Voice of the DBA

Tag: syndicated

  • Way Behind

    One of the things I have to do every month is process payments for the authors. It’s my job to get a list of payments over to accounting at Red Gate, and actually make the Paypal payments myself. Red Gate had some issues making payments in the US, so it’s fallen on my to handle it. Not a big deal, and I have a reminder to process payments the first week of the month, usually the 2nd.

    However this month I’m late. The reminder popped up Friday, July 2, but I was busy trying to get things scheduled to get out of town for vacation and didn’t get to it. Since I didn’t return from vacation until today, I’m way behind on getting payments out.

    That was my top priority today, and I’m hoping that Accounting will get my email tomorrow and hopefully get payments out quickly next week.

    This is one of those scheduled items that is important, and it always bothers me when I’m late. My apologies to authors.

  • Loss of Files Does Not a Suspect Database Make

    I saw a post recently by someone asking how to get a database to be suspect. They said they had added a data file and then remove it, but the database wasn’t suspect. This was true in the past (v6.x), but it seems that as the product has advanced, there are more database states, and things like a missing file do not force a suspect state.

    Instead the database on 2008 goes into an Offline status. Gail Shaw, who pointed this out to me in a blog, actually wrote her own blog on this topic, so I won’t duplicate the code.

    I stopped my local SQL Server, then renamed one of the db files as shown:

    suspect_a

    In essence, this file is “lost” to SQL Server, just like it had been deleted, moved, etc. When I restart SQL Server, I see this:

    suspect_b

    No way to expand out db2 here. If I look at properties, I see it in “Shutdown” status

    suspect_c

    Strangely, if I right click, I have the “Take offline” available, not not “Take Online”. If I click that, I get the database offline, but I cannot then bring it back online. It gives me an error, as it should since the files are missing. The error log shows the issues with

    suspect_d

    I can rename the file without taking SQL Server down, and then bring the db online. It’s the same as recovering this disk drive or fixing the file somehow.

    I’m glad this changed, since we should have more details about what happened, and a “suspect” database should be reserved for more serious issues. I think having this “shutdown” or “offline” is a better status.

    The databases status values are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190442.aspx

  • Why Work on a SQL Saturday?

    46729252[1] I was having a long call with Andy Warren (blog | Twitter), fellow founder of SQLServerCentral and SQL Saturday. We were talking about a few things that could be done differently with SQL Saturday and getting a little passionate about it. I stopped in the middle and thought for a minute, why am I so worried about this?
    I think the answer lives in Motivation 3.0, an idea put forth by a few people, but something I heard about from Dan Pink in his book Drive.
    We have things that we believe in, that we see as worth doing, and regardless of the compensation, we drift towards them and become much more focused when working on them.
    SQL Saturday, PASS, the entire SQL Server Community has somewhat become that for me. I’m driven to spend time trying to make it better, not because it makes me money, but because I believe in it.
    I want SQL Saturdays to be successful. I want them to train people to better use SQL Server. I want speakers to be proud of their efforts to help people. I want PASS to mean something to people’s careers, and help them. I want people to enjoy working with SQL Server, and use it to solve problems.
    It’s a bit of a strange feeling for someone that has typically been a capitalist, and looked to be more profitable in my endeavors each year. One of my concerns over SQL Saturday initially was the lack of a way to monetize the time spent on it by Andy.
    Now I find myself, happily, in the same boat.

  • Q2 Goal Review

    I have a monthly reminder, which is currently making me feel guilty. It’s there to tell me to review my goals, and I find myself lacking a bit.

    My goals for 2010 on this site were:

  • Continue managing the forums, but at a reduced, 300 post a month level.
  • Blog 5 times a week, M-F, on at least 2 SQL Server technical topics a week.
  • Learn Reporting Services – at something better than an average level. Maybe not an expert, but work towards being able to use it and answer > 50% of the questions I see.
  • Attend one SQL Saturday – At least, though I think I’m slated to hit 2 in 2010 at least.
  • Write a book – I’ve had three topics in mind for awhile, but I haven’t moved forward well on this. I need to finish one in 2010.
  • Build 2 new presentations. I’ve given one of two presentations pretty regularly over the last few years, but I need to expand, and find some other things to talk about. Not that these aren’t still relevant and good presentations, but I need to try some new ones.
  • Take all my vacation in 2010 – I’ve been bad about this in the past, carrying some over, selling some back. With some good guest writers, there’s no reason for me not to get away from work more.
  • Travel to one new city for work – Likely this will be Vegas, but I ought to spread my time around the community.

    • My current review:

  • Continue managing the forums – On Target
  • Blog 5 times a week – For the most part on target, though I think I’m once a week on T-SQL/SQL Server
  • Learn Reporting Services – I wanted to do 100 hours on this, but I am woefully behind. Security issues on the laptop that keep cropping up are annoying.
  • Attend one SQL Saturday –  Completed. I’ve been to Charlotte and Pensacola. Baton Rouge, Denver, and Kansas City are scheduled, possibly another one.
  • Write a book – I have done some work here, but not enough. Not on target to finish in 2010.
  • Build 2 new presentations – Completed. I built two beginner presentations, one technical, one non. I am working on an auditing one.
  • Take all my vacation in 2010 – Working on this. I’m in Vegas on vacation as this goes out.
  • Travel to one new city for work – Completed. I did get to Charlotte, so that counts. Kansas City and Vegas are on the agenda as well.

    • Not bad, not great. The SSRS one and the book are bothering me, but I feel that I might have overextended myself on this. I am adding in one additional goal that I had promised to do this year.

    Volunteering for PASS – Completed. I worked on the spotlight and pre/post con committees.