Voice of the DBA

Tag: Redgate

  • The Book of Redgate: Don’t be an a**hole

    This was one of the original values:

    2025-09_line0001

    The facing page has this text: No matter how smart you are, or how good you are at narrowly defined tasks, there is no room for you here if you’re an asshole.

    This is a similar value to that I’ve seen at a few companies, such as Google’s: Don’t be evil.

    I think this is one of those values that has held true over time. We try to be  professional and respectful with each other. We don’t want to offend others or treat them poorly. The Oxford dictionary has this definition: “a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.”

    I probably stretch the limit of this at times, but I’m not trying to be out of balance with my pressure on others to do better work alongside my respect for them and my desire to be positive. I might not always get the balance right, but I am willing to apologize if I’ve stepped over the line.

    I don’t think of anyone at Redgate as being an a**hole, which is a nice feeling. Hopefully, I’m not one.

    I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.

  • Back in the EU

    I flew to Amsterdam last night and hopefully by the time this publishes I’ll be at my hotel, catching up on messages and prepping for another Simple Talk Podcast recording.

    This is my fourth trip across the water this year, with one more coming at the end of next month. It’s a lot of travel, but it’s also a lot of fun. I meet so many interesting people, learn new things about other cultures, and I really, really enjoy the food in Europe. It’s so much fresher and better than the US (on average).

    This week is a day in the Redgate Amsterdam office, two days at the PASS On Tour event, and Friday at the Redgate Summit. If you’re anywhere near me, register and come join me. The events in New York and Dallas were informative, invigorating, and exciting. It will be the same here.

    Please feel free to stop me and say hi if you’re attending. I always enjoy meeting people and talking about data.

  • Monday Monitor Tips: The Jobs Report

    A customer wanted a report they could email to their boss about jobs, something that showed failures. This isn’t hard to get in Redgate Monitor, though it is manual (for now). Here’s how to do this.

    This is part of a series of posts on Redgate Monitor. Click to see the other posts.

    The Estate View of Jobs

    Under the Estate menu item, there is an entry for jobs.

    2025-09_0336

    Click this and you get to the estate view of jobs. Here I see an overview, and I can click the scale in the upper right for day/week/month.

    2025-09_0337

    Below this I see the failed and successful job details, though only for the most recent execution. Otherwise this is a ton of data. Good to note that the 10 jobs that failed must have succeeded on a subsequent run.

    2025-09_0338

    There is a button to see the details. Click Export:

    2025-09_0339

    This downloads an Excel sheet of my jobs. There is a summary tab of the status with some details by day.

    2025-09_0340

    In the job details, I see the last run status for jobs. In this case, I don’t have any failed jobs (last run). However, I downloaded this earlier in the day, when I did have a job that failed in its more recent execution. Here’s what I see in the details if I scroll across. Look at the top line, which is the failure.

    2025-09_0341

    I can see the reason the job failed and the date/time.

    If I were grabbing this every day, I’d have a nice report of how things are going. I would like to see a more detailed version of a report, and if you want it, please email sales@red-gate.com and request it.

    Summary

    Getting reports to share with others is important. As much as I’d just like to get people to look at the tool, I do understand having periodic reports. I used to self-generate these and store them off in a secure place. These were invaluable for auditors and kept them from asking me lots of questions.

    You could do this as well, and Redgate Monitor makes it easy to get this info. Look for enhancements in this area in the future that might help you with estate level reports for your management (or auditors).

    Redgate Monitor is a world class monitoring solution for your database estate. Download a trial today and see how it can help you manage your estate more efficiently.

  • The Book of Redgate: We Value Teams

    This value is something that I still hear today: our best work is done in teams. On the facing page, there is a short description of what this means.

    2025-08_0103

    I do think that teams are very helpful, especially when building software. Our products aren’t simple inside, and they have a lot of pieces and parts assembled to try and keep tasks simple for you.

    Working in teams is good, and remembering that the hierarchy matters is good. This has helped us in the past, though I find myself reminding people that the company matters more than the team. At times, teams seem to think they shouldn’t be disturbed or altered. I’ve also see people resistant to working as individuals at times. The team is important, but we can work separately to get things done.

    I find many companies not stressing teams, and individuals not wanting to work with others. I get that sometimes it can be comfortable to work on our own, at our pace, the way we want, but I also know that teams allow us to get more done than we would individually.

    I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.