THE TOP 10 MISTAKES MADE BY SQL SERVER DBAS The SQL Server world has its own set of challenges when it comes to database administration. One of the biggest challenges is that there are never enough skilled DBAs. Consequently, many people who are not true DBAs are pressed into service, perhaps a Windows SysAdmin or the lead developer on an application using a SQL Server back end, so-called "accidental DBAs." That means that people doing DBA work on SQL Server frequently do not know the fundamental technical details or the processes and practices commonly used by experienced enterprise DBAs. … [Read more...]
The Top 10 Mistakes Made by SQL Server DBAs
Filed Under: Administration, DBA, DBTA Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, DBTA, Professional Development
Advice to New Bloggers
PREAMBLE If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I travel and speak quite a lot. A frequent question I'm asked at these events is "I want to start blogging, but don't know where to start. What do you recommend?" This is a such a common and natural question as to be almost existential at it's root. In most every context where we move from the known to the unknown, from taking that first international trip to learning how to swim, we might first begin by saying "I'm uncertain. Where do I start?" Success in any of these situations can be distilled down to a single word - … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Best Practices, Career, Professional Development, Writing
ICYMI: Troubleshooting Availability Groups and the Schema Switcharoo – SQL Server Performance
Aaron Bertrand (b | t) is on a roll this month's SQL Server performance highlights with more great articles from SQLPerformance.com. Troubleshooting AlwaysOn – Sometimes it takes many sets of eyes Aaron Bertrand (b | t) hit some obstacles recently when configuring an Availability Groups lab environment. This post shows how some assistance from the community helped him isolate and solve the issues. Another argument for stored procedures Learn the subtle ways that ad hoc queries can interfere with SQL Server performance by taking up more space in the plan cache than … [Read more...]
Filed Under: SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: Backup & Recovery, Best Practices, DBA
ICYMI: Sequences, CPUs, and Trimming T-Logs – SQL Server Performance Topics
Have you read any of the great articles on SQLPerformance.com? The deep-dive technical info about SQL Server performance issues authored by the SQL Server industry’s top experts. Here are a few great articles from the early days of the website, January 2013: Generate a set or sequence without loops Aaron Bertrand (b|t) provides detailed performance information about a variety of methods used to generate sets and sequences in this first in a three part series. Selecting a Processor for SQL Server 2012 Glenn Berry (b|t) of SQLskills.com sheds light on the best CPU to select … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Hardware, IO, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: Backup & Recovery, Best Practices, DBA, Developer, Internals
SQL Injection – Why the Heck Does this Keep Happening?!
I'm decidedly old-school in a few of my habits. My morning routine, barring anything out of the ordinary, is one such example. Typically, I'll get up between 6:30 to 7:00 am, grab my first cup of coffee, and then chat with my daughters for a few minutes before seeing them off to school. Next, I make a bowl of oatmeal (a great choice for diabetics like me), pour a second cup of coffee, and browse the local paper, The Tennessean, while I have breakfast. On the morning of August 5, I had the added pleasure of spewing said coffee and oatmeal all over my morning paper when I read the … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cloud, Coding, Databases, DBTA, IT Horror Stories, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Best Practices, cloud computing, DBA, DBTA, Developer
Four New Slide Decks for SQL Server and IT Pros from the DevLink 2014 Conference
I always enjoy presenting at the DevLink conference, presented each summer in middle Tennessee. This year, I'm trying to be a better social media person and actually post my slides (in their most recent forms) on my SlideShare account for everyone to see and share. If you attended my session(s) and enjoyed them, feel free to download the content here. But it'd be even better if you also left a few words in the Comment section. Skip below to grab the slide decks. Thanks very much! Enjoy, -Kevin -Follow me on Twitter! -Google Author Microsoft SQL Server Internals & … [Read more...]
Third Party Applications and Other Acts of Violence Against Your SQL Server
I just got finished reading a great blog post from my buddy, Thomas LaRock (t | b), in which he describes a useful personal policy he used to track changes made to his SQL Servers when installing third-party products. Note that I'm talking about line-of-business applications here - your inventory management systems and help desk ticketing apps. I'm not talking about monitoring and tuning applications since they, by their very nature, need a different sort of access to your back-end server resources. (Full disclosure: both Tom and I currently work for different tools vendors. But we're both … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Databases, On-Line Resources, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA
Writing and Delivering a Successful Full-Day Technology Seminar
I was recently chatting with the current President of PASS, Thomas LaRock (Twitter | Blog), and Pieter Vanhove (Twitter | Blog), a prominent SQL Server consultant and expert in Belgium, about how I go about building and presenting a full-day technical seminar. In the SQL Server world, we tend to call these "pre-cons", as in pre-conference seminar, because they're typically offered as paid add-ons occurring prior to a full technical conference. We call them that even when they come at the end of the conference and, heck, when there's no conference at all. Kevin and Kendal Van Dyke … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, Presentations, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Best Practices, Career, Goals, Leadership, Professional Development, Training
Join Me on March 14 in Silicon Valley for a Full-Day of SQL Server Configuration Tuning Lessons
Join me for a day of Real World Database Configuration and Tuning for Microsoft SQL Server SQL Saturday Silicon Valley 2014 Friday, March 14, 2014 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM (PDT) Mountain View, CA Click HERE to register Now! Seating is very limited! This full-day training event combines a thorough overview of fundamental architectural concepts of the SQL Server relational engine followed by hands-on demos to reinforce each conceptual lesson. Since most technologists learn by doing, this training is designed to maximize the time attendees spend working with SQL Server. … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Databases, PASS, Performance, Presentations, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Configuration, DBA, Troubleshooting
One Preparation that makes SSMS Crash Dumps Easy to Survive
Uh oh! So you're plugging along in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) when it suddenly goes belly up. Now you're staring at various dialog boxes telling you that SSMS crashed. Usually the first dialog box you get will ask you if you'd like to close OR the program. If you choose to close the program, you'll be presented with the opportunity to recover your lost SQL scripts once you reopen SSMS, as shown above. (Image above courtesy of Aalam Rangi). But let's say that closing the program represents a big issue for you due to lost time, productivity, etc. You want to go … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Databases, IT Horror Stories, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tool Time Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, Developer, SQL Server 2012
