Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • T-SQL Tuesday #28 – Jack of all Trades, Master of None

    tsqltuesdayIt’s that time of the month again, T-SQL Tuesday Tuesday. This month Argenis Fernandez, MCM, and big round SQL teddy-bear is hosting. His topic is Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

    The second Tuesday of every month is when the blog party takes off. If you want to participate, read Argenis’ post and write your own entry. If you want to host, contact Adam Machanic.

    Jack of All Trades, Master of None

    After my third year of college, I went to work at a new hotel in Virginia Beach. I hadn’t had much experience in the restaurant industry, other than cooking one semester at college, so they hired me to be a busboy and room service waiter. I opened the hotel working in the café, but the slow start caused some people to quit. When a waiter didn’t show up one day, I volunteered, got a chance, and moved up in the world. When a bartender didn’t show up one afternoon, I volunteered, and had a new gig for the rest of the summer.

    It’s been a mantra for me for the most part in my career. I like challenges, I like new things, and I’m not afraid to tackle much. The same way I moved up in the restaurant business to new (and better paying) jobs worked in technology. However the “jack of all trades” philosophy hasn’t been just about getting new jobs, but also being better at my main job.

    At more than a few companies, I’ve been happy to fill in for the network person, the sysadmin, the Exchange manager, the developer, doing my best to fix something or improve it. As I’ve been a DBA, I’ve worked on PHP, ASP, HTML, XML, Cisco IOS, configured T-1 lines, changed batteries in UPSes, and more. Those skills have helped me to understand how things are put together, and enabled me to solve more than a few complex problems, in complex architectures, because I could truly see the forest. Even if I didn’t understand how everything worked, I knew how lots of parts were supposed to work, and how they were plugged together.

    Even today in SQL Server, I write about all sorts of topics, and review pieces on all aspects of the SQL Server platform. I don’t know how to configure them all as an expert, but I know a lot about how most of the platform works, even if I don’t know all the details. Sometimes that’s enough to get me by.

    It’s not all perfect, and I don’t think being Jack is better than being a master. There are more jobs for the “Jacks” of the world, but the pay tends to be lower. Masters make more, but have fewer opportunities, and fewer places they might get to live/work at any point in time. There’s a (I think) higher level of satisfaction from being a master in some area of your field, and I can appreciate that. I’ll also say that most of the “masters” I know that are fairly specialized have this innate motivation to learn more about their topic, which bleeds off into other sections of their field, making them knowledgeable in a “Jack” way on other parts of their industry.

    In the end, I think it’s fine to be a Jack or a master, just be true to yourself. Do the things that you enjoy, and if that’s one or the other, you should have a great career.

  • Traveling More Than Expected

    For a guy that was looking to not travel much, it seems that I’ve got way more on my plate than I expected. Right now I have these trips scheduled. At most of them, I’m scheduled to deliver some type of talk.

    That’s quite a bit of travel for me. Add to that these personal trips:

    • Boy Scout camping in April
    • Summer Camp for Boy Scouts in June
    • Summer Camp for Girl Scouts (weekend) in July
    • Two horse race trips with my wife
    • Summer Camping with the family in August

    So much for an off year.

  • Why Support WIT

    First, only support Women in Technology if you want to. It’s an idea that appeals to some, but not to everyone and if it’s not your cause, that’s fine. I don’t think less of you for not supporting the cause, but I would if you bash it. There’s no reason to do that.

    What is WIT? Karen Lopez has a great writeup, and one I agree with. We want to make sure people that want to get into technology can, and not feel that their interest in the field is “wrong”.

    This is Why I #WIT …And Why You Should, Too.

  • Enabling Filestream in SQL Server 2012

    Filestream is a cool feature, albeit one that’s cumbersome to use in SQL Server 2008 and R2. However the FileTable feature in SQL Server 2012 builds on Filestream and you must enable this feature for FileTable to work.

    There is a good document in BOL about this. It basically has you doing a few different things. The first step is to enable the filestream access from outside SQL Server using the SQL Server Configuration Manager. When you start the manager, right click the database service and select properties.

    fs_1

    The database engine has to allow for the access to the file system, so this allows that integration. Typically a Windows administrator is required to dot his.

    Once that is complete, you will see the account properties for the service. What we want to do is change to the FILESTREAM tab, shown on the bottom row to the right.

    fs_2

    On this tab, we can enable Filestream only for SQL Server, for I/O access as well, and specify a share. For Filetable we need to enable both levels of access and create a share name. I chose “SQLFS” for my share name.

    fs_3

    Once this is done, you need to switch to Management Studio and then right clicking the instance and selecting properties.

    fs_4

    This will bring up a series of selections. If you choose the “Advanced” item on the left, you will get a list of properties for the instance. Near the top, there is the FILESTREAM section. Below I have dropped down the choices. By default, this is disabled, and for FILESTREAM you can select either of the other options, but FileTable needs the full access.

    fs_5

    Once this is done, you need to restart the instance to enable the Filestream for the SQL Server. This doesn’t set up FILESTREAM in any of your databases; this merely enables it for the instance. You need to still create the FILESTREAM filegroups in any database that will use FILESTREAM data.