Voice of the DBA
A series of episodes that look at databases and the world from a data professional's viewpoint. Written and recorded by Steve Jones, editor of SQLServerCentral and The Voice of the DBA.
info_outline
Complex Searching
10/21/2021
Complex Searching
Searching for data in our systems is sometimes hard. If you've ever needed to generically search a lot of text, it's not easy to write code to do this in an efficient manner. It's even harder if you try to embed this in an application. If you get into full-text searching, likely you would look beyond SQL Server as the built in full-text indexing and searching isn't great. What if you had to search in more complex data? Imagine that your users were looking for words in audio files, or they wanted to find images that matched other images. Those are even more complex searches, and I expect that few people have had to deal with this. I know some, and I do expect it to be something customers will do demand across time. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20897153
info_outline
Going Cloud Native
10/19/2021
Going Cloud Native
I am constantly surprised at the migration of workloads to the cloud. It seems that many of the customers and clients that I speak with are moving some of their assets to the cloud. Some are moving the majority of their systems, and they are pushing to do this sooner than later, including database assets. I ran across that noted that while many companies love the on-demand provisioning of cloud resources, they don't always get improvement in their software performance. In fact, quite a few might experience worse performance, though often not horribly worse. Instead, what they often get is a bit more unpredictable performance, and sometimes a bigger bill, which makes perfect sense. After all, the cloud is really just someone else's computer, and the one you're using might have other people doing the same thing. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20715764
info_outline
Growing and Keeping Up
10/17/2021
Growing and Keeping Up
I keep busy. My wife and I tend to be type-A people, tackling lots of things and keeping very busy. We work hard, and often, a lot. Our spare time in the winter is spent with second jobs, coaching youth volleyball. My kids think that we can be a little unbalanced at times, not taking enough time off or getting away from work. I agree. They are better balanced in life than my wife and I. The thing I tell me self is that keeping busy and being driven has helped me have a great life and a great career. It's also created lots of stress, perhaps more than I should have. I thought about this balance as I was watching , Catherine Wilhelmsen's keynote from Data Saturday Oslo. It's a great talk and worth your time to watch. She tells you that while you can do anything, or almost anything, that you want, it's not necessarily easy. You have to work, but you have to find some balance. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20715326
info_outline
The Last SQL Server Service Pack
10/07/2021
The Last SQL Server Service Pack
I wrote a few years ago, thinking that SQL Server 2016 SP2 might end all large updates. At the time, Microsoft was moving to a Cumulative Update process, with the aim of releasing small patches for each version every couple of months. They've done a good job of that, and SQL Server 2017 now has with more coming. With little fanfare, we got recently, with a long list of fixes. Even Pedro Lopes notes for any version. That means I expect that in the next few years, I'll start to encounter people working with technology who have no idea what a service pack is or what those are used for. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20703254
info_outline
Choosing State Over Migrations
10/05/2021
Choosing State Over Migrations
I ran across an article about . While I think that this article is a bit slanted because the author is building a tool, it does present some good reasons why people worry about migration-based approaches. This article also references . Everything we do in relational databases, and in some other platforms like Snowflake, is a migration script. If you run SQL Compare and get the differences, you are generating a migration script. It might contain lots of changes, but it's still a migration script. I wish I could write CREATE OR ALTER TABLE scripts, but that's not a part of the SQL specification (yet). Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20652308
info_outline
Location Data is Not Anonymous
10/03/2021
Location Data is Not Anonymous
We are truly in the era of big brother and 1984, where any of us can be tracked if we use a mobile device. That's a scary thought and one that many people might not like. There are plenty of people in management that want to increase revenue or profits from the use of data, even if we might think their decisions are unethical or immoral. When there's money to be made, often they ignore other issues. There was that noted various public data, some sold by brokers, was used to track location and usage of a device by de-anonymizing aggregated data. The post ends with these statements: Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20635775
info_outline
Do You Have a Talent Gap?
09/30/2021
Do You Have a Talent Gap?
I have seen articles over the years that talk about a talent gap in companies, similar to . For a long time early in my career, it seemed anyone that went through a boot camp could get a job, and we had lots of unqualified people earning lots of money. I know I've run into my share of paper-CNE's, paper-MCSE's, and more in my career that took advantage of that talent gap. Over time it seemed that many companies stopped relying on certifications in hiring, but this didn't seem to help us find more qualified workers. We either were short of staff or still had plenty of people that couldn't do the work that well. During the last year, I have seen lots of articles about companies that are struggling to find workers at all levels, even though the pandemic has broadened the search space. Companies learned to work remotely and many started to hire people in different cities. I know a lot of people that changed jobs in the last year. Many landing a remote position at a company they would rarely if ever, drive to visit. I still hope the pandemic repercussions will include hiring more people in different locations, though that may not be the case for all organizations. Many managers seem to assume they will bring everyone back into an office at some point. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20635637
info_outline
Incident Review
09/28/2021
Incident Review
Something will always go wrong with our software systems. Issues might happen regularly or rarely, but something is going to go wrong at some point and a client will complain. Often the way we handle these situations determines whether our customers continue to do business with us or look for an alternative. In my career, I've been a part of many incidents, lots of which were service outages for customers. I've attended some incidents as a technical person working to diagnose the issue. In other incidents, I've been a developer that has to fix code. During many, my role was as a manager trying to ensure information moves smoothly between resources, ensuring people double-checked that our "fix" wouldn't cause another problem. After a problem, I've also had to take part in a post-incident review. Unfortunately, this has happened far less often than it should. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20593100
info_outline
Making Software Decisions
09/26/2021
Making Software Decisions
I work for a company that builds software. At Redgate, we are constantly debating what to build and how, and more importantly, how to structure something that is easy for our customers to use. There's a lot that goes into the process of building software, way more than I thought was important a decade ago. Today, even when I don't like the decision or the final result in a product, I know our process often produces good results. Recently Netflix started for their software. It's interesting in that they note that of all the ways they can make decisions, most of these involve few people. This leads towards their premise of using lots of A/B experimentation for helping to make decisions, and I look forward to future parts of the series that might explain the weight that they give to the results of A/B testing. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20592902
info_outline
Thank a Mentor
09/23/2021
Thank a Mentor
"The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” — Steven Spielberg I saw with the request that people tag a mentor that had helped them. Since then, a few people have posted their thanks to someone, and I've been tagged a few times. I'm honored that people think I've helped them somehow, as that's been a portion of my career for the last twenty years. I make an effort to do help others have a great career and become better at their jobs. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20540132
info_outline
To Infinity and Beyond with 1=1
09/21/2021
To Infinity and Beyond with 1=1
There is one thing that Aaron Bertrand won't get mad at me for doing and that's creating an infinite loop with a WHILE (1=1) pattern. He , noting that it's easy to create an infinite loop with code like this, something that never ends well. I have purposefully written infinite loops in the past. A long, long time ago Radio Shack would put out TRS-80s on display, and a few of us would type a quick BASIC program to perform some math work on the screen over and over with an infinite loop. It crashed at some point with an overflow, but for a period of time, it would look neat on the screen. Less neat to the salespeople who weren't always sure how to stop it and demonstrate something else without resetting the machine. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20540003
info_outline
Poor Work Management
09/19/2021
Poor Work Management
The future of how we will work is uncertain. Every time I read something or talk to someone, I hear different thoughts and experiences, which influence how I feel. Actually, I'm not sure how I feel. Some companies are pushing back their office openings (, ) to a future time, while others are bringing people back part or full time. I had lunch with some friends working at a financial institution, and they are allowed to work at home a day or two a week, but otherwise, they're in the office every week. I know some other people that are back in the office five days a week. There are mixed feelings among many people. While I don't know many technology people that want to be in the office every day, some do want the option to go periodically to the office. Depending on your commute, you might feel differently, as there are plenty of data pros that want to remain at home full time. Both groups, however, feel that we can be effective at our jobs while working remotely. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20461052
info_outline
A Great Use for AI
09/16/2021
A Great Use for AI
In the last couple of years there has been a tremendous amount of hype for machine learning and artificial intelligence as a way to improve the world. Plenty of companies have tried to implement ML/AI to generate more revenue or improve their products, often with mixed success. However, I recently saw a place where I think AI might shine. I've never owned a Roomba or any robot vacuum, and I've never encountered a scenario. I do have a cat that is an avid hunter, so I certainly could envision something similar with a carcass in the house, but apparently, some owners of these vacuums have had a very messy experience when they pet has an accident and the robot vacuum attempts to clean the floor. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20461175
info_outline
Help Your Manager
09/14/2021
Help Your Manager
Most of us have some sort of review with a manager on a regular basis. It might be once a year, once a quarter, or even monthly. Some of us like these, and some don't (me), but the review is often a way to assist your manager in evaluating how you are performing in your job. This is quite common, and I've gotten used to this, though I never really like the process. I do know reviews are important. This is a time when you have an opportunity to shape your career. A good impression here can help you with a raise, a promotion, even the choice of a project or work you want to do in the future. I learned early on in my career that these reviews were important. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20457989
info_outline
Unix vs PowerShell
09/13/2021
Unix vs PowerShell
I saw an article on . I used to know how to use those, though I was by no means an expert. However, working with a stream of text with an input and output was a valuable skill I've used over and over in my career. There are plenty of times when I've needed to handle a long set of text, and my practice with Unix in university helped me a lot. I've only lightly needed to use Perl and regex in my career, but I was glad I had some idea of what I was doing. In the last few years, I've spent quite a bit of time working with PowerShell (PoSh) instead of text-based utilities. While I found some of the design cumbersome and unintuitive, overall, the idea of working with objects instead of a stream of text is really nice. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20457878
info_outline
New Old Architectures
09/09/2021
New Old Architectures
Many years ago I was starting in a software development role using dBase and Clipper. I needed to upgrade a DOS based dBase program to Clipper to take advantage of some graphical libraries. Around this time, we were also moving many clients machines from DOS to Windows 3.1, giving them a GUI experience. Also, to the dismay of the management, access to Solitaire. One of our early jobs was to remove that game and Minesweeper from installs. In any case, I started to experiment with compilers that would allow Clipper programs to run in Windows as native apps. This meant moving to a more event-driven style of programming instead of the procedural way that DOS programs worked. This change was a paradigm shift for me and I spent many hours at home experimenting and trying to understand event-driven programming. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20386256
info_outline
Where We Need Better AI Disclosure and Responsibility
08/31/2021
Where We Need Better AI Disclosure and Responsibility
There are a lot of contract and gig jobs in the world today. It used to be this type of work was widely spread throughout programming and technology, but these days many types of jobs are commonly completed using contract workers. I like the flexibility of contract work, but I also think that these workers need to be better at saving and planning for the future because of less employment stability. Usually they are paid more, but they need to use that to reduce the risk of being unemployed. One trend that I've seen taking place in some of these positions is the use of software and AI to determine if a worker is doing an acceptable level of work on a regular basis. Amazon might be one of the highest-profile companies doing this, especially as they expand into the delivery business. They are using the power of computers to manage an army of workers rather than traditional human managers. This includes terminating them. There's that talks about some of the experiences of their workers. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20187950
info_outline
Eyes Wide Open
08/29/2021
Eyes Wide Open
Not many of us work in startup environments, but many of us do work with new databases that are created for new applications. These might be carefully designed, thrown together, or your database might be constructed by an ORM. In any case, I find many people make decisions and write database code for today, solving the problems that they see in front of them. they often do this with little data and a single system. They might have their eyes on using some new technology, and they decide on a data strategy without really considering what they will need later. That seems to be what happened with Expensify, which started in the financial industry. Their system had requirements for low response times, multiple locations, and detailed logging. This required a robust database architecture, which turned out to be helpful when the company pivoted to a new business model. Their CTO talks about some of I think many of these lessons are helpful for all organizations that are trying to ensure their database can grow and meet their needs. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20126072
info_outline
A New Community Summit
08/19/2021
A New Community Summit
The PASS Summit has been an annual event for a lot of my career. I attended the first one in 1999 and most of the rest through the years. After last year's virtual Summit, I was concerned that we wouldn't have an annual event where the most, brightest, and friendliest data platform people came together. Redgate purchased the assets out of the PASS bankruptcy and has committed to future Summits. This is virtual, and more importantly... It's free, and you can Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20163287
info_outline
Better SQL is a Good Career Investment
08/17/2021
Better SQL is a Good Career Investment
Many of us reading this are data professionals, and we likely know quite a bit about SQL in general. We may use T-SQL, specifically, with SQL Server, but many of the skills we have would be portable to other dialects, such as those use in Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc. We'd certainly need to brush up on best practices and which language constructs are better suited for a specific platform, but most of the knowledge transfers. I ran across in a career, mostly for someone that might be moving into the data science or machine learning/AI type role. The post notes that lots of these job descriptions mention SQL, but focus quite a bit on R, Python, modeling, etc. In this case, SQL matters, and I'd agree with the author that it matters a lot. Most of the work in those fields is data prep, and SQL makes this much easier at scale than other languages. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20125958
info_outline
The Slow Upgrade of SQL Server Versions
08/15/2021
The Slow Upgrade of SQL Server Versions
Every so often Brent Ozar releases a report of his Constant Care customers, showing the versions in use. While I don't know this client group is representative of the overall SQL Server customer base, I do think it's close enough to draw some rough conclusions. The top version adoption graph that shows has 33-34% of the installed based on 2016, about 34% newer (and under support) versions, leaving the last third running older versions. However, the graph I found interesting is the lower one, which shows the distribution over time. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20020871
info_outline
What's Important to Your Organization
08/12/2021
What's Important to Your Organization
I've had the chance to work in a number of organizations in my career. Every one of these places needed to run a network and software applications to support the business. Most of them also built a portion of the software they used, with some applications being purchased. No matter how much software they built, whether it was a lot or a little, there was always a need to manage a software lifecycle. Whether you build or buy software, you will have new applications, patches for existing systems, and the retirement of others over time. While every organization recognized the value of software, some saw this as an expense, like salaries or buildings. The funds needed for computing the "cost of doing business." In organizations that felt this way, there was always a focus on controlling or reducing costs, doing just what needed to be done, and being efficient with how computing was used. These organizations seemed to be stodgy and traditional, with management focused more on the analog world than the digital one. Some were quite successful, which I often think is a combination of good management, good staff, and luck. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20125895
info_outline
Digitizing Construction
08/10/2021
Digitizing Construction
Perhaps you think of the construction industry as being more analog and less interested in building a robust digital infrastructure. that is modernizing, and has accelerated that move during the pandemic. They are generating lots of data with drones capturing images of projects and and with more collaboration between many different groups that are often not physically co-located together. While their business is construction, they are really a large enterprise that faces many of the same challenges any enterprise faces with moving information around, in a secure and convenient way for their staff. However, even smaller companies are depending more and more on a modern infrastructure. I had a contractor renovate my bathroom recently, and while there certainly is some in-person work, plenty of the planning, payment, supply chain, and more comes from the use of digital technologies. Even . Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20087405
info_outline
Celebrating Lives
08/06/2021
Celebrating Lives
I set up the site earlier this year. It's not quite complete, with some networking and process to work out, but it's there, which is the important thing. The site gives us a way to remember celebrate those that we've known as a part of our SQL community. There are only a few people that I've personally known well, and fewer still that I've met. As a result, there are only a few people about whom I can write something about from my own memories. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20051939
info_outline
Do as I say, not as I do
08/03/2021
Do as I say, not as I do
A common saying from parents, teachers, and many managers, is that you should follow their instructions and not necessarily their behavior. This is a very human thing to do, with many of us struggling to follow the behavior that we ourselves want. Instead, we follow the vagaries of our moods and desires. We do this even as we tell others to do things that we don't bother to do. It's not just human behavior, but it applies to how many companies deal with their customers. Microsoft talks often about taking advantage of new features in code and using the platform to solve problems. They dislike adding simple "syntactic sugar" (like ), and instead prefer you build the code to handle some of these simple tasks. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20020952
info_outline
Interconnected Temp Files
08/03/2021
Interconnected Temp Files
The other day I went to cook dinner for the family. I had picked a (everyone loved it), and it was going to be a bit of prep. Before I started, I turned on the speaker in the kitchen, connected my phone, and started Spotify. I got 2 sec into the song, just enough for me to turn and reach for the cutting board when the music stopped. I turned back, started it and everything repeated. I tried a few times, but it kept happening. I opened Spotify on the iPad we have in the kitchen, where the recipe was displayed and tried there. I had the same experience. At this point, I was getting annoyed and a little stressed. I needed to get cooking, but I also wanted some music. Maybe a little bit of OCD coming out as I checked my desktop with the same result. I updated the credit card and had my daughter check her app. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/20020823
info_outline
Pulling Together
10/07/2020
Pulling Together
When the COVID-19 Pandemic grew rapidly in early 2020, medical supplies were in short supply. Different areas and organizations struggled with different types of issues, and one of the higher profile issues was with ventilators. In March, the projections were dire and quite a few hospitals were worried about the supplies of these devices. This was especially disconcerting given how many people were being placed on them and how long it takes to produce them. I met someone at that time that said getting a car company to produce these wasn't possible. The factories were specialized and converting machinery and people wasn't something that could be done in months. This was someone that claimed to have over 30 years of manufacturing experience. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/16239635
info_outline
Build the VCS Habit
03/16/2020
Build the VCS Habit
I've preached the value of Version Control Systems (VCS) for many years now. In , in the on development, CI, DevOps, and more, I always talk about the value of a VCS. One thing I often say is that if someone won't use version control, they aren't a professional. I don't say professional developer, professional DBA, or anything else. You're not a technology professional without knowing how to use a VCS in 2020. You certainly can't work for me if you won't use one. I saw a on the ways in which a SQL Server professional can benefit from a VCS. Many of us working with SQL Server aren't developers, we may not be some DevOps engineer. We might be someone that manages systems or handles backups. We might be someone that deals with complex HA, DR, or replication processes. We may be report writers or ETL developers. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/13445621
info_outline
Data Challenges and Travel
07/22/2019
Data Challenges and Travel
I made a quick trip to Pensacola recently for . I had a great time and consider myself honored to be picked to speak, as well as lucky that I can make the trip. I didn't have a smooth trip, as , but things worked out. These were really first world problems and minor hassles for me. When I wrote my blog, I was thinking about all the data I received, and didn't receive on the trip. Across the last few years, United (my primary airline) has enhanced their apps and services to share more data with travelers. I get text reminders two hours before flights, which is usually my drop dead time to leave the house for the airport. A good reminder for me. I get an announcement when boarding starts. I'm usually there, but if I'm late, or busy in an airport trying to find food, coffee, or a restroom, this is a great reminder. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/10529870
info_outline
Who are your authenticated users?
03/22/2019
Who are your authenticated users?
I ran across , the parent company of the Wall Street Journal newspaper. Apparently there was a database export that was stored on an Amazon S3 bucket. A security researcher discovered this and notified the company. Once the issue was corrected, the article linked above was published. The details note that the security on the bucket was set to authenticated users, which is good. So, some security was set up. To me, if I were operating in an Azure or AWS environment, I would assume this meant authenticated users in my subscription/account/etc. In other words, my business partners and employees. Read the rest of
/episode/index/show/voiceofthedba/id/8967365