Voice of the DBA

Tag: sql server

  • 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.

  • Security by Obscurity

    This is an editorial reprint from Aug 23, 2005

    I wrote awhile back about security through chaos, and that piece provoked some interesting responses. While I’m not sure I’d recommend it for every company, in some places it makes sense. I saw this Info World article on Security by Obscurity and it reminded me of what I’d written.

    The article talks about some basic things you can do to that don’t seem like much, but the suggestions obscure things and ensure that not much on your system is as it would be expected. One simple thing they talk about is not installing to the default locations. That doesn’t sound like it would help much as there are always ways to read the registry or use environmental variables to find installations.

    However it does work. How many pieces of software, including some SQL Server Service Packs, expect things to be installed on c:? How often have you been bitten by a “bug” in some software because you’d renamed or moved something?

    Computer software depends on patterns in many cases to work. And we all use patterns to shorten development time. We reuse code, we cut and past way too much, and we often forget to make simple checks for things being moved around.

    The same goes for virus and worm writers. The people who develop the technology might not be fooled, but so many script kiddies that use kits of modify some piece of code aren’t as savvy and don’t necessarily make these checks. I know that the administrator account has a particular SID that you can scan for, but I’d be willing to bet that most people would write a worm looking for “administrator”. Just think how much less of a problem SQL Slammer would have been if most people had moved SQL Server to some non-default port.

    Simple obfuscating changes aren’t the answer to security issues, but they provide another layer of protection.

  • Little Devices

    It seems that I get more and more done with my smartphone all the time. I find myself responding to lots of emails, having text or Twitter conversations, taking pictures, reading, even making notes on my iPhone. I can’t imagine every going back to a non-smartphone device. Whether it’s an iPhone, Android, or WinMo 7 device, I have found that they make me quite productive throughout the day.

    I was just starting to get away from plain phones when I last worked for a large corporation. These days, I see many of my friends sporting smart phones, and getting work done on them. I even have one Windows administrator friend that carries an iPad around work, RDP’ing into servers to handle small tasks.

    So I wonder how many database people can get things done. Since it’s Friday, I thought that it would make an interesting poll:

    How much of your work could you get done from a mobile device.

    I’m wondering if there is a chance that you can see a good portion of your administration, monitoring, or even daily work done from some device that isn’t a full size laptop? It could be a smartphone (Android, iOS, WinMo) or even a tablet (iPad/Galaxy) that allows you to actually knock things off your to-do list when you are away from your desk or don’t have a laptop.

    If you’ve never used a mobile device for doing work, please don’t complain about them. They are great devices and they’ve made me very productive when I can’t sit at a desk or carry a laptop. I think many others agree, and I’m interested in seeing how use mobile devices.

    Steve Jones

    If you’re a DBA, you might want to check out SQL Monitor, from my employer, Red Gate Software. Maybe your boss will let you get a copy and an iPad to manage your servers.

  • Google Scale

    I heard someone talking the other day about how Google needs to optimize their code. They really pay attention to low level operation of their software, actually having people spend time writing compilers and ensuring they generate efficient code. This is on top of the idea that they want to ensure data structures efficiently use space, there is no unnecessary network traffic, etc. The reasoning is that at “Google-scale” (Gs) if something takes 10% longer, that’s 10% more electricity they have to supply, 10% more machines, and 10% of the Google IT infrastructure budget is a big, big number.

    I’ve never worked at Gs. In fact, I’ve never worked at 0.001Gs. Most of my work in software development has been to support dozens, or maybe hundreds of users. SQLServerCentral, which was a joint programming project, was my largest piece of software , and that was built on other pieces of software, with little contributions from me and lots of Andy Warren’s keyboard sweat in the early years. Despite working on small projects, I still have always learned to consider the little things.

    When you grow up with compilers that take minutes, as in 10 minutes to compile a few hundred lines of code, you pay more attention to your algorithms. When you grow up with kb of memory, you use it wisely. When you work across a 300 baud modem, you don’t mess around with lots of data transfer. Even though many of those constraints don’t apply, I still try to be careful and watch my data types, watch my round trips, and be aware that there are actually bits being whipped across the ether or in and out of transistors in a not-so-little package on my computer system.

    The argument about “just buying more hardware” has some validity, but it’s not an excuse for not improving your skill and becoming better at your craft. As my friend Jeff Moden often quotes, it doesn’t take any more time to do it right the first time. That’s true, but you need to know how to do it right, we at least well. For all of us, that should mean some regular effort to improve your skills and become better at your craft, just like Google looks to constantly optimize their own systems.

    Steve Jones