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T-SQL Tuesday #118: Fantasy SQL Feature

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T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party for the SQL Server community. It is the brainchild of Adam Machanic (b|t) and this month’s edition is hosted by Kevin Chant (b|t), SQL dude and fellow cyclist!  Kevin wants to know what our “Fantasy SQL Feature” is.

I asked my LinkedIn connections a very similar question in my “Question of the Week” there.  Hit the link to see a lot of different responses.

One of the recurring themes and possibly the most common was:

Load Balanced Writes.  Unless I’ve completely missed something, there is nothing in SQL Server natively that will allow you to write to different copies of the database (leaving out Merge and Bi-Directional Transactional Replication, because they suck and don’t scale).

Don’t get me wrong…I love read-only replicas in an Availability Group, replication for reporting, or even delayed Log Shipping.  They are wonderful for taking the read traffic off an OLTP box, but if you are dying under heavy load in a very optimized setup…oh well.

Bonus Fantasy: Give me a button in the Log Shipping Setup GUI (Database Properties>>Log Shipping) that just says “Re-initialize”.  Sometimes LS just falls apart and its easier to tear it down and start over.  Even easier is to just back up the db, restore over the Secondary db and go.  But, for the small business using LS for poor-man’s DR and no DBA on staff…give me a button.  Ideally that button calls sp_ReInit_Log_Shipping @DBName = ‘MyDB’.  But someone will have to write that first.  I am not that someone.  This may already be in the DBATools.io set of toys, but I haven’t looked, and again…small customers need a button in a GUI.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Video: SQL Server HA/DR Overview

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This is meant to be a high-level overview, not an exhaustive setup guide.  I skip over some relevant bits so the main points don’t get buried.

In my DBA Fundamentals pre-conference, we spend a good hour going over the various High Availability and Disaster Recovery options available in SQL Server.  From simple Backup/Restore up to Distributed Availability Groups.

This video is a more succinct version of that conversation.   Enjoy!

If you have questions or comments, please add them in the YouTube comments, so I’ll see them more quickly.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Your DR Plan isn’t a Plan

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My apologies, but someone had to tell you.

You don’t have a Disaster Recovery Plan™. You have a Disaster Recovery Hope. (paraphrased from a source I’ve forgotten…)

If I’m wrong (and I hope I am), its because you are in the 10% (optimistically) of companies that actually test their DR plans and document the results.

In the 18 years I’ve been asking the following question, I’ve gotten one excellent and correct response, and one that was good, but I still poked holes in it.

“If your most important database server melted right now, how long until you are back online?”

I get a lot of responses on this question:

  • 2 days
  • 30 minutes
  • I don’t know
  • Blank Stares (its a response…just a scary one)

If you are not testing your DR plan, you may be betting your company’s existence on a flawed premise: “Our people know what to do. We have backups.”

If your DR plan is a digital “living document” that lives on your Sharepoint server, you are already in trouble.  Everyone involved needs a current, non-digital copy on their desk and at their home.

Disaster recovery is about far more than restoring databases.  But, for my mostly-SQL Server audience, let me ask you this:

Can you do an emergency test restore of your most mission critical database onto identical hardware, to a point 27.5 minutes ago and have everything work as expected?

If you don’t do test restores, you are HOPING your backups are valid. If you don’t have the ability to replace critical hardware or spin up an identical VM, you are HOPING that your server or SAN never fails.

If you are running through your DR Plan regularly, with everyone ready to go and knowing their place in the process…you are HOPING the next disaster happens when everyone is available, online and up to speed.   What if that disaster happens when your Sr. DBA is on vacation?  Who is her backup? A Jr. DBA?

If you don’t know the answer to the “How long…” question above, you really should go find out who in your organization does.  If nobody does, contact me.

If you think you have it 100% nailed…I challenge you to let me into your server room unattended.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

SQL Saturday Dallas, 2018

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Quacky rides bikes!

 

SQL Saturday Dallas #734 is a wrap!

I’m still tired, 2 weeks later!

This is my 7th or 8th SQL Saturday as an attendee.  3rd as a pre-con presenter.  5th delivering a Saturday session, 1st as a sponsor and 1st as a co-organizer.

And it was a blast.

Months of prep work went into getting things ready…venue change, sponsor chasing, speakers, goodies for speakers and attendees, pre-con stuff, after-part, speaker dinner…you name it, I at least read an email about it.  This was my first time around so I was following the lead of veterans on the NTSSUG board.  We had over 1000 people register…I don’t recall the final tally of actual attendees but the place was packed all day!

My pre-con (DBA Fundamentals) went really well, with a record number of attendees. By design this class is usually small and intimate.   The BI session next door had 65 or so!  I’ve done this pre-con 3 times now, and this was the first time I actually had a technical issue (fonts went wacky) and a brain cramp in the middle.  But, I recovered and people (hopefully) learned something they can take back with them to the office.

I also did my Disaster recovery session on Saturday, which I think went really well, and got a bonus of meeting someone I knew through a previous client and only by phone.  I always think you’ve done your session well when people line up to chat with you afterwards:

Either something was really funny, or my backpack has way too much stuff in it…

 

Our Dallas DBAs sponsor table went really well…except everyone seemed to think I was raffling off my personal racing bike.  Lots of folks came by for the raffle and the free t-shirts (100 only…gone in 90 minutes).  Some even stopped to ask what we do, giving me the chance to promote our Apprentice program.  Thanks to everyone that came by!  And also to Richardson Bike Mart for providing the $150 gift card for our raffle.

Not the raffle item….just clickbait apparently:

The entire staff of Dallas DBAs, in official uniform

 

A very special shout out to my good friend and graphics/web guy, Jeff Miller of Igniss Images for shooting this event as a free service to the SQL Server Community.  See the pics!

Thanks to all the attendees for coming, and to the Sponsors that make it possible!

Kevin3NF

 

SQL Saturday Minnesota 2017

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Now that the official schedule has been published, I am pleased to announce that I will be doing a pre-con and a regular session at SQL Saturday Minnesota on October 6-7. 2017.

The Friday pre-conference will be “DBA Fundamentals for the Junior, Accidental and non-DBAs.”  This will be a wide ranging day-long discussion on the underlying fundamental pieces of SQL Server Administration that are beneficial to both new DBAs, and those that have to work with or fill in for them.  Please see the link for details, and feel free to contact me with any questions.  There is a $110 (plus service fees) charge for this, which is split between me and the local SQL User group organizing the event, after expenses.

The Saturday regular session will be “Backups for new/non-DBAs…the Why, not the How”, where we will cover Disaster recovery scenarios and the part SQL Server plays in the recovery.  We won’t spend much time on specifically defining backup types, etc.    Currently this is scheduled for the 1-2pm time slot, but that may change.

Edit: my Saturday session is now 10:15am – 11:15am 🙂

I’m very excited to be coming to the MSP area!  I even have a friend that lives in the area that I get to see for the first time in 3 years…plus all of the new friends I will make at the events!

Thanks,

Kevin3NF

SQL Saturday Houston 2017

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I will be presenting my session “Backups for non-DBAs….the Why, not the How” at SQL Saturday Houston on June 17, 11am.

This is mostly targeted at non-DBAs such as owners, managers, CxOs, developers and sysadmins…but all are more than welcome.

We will be discussing various scenarios to consider as part of an overall DR/Business Continuity plan, as well as sharing a few horror stories from the field…both ancient and current.

The session abstract:

Join me and get some new perspective on what your DBA is doing, and why!

Targeted at the non-DBA such as BI/DW folks, Application Developers, Managers, and System Admins, this session will go over the reasons we back up our databases, our systems, etc. Considerations such as Single points of failure, High Availability/Disaster recovery, Business Continuity and others will be discussed in this interactive conversation. It will be conversation heavy, with supporting slides to download, and one Database backup demo at the end if time permits.

Everyone involved in a technical role needs to at least know that the things they have created will be recoverable in the event of a disaster, or even just an “oops” moment. The CIO/CTO should know how long critical systems will be down when bad things happen. Backups are everyone’s responsibility…whether asking the right questions or implementing the process.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Kevin3NF