Voice of the DBA

Tag: sql server

  • Reasons to Upgrade

    I ran across a good article from Glenn Berry about reasons to upgrade to SQL Server 2017. In the piece, Glenn talks about the fact that SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 will fall out of Extended Support in 2019. That’s about the time that SQL Server 2014 falls out of mainstream support, which is the support that most of us have. SQL Server 2012 has fallen out of mainstream support already. While I don’t worry too much about support, some of you may, especially if you are in a regulated industry. Or you’re in the EU, in which case the lack of support might be an issue if there is ever some security breach.

    The upgrade question is one that most of us ask ourselves constantly. Many of us use plenty of different software packages, and regularly need to decide if we want to pay for a new version of Windows, Office, SQL, SAP, Dynamics, etc. In some cases we may find valid reasons that will give us a nice ROI and are worth the cost. In others, we may wonder if we really need some new feature? I certainly find that in some software, there isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade to every new version.

    These days so much software is being released at a rapid pace that we regularly have to make decisions. I get a new version of Visual Studio Code, Evernote and TweetDuck, etc. every few weeks. Often I skip these upgrades because of convenience, and only upgrade rarely to prevent being too far behind. That’s a concern because if your software is too old, sometimes the upgrade is painful.

    At Redgate, we release patches and enhancements every few weeks, though we don’t expect many customers to necessarily upgrade more than once a quarter. There are monthly releases of SSMS and SQL Operations Studio, which I may or may not apply. Often I don’t because they’re an interruption to my work. Some of us rent software, like visualstudio.com, and we get upgrades whether we want them or not, though often we can use an older version for some period of time.

    Many of these decisions aren’t that impactful to our work as they are minor changes with little or no cost. Some aren’t, and these are the ones that many technical professionals will make recommendations on whether to proceed or not. The database platform is certainly a significant decision as the costs often can significantly impact a budget. This can be especially true for mission critical applications that might require more than one server to meet HA requirements.

    Do you tend to lean towards or away from upgrades? I’ve tended to lean away, with my default answer being I don’t want to upgrade. That’s if I don’t have a compelling reason. If things are roughly equal, I’ll stick with what works. That doesn’t mean that I don’t evaluate the new version and spend some time trying to determine what features or functions might be valuable. Certainly if any of Glenn’s features are useful, you might consider moving to SQL Server 2017. If you’re coming from SQL Server 2014 or earlier, than you ought to really look at the changes in SQL Server 2016, which are significant as well.

    We recently moved SQLServerCentral to SQL Server 2017. We had been on an older OS, with limited .NET support, and when we made the decision, we decided to go ahead and choose the latest version. That’s certainly a decision I do endorse. If I’m leaving 2012, 2008, or some earlier version, why stop at  SQL Server 2014 or 2016. Go ahead and get to the latest version, which means you might delay your next upgrade just a bit longer.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • The Best Ever

    Every few years, or every year now, we see a new version of SQL Server proclaimed as the best ever. A few weeks ago, I saw a number of people leaving hte MVP Summit, rating it as the best ever summit. At SQL Bits or the PASS Summit every year, there’s no shortage of people posting about that event being the best conference.

    Is this a human view, that the latest one is often the best one ever if we enjoyed it? Perhaps we learn something and we’re excited about the latest new SQL thing and so we’re excited to proclaim it the best?

    What’s the best SQL Server version? Is there one for you? Some of you might be new to SQL Server or have worked with few versions, but perhaps one stands out. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of versions, so the choices are hard. I’ve written code for SQL Server: 4.2, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2008R2, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017.

    I have two votes here. You might like one, and likely will disagree with one. First, I’ll say that I have a fondness for SQL Server 2000. This was a stable, long awaited version that dramatically improved my life from SQL 6.5. It was more reliable and faster, and since it came after a relatively short time after v7, I ended up standardizing on this at a few jobs. Most of my upgrades were to SQL Server 2000 and it lasted a long time as the standard version. It was 5 years before SQL Server 2005 was released, an eternity in today’s software lifecycle. There were some bumps in the road (SQL Slammer), but a better security coding model came about at Microsoft during this version as well as SSRS (added later).

    My other choice, maybe the top one, is SQL Server 2016. A number of security changes (AE, RLS, etc) as well as the inclusion of many features in Standard Edition (with SP1) make this my favorite. We got stability from the second version of OLTP tables and the third version of Availability Groups. I think SQL Server 2016 was perhaps the best version of SQL Server I’ve seen.

    You might have other votes, and let me know today. Is there a version that’s near and dear to your heart.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Predictions for the Future

    There is no shortage of predictions that we all make every day. Long before PREDICT and the popularity of Machine Learning/R/Python and more, each and every one of us has regularly made guesses about what will happen in our world. Some of us make large predictions, like faxes will be used forever, and some of us make small ones, like it’s going to snow more than the forecast tonight. Our world shows us data and we make guesses.

    Many of us are data professionals and we are looking to grow our careers and improve our skills on a regular basis. At least, I hope you are. A friend mentioned to me that it’s hard to decide where to focus energy and attention these days, as SQL Server grows and expands, and time is limited. Are there topics that might be better or worse for us to learn about? After all, no one wants to be the person that invested a year of their time in the next Notification Services.

    I don’t have any great predictions for SQL Server, but I did think about the possibilities recently. I was interviewed by Mohammad Darab, and had to answer a number of questions looking forward. As I re-read the interview, I think I waffled a bit, mostly because the world doesn’t change at an even pace. Some companies will advance fast, and some slowly. I think it is important to expand your skills and consider the cloud and related technologies, but there will certainly be some companies that never move.

    There are other interviews in his series, and as I read them, I think about the different perspectives. We’re all close in what we think, but with perspectives that skew slightly away from each other. Most people seem to view the world as changing, but not nearly as fast as some articles and talks would lead you to believe. Grab 3 or 4 random interviews and compare them.

    While I do think that data and databases, including SQL Server, will grow in importance and relevance, I also think that we will have a constantly growing opportunity of potential jobs and projects to tackle. Where I become cautious, and the reason I advocate continuing to learn, is with convenience. Will those jobs be in your company? Or your town? Will your job continue on until you retire? It’s entirely possible that the world will change and potentially force you to make drastic changes in your life. Change careers, move to a new location, or endure conditions that make you unhappy.

    The future has one certainty; it’s uncertain. I tend to hedge my chances of minimizing disruption through education. I’d encourage you to do the same.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Decouple the Tools

    For years, SQL Server included a complete set of add-ons with the main product. We got SSIS, SSRS, and more as part of an integrated installation. This also included things like Books Online and various tools, such as Profiler, bcp, and Management Studio (Enterprise Manager in earlier versions). Over the years, the number of tools has grown, but there has also been work to decouple some of these items from the installation media and allow them to be upgraded more rapidly. Books Online was the first to separate, though not without some pain for users that struggled to install the local help files.

    Last year SSMS was decoupled from SQL Server, which I think is a great idea. The tools team at Microsoft moved to their own release schedule, getting SSMS onto the Visual Studio 2015 platform. This wasn’t without some pain, and there were definitely some releases with issues, but overall the process has smoothed out and I’ve appreciated the updates. This separation has allowed new features to be added to the product without waiting for a new release. If you watch the changelog, you will see quite a few improvements and fixes being released, along with enhancements. SSMS is also free to download and install on workstations without SQL Server.

    However, if you examine the installation for SQL Server, there are plenty of other products that could benefit from being decoupled. While bcp and sqlcmd don’t change much, why are they a part of the server platform? These tools, along with others, are really client side tools, and would benefit from their own release cycles. Whether or not teams do significant work, or even if they only release updates when a new version of SQL Server comes out, having them as a separate set of tools, with a separate installer, means that fixes and enhancements could be sent out if there are issues. This seems especially important for security updates, which might be needed. In addition, maybe this would actually get teams to view any separate tools as worthy of new functionality if they see an opportunity.

    I’d actually love to see some integrated installer for the SQL tools that would allow me to download and update them each as needed. Let me know when SSMS is out of date, along with any updates for sqlcmd, sqlmaint, tablediff, and other tools. They might not change often, but I’d rather not have to run the SQL Server installer for a CU on all my client workstations. Let me update those tools as needed, if there are changes or improvements.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 4.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.