Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Need for New Technology

    Do we need specialized technology for the large scale analysis of data? I read a report (registration required) that talks about the need for specialized technologies to handle the needs and requirements of complex data analysis. As often is the case, this report is written by someone that isn’t very technical, and is likely using information put out by the companies who are building these specialized technologies. However that doesn’t change the fact that the premise if valid.

    Just recently the Parallel Data Warehouse edition of SQL Server was released, providing a specialized, and extremely powerful platform for large scale data warehouses. The release of Powerpivot as well as all the BI enhancements added to SQL Server 2008 R2 mean that you have a diverse platform that isn’t just built as a “transaction stack” processor.

    As technical people should we care if about articles like this? Absolutely we should, since these articles often influence executives who are the ones that might end up signing a purchase order for some other technology.  If management is going to be spending more of the technology budget in your  area, don’t you want to try and influence them to spend the money wisely? That means you ought to understand what is being written and be able to intelligently talk about the choices.

    SQL Server isn’t necessarily the best solution for all environments, and it’s not necessarily even the platform on which you want to build your BI system. However SQL Server has an amazing array of capabilities, and it is a product you should consider.

    Steve Jones

  • Changing Jobs

    I interact with a lot of people about their jobs, both online and at various events like SQL Saturdays. With my Modern Resume presentation, I attract a lot of people that are interested in finding a new job, or sometimes just finding any job. Apparently these are not an out of the ordinary group of people. According to a ComputerWorld survey, over one third of respondents are looking to find a new job.

    The last few years have been a hard economy for many people, and for many companies. Raises have been small or non-existent, layoffs have occurred, and it seems that IT workers must do more and more with less resources all the time. Those are not necessarily conditions that make for happy workers.

    But is it time for a job change for you? Only you can really answer that question for yourself, but I would urge you to open a dialog inside your company if the answer is “yes.” Either with your immediate boss, or perhaps with another department, and look for some way to make your job better. Find new duties, rotate into some other area, or tackle a project of interest to you. There are some very difficult managers out there, but most of them would rather retain you if they can. Finding new employees is a pain.

    More money doesn’t usually help you enjoy your job more. I’ve rarely had any friends think that they made a good decision when they took a job primarily because it paid more. Instead the people that are most happy are those that picked the job that best fit them, without worrying about the money. I’m certainly one of those; I took a pay cut to get this job years ago.

    Life is short. Don’t stay in, or take, a crappy job if you can avoid it.

    Steve Jones

  • Help with Performance

    One of the things that so many people working with SQL Server struggle to do is identify what is happening on their servers. Despite all the DMVs, DMFs, and other tools available, I regularly see questions posted about the trouble people have with digging into SQL Server and finding out what is wrong. There is so much information available that often people are not sure where to start looking.

    In the past few weeks I noticed two great posts that should help you to better understand what is happening on your SQL Server. One is about the release of “Who Is Active v 10” from Adam Machanic, which is a great tool. The other is a series of queries from Glenn Berry that give you a lot of diagnostic information about your instance.  Both of these are tools that you should add to your toolbox and learn to use.

    In addition to having tools to dig into what might be going on right now in your instance, monitoring your server instances is also critical for being able to determine what kinds of problems you have. After all, if you don’t know what’s normal, how can you tell what’s not normal? Many of the consultants I know have to spend hours at new clients getting a feel for the environment because they’re not familiar with it. You have no such excuse for your own servers.

    The sign of a good DBA is having monitoring in addition to knowing how to troubleshoot performance issues. A great DBA will also use this information to look ahead and anticipate problems.

    Steve Jones

    If you don’t want to build your own system, be sure to take a look at SQL Monitor, a new tool from my employer, Red Gate Software. It can help you keep track of multiple servers and provide you the history and reporting to understand what is “normal” for your instances.

  • Do You Talk Salary in the Interview?

    This is a reprinted editorial from August 2, 2005. It is being republished as Steve is on vacation.

    A friend recently interviewed someone in his company for another position. The internal candidate knows the salary ranges and the position in relation to their current spot. There was a screening by HR and an interview and then a follow up from HR with the candidate. During the follow up, the candidate told HR that the salary wasn’t high enough and that they weren’t interested unless the position could be moved.

    Suffice it to say that my friend was rather upset. He’d spent quite a bit of time on this person and all of it could have been avoided if the salary question had been brought up informally before the interview in the screening or in the hallway. However, he didn’t think the interview was the place to bring it up.

    I’ve felt, or maybe just learned, that I want to bring this up early on in the process. Knowing the salary range on an initial phone interview or contact is something I need to get out of the way because it has at times impacted my decision to proceed. I’m not sure that bringing it up in the interview is a bad thing, however. If there’s no phone interview and someone brings you in, ask at the end of the interview.

    My thought is that if you’ve impressed someone, they might move the range. If not, then you both know this is going nowhere.

    Money is a strange addition to an interview. Lots of times the person making the hiring decision has to make some decision on the offer, but it’s not something they relish doing. Making a decision that affects the person’s life is tough and trying to balance the value you perceive in this candidate alongside those existing employees is hard. I’m sure that’s why most people like having definite ranges that they can fit a person into.

    I never enjoyed making a financial decision for someone, especially determining their salary. My preference is to interview them and give my opinion to someone else to make the offer.

    Steve Jones