Tech News - Databases

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. Today’s tip is to be creative. Cook, draw, write, paint, make, or inspire. I like creativity. It’s a part of my job and my life, as I often need to think about how to write. I’m also a little creative in my life, as I cook most of the meals, fix things, play guitar, and sometimes actually build something interesting. This week, I’ve started going back through my guitar courses and practicing. Today, to relax during the PASS Virtual Summit, I’ve kept a guitar handy and just mindlessly played some riffs over and over as I watched some talks. I’m also hoping to get “Lovely Day” good enough that I can play it tonight for my wife. She loves that song. The post Daily Coping 13 Nov 2020 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

I was helping my 16yo write his first college essay the other day. He’s always struggled a bit with writing essays so this isn’t an easy task. As I’m going over what he’s written so far I gave him a piece of advice I’d never thought of before. When writing an essay the first thing you need to ask yourself is What do they want to hear? I told him to read the essay prompt Write about an event in your life. and then expand on that. It’s a college essay so writing about how the event he picked made him want to live life to it’s fullest and go join a circus probably isn’t going to help. As I thought about this I realized just how far reaching this concept is. When I write a blog post, I come up with a concept and then have to think of what do the people reading it want to get out of it. In any form of communication, you need to read the prompt and then figure out what they really want. A blog post (as I mentioned above) has a target audience. And make no mistake, you are always going to be part of your target audience. What does that audience want? Do they want a simple how to? A complex, in depth discussion of a problem? The answer can, and probably will, change post by post. Documentation. Same as a blog post really. Any technical request. It could be anything from a new database, an SSIS package, a stored procedure, view etc. You need to figure out not just what they’ve asked for but what do they want, and what do they need. Know your audience. Make sure your output fits the audience. The post What do they want to hear? appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

At the recent PASS Virtual Summit I and the other candidates took part in a Ask Me Anything (AMA) session – where the community posed us questions. It was a great experience for me – of the 3 days it ran I had time to participate in 2 of them. Current board activities and client requirements didn’t allow me to take part in the final session. It was on reflection of the AMA session that I thought some key things need to be looked at. Namely: — how the community can be engaged in the future of PASS — how we can align as a global team — what the event(s) on 2021 might look like Community EngagementThe Board needs to look to the leaders within our community. We need their help – because to go forward we all need to be on the same page. We need to work cohesively to save the community platform that is PASS. This cannot be a top down approach. We need your help.I have worked in many situations where people have said “it can’t be done” or people are siloed in their approach. One of the reasons I got into DevOps was I realised early on that we needed a goal that could align disparate groups of people. It worked wonders in my corporate career and I’ve excelled in it whilst running a consultancy company.In short – we need to listen to our community, we need to work with that community and take the positive actions and measure the not-so positive actions. Measure them against the goal of PASS – a platform that helps the community learn, grow and connect. AlignmentThe alignment of a global team is related to the above action item. We need to work actively with our Regional Mentors – because they represent our regions. They should be actively working with their community leaders and actively telling us the board what works and doesn’t. We need this alignment, we need this communication and we need people who are passionate about making a difference for their community. I appreciate these are volunteer positions, that it can take a bit of personal time – however – time can be allocated if something is important enough and I found helping a community to be somewhere people felt safe, could learn and become a better person. I was recognised by the community in 2019 for being relentless when it came to helping others: https://www.pass.org/About-PASS/PASS-News/2019-passion-award-winner In my life I have a pragmatic approach to disparity – one of the my early mantras was “make stuff go” and when placed in situations where groups of people wouldn’t agree on action items – I’d measure our opinions on whether it made stuff go or not. It is a very simple thing to do, the hard part is actually listening and distilling down to the fundamental problems at hand. Not up-talking or complicating things for our own ego…. That is what is needed for both items 1 & 2 above. I can help here, I have a proven corporate record in doing that. Basically this is about running out of $$…We need to take a pragmatic approach to the survival of PASS – and events may be smaller and more regional in 2021 – purely because of the covid situation we are experiencing right now. In saying that the Virtual Summit that we’ve just had was better than I personally thought it would be. I’m interested to see what the number/percentages look like for attendee experience. Certainly compared to other events I’ve been on it was better, yes there are improvements to be made/had. There were aspects that I didn’t like – but we have a voice and constructive feedback is far better than just saying something is bad. It will be interesting to see what the balance sheet looks like when all things are done – I feel that some hard decisions have to be made to ensure the longevity of the platform known as PASS. Some of those decisions will involve how we engage with the community, how we manage events as well as what strategic decisions we can make around content delivery. Not easy at all, but my passion for our community means I’m ready to stand up and fight for what PASS really needs to be, PASS has changed my life – dramatically. I used to be a mediocre DBA. I thought locally rather than globally and the personal growth I have experienced by meeting passionate mentors has made me a far better person. It has resulted in my own mentoring of people and also having a wider sense of community – not just a data platform community – but helping others: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/humans-of-it-blog/guest-blog-how-mvps-can-be-champions-for-diversity-and-inclusion/ba-p/824013 This is why I want PASS to continue – things have to change and I want to be a positive participant of that journey. Please vote here: https://pass.simplyvoting.com/?user=pass&language=en&og=112896 My other blog post around why I am running is here:Why I am running for the PASS Board in 2020 #Yip. The post What the future of PASS needs – and how I can help appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

It is a really common requirement to add specific libraries to databricks. Libraries can be written in Python, Java, Scala, and R. You can upload Java, Scala, and Python libraries and point to external packages in PyPI, Maven, and CRAN … Continue reading ? The post Azure Databricks – Adding Libraries appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

Is your SQL environment prepared for a disaster? There are big and small disasters and depending on your perspective big and small can mean different things. Preparing your environment for these special events by exporting SQL Server Configurations for DR purposes is essential. I am not going to talk about your backup/recovery, HA, RPO, or RTO strategy. My plan is to show you how to protect yourself from the smaller gremlins that might bite your backside when no one is looking. Have you ever deleted a login by mistake from a hastily typed TSQL script or dropped a list of logins because the “Business” said they are not used anymore? Have you ever made a change to a SQL Server Agent job and then it failed on the next execution. What about that time you changed the Database Mail profile on all of your servers and left your personal account in the script instead of the DBA distribution list. While each of these examples is not life-threatening, they will strike fear in you depending on how prepared you are to recover the items in question. Enter the Export-DbaInstance function from dbatools. This function will export key configuration items from your SQL Server to individual script files. List of Configurations Exported All database restore scripts All logins All database mail objects All credentials All objects within the Job Server (SQL Agent) All linked servers All groups and servers within Central Management Server All SQL Server configuration objects (everything in sp_configure) All user objects in system databases All system triggers All system backup devices All Audits All Endpoints All Extended Events All Policy Management objects All Resource Governor objects All Server Audit Specifications All Custom Errors (User Defined Messages) All Server Roles All Availability Groups Wouldn’t you sleep much better at night knowing that every day you were saving this information in case of a Disaster, big or small? Let us take a quick look at how the function works. Export-DbaInstance -SqlInstance "localhostsql2017" -Path "C:DR" As you can see after I run the command I get a nice tidy directory of scripts. This is from a default run with no special parameters. It will go through each category listed above and if there are configurated values will generate a script file.  There is also an -exclude parameter that can be used if you want to omit a configuration from being scripted. Here is an example of the TSQL Script that is created. You can take this script and run it on the server it was generated from or another server where you want to deploy the same configuration. A header is added that shows you when the script was generated and from what server. Then you have all the TSQL you need to get DBMail working again. I hope this sparks some ideas on how you can use the Export-DbaInstance function to save your bacon in the future!!! Related Info Check out the help for Export-DbaInstance The post Export SQL Server Configurations for DR purposes appeared first on GarryBargsley.com. The post Export SQL Server Configurations for DR purposes appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

This is my report, which continues on from the Aug report. After that report, I made an effort to work a little harder. This is where I am. Reading Goals Here were my goals for the year. 3 technical books 2 non-technical books Books I’ve tackled: Making Work Visible – Complete Pro Power BI Desktop – 60% complete White Fragility – 82% complete The Biggest Bluff – 100% complete Team of Teams – NEW Project to Product – NEW I made an effort during some lunches and breaks to work on Making Work Visible and finished it. The middle of the book was hard, but the end got me thinking again. I’ll write a review soon. No Power BI or White Fragility. I’ve been a little unfocused and struggling to cope for a couple months and trying to let my brain relax when I can. I added the last book after hearing the author talk about poker and how it relates to life and decision making. So far, it’s a mix of poker, fear, and the challenges of imperfect information. Project Goals Here were my project goals, working with software A Power BI report that updates from a database A mobile app reading data from somewhere A website that showcases changes and data from a database. I started compiling some data, grabbing some stats from my life. I’m loading that into a db , as a part of life and some content work, so I’ll write about that. Once I get that loaded, I’m thinking to use that db as a way to kick start some of these items. Work is not slowing this fall,but I did take a bit of time and start to build a PowerBI report that has some data in a database. Early days here, and I really think this is about 10% done, but it’s moving. Nothing on the mobile app, nothing on the website for now. The post Goal Progress– October 2020 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. Today’s tip is to give yourself a boost. Try a new way of being physically active. My weekly activities are usually yoga, weight lifting, and swimming. I may use the rowing machine or bike, but those are less frequent. Horseback riding rarely, but skiing is usually something I start thinking about this time of year as a 1-2x /wk activity. In trying something new, I decided to add in some walking. I stopped running a few years ago, but with being sick this fall, I need something that works me, but isn’t too taxing. Something I can also include the dogs in, so walking it is. I’m adding in a walk a week, or hoping to, and trying to get some different type of movement, especially as I hope to travel in 2021 somewhere and do more walking/hiking. The post Daily Coping 12 Nov 2020 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

This year, 2020, has been crazy. What started as a normal year for me, including a sabbatical, turned into a crazy, shutdown, lockdown, stuck at home pandemic around the world. My world changed a lot, as I cancelled a trip at the beginning of March, and all subsequent ones. Coaching volleyball stopped, and most events were cancelled, big changes for me. At the same time, my daughter came home from college and spent the rest of the semester with us and my oldest switched from teaching in person to being at home and finding a place he could virtually teach. This month, Taiob Ali asks us how we are dealing with these changes. Coping At first, I was coping fine with things fine. I live on a large ranch, my wife works from home, and I’ve been doing so for nearly 20 years. I have an office and am used to working here regularly. We are healthy and financially secure, and mostly it was a pain dealing with the changes in the world. As part of the Redgate Community Circleww, we started to think about how to help others, and came up with different ideas. One of mine was to publish some coping tips. At first, I was trying to help others, but over time, I found these to be invaluable to me. I get these from Action for Happiness for the most part, though I add some myself. I work through these in my life, often a few days in advance, and then write about them. I was thinking to stop these after June, but many people responded they liked them, and I’ve continued ever since then, which seems like a long time. I’ve also found these help me. During August, I struggled with the length of the changes, and the fact that looking forward another 6 months, I couldn’t see an end to the pandemic. The weight of the length of this weighs on me. Physical Health I’m in my 50s and exercise regularly, usually doing yoga or going to the gym 20+ days a month. My diet is OK, probably better than average America, but not great. Still, while my routine was interrupted in March, with less stuff than I’d like: I got better in April and was in a good routine through June. Mostly life was good until the end of October. I had a trip planned to visit family, but cancelled. My wife got sick, then I did, then my daughter. A week later one of my sons got sick. We had been diagnosed with COVID, and it was both scary and hard. The symptoms weren’t that bad, but all of my energy was sapped. I spent most of two weeks in bed or with very light chores around the house. Since then, I feel better, but there are still some gaps in my health. I have no worry of dying, but I am worried about long term physical ability. Wear a mask, try not to get it, and if you don’t believe in masks or the disease, you’re a moron. Don’t leave me a comment on what you believe as a non-epidemiologist or non medical professional. Pardon my language, but fuck off. Mental Health I’ve struggled. Despite working at home for a couple decades, I’m used to changing my environment, going to see others, traveling, and more. Seeing my children depressed from school changes, not seeing the kids I coach, not getting to the gym, not going to restaurants and movies, it got to me. The longing for a change of environment, and not seeing the same four walls of my office weigh on me. The struggles I see on the news, especially from so many people losing jobs, businesses, and more are hard. I have a lot of empathy and realize I am incredibly blessed. I’ve made an effort to chat with others. To reach out at times, and ask for support from my wife and a few close friends. My mental health as suffered, even as I try to cope. I continue to work on this regularly, talking more, and trying to find the good things in my life as much as I can. Professional Growth I had hoped to do more learning, expecting that this pandemic would be less than six months. On one hand, I greatly underestimated the struggles of being at home all the time. On the other, I got some things done. I’ve had different goals this year, and I have spent some time learning more about Power BI, DAX, and visualization. I’ve read more business/non-fiction books this year than in the past. I’m making progress on goals. Not as much as I’d like, but some. The post T-SQL Tuesday #132 Pandemic Coping appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

Tuesday notes! Today I’m in Execution Plans in Depth by Hugo Kornelis. Notes: Today the presenter is using the Cadmium/EventScribe platform instead of GotoWebinar Started off with a lot of people not being able to hear the presenter, that was fixed quickly Being able to see questions and comments is nice. Not much traffic there outside of audio and one other item The other item was a password protected download hosted outside the meeting software. It needed 7zip to make it all work and that wasn’t obvious, so that was the 2nd batch of questions. Definitely would be nice to have that all ‘in the environment’ for things like this and maybe also get that up on the screen before things start. Hugo is on webcam overlaid on the deck and he’s been having to shift the position from bottom right to bottom left because it obscures some of his graphics (fair to note that he realizes this) – speakers, block off some real estate if you’re going to do it this way. He also mentioned struggling a bit with the mirror image problem, he’s pointing the opposite way we expect sometimes There is a pause button (I don’t think Goto has that?) which is really nice. I had to get up to answer the door, hit pause, came back and resumed and caught up going into the lunch break. Class is longer chunks today and that’s a struggle for me, I’m so used to 50-60 minutes. I’m watching at my desk at home and because I use a 43? 4k monitor I can also watch from a more comfortable chair to mix it up It’s also nice to be able to get fresh coffee and healthy snacks compared to hoping you can find either during breaks Couple more notes from Monday: Itzik was great about putting up the countdown timer every time we want on break, I’d like to see everyone do that I did the pre-con eval last night as soon as class was done. There’s a daily raffle out of people that do the eval if you need motivation, but speakers really appreciate feedback and it’s worth trying even if you can’t state it perfectly Related to both pre-cons, the recordings are going to be available for 72 hours. I can appreciate that’s important to speakers to protect their investment in building a day long class, but given the classes are right before the Summit I suspect few will have time or energy to go back to re-watch parts of it vs trying be to engaged in the Summit (though logically, that’s backwards given the Summit content will be online for longer than 72 hours!). The Welcome Reception is at 8 pm and then some “networking bubbles” at 8:35. I’m going to try to be on for both of those, but I’m far less enthused than I would be if this was all in person. Continuing to explore the Summit site, I see there are Microsoft focus groups but they are after the Summit. Maybe that’s good, doesn’t take time away from learning? If you go to “Who’s Attending” there is an A-Z list of those who allowed their name to be published, but the search bar up top seems to be faster. That said, the “attending” page has a button for “Show Only My Chats” and that’s the only place I could find messages I sent or received to people that allow chats. I’m hoping there are notifications I just haven’t found yet, because that is not obvious. [Found them on the mobile app!] The post Notes on the 2020 PASS Virtual Summit – Part 3 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. Today’s tip is to start the week by writing down your top priorities and plans. It’s the start of a new month, and a new week. Let’s get organized. Top priorities and plans: DPS Presentations Gym Time Coaching Decisions Database Weekly These are the big items. The PASS Summit is next week, but two recordings are in, and the one I’m  going live I’ll practice again next week. For this week, I need to get things prepped for the Data Platform Summit, where I have 2 talks I need to record in the next couple weeks. After that, I missed a week of the gym, feeling ill. I got back to things last week, but I want to continue to be on track here and take care of my body. My volleyball team has been playing 15s and 16s tournaments, but it’s tough, so need to decide on a direction and move forward with that. It’s Database Weekly week for me, so I need to keep working on that each day for a bit. The post Daily Coping 2 Nov 2020 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

The election for the next PASS Board of Directors starts today, with a slate of 7 for three spots. I asked them for their vision last week, I’ve read the few statements published, and I attended the AMA on Twitter yesterday (Tuesday).  I wanted to see what the candidates had to say and then decide. Tl;dr Here are my endorsements, reasoning to follow. Steph Locke Joey D’Antoni Hamish Watson I wrote the rest of this first, thinking through things and then provided my result above. Things that Matter There are some things that matter to me, and I’m voting for someone that represents me. So, these are the important items I look at. Communication I am big on communication and transparency. We’ve often had to write and disclose plans ro how we are changing SQLServerCentral over the years. I need to provide justification, even if it’s hard or I get criticism. I also believe that explaining yourself doesn’t mean people agree, but they can understand your rationale. I see too little of that from the PASS org. The communications are also careful and couched to avoid commitments, limitations, or disclosure in advance. Not enough debate and discussion in the public sphere for things that aren’t secret/financial/HR related. I have had discussions with Steph Locke, and I’ve seen her publish, blog, and debate specifics for events and business. I have seen that from Joey this year as well, with his posts on PASS. Like them or not, agree or not, I think this sort of public thought is important. In the last year, I counted up blog posts on the PASS blog from others. I found Lori – 5 Hamish – 1 Roberto – 1 Jose’s site is down, but I didn’t see a statement or other item. So, for that, Lori leads for communication. Diversity I want diversity in a board, to present different views and help push others to make informed and thoughtful decisions. The current BoD is: 4 women, 8 men 6 US, 3 non-US 4/11 non white There is an open seat, but this is a fairly diverse group. However, I think more minorities help with different thoughts. I also think more variety of business experience matter, as well as different culture/geographies. With that in mind, I like Lori as a women with a different perspective. I like Steph, Joey, Roberto, and Hamish as independent business owners. I like Roberto, Jose, and Hamish as non-US citizens. Quite a toss up here for me. I lean towards non US people here. PASS needs to grow outside the US. Or, I think it should. Need is probably the wrong word. Business Acumen Pass is a not-for-profit business. Not a non-profit, but their aim isn’t money, or at least, not a lot. Here’s a definition I found Not-for-profit organizations are types of organizations that do not earn profits for its owners. All of the money earned by or donated to a not-for-profit organization is used in pursuing the organization’s objectives and keeping it running. (emphasis mine) I did see a definition that not-for-profits are run by volunteers, which would mean that PASS can’t hire someone. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that PASS tends to make money to keep PASS and the Summit going. Not a lot else. Some other things, but really, it’s a bit of a treadmill. Is that the best use of money? Should 360Sales cost $400k to make $460 (round-ish numbers)? I don’t know, but I want more business savvy people, not corp employees thinking about this. There is a difference. I’ve worked for a lot of people and owned a business. You view things differently and it’s not an easy skill to acquire. Steph is my top person here, though I also think Roberto, Hamish, and Joey are people I consider. Conclusion At the end, as I work through this, Steph and Joey check a lot of boxes for me. They were easy choices. The last one is harder. Hamish is on the board, and has diversity of thought and business experience. However, I haven’t seen a lot from him this past year. Same for Roberto. I don’t know Jose, and honestly, am not sure Matt brings something different from Joey. I like Lori, and I appreciate her comms. I also think a diversity of gender brings different thoughts. In the end, Hamish has only had a partial term, and when I doubt, I tend to be a “vote them out” person. The diversity and passion he brings are outstanding. The communication and engagement less so, but he gets my vote and endorsement. I’m also going to be a thorn in his paw during the next year to engage more with the wider community. The post PASS 2020 Board of Director Endorsements appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

Mike Walsh invited us on March 1st 2010 to write about I/O. This abbreviation stands for Input / Output, and is often used as shorthand for persisted storage. Given the breadth of the topic I decided to write about RAID levels, but I must state outright that RAID is not a backup. A Redundant Array-> Continue reading T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #004: I/O The post T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #004: I/O appeared first on Born SQL. The post T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #004: I/O appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. Today’s tip is to be kind to yourself today. Remember progress takes time. This is something that having and working with kids has taught me. I’ve watched them take advice or coaching from me, or not, but I can see there is a difference across time. Lately I’ve had a lot of deliverables, for various different presentations. Rather than get upset or concerned when I’ve been delayed in getting something done, I’ve stopped and reminded myself that a task may just take time. It’s helpful to remind yourself that despite getting things done today, I may have more to do tomorrow. As along as I’m making progress, that’s OK. The post Daily Coping 29 Oct 2020 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

If you ask any senior IT person What is the most important tool you have? there is a decent chance that they’ll tell you something along the lines of Google, Bing, or Books on Line. This month I’d like you to spend some time looking at one of the help pages provided by Microsoft. Specifically take a look at the help page(s) for SELECT. I haven’t done this in a while but here are the tasks and how many points they are worth. Yes, you can get more than 100 points. You can use the extra to help on a previous grade. Review the Syntax section. Notice that there are two different areas and what they are for. (5pts) Some clauses are required, some aren’t. How do you tell? (5pts) Some clauses can be repeated multiple times. How do you tell? (5pts) What does <table_source> mean and where can you go to get details on it? (10 pts) What does it mean when you see ::=? (5 pts) Follow links in the Remarks section. For example the FROM clause. (5pts each.) (No more than 20pts for this section.) Skip to the Examples section without looking at the Permissions section. (5 points) Review each example (5 pts each) (Can be done on the pages from following the Remarks links.) (No more than 20pts for this section.) Look at the See Also section. Follow some of the links. (10 pts) Go to the Select Clause page and look at the Arguments section. (15 pts) Read the Remarks section of the Select Clause page. (10 pts) The post SQL Homework – November 2020 – Help! appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

Last night (Tuesday) was the main reception and then “networking bubbles”. The reception consisted of DJ Leanne playing assorted music (and seeming to have a good time doing so) with a chat window for attendees and a bartender/mixer (mixologist?) making a few variations of a SQL Sipper .Reading that, it probably feels underwhelming and I admit that was my first impression too, but then the chat window just started scrolling. Someone called it ‘speed Twitter’ and that’s close to it, people saying “hi” and not much in the way of long conversations, but for me (not a Summit first timer) it somehow absolutely captured what’s it like in-person to walk into a room with music and a hundred or more people you know. Part two were the networking bubbles, maybe 20 different music themed video chat rooms. I tried a couple, some had the music and some didn’t, and said hello to a few people. Not a great browsing experience, you had to exit a room, click on whichever one you wanted to go to next, then launch the browser again. I didn’t see a fast way to just go from room to room to room. It also seems like most rooms had 3 or 4 people, was hard to find out where (or if) the crowd was. Not terrible, but not quite compelling either, for me at least. Today was more like a usual Summit day, attending sessions and getting interrupted for work stuff a couple times. It was nice to be able to pause a session (even the live ones). The recordings of live sessions are not available the same day, there are some from today I would have liked to watch tonight. The keynote was at lunchtime and went fairly well. Rohan talked about being in a studio versus on stage and in what was a nice touch, showed the studio with the cameras and the teleprompter. The rest was kind of the standard keynote, maybe most interesting was that sometime in the future query store will gain the ability to add query hints. Not much exploring today. It does seem like the phone app is slightly different in a few places, so need to look at that more. The post Notes on the 2020 PASS Virtual Summit – Part 4 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.