Invitation to T-SQL Tuesday #15 Automation in SQL Server

Having taken part in several T-SQL Tuesday’s I decided I would finally put my name in to host one.  I figured it would be a good way to lose my sanity learn some great ideas from this wonderful SQL community.  I figured that since many of you out there set a goal this year to blog more and to learn Powershell then this Topic should help in both of those goals.    So the topic I have chosen for this month is Automation!   It can be Automation with T-SQL or with Powershell or a mix of both.  Give us your best tips/tricks and ideas for making our lives easier through Automation.  Now here are all the details you’ll need for a successful T-SQL Tuesday post!

What exactly is T-SQL Tuesday? Words from the Master Adam Machanic (Blog|Twitter)

“Each month a blog will host the party, and about a week before the second Tuesday of the month a theme will be posted. Any blogger that wishes to participate is invited to write a post on the chosen topic. The event is called “T-SQL Tuesday”, but any post that is related to both SQL Server and the theme is fair game. So feel free to post about SSIS, SSRS, Java integration, or whatever other technologies you’re working with in conjunction with SQL Server. Even if your post includes no T-SQL we still want to see it.”

The Rules

1.       Your post must go live between 00:00:00 GMT on Tuesday the 8th of February and 00:00:00 GMT on Wednesday the 9th.

2.   Your blog post has to link back to the hosting blog and the link must be anchored from the logo (the blue one shown at the top of this post) which must also appear at the top of the post.

3.  If trackbacks won’t work properly then please leave a comment below so that your post is accounted for in the roundup.

Extra Points

1. Advertise! Include a reference to T-SQL Tuesday in the title of your post.

2. Tweet! Use the hash tag #TSQL2sDay to follow links and other relevant conversations.

3. Host! Consider hosting T-SQL Tuesday yourself. If you’re interested let Adam Machanic Know. If you’ve participated in two T-SQL Tuesdays previously and you keep up your blog (blog monthly for the last six months) then he’ll put you in the rotation.

Looking forward to reading through all the great submissions!

2010 Goals(Resolutions) for #Tsql2sday

It’s a good thing I was being lazy very busy during the holidays and the beginning of the year.  Now I can post my resolutions Goals for my #TSQL2sday post.

So first Housekeeping what is T-SQL Tuesday?

From Adam Machanic (Blog| Twitter) via Midnight DBA (Blog|Twitter)

“Each month a blog will host the party, and about a week before the second Tuesday of the month a theme will be posted. Any blogger that wishes to participate is invited to write a post on the chosen topic. The event is called “T-SQL Tuesday”, but any post that is related to both SQL Server and the theme is fair game. So feel free to post about SSIS, SSRS, Java integration, or whatever other technologies you’re working with in conjunction with SQL Server. Even if your post includes no T-SQL we still want to see it.”

I mentioned last year I’m not a big believer in resolutions but I do have goals for next year.  I’m going to review my goals from last year and then set my tech goals for this year.

Last year I listed my goals on this blog post.

For the first goal was to blend my passion of photography and the PASS Summit together.  I achieved this goal in many ways.

1. I helped to organize the Pre-Summit Photowalk which was a big hit!
2. I purchased an Eye-Fi card and uploaded all my pictures to flickr as they  happened. So those that were not at the summit could interact and see what was going on.  I’m happy to say I had over 4000 hits on my flickr stream from those tuning in to see those pictures.  I was really happy with how this ended up.

I wanted to put on a SQL Saturday and I did. With the help of a great crew we organized and put on SQL Saturday #54.  It was a great first start and we’ll be doing it again later this year.

I wanted to present more.  I met the goal of 5 times by presenting at my 2 code camps the SQL Saturday and several user group meetings.  I did not get a chance to attend other SQL Saturdays (besides crashing the Chicago after party).

My last major goal was organization.  I met these both at home and work with getting things organized.  I plan to continue this through 2011.

Goals for 2011

So on to the important part.  2011 is starting out as a big question for me.  I will be on day 2 of a new job and new role when this post goes live.  My underlying Theme/Goal for this year is once again Organization.  My life is usually chaos and I strive very hard to get that in order and most of my goals will reflect that.

1. 2 Technical blog posts a month.  I plan to blog weekly as I started last year but I don’t have enough good technical content and I need to change that.
2. 3 solid presentations.  I have 2 presentations currently I feel comfortable giving and really enjoy I need to add another one to that.
3. Learn other technologies. I’m going into a company that has open source, oracle and many other technologies that are different for me and I’m looking forward to embracing them and learn more about them.
4. Learn Powershell.  With my new role I know that I’m going to need automation and ways of gathering data in lots of different places. In the past I’ve always used SSIS for this but want to branch out now and learn Powershell to give me more options.
5. Pass Cert tests.  I have never taken the MS cert tests and I think it’s about time I did.  Hopefully someday I can try for an MCM but even if I don’t succeed in getting the MCM certification I want to learn the knowledge that is required for it.

These are my major Tech goals for 2011.  I am really looking forward to this year and what it holds for me.

T-SQL Tuesday, Why are DBA skills necessary?

I wanted to add my thoughts on this month’s T-SQL Tuesday.  Haven’t heard about T-SQL Tuesday yet? Here are the details on it.

What is T-SQL Tuesday?

If you haven’t seen it yet, T-SQL Tuesday is the brain-child of fellow-MVP Adam Machanic (blog|twitter). It happens once a month on the 2nd Tuesday (different this month) and is hosted by a different person in the SQL community each time. The idea is that it’s kind of a rallying point to get a bunch of people to blog about a particular topic on the same day, giving a wide and varied set of opinions and interpretations of that month’s topic. The host then posts a wrap-up commenting on all the contributions. I think it’s a great idea and I contribute whenever I have time.

The host for this month is Paul Randal (Blog | Twitter)  and here is a link to the original invitation for T-SQL Tuesday  post.

In my opinion DBA’s are the bridge between Development and Operations.  DBA’s possess that level of Technical detail that can allow them to speak in SQL but at the same time talk to the end user/PM/Manager/Customer.  A DBA that has these skills can be very effective in fixing problems when they arise.  Many people joke about what DBA stands for, DBA = Default Blame Acceptor typically.  Whether you accept the blame or not as a DBA it’s a fact that typically you will have many fingers pointed at you when something goes wrong.  Typically in the DBA world you are guilty until you prove otherwise. To be able to handle situations that arise regardless of where the blame lands is why you need DBA skills.

DBA’s typically possess 2 very important skills that set them apart.  Being able to see the 30,000 foot view, like it or not the DB is usually the central source for many applications and processes in a company.  The DBA has to understand this and know how lots of different pieces  work together.  They never have the luxury of only writing there one small piece of code that fetches bacon all day long (apGetBacon stored proc would be nice) .  They need to understand the server, network and code to know how it all works together.

DBA’s are usually very patient as well, having the finger pointed at you constantly for performance problems or size issues (I’m speaking of hard drives of course) makes you learn to be patient and work through the problems.  Most of the time it does appear to be a database issue since that is typically what is central to all the different applications in the company so the DBA has to take the time to find the real problem and to defend the database.

It’s a simple fact that the DB is one of the most critical components of many organizations. This fact alone tells us that DBA skills are very necessary to help improve move the business into the future.  While this is a great question to ask I hope that businesses start focus on  when do we need a DBA to handle one of our most precious commodities?