Developer or DBA

The other day i got into a conversation with a fellow SQL Server DBA about titles.  The issue at hand was whether we considered ourselves an administrator or a developer when you're the sole employee.  The answer is…  It depends.

I am the sole database adminstrator where I work and while my 'title' is SQL Server administrator, I have to be well versed on both sides of SQL Server.  I've spent a considerable amount of time and money learning the underpinnings of SQL Server.  I won't consider myself an expert I have gotten myself out of some scary situations because of the time I've spent learning SQL Server.

The other part of my job is doing ETL, process automation, and SQL Server development.  Every time I use SSIS to create an ETL process I try to incorporate something new that will improve performance or manageability.  Having DBA skills has definitely made me a better developer.  I now write queries or processes that will be efficient and use minimal resources.  Just because 'select *' is easier to write instead of returning only the queries I need I know I'm helping the DBA in reducing the about of bandwidth to return data.

So what's my favorite position to play at work?  Honestly…  It's a draw.  They both help me be the best SQL Server professional I can be.

Road to certification: Making the effort

As a mentioned in a previous post, this year I am going to get at least one certification in SQL Server. I know I've said similar things in the past, but I firmly believe it's going to be different. Why? You may ask? Well... This year I am going to do this with a partner. I am teaming up with a former coworker. And we've both made it our goals to complete at least one. Given that we both pushed each other hard when we worked together, I'm feel very confident that we can pull this off.

I also want to document my process of getting my certification to serve as inspiration to those that are being hesitant too. If I've procrastinated on this topic then I know others have too. So sit back and let's enjoy the ride.

For those that are curious, I am starting with the developer certification.

Learning

Setting up Rackspace Cloud as my test lab

Well... Today I began taking the first steps to completing my SQL Server certification. I created my first windows domain using Rackspace's cloud offering. Admittedly, this was the first domain I have ever set up. And the process went quite well. The only issue I had was adding computers to the domain. I wasn't able to see the domain. Turns out that I wasn't pointing my DNS to the DNS server I installed when I built the domain. Once I got that sorted out I was ready to go.

If you've ever used Amazon's EC2 service, Rackspace's cloud is pretty similar. There are a few key differences. Amazon charges you for the storage and time the server is actually 'powered' on. Rackspace, on the other hand, will bill you when the server is created. It doesn't make a difference if the server is on or off you will get billed for it. Because of this I've had to change my approach in my architecture to reduce costs.

1. Create the domain controller and get it working the way I want it to work.
2. Once that is done, make an image of the working server. This will allow me to recreate my lab whenever I need to.
3. Create a server image that will be used to install SQL Server.
4. When I need to work on the lab, I fire up the domain controller based on the image and the other server image.
5. Every time you do this you will need to point your SQL Server install server to the new DNS on the DC. It will get a new IP address every time you build a new one.

The reason I'm doing it this way instead of just keeping the servers active is so that I don't get an hourly bill. That being said, I set up two types of instances. I set up a 1GB ram box with 40GB of space at .08 per hour and a 2GB ram box with 80GB of space at .16 per hour. That's really pretty inexpensive but I don't see the need to pay for something if I'm not using it.

I hope you take some time this year to explore the power of the cloud. Personally, I think this is an extremely valuable tool for learning how to administer or learn a new system. If you mess up just fire up another system.

Good luck!

J.D

Administration, Learning

My goals for 2012

Today is January 1st and you know what that means. Yep... It's time to come up with resolutions for this year. Before I get into what my new years resolutions will be I'd like to reflect on how I did on last years' resolutions. I'm happy to report that I actually did very well. Although, I wish I would have done more studying on SQL Server internals. You can never know enough about that stuff! See what my goals were here.

Like last year, I really felt that having a set of personal and professional goals really helped me focus on what I wanted to accomplish. So this year, I will be doing the same. Here we go!

Professional

1. Diversify my skill set. Currently, at work, we are using SQL Server and we are also beginning an initiative that will utilize mySQL. If I want to continue to be the 'go to' guy I need to learn some new skills.
2. Become much more involved in the Austin SQL Server community. Wes Brown over at sqlserverio.com runs CACTUSS and is a fantastic guy. He's showed me that there are many people that want to learn from SQL Server professionals.
3. Get my MCITP on SQL Server. It could come in handy when dealing in salary negotiations.

Personal

1. Become more involved at my daughters school. There's no better feeling that giving a few hours of my time. And I know my daughter really appreciates it.
2. Finish the Miata. What I mean by that is it won't be completed until the seats are redone, shifter is working properly, suspension work is done and ground effects are installed.
3. Continue to play the trumpet, and perhaps a euphonium if I can get my hands on one. It made my day watching my son smile as I was playing my horns. Hopefully he'll grow up to enjoy music as much as I do.

Looking back, I think 2011 went really well. Let's hope 2012 is even better.

Life Experiences, New Years Resolution

Year in review

Well... 2011 is about to end and what a year it's been. Solved some major headaches at Quantum Digital by implementing some features in SQL Server. Probably the biggest issue we were having was some intermittent blocking due to the way some of our processes were written. I implemented read committed snapshot isolation and 99.9% of our blocking issue disappeared. A big win for the database team.

On the performance tuning front, I optimized a process that was maxing out our CPU. Due to the way the query was written I modified and removed some redundancies and the query ran with minimal impact on the production environment.

If you've never worked with geospatial datatypes... You should. I began working with them late last year and it was the best move that I could have made. I took a query that would have been extremely difficult and complex and with the aid of geospatial datatypes rewrote that query to be extremely simple to understand and considerably quicker too. I wrote about that here.

At a personal level, I am getting more and more involved in the local SQL Server community by attending the Capitol Area, Central Texas Users of SQL Server otherwise known as (CACTUSS). I learned more in the few months of attending CACTUSS meetings than I did working on the job. I attended SQLSaturday in Austin a few months ago. What a blast that was. Met some fantastic people and learned a great deal of knowledge from folks I consider experts in the SQL Server community.

My wife and I also had our second child this year. Needless to say, that has kept me very busy but I wouldn't give it up for the world. My other little 'baby' is now 6 years old. Woah! Life moves so fast; it's simple hard to believe how big they are getting.

I'm looking forward to what I hope will be a very exciting 2012. Now I have to come up with some resolutions for next year;)

J.D.