Kevin3NF

Your Customers Are Ridiculous!

May 13, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

They may also be wonderful.

Or profitable (we hope).

But they are ridiculous.

They expect you to have ZERO downtime and ZERO data loss. That’s like 100%. Seven 9’s is cheaper…

How do I know this about your customers when I don’t even know them?

I know you.

When you log into Twitter, or Facebook, or LinkedIn…you expect all of your posts, tweets, and likes to be there. I’ve seen you freak out when the like count on the last brilliant thing you said went down instead of up.

I do it too 😳

You don’t mind a missing post on Facebook? Its not the end of the world? True.

How about a missing paycheck from your bank? One electronic transaction missing vs. a different electronic transaction. Totally different level of freak-out.

Facebook…you go post on Twitter about it. 1st National Bank of YourTown – you’re in the bank president’s office ripping them to shreds and threatening to sue. Because your mortgage payment was missed.

See…you expected no data loss and no downtime from your bank….ever. And you didn’t know that is a crazy expectation.

The 100% expectation is inherent in humans, and its our job as businesses to get as close to it as we can. The more “9s” you need to guarantee, the more expensive it is.

In the tech world we have fancy acronyms for this: RPO and RTO. Recovery Point Objective (data-loss tolerance) and Recovery Time Objective (downtime tolerance). You need to set these numbers for each critical system and put the processes in place to make them happen.

Databases, Web Servers, Firewalls…all of it. They all work together to help keep your customers happy, rather than having them come unglued because you lost their data.

Once you have all that in place…test it.

Comments welcomed and encouraged

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

SQL Saturday Dallas 2019

May 7, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Dallas DBAs is a Gold Sponsor of SQL Saturday Dallas

June 1, 2019

Richardson, Texas

Dallas DBAs is pleased to announce that we are upgrading our sponsorship of our “home” SQL Saturday event from Silver in 2018 to Gold level in 2019!

Why the change?

We believe in the mission, membership and management of the North Texas SQL Server User Group and want to give it as much support as possible.

Also, a Gold Sponsorship allows Lead SQL Server DBA Kevin Hill to present his session during the lunch hour:

“Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed”

Come to this session to learn the 5 or 6 most common mistakes that are made when SQL Server is installed. While you eat fajitas!

Even if you miss the lunch session to attend a different one, stop by our booth to grab some swag and talk to Kevin, Derek, Kaitlyn, or Jeff. We don’t do hard sell, but we will have a “SQL Saturday Show Special” to offer you.

Just for fun…here’s a picture from last year:

We will be raffling off something either really cool, or valuable, or both. Make sure you drop your SpeedPass raffle ticket in the jar and stick around all day. You must be present to win any raffle items from any sponsor.

If you are thinking of coming, make sure to register HERE. If you have already registered and are not able to come, make sure to cancel your registration and open up that spot for someone else. Thanks!

As an added bonus we have convinced Jeff from Ignis Images to come back this year to do event photography and “quick” headshots in front of the SQL Saturday backdrop! If you want a more professional shot, you need this service!

See you there!

The Dallas DBAs team

Recruiter Training – SQL Server

March 21, 2019 by Kevin3NF 3 Comments

Hello Recruiters!

Just to start off I want to say that the whole purpose of this post and video is to help you find the right candidates and ask your clients the right questions. If you don’t know what they want, you can’t effectively ask me or my counterparts if we are a fit for the position.

You can watch the video or skip it…whatever works best for you:

Far too many of the job descriptions we see look like this:

SQL Server, SSRS, SSIS, SSAS
SQL 2016 – 5 years
SQL 2019 – 1 years
SQL 2013 – 5 years
Azure, AWS
Responsible for installation, troubleshooting, Stored Procedures, data warehouse, and Power BI.
Must also be able to interface with the development team and provide 24x7x365 support

When we see these, this is what happens in our heads:

SQL Server, SSRS, SSIS, SSAS
- So, everything Microsoft ever released? Nope.
SQL 2016 – 5 years
- Math error 2019-2016 = 3, not 5. Who wrote this?
SQL 2019 – 1 years
- Its not even released yet!!!!
SQL 2013 – 5 years
- No such thing as SQL Server 2013
Azure, AWS
- Both? really? which one are you using?
Responsible for installation, troubleshooting, Stored Procedures, data warehouse, and Power BI.
- Again…everything under the sun and you want expert level.
Must also be able to work with the development team and provide 24x7x365 support
- Wait…developer, development DBA or Prod DBA?

We call these the “Kitchen Sink” job descriptions…and we assume they were written by an HR intern.

Please just go to the client and get the top 5 skills in order of priority.

So…to make all of the above easier I offer you this info, which I will update on the blog post from time to time, but not the video. Please share with your peers:

SQL Server has many different facets to it, and finding someone that knows all of them very deeply is a true unicorn hunt. I know exactly one person that can do all of these well, and he charges almost $500/hr.

Basic terminology:

SQL (S-Q-L) is a language for querying data from a relational database. Invented in 1974 and still used everyday.

SQL Server (pronounced Sequel Server) is Micro soft’s database product, just like Oracle database comes from Oracle. Both do the same thing, but in different ways. Other vendors/products are MySQL, DB2, Postgre SQL (or just Postgres).

MongoDB, NoSQL and others are a different type of database

Azure and AWS are not databases…they are cloud offerings from Microsoft and Amazon respectively, that allow you to do cool things on someone elses servers…databases, applications, website hosting, etc.

Within the SQL Server world, there are several divisions:

Developers: this group generally writes code within SQL Server, designs and creates databases, etc. This might also encompass Report Writers using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), and maybe even PowerBI.

- T-SQL – Microsoft’s implementation of the SQL language
- PL/SQL – Oracle’s implementation of SQL

Database Admins: mostly responsible for installs, configuration, maintenance, security and performance of the SQL installation itself. There is some cross-over between Developers and Admins, and many DBAs started as developers and migrated (myself included). It is very possible to find an expert Developer that also have awesome DBA skills. Expect to pay top dollar.

- OLTP – Online transaction processing (you buy a thing from Amazon, it goes in this db)
- HA – High Availability
- DR – Disaster Recover
- Always On – PLEASE ask your client if they mean AlwaysOn Failover Instance or AlwaysOn Availability Groups. 2 different things.

Data Warehouse/BI: Anything related to aggregation and reporting on the data. There could be some Architect and Developer here, as well as SSRS, Tableau and PowerBI

- ETL – Extract, Transform, Load
- SSIS – Microsoft’s ETL tool
- SSAS – SQL Server Analysis Services

Data Architect: This is a higher level position that is responsible for the overall data strategy for a product, division or company. The architect might be involved in decisions regarding vendor selection, cloud choice, hardware, database design, etc. They may also have some developer and admin duties. A good Data Architect will have examples on their resume and will be able to talk at length about migration strategies, differences between cloud providers, security issues and hardware.

That’s it for now! Comments are encouraged…negative ones will not pass moderation!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Pluralsight: Getting Started With Your First SQL Server Instance

March 14, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Almost a full year after I first thought I might have something relevant to contribute, my first Pluralsight course has been published!

Its called “Getting Started With Your First SQL Server Instance” and is targeted to non-DBAs that want to know more about SQL Server Administration, or just want to understand SQL Server beyond the random Google Search when something breaks.

I’m hoping this is just the first of many “Getting Started…” courses that take SQL Server all the way down to entry-level training so people can learn, then test, then do as they go.

The trailer for the course:

BONUS: Pluralsight is offering a $100 discount on both of their Annual personal plans, but you need to sign up before midnight March, 18, 2019 (Pacific time)

I want to thank Chris and Derek at Pluralsight for their guidance along the way…and a huge shoutout to Eugene Meidinger (b|t) for his valuable input before, during and after the course creation.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

T-SQL Tuesday: Cookies…we love cookies!

March 12, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party for the SQL Server community. It is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (b|t). This month’s edition is hosted by The Shane (b|t) who has challenged us to Dip Into the Cookie Jar of Goodness we use in order to think back about our accomplishments and take some sustenance from them. When things suck, it helps to remember that there are White Chocolate Macadamia nut times as well

I have a number of accomplishments (and failures) in my career, pre-IT and as a SQL DBA. Short list:

I learned a few decades ago (when we first got email) to keep an “Ego” folder and put any customer, co-worker and management kudos emails into it. Even on a good day, go in there and read things. Also, they help on Performance Reviews.
When I first successfully troubleshat a SQL Server replication issue for a customer (during my first Microsoft contract…)
- That one was a CritSit call from a Premier customer and I knew the answer before they were actually on the phone
When I migrated a customer from full-blown Access 97 to SQL 2000 backend/Access .adp front-end and everything was so fast they thought it was broken
When a projector failed during my first SQL Saturday presentation (about DR) and I played it off like it was no big deal. NOBODY knew that was my first talk 🙂
The first time someone paid my sticker price consulting rate and thanked me for it
When I trained some front-line engineers on Log Shipping nothing more than a white board and 2 different colored markers
That day I discovered Starbucks, signed a contract, then discovered Starbucks again. I’m writing this from a Starbucks….just FYI.
…and so many more, because I’m old.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Follow @Dallas_DBAs

Announcement: Pocket DBA™ service

February 5, 2019 by Kevin3NF Leave a Comment

Several months ago, we posted a blog about keeping a Database Administrator on retainer for emergencies, called “Put a DBA in Your Pocket”

We cross-posted a version over to LinkedIn at the same time.

The response to both was overwhelmingly positive!

So much so that we are bringing this idea on as a new service offering, effective today!

This service comes with different levels for different needs and budgets. It is primarily intended for you to be able to get a quick response from someone you trust (that’s us…) when bad things happen to your database server, which they eventually will. Its the nature of tech.

In addition to being there for emergencies, you also get some periodic proactive benefits as well.

All of the pricing, benefits and terms are on the Pocket DBA™ page, separate from our current Services page.

Launch Special: All new customers that sign up in February qualify for special rates and additional benefits… This is a limited-time offer, please message me directly for more details.

This service is only available to US businesses at this time.