Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • Installing Pester

    One of the things that I believe strongly in is that we need better testing of software. Actually, what we really need is better habits and understanding of how to test our software. I don’t think we need to test everything, but we do need to know how to test some parts of our software, and we need to test those well.

    Enough on testing. Let’s talk Pester. I saw Rob Sewell (b | t) talk about Pester a few months back, and it’s been on my list to try something, but time and pressure have kept it on the list and not in the code editor. A week ago that changed when I saw Rob write Write Your First Pester Test. That spurred me to devote a few minutes after I read the piece.

    However, I ran into a snag. When I went to run Install-Module Pester, I got an error.

    2017-11-16 13_49_27-cmd - powershell (Admin)

    I tweeted a bit with Rob and Mike Fal (b | t), both of whom are some of my PoSh go-to people. They noted the Force option for install, which did work, but I not by itself.

    2017-11-16 13_51_31-cmd - powershell (Admin)

    As you can see there’s a security check. A good thing, but like many developers, I’m confident the Pester module on the Powershell Gallery at MS is OK. It’s got a different signature than the previous version. I could remove that, but I decided to add the –SkipPublisherCheck and move forward.

    This what I wanted to see.

    2017-11-16 13_51_41-cmd - powershell (Admin)

    Now I can move forward with Rob’s article and try some Pester tests.

  • Watch Out for Automap in SQL Compare

    I wrote a piece on SQL Compare and customizing the Automap feature. This was handy for me in a small project where I encountered drift and needed to fix the production side.

    In the article, I don’t map one of the columns in the target. In this case, I’d actually be dropping the target column in SQL Compare. After all, the idea of SQL Compare is that we want to synchronize the databases.

    If that’s not correct, then I’d need to do one of two things: add the column in development or add a filter. Filters are a great way to avoid issues in production when development items are in flight or uncertain (I’ve written about those as well).

    In this case, if I really needed to keep this column in production, I wouldn’t want to add a filter. Instead, I’d really want to add the column in development. In fact, I’d want to add it in the same place it is (column order) in production, so in Development I’d rebuild the table with the new column, in that order, and then run the Compare again.

    Automap can be a great feature, but it can’t know what your intentions are. It can only guess, like a new developer that is working on the system for the first time. SQL Compare needs guidance to do the job properly.

    SQL Compare is here to help you, and if you haven’t used it, give it a try. If you’re on a version older than 12, I’d say you should upgrade to 13 immediately. If you work with SQL 2017, then move from SQL Compare 12 to 13 and ensure all your comparisons work with the new features.

  • Hardware Wrestling

    A few weeks back I had some issues. They were related to this:

    Computer at ankle level

    My standing desk was down and as you can see, the power button for my machine is on the front, just above ankle level. In a few years of working, this hasn’t been an issue. However, my daughter has a puppy this year, and while she’s in school, the dog is home. Normally my wife is outside with the dog, but when bad weather strikes, they are inside.

    The dog can be a bit trying at times, and in this case, she comes to sit near my chair, looking for attention. When she did that last month, she leaned on the power button and shut Windows down. Not so bad, but the third time this happened, as I was prepping for a webinar 30 minutes ahead, I had a little panic.

    That incident let to me deciding I need a new case. I didn’t have a great way to move the case, so I got some advice and purchased a Fractal Design R5 case on a recommendation from Glenn Berry (b1 | b2 | t). Maybe overkill, but it’s a nice looking case, and the power button is on top Winking smile

    I got it home and promptly traveled for a few weeks. No real time to do much, but I did eventually get ready to move all the pieces and parts. I put the old and new cases on the table and started moving things. My middle son helped, and eventually we had the parts transferred.

    IMG_2995

    And nothing happened. No boot up, no fans, nothing. We looked and found quite a bit of thermal paste on the CPU, some of which leaked on the side. A good lesson for me, don’t use much paste. However, we we cleaned things, we ended up bending some CPU pins.

    No worries, annoying, but I could afford a new motherboard, so I grabbed one. And then went out of town again.

    When I got back, I replaced the motherboard, but no booting still. I even took a picture and tried to be sure the CPU slot was OK. I had to, since I couldn’t see the pins.

    IMG_3098

    I even got another CPU and tried that, but it didn’t boot. At this point, I dragged things over to Glenn (he’s close by) and we decided the motherboard must be bad. I returned the CPU and got another new motherboard, which I installed last weekend, and everything worked. From the go, things booted.

    I added a new SSD in the process, and somehow had to remap some drives to different letters to get my Windows install working. I have some other minor issues, VMs that thought they’d been moved, Windows Search service acting up, and general funkiness with new hardware, but it seems things have settled.

    I’m not a big hardware guy, but it was interesting to take apart and put together a computer. I rarely do that, and while it’s a touch exciting, it’s also a pain. I prefer my hardware to just work.

    The puppy is cute, and she’s fun, but demanding at times. Here’s my view of the TV, trying to finish up Stranger Things one night.

    IMG_3131

  • Thankful

    It’s been a long career for me. In fact, I’ve been a SQL Server data professional for 17 years, just over half my life and almost the entire lifetime of the product.

    In that time, I’ve worked for a number of companies in different positions. Some were good jobs, some were less good. Some lasted quite a awhile, some were short term engagements.

    No matter how the experience ended, I find myself thankful for each position that continued to move me forward in my career. Even the tough experiences were ones that taught me something that was valuable later on.

    I’m also very thankful that I had the support of my wife, both emotionally and with her own career. That gave me the freedom to try new positions and even start my own business. I’m thankful that I haven’t had any major health issues, nor has my family. That certainly made it easy to focus on my career.

    I’ve had a great life and tremendous opportunities. On this day of thanks, it’s worth reflecting a bit on what has gone your way in life. I do think about this often, but I certainly am happy to take a few minutes and note that there is an abundance of things for me to be thankful for on most days.