2015 on Andy M Mallon - AM²

Data Compression: Costs & benefits

Tue, 29 Dec 2015 15:00:56 -0500

SQL Server supports two kinds of data compression on rowstore data. Columnstore compression is for a different day. You can compress heaps, clustered indexes (on both tables and views), and nonclustered indexes (on both tables and views).

Compression requirements

Data compression is available in SQL Server 2008 & newer. It is an Enterprise Edition feature–if you’re using Standard Edition or Express, then you’re out of luck.

sp_autostats: object-level auto update statistics

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 11:00:00 -0500

In SQL Server, auto-update statistics is a database level setting. It’s right there:

I’m not going to say whether I think Auto Update Statistics should be on or off. Instead, I’m going to argue that there are definitely scenarios when you want to have this on AND there are scenarios where you want it turned off. Can you really have this both ways? Absolutely.

DROP TABLE Bug on Filestream Garbage Collection

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 15:36:05 -0500

FILESTREAM is not a particularly popular feature of SQL Server–if you’re using it, you are in the minority. If you have a database with filestream in an Availability Group, then you’re REALLY in the minority. At my 9-5, this is being done, and it’s apparent that this combination of features isn’t a robust combination.

SSMS Vertical block highlighting & editing

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 11:00:11 -0500

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #11

This series of short posts will demonstrate some lesser-known features, keyboard shortcuts, and other tips that make my day as a DBA more productive. None of these are groundbreaking super-secret features–they are the little things that I do as part of my daily work that make me more efficient.

#sqlcares, #sqlwish, and #sqlfamily

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 11:00:34 -0500

I’ve been using SQL Server for a dozen years now, but I’ve only been starting to make friendships and build relationships within the SQL Server community in the last couple of years. More importantly, it has only been in the last year that I would say I have really gotten involved to the point where I feel I am part of the SQL Server family. This post isn’t about my journey, but rather it is about the incredible family of which I have found myself a member.

RECONFIGURE—When to use WITH OVERRIDE?

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 11:00:19 -0500

When you’re using sp_configure to change a system configuration, you have to run a RECONFIGURE to finalize your change. You even get the helpful output that reminds you to run RECONFIGURE:

Configuration option 'max degree of parallelism' changed from 0 to 1. 
Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

There are many places online with code samples (Books Online, blog posts, vendor documentation, etc) that actually use the additional “RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE” syntax: Here. Here. Here. There are even posts that switch between including “WITH OVERRIDE” and not including it Here.

Speaking at SQL Saturday #465 in Providence, RI

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 11:00:55 -0500

On December 5, I’m speaking at QL Saturday #465 in Providence, RI. My session is called “Shortcuts from an Impatient DBA."

This is an expanded version of my lightning talk from the New England SQL Server User Group earlier this year. It went over so well, I decided to expand it into a full-length session.

Speaking at SQL Saturday #470 in DC

Mon, 09 Nov 2015 11:00:43 -0500

On December 5, I’m speaking at SQL Saturday #470 in Washington DC. My session is called “Wheaton’s Law for Technology Pros” and is based on my post “Watch your step! Don’t become a DBA-hole.”

I’m really looking forward to it for lots of reasons, but in particular it’s my first SQL Saturday session. Yea, sure, I helped organize SQL Saturday Boston BI this year, so it’s not my first rodeo–but it’s my first *official *time speaking at a SQL Saturday. Also exciting? My session is not at the same time as Brent Ozar’s (blog)–I don’t have to compete with him. Score.

Thank you #sqlsatbostonbi 2015

Sun, 18 Oct 2015 10:16:31 -0400

Yesterday was SQL Saturday #437 or as we call it, SQL Saturday Boston BI Edition. It was my first time helping to organize a SQL Saturday (or any event like this). It was an honor to be asked to join the organizing team, knowing that they already put on some impressive events.

How to pass SSRS params into a URL

Sat, 10 Oct 2015 14:39:36 -0400

Question

I have Native SSRS configured on a 2012 instance (11.0.2100). I have two reports with images that act as buttons to toggle between the chart report and the detail report. I want to configure the action URLs to dynamically pass in parameters when switching between the reports, so that the defaults (derived from a query) are not used when switching views, the manually inputted params would persist.

Dumplings, Databases and Corporate Espionage

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 23:07:22 -0400

This blog post takes a tangent from my usual technology-specific ramblings, but I’ll make the connection eventually. Just bear with me.

Dumplings

Today, I was craving some mapo tofu, so I went to one of my favorite lunch joints, Dumpling Daughter (website). As I walked in, I realized there was a news crew filming. When I asked Nadia, the owner, about her visitors, she asked if I’d seen the Boston Globe yet–and told me to check it out. I hadn’t, so I ordered my mapo tofu, and scurried off to look up the Globe story which was easy to find because it was on the main page, above the fold.

Really Long Descriptions on SQL Agent Jobs

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 14:38:00 -0400

WARNING: Silent truncation ahead

Have you ever tried to enter a really long description on a SQL Agent job?

Maybe you were trying to put some sort of warning to people who might be trying to edit the job, or triage info for when the job fails. (Ok, so this sort of documentation should be on your wiki, not in a job description… but stuff happens)

Planning for an outage: Phone numbers

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 13:29:00 -0400

Who ya gonna call?

If there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood Who ya gonna call? If it's something weird and it won't look good Who ya gonna call?

This summer, they've been taping the new Ghostbusters movie in Boston. It's pretty cool to see the Ghostbusters car rolling through the city.

Unfortunately, the Ghostbusters aren’t the right person to call when something goes boom in your data center. I’m not saying I haven’t used ghosts and gremlins as part of a root cause analysis before–but even Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray can’t help you when there’s a storage or network issue. I’m skeptical that Kristen Wiig will be much better.

Embedded video demos in PowerPoint

Fri, 11 Sep 2015 03:09:00 -0400

This series of short posts will demonstrate some lesser-known features, keyboard shortcuts, and other tips that make my day as a DBA more productive. None of these are groundbreaking super-secret features--they are the little things that I do as part of my daily work that make me more efficient.

Embedded video demos in PowerPoint

Last night, I presented about this series of shortcuts and tips at the New England SQL Server user group. I’d set myself up with the expectation that EVERYONE would learn at least one thing from my presentation (including the two MVPs in the room). It was a high expectation, but I think I managed to deliver. But that’s not the point of this blog post.

Thanks for being awesome NE SQL!

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 01:47:00 -0400

This evening, I did my first presentation at a user group at my local user group. Sure, it was just a lightning talk, but the New England SQL Server user group is a tough crowd. People ask tough questions. Nobody is timid about interrupting you to ask their question. My friends were there--and my friends and I like to heckle each other. Oh, and mostly everyone was there to see Grant Fritchey (blog), and my opening lightning talk was standing in their way.

Those same things that make the NE SQL group intimidating also make it a really exciting, awesome group. I love that my local user group is large, active, smart, and eager to learn.

My talk went great and I got a lot of fantastic and positive feedback from people. I even managed to teach Grant something (actually, he said he learned at least two things)--considering all the things I've learned from him, I consider that a tremendous accomplishment.

If you were there and want the slides (or just couldn't make it in), you can download the slides here.

Thanks for being awesome, NE SQL buddies. See you again soon!

Will Transaction Log backup to Nul break Always On Availability Group configuration?

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 23:08:35 -0400

Question

Imagine we have two nodes participating in SQL 2012 AO. This is a test instance. During one of the index rebuild operation the log was grown up really big (250 GB). We are unable to back it up due to space constraint. What if we backup the Tlog to Nul (just to shrink it down) – will that break Always On?

Tip: Master Control Panel

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 01:00:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #9

Watch your step! Don't become a DBA-hole

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 01:37:00 -0400

No, I’m not discouraging anyone from being a DBA. I’m just discouraging DBAs from being A-holes.

DBAs (and IT folk in general) have a terrible reputation for being curmudgeons, jerks, and a-holes. These guys exist, and working with them is a miserable experience–but they’re a minority. Unfortunately, they are a memorable minority and they give the rest of us a bad name.

Using SQL Agent MSX for Availability Groups

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:22:00 -0400

Availability Groups (AGs) are all the rage these days. Every SQL Saturday, every local Users Group, bloggers and DBAs everywhere are all talking about how cool they are. There’s a lot of talk about how AGs provide a compelling alternative to Failover Cluster Instances (FCIs). The cost (nothing is free, of course) is that with AGs, you have non-contained objects that you need to manually keep in sync between nodes.

How to find the SQL Server Service Account

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 19:24:00 -0400

What is the service account running your instance of SQL Server?

A lot of DBAs probably know right off the top of their head–maybe because they’re using the same account for every instance. Have you ever had to audit every service account on every instance? If you’ve never done an audit, there’s a good chance a surprise might be lurking for you.

Tip: Go [count]

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #8

Common SSMS keyboard shortcuts

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #7

Tip: Never disable a job temporarily

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #6

Tip: Windows Explorer address bar hack

Fri, 29 May 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #5

SSMS Query Shortcuts

Thu, 28 May 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #4

Shortcut: SQL Template Parameters

Wed, 27 May 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #3

Shortcut: CTRL + ]

Tue, 26 May 2015 13:30:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA #2

Shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + V

Mon, 25 May 2015 14:00:00 -0400

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA

Big security loophole with SQL Logins

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 16:46:00 -0400

Aaron Bertrand (blog) recently blogged asking for help to fix a big security loophole. I read the post then, but it was only this morning that I finally got around to REALLY looking at it, thinking about it, and testing it out for myself.

Aaron can do a much better job at describing the issue than I can, so I urge you to read his blog post on the topic, or his Stack Exchange answer on the topic. Then, go up-vote the Connect item he filed.

Converting delimited values to a table (efficiently?)

Tue, 21 Apr 2015 15:33:00 -0400

This is a pretty common problem. I think it’s a question every developer has asked at one time or another: “I want to pass in a comma-separated list of values, then convert it into a table."

Every company I’ve ever worked for has had a function that does this. Everyone does it differently. It’s never efficient. I’ve seen it done in CLR, I’ve seen it done as a multi-statement table-valued user-defined function (which we all know is the devil’s work). The CLR works, but it’s a black-box to the average DBA or SQL developer. The multi-statement TVF performs terribly, but has never been used heavily enough to make it to the top of my tuning list.

This morning, I saw Pinal Dave (blog) post on his blog about this topic, and he used a really elegant XML-based solution. It’s one of those solutions that’s so simple, it’s incredibly hard.

When I got to my desk this morning, I immediately wrapped Pinal’s code into a function that was backwards compatible to a multi-statement TVF version and performance tested them head-to-head.

Here’s my function definition:

Error 3203 restoring SQL Server backup: The data is invalid

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 14:26:17 -0400

Question

I am trying to restore a .bak file (backup taken on SQL Server 2008 R2, compatibility level 100). I am restoring the backup on SQL Server 2012 edition. I get the below error. Unfortunately the original DB from where the DB was backed up is no longer available. I am new on this project. I was given the bak file on a thumb drive.

sp_executesql with output parameters

Thu, 22 Jan 2015 20:05:00 -0500

One of my coworkers asked me about output parameters from dynamic SQL today. I pointed him at sp_executesql, which allows for passing parameters into or out of dynamic SQL. The syntax can be confusing at first blush (especially for a new DBA or developer), but it’s really pretty straightforward, easy, and useful.