Tag Archives: SQL

Four PASS Questions–My Take #PASSElections

As part of the campaign material for this years election for Board of Directors; the candidates were asked to answer four questions. While I did put together a short two-minute video for PASS that will be published soon on the election site regarding these questions; I felt it prudent to also do a bit more justice to the questions.

What is PASS to you?

In simple terms PASS to me is the people that embody PASS in general. We are fortunate and blessed to have some great events worldwide at our disposal. To name a few events offhand:

All of the above are great avenues to learn, and we are fortunate to have them. If it wasn’t for some of these above I can honestly say I probably wouldn’t be here before you today on a slate to run for the PASS Board of Directors. However, with all that said, in my heart what makes PASS is the people (our community).

PASS is the one-off conversations that you see members having at the PASS Summit.
PASS is seeing a member helping another member with an issue or a problem.
PASS is the countless volunteers that devote their time to help others to connect, share, and learn.
PASS is speakers who devote their time and knowledge to helping others learn.
PASS is providing data professionals the ability to get ahead of the curve by keeping them out front of today’s technology.
PASS is when someone in the community is struggling and someone stops and offers them encouragement offline.
PASS is having healthy debates.
PASS is not just an event.
PASS is in everyday life; it doesn’t have to be regulated to confined events. It has no boundaries or walls.

We, as a community, have grown and made great strides over the years. There is still, and always will be, room for improvements. We cannot become stagnant nor can we be afraid of change when it merits it. I’m a byproduct of PASS and what PASS can do for you.

What one change would you like to see in PASS for the 2 years you serve, if any?

I think with any organization you have to keep improving on key aspects. For me, personally, I would like to see the following occur:

Continue to build on transparency with the community. Being more of a “grass-roots” data professional I would love and welcome to see additional collaboration efforts with community members.
Continue to build on PASS being a global entity. We cannot just view PASS as a US entity, but rather a global entity that is impacting data professionals from all over the world. I’m amazed thus far at the progress made in this area; still, with so much progress we still have so much more work to do.
Look at leadership paths for community members and also for existing Board of Directors. We should all continue to grow in this area regardless of where we are at in our careers.

What are your goals as a Board member

This is a great question and one that is not taken lightly. My stance on this question is simply to go in each and every day; put on the PASS uniform jersey, and make an impact in some form or fashion. Whether this is making some tough decisions or reaching out to bridge some gaps. I would love to continue the excellence in what I believe PASS to be; listen if I didn’t believe in PASS and what it stood for I wouldn’t be devoting the time these past six years. I’ve seen it at work first hand; I believe in it, and I also believe that with anything we can make it better for future PASS members.

In my original post found here regarding running for the board of directors I stated I would not make promises and that holds true. All I can say is that I will give it all I got every day. Will I make mistakes, yes. What I can guarantee is that the drive and passion are real along with a work ethic that wants to see success for PASS for many years to come.

How can the community stay current with the ever-evolving world of data?

I think the foundation has had a good starting point with the BI and BA tracts coming into play. We have to continue to hone in with the changing times from all angles of the life cycle. We need to continue to partner and collaborate with one another from Dev, DBA, BI, BA, Data Scientists, Data Professionals in general and provide mechanisms that help drive thought leaders within their respective industries.

We need to continue to provide the tools within the infrastructure side of PASS that enable cross-collaboration across local events – what worked for you vs. what didn’t work.

I’m excited about what the future holds and where data and solutions will lead us.

Summary

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read this post. Leadership is something that I don’t take lightly. One of the sayings I’ve kept close to me is from John Wooden, “The most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” I think it’s imperative that we, as leaders, in the community view leadership as not creating followers, instead we should be creating more leaders.

I will have the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of the community and fellow board members. We should be able to demonstrate what is possible and continue to build future leaders within our community.

Again, it’s an honor to share the time with all of the candidates whom I respect. Whether you vote for me or not I do encourage you to go vote when balloting goes live on September 20th. It’s our community; let’s shape it together.

Hold The Fort

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stress Have you ever heard the phrase “Hold The Fort”? Long ago in battle supply routes were targeted by enemy regiments that would cut off rations to fighting units. As the battle ensued the enemy had driven back their counterparts to a small area on a hill. They were being overwhelmed with many wounded and dying; that is until in the distance they noticed reinforcements were on the way.

How many times have you, as a data professional, been stuck wondering the same thing? Battered, worn down, and flat-out exhausted until you look and see reinforcements on the horizon. Sure, we’ve all been there, but to some it is a question of how do I call in re-enforcement’s or how do I even go about sending out a help signal? Below are some various ways you can tackle problems:

Forums

There are several forums out there that can provide some great insights into similar issues that you may be experiencing. To a certain extent I think forums are a great avenue to explore potential solutions. With that said however you cannot take every answer verbatim. There can be some off the wall answers out there that shouldn’t be followed. It is important to test anything you find on the web regardless of who it comes from.

You can find some of the forums I frequently attend here.

#sqlhelp

One thing that I’ve learned about the community is the willingness to help each other out. Remember above when I stated “Hold the fort, and reinforcements are on the way”; this is a good twitter hashtag to be familiar with. Professionals from all over the world take this seriously and it is not to be mistreated on how it is utilized. I have received great assistance in the past on issues I’ve been stuck with.

Phone a friend

We all have our “go to group” we bounce ideas off of. Sometimes it is helpful to bounce ideas off of another data professional. You may surprise yourself and actually start talking through your problem and come to an answer you may not have arrived to had you not initiated the conversation.

Old Fashion Testing

As a data professional you cannot be afraid to get your hands dirty. Prove your theories and test the scenarios as you run across them. One should be doing this anyway, but in doing so a wealth of knowledge gained is at your fingertips. We stop learning when we stop trying; just because you encounter one failure doesn’t mean you stop. You keep fighting and beating down that door until you make it through the other side. How bad do you want it?

Is It A Vendor Product?

I have the opportunity to work with a plethora of vendors. Maybe your issue revolves around a vendor product and you are not able to make any changes. Great, this happens all the time to data professionals. Some questions I’ll throw out there are:

Have you opened a dialogue with the vendor about the issue?
Have you documented the issue; not just call and say I have a problem?
Have you tried to reproduce the error?
It it already a known bug?
Is it something that we can address internally before we talk with the vendor?

I’ve worked with a couple great vendors in Red Gate and SentryOne over the years. As a data professional I’ve seen vendors (not all) take pride in a quick response time. If there is an issue with a product they will want to take care of it in a swift manner or provide feedback as to why, when, and what to expect.

Internal Resources

I’m going to say this here, and it may shock some of you. No one knows everything; there may be some who elude or perpetuate appearances that they know everything there is to know, but that is not the case. Whether you are in a shop or maybe a consultant (who can tap into their contact base) there are internal methods to maybe approach a different business unit or tech unit on an issue to get an outside perspective. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes goes a long way.

Technical Blogs

There are many great technical blogs out there; I have listed some in my DBA Blogs section to the right of this page. Each person is different and has their own go to Blog for review. I receive questions all the time from readers and other data professionals; being respectful is key but I have not seen one data professional out there who would not extend a helping hand if presented in a respectful manner. DO NOT TAKE this as one will provide an answer. We may show you how to connect the dots, but it is important one takes the necessary steps to get to the answer on their own. Nothing is given….work hard for it.

User Groups

Maybe your issue is not a hot ticket item and it can wait to a user group meeting. These are great places to bring up questions and issues in a local environment with some pretty stellar professionals. I guarantee that if you ask a question and no one knows the answer then someone will do their best to find out that answer and further the discussion. An example of a user group can be found here.

PASS Summit

Perhaps your issue is ongoing and you are at the PASS Summit. Great, besides being at a conference with over 6k of our closest friends I would take advantage of the SQLCat and AzureCat Team’s hours. It is a great way to tell Microsoft of your issues and get advice from some of the top-tier people in our industry.

Conclusion

I don’t know what your situation is or will be. Obstacles will come from all angles this year; it is up to us on how we deal with them. I would be amiss if I sat here and didn’t tell you that it won’t always be easy. Nothing in life is easy; some days you will have to work and grind your way through until you get to an answer for an issue. In the end though, when you do find that answer (and you will) you will be able to learn from it and move on. It is part of a data professionals journey.

Keep fighting and keep working toward your end goals. Never stop learning; never stop gaining knowledge.

Blink – Year is gone

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As the door begins to knock I start to wonder who it can be. As I begin to open it the person on the other side asks if he can talk to Perfection. No, I replied, perfection isn’t here and will never be here.

That same concept is what this blog I started 4 years ago is all about. No, you will not find perfection. What you will find is a data professional who loves working with SQL server and views his everyday job as not really a job at all. I’ve learned over the years that I’m probably in that rare club who enjoys his job and what all he has to work with.

I work with a fantastic SQL Community and have met several interesting folks along the way. I enjoy talking and working alongside the vendors where I can, and offer feedback when asked. The many questions and collaborations that have been had this year from user groups, talks, sessions, presentations, conferences have been phenomenal and I am humbled by the response given to the SQL Professor.

While you won’t find perfection you will find a guy who will share with you some of the knocks, bumps and bruises; along with solutions to what he has faced along his SQL journey in hopes that it will benefit you and others.

You will find a data professional who will be continual learning so that he can share the solution with someone in need

…..and you will find a data professional who will help anywhere he can in hopes of growing the thing he has enjoyed so much being a part of ~ The SQL Community.

As we move into 2015 I am thankful for the people who have taught me that quality of my content is important and I will take that into 2015 and do my best to enhance The SQL Professor to new boundaries. This year has been a roller coaster of a ride, one that I am both humbled and thankful for. As the year draws nigh and me having some vacation days to take I decided to venture back over some of the past posts. These past few weeks, ever since getting back from PASS Summit, have been nothing short of hustling and bustling to and fro. I am thankful that the SQL Professor site has had a reach into many countries this year a nice increase from last year and the representation is noted below:

United StatesUnited Kingdom

India Australia

Canada Netherlands

Germany France

South Africa Brazil

Belgium Norway

Italy Sweden

Nepal Ireland

Russian Federation Switzerland

Poland New Zealand

Spain Taiwan

Portugal Mexico

Denmark Serbia

Singapore Colombia

Viet Nam Philippines

Israel Turkey

Chile Hong Kong

Argentina Finland

Puerto RicoCzech Republic

Costa Rica Malaysia

Austria Japan

Ukraine Egypt

United Arab EmiratesCroatia

Pakistan Slovenia

Republic of Korea Romania

Indonesia Thailand

Algeria Peru

Dominican Republic Bulgaria

Greece Bermuda

MontenegroChina

Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic

Slovakia Guatemala

Saudi ArabiaNicaragua

Venezuela Armenia

Lithuania Morocco

Paraguay Belarus

LuxembourgAzerbaijan

Latvia Hungary

Tunisia Côte d’Ivoire

Bangladesh Ecuador

Oman Kazakhstan

Iraq Uruguay

Iceland Sri Lanka

Bolivia Nigeria

Albania Macao

Jordan Estonia

Libya Uganda

Papua New Guinea

Cyprus Kenya

Djibouti Cayman Islands

El SalvadorCambodia

Georgia

Solid increases have been gained since inception and I believe that is because of the content and the focus that has been put forth on it this past year. Thank you for a great year and I look forward to the journey of continual learning and sharing moving forward.

Enjoy the holidays and short work week; look forward to seeing you all again in 2015.

SQL Prompt What Is It Good For Absolutely…

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Everything. If you’ve never had the opportunity to use Red Gates SQL prompt utility then you are missing out. Recently, I went without it for a day by some circumstances that I decided to create for myself. Of course these actions were not intentional but then it got me thinking somewhat on if I was stranded on a desert SQL island what would be the one utility I would want most in my survivor tool belt.

I posed this question over at SQL Brit’s Forum (if you haven’t been over there yet check it out; there is some good stuff going on over there) and got some really good responses back.

Back to the subject at hand, SQL Prompt, and why do I like it so much. I am a heavy Red Gate user; have their bundle and enjoy using all their utilities. Makes my job a lot easier; one of these is SQL Prompt.

What Is SQL Prompt?

SQL Prompt is an add-in for SSMS and Visual Studio, and according to Red Gate, has been designed to strip away the repetition of coding.

Features

There are many features about SQL Prompt but I won’t cover all of them. I want to focus on just a few that have helped me tremendously fight the good DBA fight.

Summarize Script Option – as you can see below the script that is in the query window for my test database called release I have 3 insert statements. If I had a very huge query I was working with, or perhaps even going through highlights of an SP I can get a quick summary of what I’m dealing with:

If you click on one of the Insert Scripts you will see that it is highlighted in your query window for quick review:

Just how do you get to this Summarize Script Option? If you look at your toolbar inside SSMS you will see the SQLPrompt option available. From there it is as simple as selecting the summarize script feature:

Snippets – these are nice hot keys to allow you to get to code quicker. You can save your own snippets for frequently used code. For example some of the snippets that are quick to learn are

SSF which is select * from
DF which is delete from
CT which is create table
II which is insert into

The list and possibilities could go on but the mere fact of having this at my finger tips has cut down on a lot of coding and “repetition” that occurs on a daily basis.

Conclusion

What I’ve shared are just two features that SQL Prompt has to offer and we haven’t even begun to scratch the service. The more I think on it the more I believe I will be doing an in depth over view of my bundle. I believe I have features that I am not taking full advantage of that are at my disposal.

Just this utility alone has formatting short cuts, navigation short cuts (Summarize Script is Ctrl+B, Ctrl+S), Code-completion Shortcuts, Refactoring, and much more.

Check out SQLPrompt for more information at RedGates website.

What’s your go to utility? If you were stranded on a SQL Desert island what would you want to have with you that you could not survive without?

Fab Five – The SQL

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The History

The original Fab Five dates back to 1991 when five high school kids found their way to the University of Michigan to play college basketball. These guys were the best of the best coming out of high school; four of them were ranked in the top ten while the fifth was ranked in the top one hundred. At that present time getting four guys ranked that high to come to your college was unprecedented in college basketball. They went on to transcend college basketball both in persona and in style.

The Positions

Each of the five guys that made up the Fab Five had their own specific positions they played. For those of you who don’t follow basketball I’ll lay it out for you here real fast:

Point Guard – this position is often viewed as the play maker; they run the team’s offense and ensure people get to where they need to go. One main aspect of a point guard is to understand the coaches game plan and implement that plan. Best way I can think of this position is being a coach on the floor.
Shooting Guard – this position scores points, is athletic, and is reliable in close games. They are often times the teams primary scoring option.
Small Forward – this position is often considered to be one of the most versatile positions on the court; this position can score and they can get to the foul line at will and is one of the key components to any team.
Power Forward – this position wears many responsibilities including rebounding; they typically have a good mid-range jump shot; they don’t mind to get in the mix with the opposing team and do a lot of the grunt work.
Center – this position normally goes to the tallest player and has a great deal of strength. When you find a center who is athletic and tall they are an unparalleled asset to any team. Again this position does a lot of grunt work and gets the job done.

Present Day

The term “Fab Five” has stuck with me throughout my life. I have categorized many things on various levels of what my Fab Five are. My SQL journey also falls into this category. Many times throughout the year I get asked who or what has helped me along my data professional/DBA journey and who has made an impact on me throughout my career. With that said I have categorized who my Fab Five are.

Fab Five – The SQL

Now that we have arrived here to what this blog post is about I have had my own Fab Five from a SQL standpoint that have helped me in my career to date. Please keep in mind that others have helped along the way; these guys have just made a pretty huge impact on me and since I am asked frequently about this topic I thought I’d share them.

Point Guard/Chris Shaw (B|T) – it was 2011 and I attended my first PASS Summit (for those of you who have never attended this conference I suggest you attend). I was able to sit in on a session that Chris presented on, utility databases, and was able to relate and resonate with his ideas to incorporate them into some of my daily activities. Up to this point I hadn’t been really involved in the SQL Community although I had been around SQL for years. I ran into Chris outside the conference while sessions were on break and he was about the most down to earth guy I had met at the conference; here this guy is an MVP like others who were there and he is having just as much fun as the rest of us were. Long story short, after the PASS Summit I started to reflect more on what I had learned and since I had never ventured out much into the community I reached out to Chris to see if he would guide me on some things which he did so without hesitation. Over the course of the past 2 years Chris has been an integral part of my DBA growth to which I’m also proud to call him my friend. I had to have this guy as my point guard as he’s the general and has orchestrated a lot of my ongoing efforts to further my career.
Shooting Guard/Brent Ozar (B|T) – playing ball all my life I wanted to surround myself with good players. I always wanted to play up at a higher level; I figured if I wanted to be the best I needed to beat the best and play with the best. That was my basketball mentality and part of the competitiveness to a certain extent has carried over into my career. I sat back and jotted down who I thought to be in my own views key players in the SQL industry and Brent was one I jotted down. I wanted to learn all the techniques I could from him and his crew and after the PASS Summit 2011 I started really diving into what Brent and his group had to offer. I started off with his weekly Tuesday morning/early afternoon video sessions. These were quick hits where I could eat my lunch at my desk and learn some new and cool things I didn’t really get to dive into in the past. Along with the videos I have become accustomed to the sp_Blitz and sp_BlitzIndex which his group (Jes, Kendra, Jeremiah, and Doug) provides. One thing I like about Brent’s group is they are just flat out real; what you see is what you get. If you haven’t been on a Tuesday video session check it out – they are just real people like you and I having a good time and teaching some really cool SQL stuff to data professionals like me along the way. Brent gets my shooting guard position because as a shooting guard he can score in buckets and in a variety of ways. Always provides a plethora of information that is both helpful and precise. A lot of my current techniques are attributed to him.
Small Forward / John Sansom (B|T) – I actually was reviewing a great post by John on Automation and found my way onto his Forum. I had been looking to get involved in different ways with the community and have posted some on various boards when I stumbled upon his forum I liked the idea he was presenting. As a few days passed I kept coming back and finally decided to dive in head first. Am I glad I did, in a short period of time John has flat out boosted my drive to do what I can in helping the community. Like Chris Shaw, John has been an instrumental influence on my day to day activities as a DBA/data professional and has encouraged me to not only look for the solution but also think outside the box. He gets my small forward position because again of the versatility, dependability, and flat out getting after it day in and day out. I would put John up against anyone in the community and his integrity to his craft speaks volumes.
Power Forward / Steve Jones (B|T) – If you have dove into the community at all then you know about SQL Server Central or possibly Red Gate. I am blessed enough to work with the Red Gate SQL tool belt daily; because of that I got to know Steve’s work and the Voice of the DBA podcasts/posts he conducts on a daily basis. You want to see a work ethic then look at Steve. Seeing guys like this drives and inspires me more to take what I can do to the next level. One thing I’ve noticed Steve do is always trying something new for example this month is his Power Shell month. Steve gets my power forward position because he always provides me with consistency. One thing he has taught me is don’t be afraid to try something new while testing your theories. My training schedule was waking up at 3 a.m. to run sprints in the street then go shoot 500 jumpers before class followed by practice in the afternoon. Steve epitomizes that work ethic in the SQL community, the daily topics from the Voice of the DBA pertain to real everyday issues that everyone can relate to. Seeing a professional like this just go about his job and continuously knock out speaking event after speaking event, post after post, engagement after engagement is just flat out admirable. Again like all the Fab Five this one has taught me hard work pays off and get in and learn your skill set.
Center / John Sterrett (B |T) – PASS Summit 2011 was a really good conference I reckon because I came to know John from the same conference, he did a session on PBM/CMS that rocked. At the time it was something we were going to implement in the shop I’m at and seeing it up front in person was perfect. After getting back from the conference I noticed that John put out on his blog that he was taking people under his wing and to let him know if anyone was interested. I reached out and sure enough John has helped me along my journey ever since, just like my previous four have. If you look at what a center does they just flat out get after it. Defense, offense, rebound, gets fouled non-stop but keeps getting up and hustling. John has shown me that hard work does in fact pay off. From his blog posts all the way through his presentations the information he provides is spot on.

To my Fab Five I thank you, in today’s world this is not said enough. The time that you guys put in day in and day out does make a difference. So when you think you’re doing things in vain it is because of these efforts that it has helped me where I am at.

Crunch Time (4th quarter / Second Half)

When you are down to the last two minutes and the game is on the line what will you fall back on? For me the obvious answer is my training. I was told something one time by a friend of mine, “Somewhere, somebody is practicing getting better while you are not. What will it take?” For me, being a DBA is not just a job; for me it is a career that I thoroughly enjoy. My outlook I had in basketball is the same outlook I have today in my work ethic, I want to continue to practice, work hard, get better, hone my skill set. These guys have afforded me multiple resources to learn from.

I have my own saying that, it only takes one. It took one at Pass Summit 2011 (Chris Shaw) to get me involved in the community and have a strong footprint in how I conduct my DBA duties, it took one in Brent Ozar that decided you know what, I want to help my community and offer videos that others may learn what I already know and provide helpful tools that sets a standard in the industry, it took one in John Sansom to start a Forum that bridged the States to London for a guy who was looking for some identity in how to help others, it took one in Steve Jones who takes time out of his schedule to answer some emails that I send or spends countless hours being the Voice of the DBA which provides insight into the SQL technology, and it takes one in John Sterrett who always answers my attempts to further my knowledge and learn from him, and who introduced PBM\CMS to me.

Conclusion

I said all that to say this, the re-occurring theme is it “takes one”; these guys did it and I hope one day I’m that one to someone else. You see the community is full of men and woman like my Fab Five ~ who is your Fab Five and will you be that one?

Get involved, bring something to the table, and as the renowned Thomas Larock (B|T) says ~ make today your someday!

I’ll leave you with this one encouragement that I’ve shared here before and on other Forums:

Believe while others doubt

Plan while others are playing

Study while others are sleeping

Decide while others are delaying

Prepare while others are daydreaming

Begin while others are procrastinating

Work while others are wishing

Save while others are wasting

Listen while others are talking

Smile while others are frowning

Commend while others are criticizing

Persist while others are quitting

Linked Server Set-Up

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At times I take for granted some of the features that SQL has to offer. One of the features that I was asked about from some fellow colleagues is setting up a Linked Server. First, what is a Linked Server? A linked server basically allows a SQL Server Database engine to execute commands against OLE DB data sources outside the instance of SQL Server. There are some advantages in having a

Linked Server a few just to mention are:

The ability to access data from outside of SQL Server
The ability to issue distributed queries, updates, commands, and transactions on data sources
The ability to address diverse data sources

CONFIGURING A LINKED SERVER

One of the ways that you can set up a linked server is through SSMS; you can perform the following tasks:

Connect to a server in SSMS
Expand the Server Objects
Right click Linked Servers
Select a new linked server

The first box allows you to select a specific server type.

The security section will allow you to define the logins.

Under server options ensure the data access value is set to true

From there you can test the connection and ensure the validity of the setup has been completed correctly.

For further research you can review some of the documentation in the below links from Microsoft (some are from prior versions of SQL but the gist is still the same):

Linked Server Database Engine

Creation of Linked Server