Voice of the DBA

Tag: windows

  • Continuous Delivery for Windows?

    I read a bit about the next version of Windows, which is coming in 2015 as Windows 10. I’m not sure how much I care about some of the changes coming in the OS, though having CTRL+V working in a command prompt is very welcome. However I did read this piece about the people testing the Technical Previews and was a little intrigued by one quote: “… Threshold testers … will have those features and fixes pushed automatically to them…”

    Does that mean that Microsoft has re-engineered Windows to be integrated with a Continuous Delivery process? If so, then I think this is a good move. We’ve already seen SQL Server move to a pace that releases new versions every two years and bimonthly patches to fix issues. Imagine that we could get patches even more often, as bugs are fixed.

    Also imagine that we could get those bugs quickly rolled back and patches pulled if there are issues.

    I think that’s one of the interesting things for me. There have been patches in the past which caused, issues and were sometimes hard to remove. If new changes can be pushed out quickly, I’d hope they could be removed quickly. And with all the feedback that Microsoft gets from existing installations, I could even start to see custom patches built that are deployed to only certain configurations that are compatible with the patch.

    Of course, that’s an ideal view. I suspect that we’ll still see overworked developers releasing patches that not only fix issues, but cause other problems, and at times, can’t be removed. At least we’ll probably get the patch to fix the patch, a little faster than in the past.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Patching Problems

    I applied the Windows 8.1 update a few weeks ago and had some issues with my machine. Windows was fine, but I lost my SQL Server service. A few other users, including some of the SQLServerCentral community also had issues and sent me ideas, but their fixes didn’t work for me. That was OK because the problems gave me a chance to use PoSh to solve a real problem. I’ll be blogging about that in the next week.

    However the 8.1 update has caused lots of issues, and Microsoft is acknowledging these problems. That’s good, but the process gives me pause, and to a large extent, I think this makes more and more people suspect about all of Microsoft’s patching processes. I bet there are companies that feel even more justified in waiting for SP1 for SQL Server 2014 before upgrading, even though there is a chance that the patch itself will cause problems.

    This is one reason I’ve been hesitant to remain current with Cumulative Updates (CUs). Microsoft doesn’t stand behind them, with the text on each CU page that users should only apply the patch if they are experiencing specific problems. Otherwise users are told to wait for the next Service Pack, which seem to be coming less and less often.

    Any patch can cause issues, and I certainly don’t like the idea of automatic updates always being applied because if there are issues, they can become much more widespread than controlled updates. There is also the issue of vendor responsiveness. Microsoft has pushed out patches that caused issues, and while they’ve try to fix issues quickly, I don’t want to have all of my desktops, or all of my SQL Servers, down because of a bad patch.

    I don’t know how we patch in a more effective manner, but I do know that I want to have some control over updates as an end user, and I also want ways to remove patches. Moving to the app model of always applying patches over patches, and never rolling back seems to be a step in the wrong direction.

    PS – If you want better servicing for SQL Server, vote for final service packs for products still under support.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn. feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • Beware the Windows 8.1 Update Upgrade

    I had Windows 8.0 on my laptop, and went to Win 8.1 earlier this year. Everything went well. Even this spring, when I installed the 8.1 update, things went well on my laptop. This was my test environment, as most days I work on my desktop. I decided to then update my desktop, and things went well overall, until I went to use SQL Server.

    At first, I couldn’t connect to SQL Server from SSMS. No big deal, I thought the update had stopped a service. I checked Services, and was surprised to not see a SQL Server database service. I had a browser and VSS service, but nothing else.

    I rebooted my machine, which didn’t help. I manually ran sqlservr.exe, and it failed with permissions issued. I tried repairing the SQL install, but that didn’t work either. More than a few people reported similar things, but nothing I found on the Internet worked. I kept getting security SPID errors, so I just uninstalled, and then reinstalled SQL Server.

    I’m not sure under which accounts I had my service running, and it’s possible I used my own account, but usually I set up a SQLService account on my machines. In any case, it was a hassle and pain.

    I’m not telling you to avoid the 8.1 Update, but I am warning you and noting that you might want to be sure you have good backups of your systems.

  • Getting RUN back in Windows 8

    Recently I heard a few people that note that they were really hoping the next update for Windows 8 will bring back the “Run button”, which was available in XP and Windows 7. I guess it was in Vista, but we won’t talk about that fiasco.

    I asked a question to the Intertubes and someone told me to do this:

    • Hit Windows+R
    • Pin the Run item to the taskbar.

    It’s that simple, and I tested it in Windows 8. It works well. Here’s what it looks like:

    Hit Windows+R, that’s the Windows key and the R button together. That gives you this:

    runbutton_a

    The Run dialog appears in the lower left hand corner. For me, that’s just above the IE icon (this is Windows 8, not 8.1, no Start menu button) and the last thing I ran is in there. I removed my item, but you will see what you last ran.

    Now, if you look in your taskbar, on the right side, you’ll see an icon that is the run dialog. In the image below, I’ve drawn an arrow pointing to it.

    runbutton_b

    If you right click this icon, you’ll get a menu.

    runbutton_c

    If you click “Pin”, then this icon will remain in the taskbar. You can click it anytime to get the Run dialog.