9 Things I learned in 2009 (Part 2)
Chris Shaw
This week we look into the second half of my top 9 list. As we start to move forward in 2010 it is easy to look at the issues that we face every day and the tasks that need to be completed. As we look into the rest of the year it would be prudent to look back at 2009 and see if we can document some of the things that we have learned, almost consider it a 2009 post mortem. For me the year appeared to fly by without hesitation, there were many new projects and tasks on my list, however when I review what I learned I believe I only covered about 10% of my list in this article.
DMV’s are your friends – Many professionals that have been working with SQL Server for a number of years remember working with the system tables and the system table posters. If there was information that you wanted to know you really would be wise to understand the schema of the systems tables such as sysobjects and syscolumns.
In more recent versions of SQL Server DMV’s or Dynamic Managed Views are providing the information that we are looking for. These views even combine information to make it easier to present and query than the system tables.
Example: A great way to get and record database size in your databases is to query the sys.database_files. The help information on this table explains the size information and how it is measured in pages. I have used this DMV to record the size of a database so I could forecast the future growth on a server that has multiple databases by using the stored procedure sp_msforeachdb.
Keep up With Your Contacts – You never know when you are going to need a fellow professional to help you in one fashion or another. Many times in shops where there is only one SQL Server Professional theory’s, database designs, solutions for problems are good to share with other professionals as a triple check.
Example: A number of years ago I met someone who was looking for some consulting services. After that contract was finished we continued to keep in touch. Recently they contacted me to fill a roll that I was able to recommend someone for.
Auto Updates – Microsoft is kind enough to pass out the service packs, patches and other updates when they are needed. For ease of applying these many operating systems allow for you to automatically update and install this fixes and upgrades. We as operational professionals need to validate that the settings are exactly as we expect them.
Example: Many of these patches if not most of them require a reboot of the servers. Servers that are rebooting without proper planning can cause not only outages but lose of revenue.
Triple Check your answers – Obvious answers are not always so obvious. In situations where databases are being recovered or you are working with production data that cannot afford large amounts of downtime; double and triple check your answers. Answers that have been verified are not a waste of time.
Example: Not too long ago I was working on an archive process that moved data from one table to another table. After the move of records where completed the process would delete the information from the original tables. A step later in the same job was doing some housekeeping on other logging tables.
When I first started to work on the process I was told that the customer believed the performance problems were in the delete step. I took a couple of steps to address those issues, after a couple of test I realized that the performance problem was during the housekeeping episode. The first week’s worth of time produced some results that allowed for some performance gains, however when I discovered the larger source of the problem the correction took an additional change.
They say learn from your mistakes, many of these were not mistakes but just taking the time to adjust the way I did things to a new way to do them. I hope that you have the chance to pick up something new and as we sit on the eve of the release of power pivot there will be many new things to learn.
If you did not get a chance to see the first half of the list check out last week’s article. I would be interested to see what is on your list if you have time drop me an email to let me know what you think is the coolest thing that you learned in 2009. Please make sure that you rate this article and if there is a subject that you would like to see in the future, please let me know.
