The Bit Bucket

One aspect of SQL Server related development that I see done quite badly when visiting client sites is source code control. So many sites have almost nothing in place for this important aspect of development. By comparison, it’s rare now that I visit an application development organisation that doesn’t have at least reasonable source code control in place. Many DBAs seem to have grown up in environments where source code control systems weren’t in use.

2013-02-23

I recorded another podcast today. This time it’s SQL Server MVP Erin Welker discussing dimensional modelling and being a BI consultant.

The show is online now: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com

Enjoy!

2013-02-23

Over the last few months, I’ve been a tech reviewer on John Sirmon and Heidi Steen’s new whitepaper.

It’s published today on MSDN: Hardware Sizing a Tabular Solution (SQL Server Analysis Services)

Its goal is to help you determine the amount of memory and CPU resources needed to accommodate query and processing workloads in a production environment.

Recommended!

2013-02-13

There are some terms in IT that make their way straight into the hype stratosphere. Unfortunately “big data” is one of these. I see very few systems that I’d contend are actually “big data”. However, I endlessly see the term applied to data stores that are trivial by today’s standards. This might help the marketing teams but it’s sad none-the-less. There are some technological challenges that really do start to bite as the data volume really does start to become large, and as the proportion of unstructured and semi-structured data increases. There are also some very interesting new tools that allow us to process larger volumes of data faster, particularly in relation to analytics, and a large market building around Hadoop and its derivatives.

2013-02-10

SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 and SQL Server 2012 SP1 introduced sys.dm_db_stats_properties. This DMV is a new way to check the number of rows that have been modified since the last time a set of statistics was updated. It is described here: ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj553546.aspx )

In the latest version of Ola’s tools, he’s made use of this new DMV for customers that are on one of these SQL Server versions. For customers on earlier versions, he continues to use sys.sysindexes in the same way he did previously.

2013-02-08

Sysprep has been a useful tool to allow the preconfiguration of SQL Server environments, along with the rest of the operating system. This can be very useful for templated Azure VMs as well as for on-premises systems and private clouds.

One of the limitations has been that not all SQL Server components were “sysprep-able”.

Another important change in CU2 for SQL Server 2012 SP1 is that more SQL Server components are now able to be “sysprepped”. In particular, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) can now be part of this.

2013-02-05

One of the things I always tell people that I love about consulting/mentoring work is that you see things that you just can’t make up. They provide interesting material for training classes.

This week I came across something that I wasn’t expecting. I was migrating data from DB2 and in my scripts, I had made the presumption that a table would have at least one column. Turns out that in DB2 you can have a table with no columns.

2013-02-04

SQL Down Under show 54 is now available for download.

In this show, I spoke with Grant Fritchey on his experiences with query tuning and reading SQL Server execution plans. We also discuss SQL Kilts.

You’ll find the show at our podcasts page: http://www.sqldownunder.com/Resources/Podcast.aspx

Enjoy!

2013-02-02

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about whether or not it’s a good idea to introduce new functionality in service packs (for SQL Server, the OS, and others). The concern is that it can invalidate testing, invalidate documentation, books, courseware, etc. However, it can also introduce much-needed features without having to wait for another version of the product. It’s been even-less likely that new functionality would be introduced in a cumulative update (or CU), which are basically a set of rolled-up hotfixes.

2013-01-27

I promised there would be a bunch of shows this year. The second one is now published.

In this show, SQL Server MVP Grant Paisley describes PowerPivot, Power View, Analysis Services Tabular vs Multidimensional and shares the lessons he’s learned when working with these tools.

The show is here: https://podcast.sqldownunder.com

Enjoy!

2013-01-22