More Soft Skills From The Ambulance
August 14, 2014
A couple days ago I posted some of the lessons I learned in the back of an ambulance that have translated into my career as a SQL Server Consultant or a DBA. I promised I had a few more.  Here they are. “I Don’t Know What You’ve Been Through” Empathy. My friend Tom LaRock wrote an
5 Database Lessons From The Bathroom…
December 27, 2013
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
Free DBA Advice eBook
December 10, 2013
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
Check Your SQL Server Configuration
November 27, 2013
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
How Do You Prevent a SAN Failure?
November 14, 2013
… 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
Yes Virginia, SANs Can Fail
November 7, 2013
“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
Memory Prices Changed – Have Your SQL Servers?
February 27, 2013
Psst – My services are likely more expensive than the memory your SQL Server needs and wants. Your CIOs and Directors need to stop thinking they are buying servers and components in 2004, or even 2010. I do all sorts of consulting gigs for all different reasons, but a lot of tuning gigs and wellness
SQL Server Join Syntax: It’s Changed!
November 26, 2012
Alright so maybe that was a little misleading of a title… SQL Server join syntax changed awhile ago, when ANSI-92 joins became the norm. And Microsoft was threatening to remove it for awhile. The older outer join syntax just doesn’t work in SQL Server 2012. We All Knew SQL Server Joins Were Changing… I know…
T-SQL Tuesday – Love, Big Data Style
February 14, 2012
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday falls on Valentine’s day so Steve Jones decided to talk about the Love affair that seems to be going on right now with the term “Big Data” and the DB industry’s rush to court Big Data. You can read more on his announcement post. Anyway here goes my T-SQL Tuesday contribution.
All I Want For Christmas Is…
December 5, 2011
I’m not going to let another #mememonday pass without a post – one thought came to mind. The theme this month is – What gift do you want Microsoft to leave under the tree this year? I don’t want much. Bill Gates is already taking care of the world, so no beauty pageant wish there.