The best EMTs and Medics are the ones who realize, “This isn’t my emergency,” early enough. You’ll be a better DBA or technologist the quicker you learn the freedom that comes from that line of thought. (Also, a warning – in this post, I talk about – in vague terms and no medical specificity about … Read more
I was about to write another bunch of comments on why I think troubleshooting skills are important. I’ve changed my mind – I’ve done that before. So let’s start SQL University Troubleshooting week off with a couple reminders from past posts that say what I wanted to say this week already. If You Can’t Troubleshoot … Read more
When I re-read yesterday’s blog post on troubleshooting steps, I felt guilty. Instantly. Why? Because I had failed to mention something to you in that post and failed to follow advice I just gave in my SQL Rally presentation. *In my own defense, I did mention that one of the bullets I used in that … Read more
If you can’t diagnose a problem and troubleshoot it, you can’t work with me. I interview for that skill.
How many times have you heard or uttered those words? You work hard and understand the business requirements, you try and get the logic to work to make the procedure return what was expected or update the data as expected. You do some unit tests in your environment, it may not scream but it comes … Read more
Just uncovered an already reported and fixed (in SQL Server 2008) bug with Analysis Services job steps reporting success even if your MDX or XMLA in the step failed. The troubleshooting that worked up to the issue also reiterates points I made when discussing troubleshooting methodologies and empirical evidence. The Problem Some changes were made … Read more
When I posted about Empirical Evidence and finding a Troubleshooting Methodology, I talked about implementing a solution just because it seemed to work. This can manifest itself in different ways. Some are alright and harmless (what your shotgun hit happened to be the right fix) and some can be dangerous and hide the real problem. … Read more