Archive for September, 2009
Fizzbuzz
I recall reading Brent Ozar’s post on questions to ask DBAs in an interview.
Unable to sleep last night, I was trying to solve the Fizzbuzz problem in my head. I knew it could be done with T-SQL, but I hadn’t given it too much thought.
I’m lying in bed mapping out the code in my head. [...]
Backup Agents: Good, Bad, or Ugly?
Do you use database backup agents to back up your database or do you write your backups to disk and use a file system backup agent for sending them to long-term storage?
I’ve seen this spark religious debates between DBAs and network administrators.
As a network administrator, I like being able to point the backup software at [...]
Using sysdepends the old fashioned way
SQL Server gives us a pretty good GUI for most things. Every once in a while, though, it’s pretty rewarding to dig into the system tables to get this information the old fashioned way.
I was working on a problem with a stored procedure on a SQL 2000 instance. This procedure called procedures and functions that [...]
An Ounce of Prevention
Having worked in some large IT organizations, coming into a small shop can be maddening at times.
When a drive goes bad in a server, we call IBM and they overnight us a new drive. A few months ago, I had a drive go bad, and the server was no longer under warranty. IBM didn’t overnight [...]
(nolock)
A few years ago, I was working on a big project doing some report writing. This particular client had a rule that every report have an underlying stored procedure. That was one of those things that sounds great in theory, but the practical applications are less impressive.
Most of the reports were scheduled to be run [...]
A Bad SAN
Several years ago, I was working on a project at a utility company, deploying their new customer billing system. After the system went live, I was asked if I would work the night shift, doing all of the operational work, importing the payments and meter readings, generating the bills, etc. Since the system was new, [...]
The Great Breakup
In a recent post, I said that database servers and web servers can be friends, but they shouldn’t live together. Truth be told, I inherited an environment with tons of servers that run both the web and database servers. When you’re a small shop, it’s not such a big deal. But as the company has [...]
Food for Thought: Access Used Properly
The DBA community is going to have a fit with this, but I wonder if Access is as bad of an application as we make it out to be. I know I made a case for giving Access a seat at the table in the past, and I don’t want people to think I’m a [...]
The Value of a Mentor
If you’re a junior DBA, or if you’re just starting your IT career, this is certainly a blog post you want to read.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my career by working for some fantastic managers and learning from some amazing mentors. I used to be intimidated by people who knew more about things than I [...]
How I Became a DBA
I don’t know any DBAs who started their careers wanting to be a DBA. It seems that everybody has grown into the position or their position has evolved into a DBA role. Mine is a bit of the two.
I’m originally from Pittsburgh, and that’s where I lived most of my adult life. Most of my [...]