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Google App Engine: the Amazon Web Services gets a competitor

I've followed Amazon Web Services since its unveiling because I saw it as a really disruptive service that enabled startups to get off the ground for much less capital.

Now AWS finally has a competitor: the new Google App Engine, described in a blog entry over at the new Google App Engine Blog.  The feature list includes:

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T-SQL & Development

DBA Candidates: Ask For A List of Servers

When interviewing for a database administrator position, ask the manager for a list of database servers, the applications that rely on them, and who to contact when the server goes down.

(The manager may express concern about the secure nature of the list, and that's fair - I would say the same thing.  If they don't want to hand over the list, then just ask them to put their hands on it and answer the rest of the questions for you.)

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SQL Server Consolidation: Plan for SQL Server 2008

When you're building a consolidation plan, stop to think about when each database will be migrated to a newer version of SQL Server.

With SQL Server 2008 coming fast, some content owners will want to move their databases to 2008 as soon as it comes out in order to take advantage of things like the resource governor. But if you've consolidated multiple database servers onto one, and just one of those databases can't be moved to 2008, then everybody has to wait!

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SQL Server 2005 Setup Checklist Part 2: After The Install

I've covered what needs to happen before you install SQL Server - now, let's talk about what to do immediately after the setup finishes.
Install not just the service packs, but also the cumulative updates.
Starting with SQL Server 2005's Service Pack 2, Microsoft releases hotfixes in cumulative packs. These updates do more than just fix bugs: they improve how SQL Server performs. These updates are free performance benefits - and who doesn't like that?

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DBA Job Transitioning: Disable Logins In Advance

Database administrators touch a lot of servers in their day-to-day duties.  We do a lot of troubleshooting, security testing, and run a lot of utilities for everything from performance monitoring to development servers. In a perfect world, the database admin changes their domain password frequently.  When the password changes, the DBA knows pretty quickly if…

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SQL Server Magazine post about the Quest SQL community

SQL Server Magazine just posted an interview with Billy Bosworth about the Quest Association for SQL Server Experts.  One of the quotes that stood out for me was:

"We want real people who do real jobs . . . that can interact with us very early in the process of building a product. That helps us to identify what the real pains are out there."

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T-SQL & Development

Interviewing DBAs: Check their Business Decisionmaking

When interviewing a database administrator, it's not enough to check their knowledge of technical skills: we have to check their ability to make sound business decisions. DBAs are in a position to make a lot of architectural decisions with long-term ramifications, and in smaller shops with just one or two DBAs, these decisions won't come out into the open until it's too late.

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Don’t specify IP’s in your SQL connection string

In today's SQL newsletter from SQL-Server-Performance.com I was horrified to find the following tip: When you specify a server in an ADO.NET connection string, use the server's IP address, not the server's DNS name. By using an IP address instead of a DNS name, name resolution does not have to occur, reducing the amount of…

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Querying IBM Director 5.2 for firmware versions

IBM Director is a decent tool to manage firmware & driver versions, but it doesn't have a nice report to show the firmware & driver versions for things like the RSA, raid card, network cards, etc.  I wrote the below T-SQL query to list out the most commonly needed versions & IP addresses after I couldn't find a similar one online.  If you store your data in something other than SQL Server, you'll need to modify the query to match your database platform.

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Production DBA

SQL Backup Software: Part 5 – Justifying the Cost

I've talked about how a SQL backup compression program can help database administrators, but now it's time to convince the boss. We have to sell management on why it's worth the money. First, a few words about my approach to database administration, because I think it'll help DBAs in general. Being a database administrator is…

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SQL performance tuning: it’s about training too

When developers and SQL Server database administrators work together to make an app faster, it shouldn't just be the DBA working alone in the dark.  If the DBA takes the slow code, goes into his cube, tweaks it (and indexes) and comes back out with a faster system, that fixes the problem once - but it doesn't fix the long-term problem.

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