I have a new job, and lemme just tell you, it feels like my whole career has prepared me for this one. I spent several years at UniFocus, a hospitality software company that relied on SQL Server. I honed my SQL skills, but probably more importantly, I managed a small team of programmers. I worked…
The new Caroline Collective space is bringing coworking to Houston, and if my job hunt works out the way I hope this week, I'll be one of the anchor tenants. People who telecommute can feel isolated without the fun personal interaction with creative, dynamic people. Coworking aims to solve that by offering desks and offices…
Joe Webb gave a presentation on "Tips & tricks for writing better queries" for the Nashville PASS chapter, and it's a great read. Developers and DBAs should all read this for a clear, concise refresher. A video of the presentation would be even better, but for the most part, the slide deck speaks for itself. …
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:
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.)
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!
A good database administrator projects confidence - without being a jerk.
This positive yet firm attitude helps the DBA accomplish their job in tough situations:
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) group holds an annual summit for their members. I attended last year, and blogged about some of my experiences:
PASS Summit 2007 Day One Notes
PASS Summit 2007 Day Two Notes
PASS Summit 2007 Day Three Notes
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?
Ever wonder if you’re missing a step when you set up your SQL Server? Get a checklist to install and configure your SQL Server the right way! We've built an easy-to-follow SQL Server Setup Guide for systems administrators, DBAs, and developers that helps you prevent the most common issues we see out in the field. The guide…
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…
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."
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.
When we moved from Miami to Houston for Erika's new job as an air traffic controller, my employer wasn't too sure whether or not telecommuting would work out. Southern Wine currently doesn't have a pro-telecommuting policy by any means: one company exec stood up at a company meeting and said they would "never" allow it,…
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…
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.
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…
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.
Kevin Kline put together a great paper on the new features in SQL Server 2008 called "Worth the Wait: Why SQL Server 2008 is Great" and it's a good read. It's the best DBA-focused paper I've seen on the topic. People have asked me what's coming, and this is probably the best handout to use to explain it.
I have this strange personality quirk - I can't decide whether I'm behind the times or ahead of the curve. I found out about Dinner With The Band, an HDTV podcast where a music-savvy chef (Sam Mason) cooks for a band, and then they play a couple songs in his NYC apartment. It's a slick…
