With the idea that we will be consolidating our servers, squeezing them together in an effort to make more efficient use of resources, it suddenly dawned on me: How much?

Do we want our CPU, for example, at 100% all the time? Logically it would make sense that you would use every last resource in some way, like a master chef who throws all is scraps into a stock pot instead of throwing them in the garbage like you might do at home.

And yet, it doesn’t make sense to be at 100% all of the time. So what number should we think about as a target? 80%? 90%?

What is the magic number for our consolidated servers and CPU usage? Does one even exist, or am I going to get back a bunch of adult diapers (“it Depends”) for responses?

Quick question for everyone this week: how do you resynch your users after a database restore?

For same server restores you do not have this issue, but when restoring from prod to test, for example, you will find that the sid’s do not match and thus you either need to resynch the users or to drop/add.

Our solution right now is to capture the syslogins every night using OpsMgr and pump the data to a warehouse. We also do a sp_helplogins on each login and pump that information to our warehouse. So, if our objects are being given grants to database roles as opposed to users (and the roles have the same names in all environments), then our resynch is as easy as pressing a button.

With SQL2008 out as well as the use of Powershell these days I thought it might be time to revisit how resynchs are being done. I am thinking ours needs some updating.

Hollywood has fallen in love with movie prequels. The first one I really remember would have been The Godfather II, which was an amazing film to follow on the heels of the original. And while not quite a prequel, I think it helped to foster the idea that movie stories can move backward in time as well as forward. Probably the most popular prequel would have been The Phantom Menace, which is not the same as my saying it was good, just that it was popular. And the recent Star Trek would also be considered a prequel despite how awful that one was.

Before I get started on a rant let’s focus on the question this week: What movie story would you like to see have a prequel? I often think about re-casting movies or casting television shows as movies, but I have only recently started to think about prequels. Here is my brief list:

• Star Wars, but this time done in a way that doesn’t leave me feeling empty inside
• The Karate Kid (imagine a young Mr. Miyagi growing up in Okinawa)
• Roadhouse (who wouldn’t want to see a young Dalton bouncing at a bar while in High School?)

If I am certain of one thing in life it is that whatever studio decides to make the Karate Kid prequel is the same studio that is going to be given a license to print their own money.

…you just may find it.

I saw this and I just knew I needed to share it with others. My first thought was that The Bloggess must have had a birthday. My second thought was “crap, i forgot to send her a card”. Then I remembered that Jenny never gave me her address so I have no idea how to get her birthday card to her. I think I just write “The Bloggess, TX” on the outside of the envelope and toss it in the mailbox, that should work, right? I mean, how many people in Texas have that name?

But then I saw the date was from October, so chances are this was not Jenny but someone else that is slightly off-center.

And before I forget: Happy Birthday to Andy Leonard and Paul Randal. I’ll make sure to drop your cards in the mail today, so don’t call 911 just yet.

The question I pose to you this week is quite simple: who do you trust the most when you are given statistics to back up an argument?

Consider the fine example to the left. While technically true, it really is useless, right? You have no other information or details to review. You are simply told that “statistics show” something, as if that should be enough for you to decide for yourself.

Another example that I see all the time is how public corporations will publish their earnings and compare themselves to the same quarter a years ago. So, you may see something like “earning were down 10% compared to a year ago”. But what you rarely ever see are some follow up facts, such as “a year ago earnings were through the roof and we made twenty billion dollars”. If you knew that a year ago the company was making record earnings you might not be worried about the 10% this time around.

So, how often do you ask for the finer details? And when listening to people give presentations or make arguments, how often do you follow-up on the facts? And when people are trolling through your databases, slicing and dicing their way in some data mining effort, how willing are you to trust their final analysis?

I got this email yesterday and I have to give this spammer credit, they really did make me take notice.

So I looked out the window and did not see anything and then I started to think that maybe if someone did start Armageddon they probably would not bother to send out an email press release. I would think they would start by appearing on Fox News and then start the email chain going.

It has been several hours since I got the email and still no sign of the apocalypse. Todays question will therefore be: Did Armageddon really start and if so, why can I not see it?

The question this week has to do with your data entry validation. For most ETL processes there is a lot of effort put into scrubbing of data for various reasons and benefits. So, how and what do you use to scrub your data?

And what about the data that, while technically “fits” into a particular field, is still flat out wrong? How do you verify that it is correct? Consider this fine example:

This week I am looking for some examples of error messages that you have seen from Microsoft products. SQL error messages would be good, but I am not being picky. The idea is for me to see if I can perform different types of root cause analysis on the error messages so I will also need some general context on how you came across the error.

In my own experience I have found that many times the error message has nothing to do with the actual issue. I like to call them “ghosts”, as in “I feel like I am chasing ghosts.” I have lost track of the number of times (and hours spent) focusing on the context of the error message only to find that the message was an end result and nowhere close to the root cause.

If you have any to share with me please provide the info in the comments or drop me an email sqlrockstar@gmail.com.

No sir, this is serious. But if I may be so bold, could I ask just a handful of questions before I step back in time with you? Thanks.

First, why must I supply my own weapons?

Second, how far back are we going? Because that would be useful to know before picking out what weapons I should bring.

Third, when did you want to leave? Because it could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks or even months to acquire the necessary weapons.

Fourth, are we going back in space as well as time? What if where we are standing used to be a mountain? Would we end up embedded into the rock somehow? Or in the middle (or bottom) of an ocean? What good would weapons do for us at that point?

Lastly, how much money are we talking about? Because I could use a little bit up front in order to buy those weapons.