Mike Walsh

Mike loves mentoring clients on the right Systems or High Availability architectures because he enjoys those lightbulb moments and loves watching the right design and setup come together for a client. He loves the architecture talks about the cloud - and he's enjoying building a Managed SQL Server DBA practice that is growing while maintaining values and culture. He started Straight Path in 2010 when he decided that after over a decade working with SQL Server in various roles, it was time to try and take his experience, passion, and knowledge to help clients of all shapes and sizes. Mike is a husband, and father to four great children and lives in the middle of nowhere NH.

5 Database Lessons From The Bathroom…

March 6, 2021December 26, 2013 by Mike Walsh

I’m writing this post from my living room, don’t worry. A recent last-minute trip to replenish the household toilet paper supply had me thinking of this illustration. So… I’m a big fan of finding lessons for the day job from everyday life – call them illustrations, if you want. I’ve found inspiration preparing for planting … Read more

Free DBA Advice eBook

December 10, 2013 by Mike Walsh

John Sansom recently completed a great project of his- an eBook with 20 DBAs offering advice and tips to those starting out as a DBA. There are 19 authors I look up to and myself sharing tips and advice to DBAs looking to make into the DBA world or looking to go further once already … Read more

Check Your SQL Server Configuration

July 16, 2016November 27, 2013 by Mike Walsh

I blog a lot about best practices, defaults and paying attention to your installations. It’s a huge pet-peeve of mine to see improperly configured instances. One of the things I always do when doing a health check is review an instances configuration options. On quite a few client environments, just a couple quick knob turns … Read more

If You Like Your Query Plan, You Can Keep Your Query Plan

November 23, 2013November 18, 2013 by Mike Walsh

Period(*). I have two motives here. One – I liked the title and I’ve been having fun with titles lately (A couple weeks ago it was the true story of a SAN Failure with “Yes, Virginia, SANs Can Fail“). Two – it’s a good reminder and a couple recent conversations brought it up so I … Read more

How Do You Prevent a SAN Failure?

November 14, 2013 by Mike Walsh

… Well, prevent a SAN failure from ruining your week anyway. Because you can never fully prevent a failure 100% – even in a SAN, even when your SAN vendor says it’ll never happen (hint: anytime a vendor tells you never – be afraid.. Be very afraid). So that’s what this whole post series is … Read more

Yes Virginia, SANs Can Fail

November 15, 2013November 7, 2013 by Mike Walsh

“Well that’s on the SAN, so it’s good,” better never be a part of your recovery plan. If it is? You just lost. As I type this I’m on the way home from a city from an old client that just lost their SAN – their SAN that every VM was on, their SAN that their company … Read more

PASS Board Elections

September 24, 2013September 23, 2013 by Mike Walsh

Wow. It’s that time already. We have a lot of great candidates to choose from this year. It’s tough picking. It’s even tougher recommending. That said – I think there are three candidates worth mentioning and who I plan on voting for. And it was really tough to single any out! One candidate however, I … Read more