Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • A Learning Experiment

    I’ve been looking for ways to improve the way I do my job, which is mostly writing and editing, but at a higher level it’s teaching people. That was the goal of SQLServerCentral, to help people learn about SQL Server and become better at their jobs.

    Last summer I was looking at a few of the other online learning techniques, and decided to give one a try. I signed up for a Single Variable Calculus class at Coursera. It was delivered by Professor Ghrist from the University of Pennsylvania. There were some problems getting started, and the course was delayed from August until January. I had forgotten about this during the busy fall, but the first week of January I received an email that the class would start on Jan 7, and sure enough, I got a welcome email with a note to start.

    The class is set up as you might expect for a college class. I received a syllabus, some introductory remarks (8 minutes, about what I’d get in class), grading instructions, and an initial exam to see how prepared I am. I’ll be starting this week, setting aside a little time a few nights a week to work through this.

    I thought this would be a good class to understand the delivery mechanisms and structures as I have had 7 or 8 semester of calculus, though that was over 20 years ago. I’m hoping this won’t take too much time, but it will give me a chance to review some skills I’ll need to help my son in a few years, and it should be fun. I like math.

    I’m also looking for ideas that might help me build some better features for my regular job.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #38 – Standing Firm

    tsqltuesdayIt’s T-SQL Time again, and this time it’s #38, from Jason Brimhall (b | t | li). The topic this month is Standing Firm. You are supposed to look at any of these words, and write something that fits with one of them.

    • resolve
    • resolution
    • resolute

    This is the monthly blog party, with each month hosted by someone in the SQL Server community. To participate, just write a blog post on the top, include the logo, and link to Jason’s invitation.

    If you’d like to host, contact the founder, Adam Machanic (b | t).

    Standing Firm

    I decided to write about being Resolute.

    res·o·lute

    /ˈrezəˌlo͞ot/

    Adjective

    Admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering.
    (from the Googles)

    One of the things that I’ve found in my career is that so many people are unwilling to stand up for what is important to them. They’ll argue points, they’ll debate about what is better or worse, but ultimately they are often afraid to make a stand for things that are important for their own personal well being. It’s not even the things that they feel strongly about that they give in to, often it’s subtle pressure from managers, from peers, or from the community to act, say, or do certain things.

    In short, they can’t say no.

    Most of us like to please others. We want to do a good job. We want others to like us, and we want to solve problems. We want to get things done and be seen as a positive part of the community.

    That’s good, and I admire that. I also know it’s not sustainable. As humans, we need flex in our lives. We need some down time to compensate for the busy times. We need practice time in between learning times. We need balance.

    One of the hardest things I’ve learned to do in my career is say no. I learned it’s important from Andy Warren, and this part year I’ve finally felt like I can comfortably say no. I can say “no” to more work. I can say “no” to another opportunity for a client or job. Most importantly, I can say “no” to myself, when my goals, ambitions, and desires greatly impact my family, my wife, or my opportunity for downtime.

    I would urge you to learn to say no. It’s harder than you think, and it takes practice. However learning to stand up for the balance in your life is important to your long term career, health, and enjoyment of life.

  • The Default Fillfactor for an Index

    I ran down the rabbit hole on transaction logs recently. I started with Paul Randal’s post over at the SQL Sentry blog on trimming the transaction log, then went to his video on log analysis. I also glanced at the posts on index cleaning and what index stats don’t tell you. What started out as a quick “what can I do to help transaction logs perform better” became a few hours of reading, executing code and thinking.

    However the post that caught my eye was Paul’s post on choosing an index fill factor. I’ve seen various notes on the fact that fill factor can matter for performance and maintenance, but I haven’t often seen someone give some good concrete rules on what you should choose. In a nutshell, here’s Paul’s advice:

    1. Don’t set a system wide fill factor with sp_configure
    2. Start with 70 for specific indexes that seem to experience lots of fragmentation

    I like this advice. It’s simple, and easy to start using, although the caveat to #2 is that you need to monitor and perhaps adjust the fill factor (up or down from 70) and possibly change your maintenance schedule. I might lean towards leaving my maintenance alone, especially with a script like the SQL Fool Index Defrag Script running and playing with fill factor to ensure I minimized page splits.

    There’s also the trade-off of requiring more space for your index (and maintenance) if you move to 70 from 100.

    I do think that changing the system wide level is a bad idea. If you aren’t sure what your system wide fill factor is, here’s a post on checking it.

  • Speaking at SQL Saturday #183 – Albuquerque

    sqlsat183I’ve been accepted to speak at SQL Saturday #183 in Albuquerque, NM on Feb 9, 2013. This is the first SQL Saturday in New Mexico, and I’m excited to drive down and meet the SQL Server pros down there.

    My brother used to live in Albuquerque, and I’ve been there 2 or 3 times, but not in a long time. I was debating if I should fly or drive, but with Taos on the way, I’m thinking to stop by on the trip down and spend a day skiing before the event. If anyone’s interested in a Friday or Sunday out, let me know. I’m not sure which day to hit the mountain.

    I’ll be delivering my Branding Yourself for a Dream Job presentation at the event, but there will be a lot of SQL Server learning to be had. Denny Cherry, Aaron Bertrand, Jason Brimhall, TJay Belt, Mike Fal, Ben Miller, Reeves Smith, Caros Bossy and more are coming from out of town to give, and receive a day of training.

    Yes, most of us come to learn as well as speak. I’m not sure how busy my day will be or if I’ll be giving a lunchtime talk for Red Gate, but I am hoping to see a few sessions. These are on my list.

    If you are within driving distance, consider coming out and enjoying a Saturday of SQL learning.