Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • Salaries in Job Ads

    Hiring at Basecamp is interesting. I caught this interview and think it’s a good look at a process most of us have gone through, but perhaps not thought about. Maybe we ought to try and not start out our relationship as employer/employee with a “I got one over on you”.

    Of course, many companies are not interested in treating employees well and just assume they’ll hire/fire/turnover often. Makes sense in some places (McDonalds type work), but less sense in our industry.

    I do think that we hide salaries too much in our industry. Certainly this aids in favoritism and entitlement for works with seniority. I’d really prefer to see salary ranges published for jobs, both internally and in the description. And not some huge range, but put something like a junior DBA from US$35,000-50,000. Or whatever range you think is appropriate.

    This would do a few things for me. First, it ensures that candidates that want to work for that range will apply. It also ensures you don’t waste time with a developer that wants to move to DBA work, but really needs $70,000 for their financial commitments. This also helps you determine if you’re range is correct for the market.

    I am a big proponent of disclosing more info up front and finding a good match between employer and employee.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #117 Invitation – When Have You Used MOT Tables?

    When Memory-Optimized Tables (MOT) were announced for SQL Server, there was a lot of excitement about the technology. After this was released on SQL Server 2014, feelings waned with a lot of restrictions and limitations for using the technology. I remember a panel at a conference years ago where most of the MVPs and experts recommended against using the technology for most users.

    Today there have been improvements (2017, 2016) in the MOT features, restrictions have been removed, and all editions can use MOT tables. That’s not to say that this is suitable for every table or situation where a DBA or developer suspects performance issues.

    This month I want to ask you about when you’ve made that decision. This can be to use MOT tables or NOT to use MOT tables. This could be a simple thought, a POC, or actual testing of the feature.

    Some ideas for you to write about:

    • Performance analysis of MOT tables that affected a decision
    • Reading the limitations and knowing this would prevent their use
    • A scenario where MOT tables improved performance
    • A successful implementation of MOT tables and what needed to change in your app
    • A failed attempt at trying MOT tables

    There might be other things that are related to MOT technology, but let us know this month what you think of the technology and how it has (or has not) impacted your application.

    The Rules

    Here are the rules as set out for the T-SQL Tuesday blog party.

    1. Your post should be published on Tuesday, Aug 13, 2019 between midnight UTC and 11:59:59 UTC.
    2. Include the T-SQL Tuesday logo in your post.
    3. Link back to this invitation.
    4. Include a comment on the invitation post or a trackback link.
    5. Enjoy the chance to be creative and share some knowledge.

  • Expose Multiple Docker Ports

    I was working with containers recently with Jenkins. I didn’t want the server process running on my machine all the time, but I did need to allow some communication. Jenkins uses 8080 by default, but agents need another port.

    I figured there was a way to do this, and I found it on Stack Overflow, which is the perfect forum for a question like this. The answer? Multiple –p parameters.

    Instead of 

    docker run –-name jenkinsci –p 8080:8080 jenkins/blueo

    I do this:

    docker run –-name jenkinsci –p 8080:8080 -p 50000:50000 jenkins/blueo

    That opens two ports from the host to the container, which is what I need.

  • Getting Downtime

    It’s been a crazy year, as are many of my years. I tend to like that, because I prefer to be busy rather than idle. That’s good, but I am aware of the dangers of doing too much, especially across time.

    Most of my travel comes from May-October, and I’ve had a lot this year. In that time frame, I’ve had 4 international trips already, with 2 more to come. To help deal with that, I know I need some breaks between trips.

    Last week I was in the UK for work, but I knew that I would get a little break this week. You might have seen that I’ve republished a few editorials as I was in Custer, S.D. this week. It’s a camping week with the family, and a chance for me to unwind with no real connectivity or responsibilities. A good break for me after a bit of travel.

    I decided to take off August this year from travel. I’m sad to be missing a few events (Louisville, Baton Rouge among them), but I need the downtime. I also take my daughter to university in  a couple weeks, so I’ve got a long weekend helping her move in and then touring New York state a bit with my wife.

    Like lots of IT people, I struggle to get away from work at times, so I’m making an effort to get better. You should as well.