Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Performance Data

    monitoring in the cloud
    Are you worried about security for your performance metrics?

    A good DBA is monitoring their system, looking for problems on a regular basis. The best DBAs are pro-actively heading off future issues by tuning or adding resources to their systems before a problem surfaces. It seems, however, that it’s the rare DBA that is really on top of their environment all the time, examining performance metrics to look for indications of any abnormality. I guess the best DBAs have routines that look for deviations from baselines, alerting them of potential issues.

    SQL Server has grown over the years to add new features that make the administrator’s job easier. The addition of SQL Agent and its alerting capabilities have helped for a long time, and in recent versions we’ve gotten eventing as well as the development of tools like the Policy Based Management (PBM) framework to allow the instance to do work for the administrator.

    More recently we’ve seen Project Atlanta at Microsoft became the System Center Advisor. This is service that uploads metrics from your instances for evaluation by specialists, and presumably some expert systems, at Microsoft. I don’t know how well it works or how effective people feel it is, but it’s an interesting idea. Ignoring the effectiveness of the service for now, I’m wondering about something related this Friday.

    Do you feel your performance metrics need to be secured?

    I’m wondering how you would classify the data from System Monitor, from alerts, events, PBM, and more. Does it require a high level of security for your organization? Are you concerned about contracting with someone to analyze the data and report back to you about things that might improve performance? Many people contract with consultants like SQLskills for Health Checks, but that’s at an individual level.

    Let me know this Friday how you feel.

    Steve Jones

    If you’re interested in trying out a hosted monitoring service, sign up for updates on the new SQL Monitor SaaS Edition.

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Leaving Some Headroom

    Max Headroom
    You want to leave some headroom on your server, though perhaps not this kind of headroom.

    I was reading this piece on scaling Dropbox and something caught my eye. It’s a very interesting read, especially if you deal with scaling, and I’d encourage everyone that works with technology to read it. The one thing that really caught my eye, however, was the idea of running with extra load. In the piece, the author notes that they had a process running on their systems that consumed memory and CPU. If they ever reached their limit on the systems, they could stop the process, giving them a little more horsepower for the application.

    That’s interesting. It’s a take on similar techniques that we used on our SQL Servers in the past. We could keep a few 1GB files (in the days of 50GB disks) on each logical drive. If the drive somehow filled up, we could delete the file, giving us a little more space.

    Steve, that’s silly. You’d still need the same amount of space, so why does this help? It helps because it buys you time. If a process fills your log file, which fills the disk, the database stops. If you kill the process, and then delete the file, you’ve got space to clear your log, and keep your system running while you find out what went wrong. That’s the idea of artificial headroom. It allows you more time to respond in a crisis.

    I’m not sure how I’d want this to work on my SQL Servers. After all, any load I placed on them wouldn’t necessarily just occupy CPU. It would also impact the buffer pool, as the type of process I chose would influence what would stay (or go) in that bit of memory. However the idea of limiting my system slightly, maybe 5%, in a growth situation is interesting.

    At the very least it might appease my users while I get a purchase order for more resources approved.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • A Really Good Job

    Kilt Day
    We have the best jobs in the world, but you can find a really good job if you work at it.

    I write a decent amount about career topics. In the discussions for these pieces, all too often I see comments from people that they aren’t happy with their job. They have a bad boss (which is really bad), or they aren’t challenged. They have long hours, low pay, or both. It’s sad, but I know how they feel. I’ve had some bad jobs in my life, jobs that I was forced to keep doing until I could find another one.

    I do try to get people to think about looking for other jobs, and I think there are great ones out there. I’m not the only one. Brent Ozar had a post on how you might find your first good job, that of an evangelist. It’s good advice, and I like the analogies he uses, but the key takeaway from his post is the people that get really good jobs work for them.

    They don’t study SQL Server to be the best MCM in the world. They don’t work 100 hours a week at their current job to impress future bosses. They take charge of their lives. They make a plan, perhaps a Dan Plan, and they set goals and work towards them. They make methodical progress over time. My wife and I made a plan for her, and it took years to get to the point where she could quit, but we got there, and she’s happier than she’s ever been.

    You don’t have to want to be an evangelist like Grant Fritchey or myself. You don’t have to want to even become an expert in your field. But whatever you want to do, it’s up to you to get there. Whatever a “good” job is for you, I’d urge you to set your sights on making that a reality.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Leveling the Field

    Level Playing Field
    Cloud computing can level the field between large and small businesses

    I like small companies. If I had my choice, I’d prefer to work in a small company rather than a large one. I get to know more people, there’s less friction to getting things done, people can make decisions, and I get to do more cool stuff. My budget is smaller, but creativity is often encouraged when solving problems. As I read about some of the cool stuff that startups are doing, it reminds me of a few places I’ve worked.

    One of the challenges with small companies and their software has always been cost. A lot of companies look to Open Source products to cut down on their investments for this reason. However if there weren’t such a high price to the software, I think many companies would go with the “brands” of software that many of us work with every day.

    I remember working for a small company and being in charge of rewriting their inventory and sales system. As we were preparing to program the system, an SAP sales rep called our company and made a pitch to the owner. He was impressed and we spent a few weeks looking at SAP. We knew we couldn’t afford the full SAP software, much less purchasing the multiple servers it would take to run it, but SAP had just released a cut-down version of their software, running on one server, for small businesses. We didn’t buy it then, and I’m glad because we had a unique business model that really benefited from custom programming.

    These days all sorts of companies are looking to get started in new areas, or trying new ideas. Many of them don’t necessarily want to make large IT investments. It’s not only hardware and software, but also the IT expertise to manage the systems. If I were starting a business, or even working with a small business as a developer, I’d seriously consider cloud services. The breadth of offerings and features, the low investment cost, and lack of administration needed really level the playing field between what a small company and a large one can do with technology.

    There are opportunities here. If you’re looking to work with a small business, or start one of your own, look at cloud offerings. You might be surprised what you can get for very little initial investment.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.