We know we’re good; we know we can be better. But too many times, stuff gets in our way. So what is it that’s preventing us from doing not just a good job, but a great job; what is holding us back from becoming a great DBA? – Is there not enough time in the […]
Here’s a story that I’d like to share, about the infamous SQL Server 833. A while ago I was on a performance-tuning call at a client site; they’d been experiencing event 833 from some of their production SQL Servers, and they wanted to know if this was a SQL Server problem or a problem with […]
Troubleshooting error messages can be a little tricky, especially if you’re new to the task. Here’s a good example of a job that failed without a whole lot of information as to why it failed. This was taken from the Windows Event Log/Application Log: Log Name: Application Source: SQLISPackage Date: […]
Tom LaRock, aka the SQL Rockstar, recently blogged about the Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD). He pointed out that, as good as Azure is, it does lack a few features of the ground-bound version of SQL Server. He lists seven tasks that you won’t have to bother with, or won’t be able to do. To […]
I just read a blog post about “Data Models: Build or Buy”, by Jason Haley … He has some interesting points. If I could recap for brevity and clarity … Good data models that accurately reflect business requirements are critical to the success of a database project, whether transactional or data warehouse, web-based retail or […]
Yesterday I was reading an entry in one of the LinkIn forums that I belong to. It went something like this: “In a simple scheduled backup maintenance plan the Server runs the job but doesn’t create a backup? what could be the reason? In the history of the backup it shows the job ran successfully?” […]
Baseline Magazine, in their Briefing newsletter, has listed out ten best cities in the US for finding a tech job. If you’re looking for a a new challenge in your professional life, it might be worth-while to begin tracking the area lists and newspapers that coincide with the industry type you’re most interested in. The […]
Had to share this finding — SearchCloudComputing.com’s “Cloud computing from A to Z”. I’m not saying that this is the definitive dictionary of cloud computing terms, and it’s a little dated, but it’s a good resource. Check it out at http://bit.ly/cPRoTA Over time I’ll be adding references to cloud computing resources to this blog category. […]
As a new DBA, or if you’re consulting and you need to quickly determine what environments you’re working in, one of the first things you’re going to do is to document (that’s right, you’re going to record this somewhere! it’s one of those “best practices” things…) each server under management. So how do you do […]
If you design databases as part of your job, you’re not alone. Recently, the SQL Server Magazine ran an “insta-poll”, where they asked “Do you consider database design to be part of your job function?” The results from the 102 responses: – Yes, I’m primarily a database designer–1% – Yes, I consider myself to be […]