Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

A Quick Test Data Manager Eval with My Database Backup

I wrote about getting the Redgate Test Data Manager set up in 10 minutes before, and it was a great post. In that one, the sample database Northwind was created and used. However, Alex Yates has modified the scripts to work with backup files, and I’ll show you how easy this is in just a few minutes.

This is part of a series of posts on TDM. Check out the tag for other posts.

The Setup

I’ve filtered my SSMS to only show databases with BB in the name. You can see I have none.

I also have a backup file of a baseball database on my d: drive. My local instance has access to this folder as I use for backups and restores in dev/test work.

While I can pass these parameters in, it’s easy to just change the values in the file after cloning the repo. This way it’s easy to see what’s going on.

That’s it, now let’s fire up PowerShell.

Running the Eval

When I run the file, I see it start up and report the various values. You can see that it’s set the base database name to “BB” and I should see the two databases with the suffixes created. I also see my backup path.

This runs and in a few minutes, I see that the databases have been created and we are ready to subset.

Checking SSMS with a refresh, I see the databases.

If I type “y”, the subsetter runs, and very quickly. This isn’t a massive database, but it is thousands of rows, which makes it easy to play with.

If I run counts, I see this. The left is the full restore, which has 16k records. The subset, on the right, has about 10% of that, with 1644 rows. Pretty cool. So far, this has taken less than a couple of minutes.

Now let’s continue to press “y” and get the classification, mapping, and masking done. Two tables were found with PII (names) and masked.

If I query the tables, I see the results below. Notice that not all values were moved, as the first ID in the subset is 11, but we can see IDs 11 and 22 were masked.

This was a very quick look at running an eval with my own database backup, not a sample db. We’ve had a few people ask to do this for their own testing, and we modified the scripts to work with backups.

Give TDM a try today from the repo and a trial, or contact one of our reps and get moving with help from our sales engineers.

Video Walkthrough

Check out a video of my demoing this below:

January 29, 2025
Get a PAT in Azure DevOps

I have a presentation recently on Continuous Integration Using Local Agents in Azure DevOps and one of the things I do in there is get a PAT for Azure DevOps to use in configuring an agent. This post shows how to do this, as I found this wasn’t obvious when I was searching out information.

Azure DevOps Organizations

In Azure DevOps, at the top level you have an organization. Here’s my way0utwest org.

In the lower left corner, there is this, which is somewhat hidden. As you can see, it’s next to the bottom projects in my org, just above my Windows bar.

If I click this, I have lots of settings. I have lots of different things. One would think this would be a place where I could create a PAT for my agent to connect with.

It’s not.

If I am setting up an Agent and need a PAT, I need to do to the upper right, under my user settings. This is the second from the right (as of Jan 2025) icon. If I click this, I see PATs.

Once I click Personal access tokens, I get to this screen. You can see my PATs and a “New” buton in the upper right. Click this to create a new token.

You get this screen. Apparently this token is only used to register the agent. I’ve usually granted this full access, but I haven’t dived too deep into what happens if I only limit rights. I’ll try that soon. As with any security issue, make sure you know the implications of settings.

Once you create this, you get a notice that you need to copy this now or lose it. There’s a handy copy button, so use it.

Summary

This is a quick post on creating tokens in Azure DevOps. As with any security change, make sure you know what the implications are for creating and using these.

January 27, 2025
The Local OLLAMA Gui
I ran a small ollama model in a container and have been doing some experiments. One of the things I wanted to do was get a GUI so I wasn’t always running docker to connect (with –it) or writing code to interact.

I saw a post somewhere that there is a webgui, so I decided to try it. This post shows the quick setup process.

This is part of a series of experiments with AI systems.

Run the Container

The command I used was this one:
```
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v ollama-webui:/app/backend/data --name ollama-webui --restart always ghcr.io/ollama-webui/ollama-webui:main
```
This downloaded and ran the container, which I forgot about until I saw it running in my Docker list.

Connecting and Getting Going

The command above runs on port 3000, so I went to port 3000 on my local host and saw this:

I clicked signup and added info, which isn’t really checked.

The first account is set at the admin and I see this screen:

I need to select a model to query, and when I click the drop down, I see the two I downloaded as part of my ollama container setup.

I picked mistral and started asking questions. I started with clicking the prompt on the screen, and I saw:

If you play with different models, give this a try as an easy way to run an AI on your local machine and see how well it can help you with anything you do.

Note, be wary, and make sure you read the disclaimer at the bottom (circled by me)
January 27, 2025
A New Word: Amoransia

amoransia – n. the melodramatic thrill of unrequited love; the longing to pine for someone you can never have, wallowing in devotion to some impossible person who could give your life meaning by their very absence.

Another young person’s word (in general), having amoranssia after watching some sort of media or seeing a picture, reading a story, and imaging how different your life would be with someone famous in it.

There was a point in the very early 90s, just after uni, when I found out Janet Jackson was single, and I was living in Southern CA. I thought what would happen if I happened to bump into her, start a conversation, and maybe a romance. It was a fleeting few days where I could have thought of possibilities, though certainly no amoransia as I wasn’t wallowing at all.

Just fantasizing.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

January 24, 2025