Author: SQL Padre

SQL Padre’s Monitoring Solution–Intro

SQL Padre SQL

As time goes by and software evolves, SQL Monitoring solutions are becoming more and more robust and more and more effective. Two of my favorite solutions Red-Gate’s SQL Monitor 3.0 and Idera’s SQL Diagnostic Manager.  Yes they are direct competitors, but I tested beta version, trial versions and I think both solutions are stellar. However, as time goes on and as the economy continues to struggle, businesses are showing more and more reluctance on buying “un-necessary” 3rd party software.  Of course “un-necessary” is a relative term, some of us DBA find these types of software critical for 24 x7 operations.

So in an endeavor to provide some of their functionality, I am planning on building my own SQL monitoring solution.  Yes I know many have done such things, but call it a personal mission that I have wanted to accomplish for some time.

The hardest part was to determine if I wanted a SQL Solution (SSIS, SSRS) or a application solution (.NET, web GUI, application GUI, windows services, etc.).  I believe I am going to make a hybrid of the two.  I hope to use SSIS,  custom stored procedures, SQL Agents jobs to collect data and store that data in a database.  Then create a .NET 4.0 Web Application leveraging SSRS technology as well. If the Web app, is on a public server, or in the DMZ, then theoretically it could be available away from the office as well!

In the next chapter, I will map out the very basic information I want to collect from a MS SQL Server Instance and provide the T-SQL to get that information.

Weekly Question/Poll

SQL Padre Polls

In the future, I hope to learn as much about and from the SQL Community as I can. And one of the ways to do this is to have an easy question for you to answer. On the left bar of the blog will be a weekly (ok, it may actually be a bi-weekly) question or simple poll in hope of just gathering data.

Please, it only take a few seconds to answer the questin!

Thanks!

Back to the Basics (B2B: Intro)

SQL Padre SQL, SQL 2005, SQL 2008, SQL 2012

On occasion, an IT personnel (non-DBA) is tasked with providing SQL support.  Either with installation, upgrading, backups, restores, moving databases or other tasks that normally would not fall under their “job description”.  Trust me I have been there.  We call these “Accidental DBA’s” and sometimes a strange thing happens, the person actually ENJOYS working with MS SQL.  At least that is what happened to me, I was a .NET developer in a corporation with no DBA and over 20 instances of MS SQL in our network.  As the developer, I did create databases, tables, views, etc.; but I didn’t lean SQL management until much later.

So if you are one of those accidental DBAs, where do you find more information on how to do DBA work.  I have always found www.sqlservercentral.com, www.mssqltips.com, and MS MSDN invaluable resources to find answers to questions.  I following some “gurus” of the industry on twitter and their blogs are never boring and always informative.  Some of my personal favorites, to just name a few:

  1. Brad McGehee
  2. Steve Jones
  3. Brent Ozar, PLF (which in reality you get 4, Brent Ozar, Jeremiah Peschka, Kendra Little, Jes Schultz Borland)
  4.  Penal Dave
  5. Thomas LaRock

Every non-DBA needs to know the simple and basic steps to manage MS SQL.  Although I am a fan of GUI interfaces, I will attempt to provide both T-SQL and GUI images to help along.  Yes, I know the evil GUI, most professionals will tell you that knowing and using T-SQL is the only proper way to manage a SQL instance.  However, for those of us that are used to a “point-and-click” environments sometimes learning the point-and-click methods is the quickest and easiest way, especially for those of us who are visual learners.  That being said, I encourage you to always script it out, so you can learn the T-SQL behind the GUI.

During this series I will hope to provide the following information:

  1. How to install SQL; standalone vs. network, there is a difference!
  2. Working with SQL Server Management Studio SSMS
  3. Documentation: Why, I can remember the name of the server?
  4. Documentation Part 2: Didn’t realize the database was that big.
  5. Maintenance plans (they are not just for backups)
  6. Definition of and creating a Disaster Recovery plan

As of now these are the topic I plan to cover in my Back to Basics series.  Although I reserve the right to edit this, I believe if an “accidental” DBA would learn these, then they could probably drop the “accidental” form their title.

In the coming months

SQL Padre SQL

So in the next coming months I hope to begin 2 blog series.
1. Back to Basics –targeted to the Accidental DBA or just a new DBA

2. SQL Padre’s Monitor Solution — this will be a record of my efforts to build a home grown SQL monitoring solution.

Ambitious? Yes, but I have never been known to take on only one task!

So here’s to more active blogging and hopefully some little tidbits of information along the way.

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