If your DBA is still adding Windows logins to your database servers then they are doing it wrong. Using logins (versus Windows groups) is an inefficient method that hasn’t been considered a favorable practice for almost ten years. Oh…sure…it works. I won’t argue that point. But if you are administering hundreds of database servers and you are using … Read more
Ever try to troubleshoot something that doesn’t really exist? I think this virtualization thing is here to stay, I really do, but the trouble I see people having with virtualization is that they don’t know where the bottleneck truly lies. There are so many layers involved that most standard troubleshooting techniques fall short. Just think … Read more
I’m normally not one to advocate the use of the Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DETA), a tool available inside of Microsoft SQL Server. (To be fair, I’m not a fan of the SQL Tuning Advisor from Oracle, either.) But I recently came across a little nugget of information that I wanted to share with you regarding … Read more
“Signs point to yes.” – Magic 8-Ball prophecy You have probably heard this line at one point, the one that says “the best DBAs are the ones you never see or hear?” I used to think that was a result of some sketchy personal hygiene choices and later on understood it to mean that if … Read more
The announcements came out yesterday and I can now tell the world that I will be presenting at TechEd this year. Denny Cherry (blog | @mrdenny) and I will be doing a precon seminar at TechEd in Orlando in June. The title is “Microsoft SQL Server Performance Tuning and Optimization” and we are very excited to have … Read more
I hear it all the time. It’s a familiar refrain. Most of the time it is innocent enough, and understandable. But there are times when hearing those words are like hearing the screech of fingernails on a chalkboard: “We can’t change the code.” There you are, listening to someone complain to you about the database … Read more
