Posts by Brent Ozar

A reader asked a great question, and I just had to share it in a more general form because it applies to so many of us production database administrators. He’s currently a production SQL Server DBA, and his company’s bringing in a new application with a SQL Server back end.  He’s doing a good job…

I just flew out to Tucson to film my sessions for the upcoming SSWUG Virtual Conference.  It’s a pretty cool setup – SWUG has a full blown TV studio in their offices, and it’s really professional.  (Trust me – I know when something’s unprofessional.) Professor Ozar The best way for me to explain it is…

So the news is out – full-blown SQL Server is coming in the cloud – and it’s time to look back at history. When I got started in IT, Novell was the dominant server platform.  If you wanted a “real” server, you got a Netware box, and you managed it with a keyboard.  None of…

(Warning – blast from the past! This was originally published by HAL-PC’s print magazine.  I’m copying it into a blog entry because I’m getting rid of my old review sections in my blog, and this was the only page still getting hits from 2002.  It’s funny to read in retrospect, but regular readers can just…

Tim Ford, aka SQLAgentman, posed a question: when you think you know why something’s not working, when do you modify somebody else’s code, and when do you refuse?  I know, I know!  I’ve got the perfect answer – “It Depends.” Vendor Apps That Are Under Paid Support I never touch vendor applications when I’m paying…

Whew. So my first (of just two) chapters for the upcoming SQL Server Internals and Troubleshooting book is done.  I just wish I had more time to add more stuff!  I started out with a grand outline of all kinds of storage-related topics, and as I edged closer to the deadline, I had to slice…

Chris Shaw posted a question on his blog and tagged me: Do you feel like you are being treated fairly at your current or past employers? The question stems from the fact that very few people today stay at a company 20 to 30 years like they did when I was growing up. Do you…

Download My Free Twitter Book Twitter is a loud, angry noise of people hollering all kinds of stuff.  It’s a casual free-for-all with friends bantering about their day, their work, their trials and their triumphs.  I love how open and honest it is.  Polished marketing-style people come off as fake and plastic. Rod Sloane says…

Manager: “It’s come to my attention that the application performance isn’t as good as it should be.  Users are complaining that it takes too long.  Is it fair to say that every query sent to the database should finish in under ten seconds?” Developers: “Yeah.” Database administrators: “Yeah.” Manager: “Okay, we’re in agreement.  Going forward,…

I’ve blogged about how syndication is the future for news sites like SQLServerPedia and for magazines like GestaltIT, and now it’s time to talk newspapers. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is doing syndication and aggregation right on their home page.  Blog site The Stranger reports that the PI has started running headlines that point straight out to…

Linked servers let users query different database servers from a central SQL Server.  Some uses for this might be: DBA utility scripts – from a central repository server, we could query all of the servers in our environment to check for things like backup dates or configuration settings Consolidated reporting – we could gather results…

If you follow people that don’t interest you, then you won’t be interested in Twitter. If you follow people that interest you, then you’ll be interested in Twitter. It’s just that simple. Saying Twitter sucks is like saying the web sucks, or that music sucks, or that talking sucks.  It just indicates that you’re unclear…

Here’s how I see the forms of communication and what they say about who’s sending the message: Twitter or forum message to the public: “I need help, and I’ll take it from anybody who’s available, inside or outside of my company.” Email: “I need you specifically, but it’s not urgent.” Instant Message: “I need you…