that the data analyzed is as complete and accurate as possible, but it helps prevent one side from influencing the other.

  • Winning

    “From the beginning to the end, losers lose, winners win” – 50 Cent

    It’s not always true, and there are no guarantees, but it is clear that those who put effort into improving themselves, often find more opportunities and the chance to succeed.  The definition of success may vary among all of us, but I would guess that succeeding for most of us has something to do with accomplishing more in some endeavor. Whether that’s getting more work finished, or improving the quality of our craftsmanship, it’s a movement forward. It’s winning.

    “Winners train, losers complain” – Brian Kelley

    I was reminded that not everyone looks at the world as a war, or as a zero sum game. There are lots of people that view the world as an environment where we can each improve, and help each other do better than we might on our own. However we must work on our own. We must take the responsibility to do something, not just talk about it, and not wait passively by as life passes us by. We also can’t just complain about our jobs, about the demands we face, the compensation that’s lacking, or anything else.

    This industry gives us the opportunities to change positions, learn new skills, and grow our compensation faster than many other fields. However it’s up to us to make the effort, stop making excuses, and start getting things done.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
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  • The School Year

    It’s August and for many people in the world that means that school will be starting sometime this month. My children have a little over two weeks left before they begin, with the mourning for the end of summer break already beginning. Some of us that work at a career for a living will also be starting school. People are pursuing advanced degrees, such as a PhD or MBA, while still managing a full time job, with their workload about to increase this fall as well. However most of us aren’t in either of these situations, and we go to work each day, but come home and (hopefully) enjoy the rest of our lives with family, pursuing hobbies, or some other activity.

    However many of us do have some leisure time that we could redirect to another endeavor. Working in technology can be a stressful, time consuming job at times, but it can also be a fairly easy job, physically. Many of us understand our environments and can often complete our jobs in a reasonable number of hours each week. It’s also a job that often compensates us very well. However it’s a field that demands regular skill improvement for success, security, and opportunity.

    With that idea in mind, I wanted to ask you to think about the rest of the coming year. If you aren’t overloaded at work, and you treat the next few months as the beginning of a school term, how would you answer this question?

    What will you learn this semester?

    Learning new skills can make your job easier (Powershell, administrators?). It might bring new opportunities or projects your way (Powerpivot/Powerview/Hadoop). It might even find you a new job, one that suits you better in some way if you blog about what you are learning and build a project. Learning is almost never time wasted, if you have the time in your life. Consider taking on a small project, working your way through a Stairway series or book, or learning some new skill this fall.

    This time of year is busy for me. I have eight more flights and events booked across the next few months, and a few new presentations to develop and practice. However I’m hoping to find a few minutes each day to work my way through a C# book and improve my skills in that area. I haven’t built any front end software in years, apart from simple web interfaces, and I’d like to bone up some skills, which might bring new opportunities, but will also benefit my job where I need to create some content around the Deployment Manager product, in C#, and hopefully well done. No matter how it turns out, I’m sure I’ll have learned something, and probably had some fun.

    Steve Jones

    Video and Audio versions

    Today’s podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

    Follow Steve Jones on Twitter to find links and database related items and announcements.
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