I’m hosting a new webinar on the DLM tools from Redgate Software and database DevOps. Tomorrow, Tues, Jan 17, at noon EST, Arneh Eskandari, a great sales engineer, will be demoing the tools and techniques to deploy changes.
You can register here and I’ll talk to you on tomorrow.
Redgate produces some great software, and I’m glad that I get to use all of them as a developer and DBA. I use many of the tools each week, some daily, but I constantly find that there are plenty of features, tips, and tricks that I don’t know about.
At SQL in the City last year, I watched Tom Austin present a session where I learned a few things that will make me more productive.
The one that I need to start incorporating into my work is looking for all the references to an object with SQL Search. A quick check means that I won’t commit changes without considering all of the other objects impacting by development,
Watch all the tips below.
I was trying to get SQL Clone working recently and had an issue with the Agent. If you haven’t looked at SQL Clone, it’s a really cool product from Redgate that’s in beta right now. It will help you build and provision those large dev, test, customer service, etc. environments with full size copies of data without using the space (or time) for the actual files.
In any case, when I downloaded the agent and ran the installer, I saw this:
That struck me as funny because I have all sorts of VC++ runtimes on my machine. In fact, in debugging, I saw all these:
After the download completed, I got an error.
This was strange, since I actually had a 14.3 version, but apparently SQL Clone doesn’t realize this is the case. This should be fixed soon, but for now, here’s what to do.
First, run regedt32.exe. The setup program is checking for an installation in a key. I had the keys in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC\Runtimes\x64, but not in the Wow6432 node.
Browse to HKLM\Software\Wow6432\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\VC. Here’s what I had:
Here’s my x64 folder structure:
In here I have the sub-keys and the “Installed” value.
Since I know I have a later VC++ runtime, I did this. First, create the “Runtimes” key under VC, then add a “x64” key below that. Inside of x64, add an Installed value as a Reg_DWord with a value of 1. You should see this:
Now run the SQL Clone Agent installer:
Everything works.
If you’d like to learn more about SQL Clone, check out this short video:
I posted this, but here it is again. A a shot from our engineer, behind the scenes of my live talk today.
Tom Austin and @way0utwest live at #sqlinthecity – a behind the scenes look! pic.twitter.com/ADsWhc2tEg
— Robert Chipperfield (@rmc47) December 15, 2016
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When we decided to stream SQL in the City this year, I wondered how things would go. We’ve debated about a studio at the Redgate office but never built one. However, we did take over a room for this event, one on the top (2nd) floor, in a corner of the building away from most desks.
We didn’t have a red “on the air” light, but our engineers did put a whiteboard in the hall outside.
Inside, we had a backdrop and podium for presenters, tape on the floor for our marks, and multiple cameras. Our setup allowed for a few microphones, multiple video feeds, and a few monitors on the wall.
My view from the podium shows a few desks and the monitors on the back wall. One had the live stream, and the other was hooked up to a laptop where Annabel would type questions that we could see (or other notes).
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The event kicked off with Annabel providing an opening each day. Here is the opening segment from Wednesday morning. I watched most of the first day in the room, and then did what most presenters did the second day; I’d work at my desk and then pop in 10 minutes or so before my talk.
There were lots of wires, and while most were taped down to the floor, we had to be careful about where we walked. I suspect next year we’ll have a better setup. At least, I hope we do, and hope that we actually do more streamed content throughout the year.
I think this was a success, and certainly an easier way for me to present content. It was strange to not have an audience, but it helped to have a few people in the room that were watching and paying attention.
While I really do enjoy live events and audiences, and I am pushing for a live SQL in the City 2017 in the UK, I also know that streaming and video broadcast is changing for all sorts of media. I’d like to experiment and do more here, and might do some more from home in 2017, but I do hope we’ll have more streaming from Redgate, perhaps even a Redgate TV show running on a regular basis.
Voice of the DBA 