Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Free SQL Server

    No, I don’t have a way to license a SQL Server instance for your application for free. Microsoft still charges for production workloads. However, there are several ways that you can do development or testing for free, or at a greatly reduced cost. Bob Ward spent a bit of time researching options and he’s written a post that outlines a number of your options. It’s very comprehensive and I know a lot of us are grateful to Bob for summarizing our options.

    As I work with developers in organizations, there are often questions about the licensing for dev editions. This comes up more with Oracle than other platforms, but SQL Server does get asked about. We made a decision to support SQL Server Developer Edition in Redgate Clone, which is in line with what Bob’s post above says: this edition is for developers (and it’s free). There is one caveat here, which I never knew. The licensing guide says you cannot build test data and move that into production. I’m assuming this doesn’t mean you can’t create a list of US states, countries in the world, or statuses. I think this means something more substantial, but if anyone knows, let me know.

    One question I get asked a lot is about how do you develop locally if your production target is Azure SQL Database? The best option is a container, as outlined in this MS Learn article. It’s not completely the same, or necessarily as up-to-date, but it’s close and likely good enough for most of us. If you really want an Azure SQL DB instance for dev/test, it’s not going to be free. Unless you can live within the monthly Azure credits, which are pretty low for this purpose. If you are a Visual Studio subscriber, you can get some discounts, however, and I didn’t know this, you can’t use Azure credits with the VS benefit.

    There is also a “free offer” for Azure SQL database. This is fairly limited, but you do get free compute and 32GB of data for the lifetime of your subscription. If you work with small development databases, and you aren’t querying like crazy, that might work well for you. It’s also a great way for students or job-seekers to get some experience with the platform at a low (or no) cost. You can even try Managed Instance for free for 12 months.

    The cloud isn’t for everyone, every organization, or even every application, but it does work well in some situations. Whether that fits you or not can be tricky to determine, but you certainly should be working in the cloud in a dev/test manner to help inform the decision. I would hope that most of you have dev/test databases in place for on-premises/IaaS systems as well. I don’t run into too many people developing on a production instance, but I do see some, and I certainly see some that work in heavily shared environments.

    Cost shouldn’t be a factor here, at least not for SQL Server, and there are options to help you ensure you have all the dev and test instances you need. Read Bob’s post and see if you can help make your developer’s lives easier with some of the resources. And learn to follow good software development practices for your SQL code, just like the C# developers do.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Visual Design for Safety

    I drive a Tesla Model Y and love it. They’re not for everyone and not for every situation, but I think it’s the best car I’ve owned. My wife feels the same way, and if we had a need for two cars, we’d likely get another one. The car is fun, and I look forward to getting in and moving around town. If you have questions about owning an EV or a Model Y, please feel free to ask.

    The car isn’t perfect, and there are things I wish I could change. There have also been a few recalls on the car, which is interesting for a Tesla. A few of these recalls meant that I got a software update a few days or weeks later and something changed. There was another recall recently, which affects most Tesla vehicles in the US. I’m sure that by the time you read this, I’ll have a software update applied and the issue will be resolved.

    This particular recall was because a font was too small. That might seem like a minor thing, but as someone who needs reading glasses all the time, I do think this is an issue. In fact, I appreciated that Tesla sent an update in 2023 that let me set all font sizes larger on all screens. I wish they were slightly larger, and I wish they’d check the UI for a few things as the text is cut off in minor places, but I can usually squint while driving and make out what’s there.

    I also keep reading glasses permanently in the car in case I really need to grab them and see something.

    Many of us work with data, and we may build reports (or edit them) to help our customers consume data and make decisions. Hopefully, some of you have learned how important good visual design is to creating an impact with your reports. Even if you report on something as simple as uptime, the way you showcase the data makes an impression on those who consume it. In case you’re sending your boss a message, I hope you want to ensure he or she receives the same impression you want to send. Remember, communication is what is heard, not said.

    There are lots of resources out there about visual design, and lots of places where you can ask questions about what you’ve done and see if someone has hints or ideas to create a better presentation for your data. Even if you aren’t designing for safety, you’re often designing for impact and you want to do that well.

    We’re lucky in the digital world in that we can adjust the way things appear easily, and relatively cheaply. Imagine if Tesla had created a dedicated sensor or physical light to let us know about a brake issue. If that were too small, the recall wouldn’t be a software update. It would likely be hundreds of thousands of hours lost by them and customers on a simple design correction.

    Update: A couple of days after I wrote this, I got an over-the-air update, which fixed this.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • A Working Break on President’s Day

    Today is President’s Day in the US, and it’s a holiday for me. At least from Redgate. I’m actually working my other job, perhaps with some overtime.

    This is the end of a three-day weekend tournament up in Greeley, CO, where I’ve been coaching a 13-year old competitive volleyball team with my wife. We enjoy working with kids and we’ve been coaching in the spring for the last five years together. The RMR Showdown is a fun event, and it’s nice to get out of town. Hopefully we’ve had some success, but even if we haven’t been winning, it’s a good experience for the kids to grow, learn, and stress themselves across multiple days. Most of the time we do one-day local tournaments, so this is a chance for them to learn the eating well, hydrating, and sleeping are important.

    We’ve also had a pregnant coach in the 18s division, and it’s entirely possible she can’t coach this weekend. She was due around this time, so as I write this, my wife volunteered us to take over her team if she’s giving birth. That means we’ll be working a morning wave with our team, from around 7a-2p, and an afternoon wave from 3p-9p. There might be some long days for us, but they’ll be fun.

    Despite the work, it’s a recharging event for me in that I’m not doing anything with technology, and the time spent on this hobby is completely different than anything else in my life. It can be stressful during games, but it is very rewarding. I enjoy working with kids, and when it’s over, it’s over. The results of the competition are quickly forgotten, at least by me, but I see the lessons learned by players growing through the year.

    However, work starts again tonight. As soon as we’re done, I’m heading to the airport for the DevOps Airways tour. No, I’m not flying a plane, but I am getting in one for our first stop tomorrow in San Jose. There are quite a few more, and I hope to see some of you at one of our events.

    Steve Jones

  • Am I Good At My Job?

    I was talking with a friend recently about some of their co-workers. In this case, they were complaining that another person couldn’t do some tasks that my friend considered relatively easy things. Deal with an unusual restore situation, write some PowerShell to reconfigure servers, build somewhat complex (to them) queries, etc. Things that my friend thinks most database people should be able to do after a year of experience.

    However, my friend questioned whether they were evaluating co-workers appropriately. How can one tell? I might be able to tell if a coworker is better or worse at a task, but what’s my frame of reference and my experience. I might think them not capable at things I do well. At the same time, I can be wowed by someone with more experience with a technology I don’t know well, such as Azure Data Factory, but not really be able to judge if they’re average or an expert.

    I suspect most people think they’re good at their jobs, or at least competent. They think they are earning their salary, and they likely are. However, that doesn’t mean they are better than the average SQL developer (or DBA or C# dev, etc.). That’s a different standard, and while most people in surveys think they are better than average, that’s not how averages work. Half of us are below the average.

    It can be hard to determine where you might relate to others in a skill level. I think this is one reason why we struggle to interview and hire well. It’s just hard to determine what a senior person should do, and in a short Q&A period, we can’t often determine if a candidate can do all the things we might ask them to do later. I think many people get good at a small number of things their organization asks them to do, but often aren’t well rounded outside of those boundaries.

    The people I’ve known in any business who excel are those who are always learning and improving themselves. Whether they’re technologists, doctors, or chefs, they are looking to get better at their existing skills and regularly add new ones. That’s a good outlook for life in general, and I would hope many of you adopt that attitude.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Spotify, or iTunes.