Author Archives: paulwinans

Small Changes

Somewhere I read that, eventually, two lines which start from the same point in the same direction and are a fraction of a degree from parallel will be infinitely apart. Another one I like is the equation Patience + Persistence … Continue reading

Posted in Getting Unstuck | Leave a comment

Converting Tidal File Events to Control-M File Watchers

We are converting from Tidal Scheduler to Control-M. One of the hurdles is how to create all the necessary files for the File Watchers to work. This worked for us. SET NOCOUNT ON USE dba –DEALLOCATE c IF OBJECT_ID(‘usp_TidalFileEventExport’) IS … Continue reading

Posted in Control-M, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler | Leave a comment

Recovery Models and Backups Re-Found

This is a short version of what got me to understand recovery models and the what happens during a backup. Wow Kimberly Tripp is a great asset. Back in the day I downloaded it as an individual chapter. I’ve forwarded … Continue reading

Posted in Day to day, DBA | Leave a comment

Requesting a SQL Configuration Change Requires Evidence

Part of a DBA’s job is making sure everyone is comfortable with proposed changes. I recently created a Change Request to increase the SQL setting Cost Threshold for Parallelism. Here is the justification I provided to get sign-off from the responsible … Continue reading

Posted in Configuration, DBA | Leave a comment

Great post on Compression Options

We are in the process of implementing Columnstore Indexes. I came across this page while researching and shared it with the DBA Team. http://aboutsqlserver.com/tag/clustered-columnstore-indexes/

Posted in Configuration, DBA, SQL | Leave a comment

The Roadmap

We are working on the Roadmap again. It is a great exercise to plan the next 1-5 year’s goals and tie them back to department and company goals. I want to at last get select rights to production a thing … Continue reading

Posted in DBA, Leadership | Leave a comment

Using SSMS as a Front End

I was asked to explain my reservations with using SSMS as a front end.  The first issue is concerning our data quality: why are we letting bad data into a database at all? Speak with the data  warehouse group to … Continue reading

Posted in DBA, Metrics | Leave a comment

The Biggest Variable

Which is more important, the chariot or the horse? Of course the question assumes it is possible to separate two things which may be inseparable. Is the question reasonable? Better is to strive to be the best and acknowledge the value … Continue reading

Posted in Day to day, DBA, Employment | Leave a comment

SQL 2014, BIDS and SQL Server Data Tools

With SQL 2014 the tools used by developers are not part of the installation media and in fact SSMS is not even necessary for some. Be prepared to discuss with the development group what are the options before any SQL installations take place … Continue reading

Posted in Configuration, DBA, Leadership | Leave a comment

Querying Tidal for Job Status

The need to look to the future for what is going to run and easily make a report does not appear possible through the Tidal Scheduler interface. Here is what I wrote to meet this need: use Admiral select — top 100 … Continue reading

Posted in SQL, Tidal Enterprise Scheduler | Leave a comment