Buck Woody : DBA

How Does the Cloud Change a Database Administrator’s Job?

BuckWoody — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:08:32 GMT

I recently posted a blog entry on how cloud computing would change the Systems Architect’s role in an organization. In a way, the Systems Architect has the easiest transition to a new way of using computing technologies. In fact, that’s actually part of the job description. I mentioned that a Systems Architect has three primary vectors to think about for cloud computing, as it applies to what they should do:

Knowledge - Which options are available to solve problems, and what are their strengths and weaknesses.
Experience - What has the System Architect seen and worked with in the past.
Coordination - A system design is based on multiple factors, and one person can't make all the choices. There will need to be others involved at every level of the solution, and the Systems Architect will need to know who those people are and how to work with them.

The Database Administrator Role

But a Database Administrator (DBA) is probably one of the harder roles to think about when it comes to cloud computing. First, let’s define what a Database Administrator usually thinks about as part of their job:

Planning, Installing and Configuring a Database Platform
Planning, designing and creating databases
Planning, designing and implementing High Availability and Disaster Recovery for each database (HADR) based on requirements for its workload
Maintaining and monitoring the database platform
Implementing performance tuning on the databases based on monitoring
Re-balancing workloads across database servers based on monitoring
Securing databases platforms and individual databases based on requirements and implementation

That’s just a short list, and each of those unpacks into a larger set of tasks.

The issue is that I’ve never actually met a DBA that does all of those things, or just all of those things. Many times they do much more, sometimes the systems are so large they specialize on just a few of them.

And as you can see from the list, some of these areas are shared with other roles. For instance, in some shops, the DBA plans, purchases, sets up and configures the hardware for database servers. In others that’s done
by the Infrastructure Team. In some shops the DBA designs databases from software requirements, and in others the developers do that – or perhaps it’s done as a joint effort. The same holds true for database code – sometimes the
DBA does it, other times the developer, and still others it’s a shared task.

In fact, you could argue that there are few other roles in IT where the roles are so intermixed. Also, the DBA works with software the company develops, and software the company buys. They work with hardware, networking, security and software. There are certain aspects of design and tuning that are outside the purview of some of those things, and inside the others.

With all of these variables, simply telling a DBA that they should “use the cloud” is not the proper approach.

How the Cloud Changes Things

To be sure, the DBA has the same vectors as the Systems Architect. They need to educate themselves on the options within this new option (Knowledge), try a few test solutions out (Experience) and of course work with others on various parts of the implementation (Coordination). But it goes beyond that.

There are three big buckets of cloud computing, dealing with simply using a Virtual Machine (IaaS) to writing code without worrying about the virtualization or even the operating system (PaaS) and using software that’s already written and being delivered via an Application Programming Interface (API). Each of these has so many options and configurations that it’s often better to think about the problem you’re trying to solve rather than all of the technology within a given area - although some of that is certainly necessary anyway.

Database Platform Architecture

I’ll start with when the DBA should even consider cloud computing for a solution. Once again, it’s not an “all or nothing” paradigm, where you either run something on premises or in the cloud – it’s often a matter of selecting the right components to solve a problem. In my design sessions with DBA’s I break these down into three big areas where they might want to consider the cloud –and then we talk about how to implement each one:

Audiences
HADR
Data Services

Audiences

If the users of your database systems all sit in the same facility, you own the servers and networking, and the application servers are separate from the database server, it doesn’t usually make sense to take that database workload and place it on Windows Azure – or any other cloud provider. The latency alone prevents a satisfactory performance profile, and in some cases won’t work at all. It doesn’t matter if the cloud solution is cheaper or easier – if you’re moving a lot of data every second between an on-premises system and the cloud it won’t work well.

However – if your users are in multiple locations, especially globally, or you have a mix of company and external customer users, it might make sense to evaluate a shared data location. You still need to consider the implications of how much data the application server pushes back and forth, but you may be able to locate both the application server and SQL Server in an IaaS role. Assuming the data sent to the final client will work across public Internet channels, there may be a fit. There are security implications, but unless you have point-to-point connections for your current solution you’re faced with the same security questions on both options.

Your audience might also be developers looking for a way to quickly spin up a server and then turn it down when they are done, paying for the time and not the hardware or licenses. This is also a prime case for evaluating IaaS. And there are others that you'll find in your own organization as you work through the requirements you have.

Resources: Windows Azure Virtual Machines: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/tutorials/virtual-machine-from-gallery/ and Windows Azure SQL Server Virtual Machines: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/common-tasks/install-sql-server/

HADR

The next possible place to consider using cloud computing with SQL Server is as a part of your High Availability and Disaster Recovery plans. In fact, this is the most common use I see for cloud computing and the Database Administrator. The key is the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). Based on each application’s requirements, you may find that using Windows Azure or even supplementing your current plan is
the right place to evaluate options. I’ve covered this use-case in more detail in another article.

References: SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery options with Windows Azure: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2013/01/08/microsoft-windows-azure-disaster-recovery-options-for-on-premises-sql-server.aspx

Data Services

Windows Azure, along with other cloud providers, offers another way to design, create and consume data. In this use-case, however, the tasks DBA’s normally perform for sizing, ordering and configuring a system don’t apply.

With Windows Azure SQL Databases (the artist formerly known as SQL Azure), you can simply create a database and begin using it. There are places where this fits and others where it doesn’t, and there are differences, limitations and enhancements, so it isn’t meant as replacement for what you could do with “Full-up” SQL Server on a Windows Azure Virtual Machine or an on-premises Instance. If a developer needs an Relational Database Management
(RDBMS) data store for a web-based application, then this might be a perfect fit.

But there is more to data services than Windows Azure SQL Databases. Windows Azure also offers MySQL as a service, RIAK and MongoDB (among others) and even Hadoop for larger distributed data sets. In addition you can use Windows Azure Reporting Services, and also tap into datasets and data functions in the Windows Azure Marketplace.

The key for the DBA with this option is that you will have to do a little investigation this time, and potentially without a specific workload in mind this time. I think that’s acceptable thing to ask – DBA’s constantly keep up with data processing trends, and most will consider different ways to solve a problem.

References:

Windows Azure SQL Databases: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/features/data-management/

Windows Azure Reporting Services: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/services/other/sql-reporting/

HDInsight Service (Hadoop on Azure): https://www.hadooponazure.com/

MongoDB Offerings on Windows Azure: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/common-tasks/mongodb-on-a-linux-vm/

Windows Azure Marketplace: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/store/overview/

A SQL Saturday in Cambridge – Buck Woody’s Ragtime Database Workshop

BuckWoody — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:49:00 GMT

The SQL Server community is really engaged. They are an active bunch on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, they help each other on forums, they attend conferences. But that isn’t enough interaction – the community started a grass-roots effort to hold local conferences on a Saturday. Free conferences. Odds are there’s one near you… http://www.sqlsaturday.com/default.aspx … and if not, you can start one.

Sessions at SQL Saturdays are all over the map, and there’s something for (almost) everyone, from Business Intelligence to Database Administration and Development. Some of these events have “training days” associated with them – longer, more in-depth training that has a fee. I’ve taught quite a few of these, and of course I’ve done my share of other presentations at the events as well.

I’m honored to be presenting at the Cambridge, UK SQL Saturday this year (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/162/eventhome.aspx) in September. For one thing, I used to live near there and plan to take the family with me to show them my old stomping grounds. For another, I’m excited about the sessions I get to present.

The Training Day

Friday I’ll be leading one of those training days – and I’ll be delivering a very important workshop, where I’ll cover SQL Server – all of it. OK, maybe not *all* of it, and maybe you won’t be a complete PhD after the class, but we’ll do a complete immersion in learning SQL Server as a product from the ground up. It’s a workshop format, so no sitting and listening to someone droning on and on for hours. You’ll be asked to bring a laptop, and do actual work on the product from the first few minutes of the 8-hour day to the last of the workshop. You’ll be jumping in from the very start, and in deep until the end of the day.

But wait – this is kind of a “beginner” thing, isn’t it? Shouldn’t I be doing something on the internals of the locking mechanism of the hashing system in memory on x64 architectures, with complete code diagrams? Shouldn’t you be able to snatch the T-SQL pebble from the master’s hand when you’re done, or be able to shoot the wings off of an XML fly when you’re done?

No.

We need this kind of session. For one thing, you can get that depth in other sessions. For another, we need to have a place for someone that wants to learn SQL Server but doesn’t have a lot of time to do that. We need something relatively inexpensive that a boss can send a developer, administrator or new employee to learn how to take over the SQL Server, or augment the DBA team. We need a place where good habits are formed, and where someone can branch out into a new part of technology, into one of the best places in tech to be – data.

After you’re done with this session, stick around for Saturday – now all those presentations will make more sense. And you’ll be able to network with a lot of folks that already do what you learn about on Friday, and who knows – find out where to look for work in this amazing career field.

What will you learn?

You’ll start with knowing that SQL Server is a database product by Microsoft. That’s all the pre-requisite you need, other than being the technology industry. From there we’ll cover:

The Data Professional Career
Installing, setting up and configuring the right Edition of SQL Server for the job (including SQL Azure)
Database engine fundamentals – How does the engine work, what are the components, what can you configure and tune
Transactions, Locking and Blocking
Creating and managing databases
Database options and their impact
Database Objects including Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Functions and more
General maintenance including backups and recovery
Security fundamentals including users, roles, and object security
Performance tuning fundamentals including indexes and query research tools
Multiple resources to help you get to the next level

In 8-hours. Come ready to learn. You’ll need a laptop, and complete focus for a few hours. You’ll leave with the ability to manage and work with a SQL Server system – and you’ll learn what to do next.

Who should go?

If you’re new to Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS’s) but not technology, and you’re looking to expand your technical reach, coming from another platform (to be sure, there will be some repeat info here), want to explore a new tech career area, want to learn more about developing against an RDBMS or know someone who does.

The registration for the training day is here: https://www.regonline.co.uk/?eventID=1120017&rTypeID=242030

What else are you doing whilst (I love saying whilst) there?

I’m also pleased to be providing the keynote on Saturday. (I can’t wait to see what I’m going to say), as well as two other sessions – more on those soon. My daughter wants to be a Zoologist, so while we’re there we’ll be visiting the Zoology museum at one of the colleges, I’ll probably eat too much and potentially go punting. I’ll also mingle with you, my SQL Family, and we’ll just generally have a good time.

If you’re not busy in September, and even if you are, make plans to come check all this out. It promises to be awesome. (Americans think everything is awesome)

See you there.

The Data Scientist

BuckWoody — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:00:18 GMT

A new term - well, perhaps not that new - has come up and I’m actually very excited about it. The term is Data Scientist, and since it’s new, it’s fairly undefined. I’ll explain what I think it means, and why I’m excited about it.

In general, I’ve found the term deals at its most basic with analyzing data. Of course, we all do that, and the term itself in that definition is redundant. There is no science that I know of that does not work with analyzing lots of data. But the term seems to refer to more than the common practices of looking at data visually, putting it in a spreadsheet or report, or even using simple coding to examine data sets.

The term Data Scientist (as far as I can make out this early in it’s use) is someone who has a strong understanding of data sources, relevance (statistical and otherwise) and processing methods as well as front-end displays of large sets of complicated data. Some - but not all - Business Intelligence professionals have these skills. In other cases, senior developers, database architects or others fill these needs, but in my experience, many lack the strong mathematical skills needed to make these choices properly.

I’ve divided the knowledge base for someone that would wear this title into three large segments. It remains to be seen if a given Data Scientist would be responsible for knowing all these areas or would specialize. There are pretty high requirements on the math side, specifically in graduate-degree level statistics, but in my experience a company will only have a few of these folks, so they are expected to know quite a bit in each of these areas.

Persistence

The first area is finding, cleaning and storing the data. In some cases, no cleaning is done prior to storage - it’s just identified and the cleansing is done in a later step. This area is where the professional would be able to tell if a particular data set should be stored in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), across a set of key/value pair storage (NoSQL) or in a file system like HDFS (part of the Hadoop landscape) or other methods. Or do you examine the stream of data without storing it in another system at all?

This is an important decision - it’s a foundation choice that deals not only with a lot of expense of purchasing systems or even using Cloud Computing (PaaS, SaaS or IaaS) to source it, but also the skillsets and other resources needed to care and feed the system for a long time. The Data Scientist sets something into motion that will probably outlast his or her career at a company or organization.

Often these choices are made by senior developers, database administrators or architects in a company. But sometimes each of these has a certain bias towards making a decision one way or another. The Data Scientist would examine these choices in light of the data itself, starting perhaps even before the business requirements are created. The business may not even be aware of all the strategic and tactical data sources that they have access to.

Processing

Once the decision is made to store the data, the next set of decisions are based around how to process the data. An RDBMS scales well to a certain level, and provides a high degree of ACID compliance as well as offering a well-known set-based language to work with this data. In other cases, scale should be spread among multiple nodes (as in the case of Hadoop landscapes or NoSQL offerings) or even across a Cloud provider like Windows Azure Table Storage. In fact, in many cases - most of the ones I’m dealing with lately - the data should be split among multiple types of processing environments. This is a newer idea. Many data professionals simply pick a methodology (RDBMS with Star Schemas, NoSQL, etc.) and put all data there, regardless of its shape, processing needs and so on.

A Data Scientist is familiar not only with the various processing methods, but how they work, so that they can choose the right one for a given need. This is a huge time commitment, hence the need for a dedicated title like this one.

Presentation

This is where the need for a Data Scientist is most often already being filled, sometimes with more or less success. The latest Business Intelligence systems are quite good at allowing you to create amazing graphics - but it’s the data behind the graphics that are the most important component of truly effective displays.

This is where the mathematics requirement of the Data Scientist title is the most unforgiving. In fact, someone without a good foundation in statistics is not a good candidate for creating reports. Even a basic level of statistics can be dangerous. Anyone who works in analyzing data will tell you that there are multiple errors possible when data just seems right - and basic statistics bears out that you’re on the right track - that are only solvable when you understanding why the statistical formula works the way it does.

And there are lots of ways of presenting data. Sometimes all you need is a “yes” or “no” answer that can only come after heavy analysis work. In that case, a simple e-mail might be all the reporting you need. In others, complex relationships and multiple components require a deep understanding of the various graphical methods of presenting data. Knowing which kind of chart, color, graphic or shape conveys a particular datum best is essential knowledge for the Data Scientist.

Why I’m excited

I love this area of study. I like math, stats, and computing technologies, but it goes beyond that. I love what data can do - how it can help an organization. I’ve been fortunate enough in my professional career these past two decades to work with lots of folks who perform this role at companies from aerospace to medical firms, from manufacturing to retail.

Interestingly, the size of the company really isn’t germane here. I worked with one very small bio-tech (cryogenics) company that worked deeply with analysis of complex interrelated data.

So watch this space. No, I’m not leaving Azure or distributed computing or Microsoft. In fact, I think I’m perfectly situated to investigate this role further. We have a huge set of tools, from RDBMS to Hadoop to allow me to explore. And I’m happy to share what I learn along the way.

Big Data and the Cloud - More Hype or a Real Workload?

BuckWoody — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:57:36 GMT

Last week Microsoft announced several new offerings for “Big Data” - and since I’m a stickler for definitions, I wanted to make sure I understood what that really means. What is “Big Data”? What size hard drive is that? After all, my laptop has 1TB of storage - is my laptop “Big Data”?

There are actually a few definitions for this term, most notably those involving the “Four V’s” Volume, Velocity, Variety and Variability. Others disagree with this definition. I tend to try and get things into their simplest form, so I’m using this definition for myself:

Big data is defined as a large set of computationally expensive data that is worked on simultaneously.

Let me flesh that out a little. To be sure, “Big Data” has a larger size than say a few megabytes. The reason this is important is that it takes special hardware to be able to move large sets of data around, store it, process it and so on. (large set)

If you store a LOT of data, but only use a small portion of it at a time, that really isn’t super-hard to do. It’s mainly a storage issue at that point. But, if you do need to work with a large portion of the data at one time, then the memory, CPU and transfer components of the system have to adapt to be responsive - new ways to work with that data (game theory, knot-algorithms, map-reduce, etc.) need to be brought into play. (computationally expensive)

Once that data is loaded into the processing area (memory or whatever other mechanism is used) it must be worked on in parallel to come back in a reasonable time. You have two options here - you can scale the system up with more internal hardware (CPU’s, memory and so on) or you can scale it out to have multiple systems work on it at the same time using paradigms such as map/reduce and so on. Actually, when you lay this out in an architecture diagram, scale up or out doesn’t actually change the logical structure of the process - in scale out the network becomes the bus, and the nodes become more RAM and computing power. Of course, there are changes in code for how you stitch the workload back together. (worked on simultaneously)

So back to the original question. Is Big Data, as I have defined it here, a workload for Windows and SQL Azure? Absolutely! In fact, it’s probably one of the main workloads, and I believe it represents the latest, and perhaps also the earliest frontier of computing. Jim Gray, a former researcher here at Microsoft and a hero of mine, was working on this very topic. I believe as he did - all computing is simply an interface over data.

Microsoft has multiple offerings on the topic of Big Data. In posts that follow from myself and my co-workers, we’ll explore when and where you use each one. Whether you are a data professional or a developer, this is the new frontier - don’t wait to educate yourself on how to leverage Big Data for your organization.

Hadoop on Windows Azure and SQL Server - Microsoft’s partnership to include Hadoop workloads on Windows Azure and SQL Server/Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW)

LINQ to HPC - Microsoft’s High-Performance Computing SKU of HPC is now in Azure

Windows Azure Table Storage - A key/value pair type storage with full partitioning that is immediately consistent, able to handle huge loads of data and works with any REST-compatible language

Other offerings - Including the new Data Explorer, Project Daytona (with a Big Data Toolkit for Scientists and researchers), Power View and more.

The era of Big Data is here. And you can use Windows and SQL Azure to bring it to your organization.

Using the @ in SQL Azure Connections

BuckWoody — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:49:00 GMT

The other day I was working with a client on an application they were changing to a hybrid architecture – some data on-premise and other data in SQL Azure and Windows Azure Blob storage. I had them make a couple of corrections - the first was that all communications to SQL Azure need to be encrypted. It’s a simple addition to the connection string, depending on the library you use.

Which brought up another interesting point. They had been using something that looked like this, using the .NET provider:

Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase;

User ID=LoginName;Password=myPassword;

Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;

This includes most of the formatting needed for SQL Azure. It specifies TCP as the transport mechanism, the database name is included, Trusted_Connection is off, and encryption is on. But it needed one more change:

Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase;

User ID=[LoginName]@[serverName];Password=myPassword;

Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True;

Notice the difference? It’s the User ID parameter. It includes the @ symbol and the name of the server – not the whole DNS name, just the server name itself. The developers were a bit surprised, since it had been working with the first format that just used the user name. Why did both work, and why is one better than the other?

It has to do with the connection library you use. For most libraries, the user name is enough. But for some libraries (subject to change so I don’t list them here) the server name parameter isn’t sent in the way the load balancer understands, so you need to include the server name right in the login, so the system can parse it correctly. Keep in mind, the string limit for that is 128 characters – so take the @ symbol and the server name into consideration for user names.

The user connection info is detailed here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336268.aspx Upshot? Include the @servername on your connection string just to be safe. And plan for that extra space…

You Probably Already Have a “Private Cloud”

BuckWoody — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:05:05 GMT

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of the word “Cloud”. It’s too marketing-oriented, gimmicky and non-specific. A better definition (in many cases) is “Distributed Computing”. That means that some or all of the computing functions are handled somewhere other than under your specific control.

But there is a current use of the word “Cloud” that does not necessarily mean that the computing is done somewhere else. In fact, it’s a vector of Cloud Computing that can better be termed “Utility Computing”. This has to do with the provisioning of a computing resource. That means the setup, configuration, management, balancing and so on that is needed so that a user – which might actually be a developer – can do some computing work. To that person, the resource is just “there” and works like they expect, like the phone system or any other utility.

The interesting thing is, you can do this yourself. In fact, you probably already have been, or are now. It’s got a cool new trendy term – “Private Cloud”, but the fact is, if you have your setup automated, the HA and DR handled, balancing and performance tuning done, and a process wrapped around it all, you can call yourself a “Cloud Provider”.

A good example here is your E-Mail system. your users – pretty much your whole company – just logs into e-mail and expects it to work. To them, you are the “Cloud” provider. On your side, the more you automate and provision the system, the more you act like a Cloud Provider. Another example is a database server. In this case, the “end user” is usually the development team, or perhaps your SharePoint group and so on. The data professionals configure, monitor, tune and balance the system all the time. The more this is automated, the more you’re acting like a Cloud Provider.

Lots of companies help you do this in your own data centers, from VMWare to IBM and many others. Microsoft's offering in this is based around System Center – they have a “cloud in a box” provisioning system that’s actually pretty slick.

The most difficult part of operating a Private Cloud is probably the scale factor. In the case of Windows and SQL Azure, we handle this in multiple ways – and we're happy to share how we do it. It’s not magic, and the algorithms for balancing (like the one we started with called Paxos) are well known. The key is the knowledge, infrastructure and people. Sure, you can do this yourself, and in many cases such as top-secret or private systems, you probably should. But there are times where you should evaluate using Azure or other vendors, or even multiple vendors to spread your risk. All of this should be based on client need, not on what you know how to do already.

So congrats on your new role as a “Cloud Provider”. If you have an E-mail system or a database platform, you can just put that right on your resume.

Where is the SQL Azure Development Environment

BuckWoody — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:31:55 GMT

Recently I posted an entry explaining that you can develop in Windows Azure without having to connect to the main service on the Internet, using the Software Development Kit (SDK) which installs two emulators - one for compute and the other for storage. That brought up the question of the same kind of thing for SQL Azure.

The short answer is that there isn’t one. While we’ll make the development experience for all versions of SQL Server, including SQL Azure more easy to write against, you can simply treat it as another edition of SQL Server. For instance, many of us use the SQL Server Developer Edition - which in versions up to 2008 is actually the Enterprise Edition - to develop our code. We might write that code against all kinds of environments, from SQL Express through Enterprise Edition. We know which features work on a certain edition, what T-SQL it supports and so on, and develop accordingly. We then test on the actual platform to ensure the code runs as expected. You can simply fold SQL Azure into that same development process.

When you’re ready to deploy, if you’re using SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2 or higher, you can script out the database when you’re done as a SQL Azure script (with change notifications where needed) by selecting the right “Engine Type” on the scripting panel:

(Thanks to David Robinson for pointing this out and my co-worker Rick Shahid for the screen-shot - saved me firing up a VM this morning!)

Will all this change? Will SSMS, “Data Dude” and other tools change to include SQL Azure? Well, I don’t have a specific roadmap for those tools, but we’re making big investments on Windows Azure and SQL Azure, so I can say that as time goes on, it will get easier. For now, make sure you know what features are and are not included in SQL Azure, and what T-SQL is supported. Here are a couple of references to help:

General Guidelines and Limitations: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336245.aspx

Transact-SQL Supported by SQL Azure: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336250.aspx

SQL Azure Learning Plan: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2010/12/13/windows-azure-learning-plan-sql-azure.aspx

Back up a single table in SQL Server

BuckWoody — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:51:34 GMT

SQL Server doesn’t have an easy way to take a table backup, so I often use the bcp (Bulk Copy Program) to accomplish the same goal. I’ve mentioned this before, and someone told me when they tried it they couldn’t restore the table – ah the dangers of telling people half the information! I should have mentioned that you need to have a “format file” ready if the table does not exist at the destination. In my case I already had the table, in this person’s case they did not. The format file can be used to rebuild that table structure before the data is bcp’d in, and you can read more about it here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191516.aspx

There’s another way to back up a table, and that’s to create a Filegroup and place the table there. Then you can take a Filegroup backup to back up a single table.

Of course, there are other methods of moving a single table’s data in an out, including SQL Server Integration Services and even the older Data Transformation Services, or simply by using hte SQLCMD or PowerShell utilities to run a query and just save the output to a file. In fact, these days I’m using a PowerShell script to build INSERT statements from that query. That could also easily be modified to create the table structure (or modify one if needed) quite easily.

You Might Be a DBA

BuckWoody — Sat, 29 May 2010 15:18:58 GMT

With all apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, I was up late Friday night on a holiday weekend (which translated into T-SQL becomes “Maintenance Window”) and I got bored in between the two or three minutes I had between clicks. So I started a “Twitter” meme – and it just took off. I haven’t cleaned these up much, but here, in author order as of Saturday the 29th of May is the list “You might be a DBA” from around the Twitterverse:

buckwoody	Your two main enemies are developers and SAN admins #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You always plan an exit strategy, even when entering a McDonald's #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You can't explain to your family what you really do for a living #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have at least one set of scripts you won't share #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have an opinion on the best code-beautifier #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have children older than the rest of your team #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You and the Oracle DBA would kill each other, but you'll happily fight off a developer together first #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've threatened to quit if they give anyone the sa password on production #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've sent a vendor suggestions on improving their database design or code (and been ignored) #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've sent a vendor suggestions on improving their database design or code (and been ignored) #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have an opinion on the best code-beautifier #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have at least one set of scripts you won't share #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You refer to co-workers as "carbon-units" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Being paranoid is on your resume at the top #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Everyone comes to your cube to find the MSDN DVD's #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You always plan an exit strategy, even when entering a McDonald's #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've worn down developers to get your way by explaining normalization levels #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You refer to clothes as "Data Abstractions" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Users pester you to be able to put data in a database, then they pester you to take it out and put it in Excel #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Others try to de-duplicate data, you try to copy it to more than three locations #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have at least one DLT tape in the trunk of your car #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You use twitter and facebook to talk with colleagues because there's no one else in your company that does what you do #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your spouse knows what "ETL" means #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've referred to yourself as the "Data Janitor" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You don't have positive connotations of the word "upgrade" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You get your coffee before you check your servers, because you know you won't get any if you don't #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You always come to work through the back door so no one hijacks you on the way to your cube #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You check your server logs before you check your e-mail in the morning so you can reply "Yeah, I already fixed that." #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have more conference badges than clean socks #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your coffee mug says "It depends" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You can convince a boss that you need 16GB of RAM in your laptop #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've used ebay to find production equipment #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You pad all project timelines by 2X, and you still miss them #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know when your company is acquiring another even before the CFO #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You pad all project timelines by 2X, and you still miss them #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You call aspirin "work vitamins" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You get the same amount of sleep even after you have a child #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You obsess about performance metrics from over one year ago #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	The first thing you buy after the database software is aftermarket tools to manage the database software #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've tried to convince someone else to become a DBA #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You use twitter and facebook to talk with colleagues because there's no one else in your company that does what you do #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You only know other DBA's by their Tweet Handle #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've explained the difference between 32 and 64-bit to more than one manager in terms they can understand, using puppets #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your two main enemies are developers and SAN admins #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've driven to the Datacenter to install SQL Server because "you don't trust those NOC admins" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You pay more for faster Internet connections than cable at home so you don't have to drive in #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You call texting a "queuing system" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know that if someone can read Perl, they manage an Oracle system #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have an e-mail rule for backup notifications #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your food pyramid includes coffee, salt and fat #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You wish everything had a graphical query plan #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You refactor your e-mails #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You would pay money for a license plate that has the letters S-Q-L together #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have actually considered making a RAID array from thumb drives #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've written blog posts on technology you've never actually implemented in production #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	@MidnightDBA Click the #youmightbeaDBA tag. I've had WAY too much coffee today.
buckwoody	There is no other position that is 1-deep except you and the CEO #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	When you watch "The Office" you call it "OJT" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You would pay money for a license plate that has the letters S-Q-L together #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your blog would make a "best practices" or "worst practices" book #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You have actually considered making a RAID array from thumb drives #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	The first thing you install on your netbook is SSMS #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your watch is set to UTC because it's just easier #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think data can be represented as something OTHER than XML #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You tell people that you made a database query go faster, and expect them to be happy for you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You take the word "NoSQL" as a personal attack #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	* == bad #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	* == bad #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	There are just as many females in your technical field as males #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think that something OTHER than the database might be the performance bottleneck #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You refer to time as a "Clustered Index" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know why "user" refers to both business people and crack addicts #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You can't explain to your family what you really do for a living #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You tell people that you made a database query go faster, and expect them to be happy for you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think a millisecond is a really long time #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You're sitting and typing #youmightbeaDBA when you could be outside #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You can't wait for a technical conference so you can wear a kilt - and you're not Scottish #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know that "DBA" stands for "Default Blame Acceptor" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know what "the truth, thole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Codd" means #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You can't talk fast enough to get a concept out of your head so you tweet it instead #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You cry when someone doesn't use a WHERE clause #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think data can be represented as something OTHER than XML #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think "Set theory" is not an verb but a noun #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You try to convince random strangers to vote on your Connect item #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think 3 hours of contiguous sleep is a good thing #youmightbeaDBA or #youmightbeamother
buckwoody	You don't like Oracle, and not just because of what she did to Neo #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know when to say "sequel" and "s-q-l" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know where the data is #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You refer to your children as "Fully Redundant Mirrors" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Holiday == "Maintenance Window" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your laptop is more powerful than the servers in most companies - including your own #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You capitalize SELECTed words #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You take the word "NoSQL" as a personal attack #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You know why "user" refers to both business people and crack addicts #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You cringe in public when the word "upgrade" is used in a sentence #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Holiday == "Maintenance Window" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	All Data Is MetaData means something to you #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You've never seen the driveway to your house in the daylight #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You think that something OTHER than the database might be the performance bottleneck #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Most of your bloodstream is composed of caffeine #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	Your task list is labeled "CRUD Matrix" #youmightbeaDBA
buckwoody	You call your wife/husband a "Linked Server" #youmightbeaDBA
anonythemouse	When someone tells you they are going to take a dump and you wonder of which database then #youmightbeaDBA
anonythemouse	When it's 11pm on a holiday weekend and you are working #youmightbeaDBA
anonythemouse	When you sit down at a table and look for it's primary key #youmightbeaDBA
anonythemouse	When getting milk from the fridge you check the expiry date is > getdate() #youmightbeaDBA
blakmk	when you wake up dreaming about sql #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You think a @buckwoody bobblehead would be a cool thing to have on the dashboard of your car #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Your friends don't understand why you think there's a difference between single and double quotes #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Even the newest employees know your name from all the downtime notices you've sent out #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You sometimes feel anxious and think "I should test restoring those backups" and then the feeling passes #youmightbeadba
CharlesGarver	You know what a co-worker means when they ask "how is your squirrel server?" #youmightbeadba
CharlesGarver	You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You're willing to move someone's job up in priority for a box of #voodoodonuts #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Each person in your company seems to think you work for THEM #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You have a Love/Hate relationship going on with #Microsoft #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	People ask you to troubleshoot their Access program #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	The first words you hear in the morning are 'your voicemail box is full' #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	The thought of disrupting 500 people's work so you can do something doesn't phase you #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Your home computer is backed up in 3 different places #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Your wardrobe for work includes pajamas #youmightbeaDBA
CharlesGarver	Someone tells you to look in the INDEX and you look puzzled before finally going to the back of the book. #youmightbeaDBA
chuckboycejr	If you have ever set up a SQLAgent job to email your mobile phone to serve as an alarm clock #youmightbeaDBA
chuckboycejr	If you'd rather meet Itzik than Jay Z #youmightbeaDBA
chuckboycejr	If you'd rather meet Itzik than Jay Z #youmightbeaDBA
chuckboycejr	If you'd wrestle a SysAdmin to the ground to implement #DPA best practices as per @aspiringgeek #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	I need to be up in 7 hours, so I'm off to bed! I'll have to read the rest of @buckwoody's #youmightbeaDBA posts in the AM. (g'night Buck!)
databaseguy	When people ask you about your house, the first thing you describe is the network. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	The last thing you say at the office each day is, "is anybody else here? I'm shutting off the lights!" #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	Your blood pressure rises when you read application specs drafted by marketing. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	A good day at work is one when nobody pays you no mind. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You care about latches and wait states. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have worked over 200 hours on a performance tuning project that required no application changes at all. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	The late-night security guard knows the names of your spouse and kids. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have had vigorous debates about whether it should be pronounced "sequel" or "ess-queue-ell". #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have VPN and RDP software installed on your phone ... just in case. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have edited a data file by hand, just to see what would happen. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You decorate your office walls with database catalog posters. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You've built programs that access data just to keep other developers from asking you to run queries all the time. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	When you watch movies like The Matrix, you find yourself calculating the fasibility of storing all that data. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have tried to convince someone to spend money on an SSD storage array. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	When CPU is spiked on a server, you want to gather forensic evidence. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have to remind developers not to push code to production without checking if the database is ready. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	Nobody cares what you wear to work, as long as the thing keeps running. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	Telepathy is a job requirement when working with app dev teams. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You read database statistics for the educational value. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	And your boss freely admits this to anyone within earshot. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	Your boss cannot explain or understand what you do. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You envision ERDs when you see a GUI. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You say things like "applications come and go, but data lasts forever." #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You have memorized the names of several of the AdventureWorks employees. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You know what MAXDOP setting you can get away with for a big query based on current server load. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	And you immediately recognize the recursion in my last tweet. #youmightbeaDBA
databaseguy	You find 50 simultaneous tweets from @buckwoody about #youmightbeaDBA :O)
DBAishness	You have "funny stories" about the times your developers accidentally deleted the T-log in their test environment. #youmightbeaDBA
DBAishness	Planning to slice and dice your MDW data with PowerPivot makes you giggle like a schoolgirl. #youmightbeaDBA
donalddotfarmer	You think @buckwoody lives in the "real world." #youmightbeaDBA
jamach09	@buckwoody #youmightbeaDBA Why go outside when you can sit in the nice cool server room?
jamach09	If you refer to procreation as "Replication", #youmightbeaDBA.
jamach09	If you think ORM is a four-letter word, #youmightbeaDBA
JamesMarsh	If you have ever preached the value of Source Code Control, #YouMightBeADBA
jethrocarr	@venzann You store your shopping list in a ACID compliant DB #youmightbeaDBA
joe_positive	@buckwoody thought it stood for "Don't Bother Asking" #youmightbeaDBA
joe_positive	when you check your IT Events Calendar before making weekend plans #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	You cringe whenever someone calls Excel a database #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	When the waiter says he'll be your server today, you ask how many terabytes he is #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	you always call the asterisk a "Star" #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	You walk into a server room, say "Nice RACK!" and everyone there knows you're talking about server rack... #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	You receive more messages from servers than from friends #youmightbeaDBA
LadyRuna	hmmm... #youmightbeaDBA if your recipe for gumbo is "SELECT * FROM Refrigerator"
markjholmes	@SQLSoldier Heh. #youmightbeaDBA if you correct other DBAs' spelling of @PaulRandal
markjholmes	#youmightbeaDBA if you actually test RAID5 vs RAID10 on your SAN because when it comes to configuration, "it depends."
markjholmes	#youmightbeaDBA if you have at least 3 definitions of the word "cluster"
MarlonRibunal	3 Words: @BrentO, snicker, & Access #youmightbeaDBA
MarlonRibunal	@onpnt @mikeSQL my appeal was a couple of mins late. Enjoying #youmightbeaDBA
MarlonRibunal	@mikeSQL @onpnt pls, don't mention bacon #youmightbeaDBA
merv	@buckwoody You HATE 3-way joins #youmightbeaDBA
MidnightDBA	If you're up at midnight Tweeting about SQL #youmightbeaDBA
MidnightDBA	@buckwoody I'd noticed that. :) #youmightbeaDBA
mikeSQL	when people talk about "their type" you're thinking varchar, bigint, binary, etc #youmightbeadba
mikeSQL	people ask you to go to lunch , but you can't go because you're attending #SQLlunch #youmightbeadba
mikeSQL	you laugh for hours at all of the #sqlmoviequotes ....things in which a normal individual would scratch their head at. #youmightbeadba
mikeSQL	you laugh for hours at all of the #sqlmoviequotes ....things in which a normal individual would scratch their head at. #youmightbeadba
mrdenny	If you think that @buckwoody's demo using PowerPivot to analyze index usage data from DMVs is awesome then #youmightbeaDBA
mrdenny	You wish @PaulRandal still worked at Microsoft so that they would make a bobble head of him #youmightbeadba
mrdenny	When it's 11pm on a holiday weekend, and your posting stupid jokes on Twitter then #youmightbeadba
mrdenny	If you go out with friends and wonder why no one's wearing a kilt then #YouMightBeADBA
mrdenny	You can't do basic math, but you know off the top of your head how many CALs $14,412 can buy you. #YoumightbeaDBA
mrdenny	If you've ever setup a SQL Job to email you to get you out of a regularly scheduled meeting #YouMightBeADBA.
mrdenny	You throw up in your mouth a little when ever you here the word "Access". Even if it doesn't relate to a MS product. #YouMightBeADBA
msdtjones	You spend more time listening to @buckwoody than your wife #youmightbeaDBA
NFDotCom	You perform "hail deltas" on a regular basis. #YouMightBeADBA
NoelMcKinney	If you tell your wife you want to go to Columbus Ohio for your wedding anniversary so you can attend #sqlsat42 then #youmightbeaDBA
NoelMcKinney	You read a union is on strike and wonder if it's a UNION ALL #youmightbeaDBA
NoelMcKinney	You read a union is on strike and wonder if it's a UNION ALL #youmightbeaDBA
NoelMcKinney	Someone asks you to throw another log on the fire and you tell them not to worry about it because Autogrowth is turned on #youmightbeaDBA
Nuurdygirl	Even if you have a girlfriend...its possible #youmightbeadba. Yeah-i said its possible!
Nuurdygirl	When your girlfriend has to lean around the laptop to kiss you goodnight #youmightbeadba
Old_Man_Fish	If you worry about how big your package is and how long it takes to finish #youmightbeaDBA
Old_Man_Fish	If you no longer wonder if someone is in trouble or died if you are getting calls at 2AM #youmightbeaDBA
Old_Man_Fish	If, when you hear the word ACCESS with no connotation you blood pressure jumps 50 points, #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	When you hear the word inject you immediately get concerned if your databases are OK #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	Your servers haven't been rebooted in a year #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You know why it's funny when @PaulRandal has the word, "Sheep" in a tweet #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You have read BOL without actually having a problem to figure out #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You can type "SELECT columns FROM tables" without typos but tipen ni Banglish ares a messis #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	DR strategies doesn't include the word, RAID in them #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	you can move a SQL Server instance to a new server without the users ever knowing #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You have made an SSIS package that is more than one step #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You have the balls to say no to your boss when they ask for the sa password #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	you google to trouble shoot a problem and end up at your own blog (and it fixes it) #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You talk your wife into moving the family vacation a week earlier so you can attend the areas local SSUG meeting #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	you can explain to a nontechnical person what a deadlock is #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You hope a girl asks you what your collation is #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	you make jokes that include the words shrink, truncate and 1205. And you are the only one that laughs at them #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You rate your ability to stay awake to work longer on blogs, twitter, forums and your day to day job with the 5 9's goal #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	you have major surgery and beg the doctor to release you back to work 5 days later because you miss your servers #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory
onpnt	You do have backups and you know how to use them #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	It's the network #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	When the developers get to work your mood changes rapidly #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	When someone says, "PASS", you first think of karaoke #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	Recruiters try to get you to call them just because they think you'll give them @BrentO contact info #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You chuckle every time you go to grab the "CLR" Calcium, Lime and Rust Remover to clean something #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	@MarlonRibunal @mikeSQL Sorry man, it was already in motion ;-) #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	When you have an "I love bacon" sticker on your laptop. #youmightbeaDBA http://twitpic.com/1ry671
onpnt	You sing SELECT statements in the shower #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	When you see a chicken it doesn't remind you of food. It reminds you of a guy named Jorge #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	At time, SQL is your mistress #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	Your wife wonders if SQL is the code name of your mistress at times #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	it's Friday and you are on twitter thinking really hard about what would be funny for hash tag #youmightbeaDBA
onpnt	You organize your wife's "decorative"pillows on the bed in a B-Tree structure #youmightbeaDBA
PaulWhiteNZ	If you: SELECT TOP (1) milk FROM fridge WHERE use_by_date >= GET_DATE() ORDER BY use_by_date ASC #YouMightBeaDBA
RonDBA	#youmightbeaDBA if you read @buckwoody's and @BrentO's blogs.
ryaneastabrook	@buckwoody omg, you have to stand up a website with these on them, they are awesome #youmightbeaDBA
soulvy	@StrateSQL @LadyRuna Or a "Splat" #youmightbeaDBA
speedracer	You can still fall asleep after three cups of coffee #youmightbeaDBA
speedracer	You retweet @buckwoody on a Friday night #youmightbeaDBA
speedracer	You can still fall asleep after three cups of coffee #youmightbeaDBA
speedracer	Developers make you twitch #youmightbeaDBA
sqlagentman	You know what X/1024*8 is. #YouMightBeADBA
SqlAsylum	Your still in the office at 5:00 on memorial day weekend. #youmightbeadba :)
SQLBob	Whenever someone you know gets pregnant you bring up INNER JOINs or SQL Injection attacks... #youmightbeaDBA
SQLChicken	You know one or more SQL folks in the community with an animal in their username #youmightbeaDBA
SQLChicken	You've used one or more car analogies to explain how a database works #youmightbeaDBA
SQLChicken	“@sqljoe: #youmightbeaDBA if you applied to attend #sqlu and requested @SQLChicken to pull strings for you” lmao nice!
SQLChicken	When talking about SSIS your discussions break down into various jokes about packages #youmightbeaDBA
SQLChicken	Just SEEING the code for cursors makes you break out in hives #youmightbeaDBA
SQLChicken	Just SEEING the code for cursors makes you break out in hives #youmightbeaDBA
SQLCraftsman	You coined the phrase "Magic SAN Dust" because calling a vendor's marketing claims BS is not acceptable in a meeting. #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	You really own a "Stick of Much Developer Whacking" #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	You coined the phrase "Magic SAN Dust" because calling a vendor's marketing claims BS is not acceptable in a meeting. #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	Default Blame Acceptor #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	Default Blame Acceptor #YouMightBeADBA
SQLCraftsman	If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you wished your wife knew T-sql. USE ShoppingList SELECT NecessaryItems from Supermarket WHERE Category<> ("junk food")
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if the first thing you kiss when you wake up is your mobile for not waking you up in the middle of the night
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if your wife has a "Do Not Fly" family vacation list of her own including your laptop and mobile
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you have researched for DBA Anonymous groups and attended a #SSUG willing to drop your database (vice)
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if your only maintenance windows are staff meetings
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you think of yourself as "The One" in The Matrix "balancing the equation" from The Architect's (developers) poor coding
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you think @PaulRandal should have played the Oracle in The Matrix
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if home CD & Movie collection is stored in secured containers,in logical order & naming convention,and with a backup copy
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you applied to attend #sqlu and requested @SQLChicken to pull strings for you
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you have tried to TiVo @MidnightDBA broadcasts
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if your #sql user group feels like #AA meetings
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you thought of bringing your #sql books to #sqlsaturday and #sqlpass for autographs
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if #sqlpass feels like the #oscars
sqljoe	#youmightbeaDBA if you are proud of your small package
SQLLawman	#youmightbeaDBA when you hear MDX and Acura is not first thought that comes to mind.
sqlrunner	If your wife double checks that there isn't a SQLSat within 200 miles of your vacation destination #youmightbeaDBA
sqlrunner	When you're on a conference call and your wife thinks your speaking in a foreign language #youmightbeaDBA
sqlrunner	When you're on a conference call and your wife thinks your speaking in a foreign language #youmightbeaDBA
sqlrunner	You treat the word 'access' as a verb, not a noun #youmightbeaDBA
sqlrunner	If you are happy with sub-second performance #youmightbeaDBA
sqlrunner	When you know the names of the NOC people AND their families #youmightbeadba
sqlrunner	When you know the names of the NOC people AND their families #youmightbeadba
sqlrunner	Your company set's up international phone coverage for your cruise #youmightbeaDBA
sqlsamson	@buckwoody if your manager asks you for data and you respond with "there's a script for that" #youmightbeadba
sqlsamson	@buckwoody If you receive more messages from your server then your spouse #youmightbeadba
SQLSoldier	You've spent all night Valentines Day upgrading the SQL Servers and forgot to tell your wife you'd be working late. #youmightbeadba
SQLSoldier	You're flattered when someone calls you a geek. #youmightbeadba
SQLSoldier	@llangit @mrdenny it's 11pm on a holiday weekend, & your reading stupid jokes on Twitter then #youmightbeadba
SQLSoldier	Your manager borrows lunch money from you because your salary is 30% higher than his. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You think "intellisense" is a double negative because it's not intelligent nor makes sense. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	75% of the emails you receive at home have the phrase "now following you on Twitter!" in the subject line. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You petition Ken Burns to remake Office Space because it should have been 18 hours long. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You select a candidate for a Jr DBA position because his resume said he's willing to get your coffee. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Somebody misquotes @PaulRandall and you call him on your cell to verify. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You wish the elevator in your building was slower because it's the last time you'll be left alone all day. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	The developers sacrifice small animals before giving you their code for review. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Developers bring you coffee and a BLT when you review their code. #youmightbeaDBA #IWish
SQLSoldier	You can get out of any family get-together by saying you have to work and nobody questions it. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You've requested a HP Superdome for you "test" box. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your leave work early because your internet connection to the data center is better at home #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	The new CEO asks you to justify your salary, so you go on vacation for 2 weeks. And he never questions you again. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	A dev. asks if you've heard about some great new feature in SQL and you show the 16 blog posts you wrote on it ... last year #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your dev team is still testing SQL 2008 and you're already planning for SQL 11. #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory
SQLSoldier	The new CEO asks you to justify your salary, so you go on vacation for 2 weeks. And he never questions you again. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your dev team is still testing SQL 2008 and you're already planning for SQL 11. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You use a cell phone service coverage map to plan your next vacation. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You come in to work at 7 AM because it gives you at least 3 hours without any developers around. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You figure out a way to make take your wife on a cruise and deduct it as a business expense. #youmightbeaDBA #sqlcruise
SQLSoldier	You name your cat SQLDog because the name @SQLCat was already taken. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You rate your blog posts based on the number of retweets you get. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You disable random logins just to mess with people. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You fall for the pickup line, "Hey baby, what's your collation?" #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You can blame an outage on anyone in the company because you're the only one that knows how to find out what really happened #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You can blame an outage on anyone in the company because you're the only one that knows how to find out what really happened #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your leave work early because your internet connection to the data center is better at home #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your think the 4 food groups are coffee, bacon, fast food, and Mountain Dew. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You tell someone your job title and they ask "What?" You describe it and they ask "What?". So you say "computer geek". #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	The #1 referrer to your blog is Twitter.com. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your idea of a good time on a Saturday involves free training. #youmightbeaDBA #sqlsat43
SQLSoldier	You write a book that all of your co-workers have and none have read it. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You write a book that sells a couple thousand copies and is heralded a best seller. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	No matter how sick you are, you go to work if it's time to pass the pager on to the next guy. #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory
SQLSoldier	You go out on the town, and strangers walk up to you and say, "Hey you're that SQL guy" #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory
SQLSoldier	Your wife asks you to fix something, and you request a downtime window. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your wife asks when you'll be home, and you tell her that you wish you knew. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your best pickup line, "Hey baby, what's your collation?" #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your wife asks when you'll be home, and you tell her that you wish you knew. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You know that @BuckWoody is not someone's porno name. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You list TSQL as your native language on the 2010 census. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Starbucks' stock price drops every time you go on vacation. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You're happy when the web master says that the website is down. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You know that @BuckWoody is not someone's porno name. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You get mad when someone calls your car a "heap" because you've always considered it to be a "clustered index". #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	Your blog has more hits than your company's website. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You systematically remove the asterisk key from all keyboards in the company except yours. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	When asked if you recycle, you reply that you run sp_cycle_errorlog every night at midnight #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You wouldn't allow someone named @AdamMachanic to work on your car. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You switch offices every 3 days to avoid developers #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	PSS has your number on speed dial. #youmightbeaDBA
SQLSoldier	You frown when you they tell Neo that he's going to the Oracle #youmightbeaDBA
swhaley	you regretted saying "This shouldn't effect production" #youmightbeaDBA
swhaley	you regretted saying "This shouldn't effect production" #youmightbeaDBA
Tarwn	A pleasurable saturday means spending the day learning more about what you already do the rest of the week #youmightbeaDBA ...oh, wait...
thelostforum	For great justice; all our base are belong to YOU !! #youmightbeadba
thelostforum	@SQLSoldier: You need a witness to use a mirror #youmightbeaDBA ;)
TimCost	you capitalize key words. always. everywhere. you can't help it, usually don't even notice. #youmightbeaDBA
Toshana	Your the only one in your company not impressed with the developers new application. #youmightbeaDBA
venzann	Coming soon from a (respected) book publisher - @buckwoody's #youmightbeaDBA
venzann	He's on a role tonight. @buckwoody is summing up my life with his #youmightbeaDBA tweets...
venzann	I love the #youmightbeaDBA tag. Found at least 6 new DBAs to follow..
venzann	He's on a role tonight. @buckwoody is summing up my life with his #youmightbeaDBA tweets...
venzann	You use #sqlhelp as a primary resource during troubleshooting #youmightbeaDBA
venzann	You insist on stricter password security for your sql servers than you implement on your own laptop #youmightbeaDBA
WesBrownSQL	@buckwoody you are up so late the only tweets you see are from @buckwoody #youmightbeaDBA
WesBrownSQL	@SQLSoldier you are upgrading all your 2005 prod servers to 2008 R2 on a three day weekend... #youmightbeaDBA
zippy1981	#youmightbeaDBA if everytime you do something with #mongodb you think of the Vulcan proverb "only Nixon could go to China."

More than one way to skin an Audit

BuckWoody — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:40:00 GMT

I get asked quite a bit about auditing in SQL Server. By "audit", people mean everything from tracking logins to finding out exactly who ran a particular SELECT statement.

In the really early versions of SQL Server, we didn't have a great story for very granular audits, so lots of workarounds were suggested. As time progressed, more and more audit capabilities were added to the product, and in typical database platform fashion, as we added a feature we didn't often take the others away. So now, instead of not having an option to audit actions by users, you might face the opposite problem - too many ways to audit! You can read more about the options you have for tracking users here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280526(v=SQL.100).aspx

In SQL Server 2008, we introduced SQL Server Audit, which uses Extended Events to really get a simple way to implement high-level or granular auditing. You can read more about that here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392015.aspx

As with any feature, you should understand what your needs are first. Auditing isn't "free" in the performance sense, so you need to make sure you're only auditing what you need to.

More Tables or More Databases?

BuckWoody — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:37:22 GMT

I got an e-mail from someone that has an interesting situation. He has 15,000 customers, and he asks if he should have a database for their data per customer. Without a LOT more data it’s impossible to say, of course, but there are some general concepts to keep in mind.

Whenever you’re segmenting data, it’s all about boundary choices. You have not only boundaries around how big the data will get, but things like how many objects (tables, stored procedures and so on) that will be involved, if there are any cross-sections of data (do they share location or product information) and – very important – what are the security requirements?

From the answer to these types of questions, you now have the choice of making multiple tables in a single database, or using multiple databases. A database carries some overhead – it needs a certain amount of memory for locking and so on. But it has a very clean boundary – everything from objects to security can be kept apart. Having multiple users in the same database is possible as well, using things like a Schema. But keeping 15,000 schemas can be challenging as well.

My recommendation in complex situations like this is similar to a post on decisions that I did earlier – I lay out the choices on a spreadsheet in rows, and then my requirements at the top in the columns. I give each choice a number based on how well it meets each requirement. At the end, the highest number wins.

And many times it’s a mix – perhaps this person could segment customers into larger regions or districts or products, in a database. Within that database might be multiple schemas for the customers. Of course, he needs to query across all customers, that becomes another requirement.

Use Those Schemas, People!

BuckWoody — Tue, 18 May 2010 12:39:35 GMT

Database Schemas are just containers – they aren’t users or anything else – think of a sub-directory on the hard drive. In early versions of SQL Server we “hid” schemas, placing all objects under “dbo”, which gave the erroneous perception that Schemas are users.

In SQL Server 2005, we “un-hid” or re-introduced schemas within the database. Users can have a default schema (a place where their new objects go), you can add new schemas and transfer objects between them, and they have many other benefits.

But I still see a lot of applications, developed by shops I know as well as vendors, that don’t make use of a Schema. Everything is piled under dbo. I completely understand this – since permissions can be granted to a schema, they feel a lot like a user, so it’s just easier not to worry about both users and schemas when you create a database. But if you’ll use them properly you can make your application more understandable and portable.

You should at least take a few minutes and read more about them – you owe it to your users: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190387.aspx

Do you have a data roadmap?

BuckWoody — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:16:55 GMT

I often visit companies where they asked me “What is SQL Server’s Roadmap?” What they mean is that they want to know where Microsoft is going with our database products. I explain that we’re expanding not only the capacities in SQL Server but the capabilities – we’re trying to make an “information platform”, rather than just a data store.

But it’s interesting when I ask the same question back. “What is your data roadmap?” Most folks are surprised by the question, thinking only about storage and archival. To them, data is data.

Ah, not so. Your data is one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable asset in your organization. And you should be thinking about how you’ll acquire it, how it will be distributed, how you’ll archive it (which includes more than just backing it up) and most importantly, how you’ll leverage it. Because it’s only when data becomes information that it is truly useful. to be sure, the folks on the web that collect lots of data have a strategy for it – do you?

SQL Server for the Oracle DBA Links

BuckWoody — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:29:00 GMT

I do a presentation (and a class) called "SQL Server for the Oracle DBA". It's a non-marketing overview that gives you the basics of working with SQL Server if you're already familiar wtih how Oracle works. This class and these links DO NOT help you with "Why should I use Oracle/SQL Server instead of Oracle/SQL Server" - I'll assume you're already there, and if not, there are LOTS of sites to help you make that decision.

Although these links might contain slight marketing slants (I don't control them) I've tried to get the best links I can. Feel free to comment here to add more/better links.

As such, these aren't links that help you work with Oracle - they are links to help you work with SQL Server. Some of them contain more information than you actually need, others don't have near enough. Taken together (and with the class) you're able to get done what you need to do.

"Practical SQL Server for Oracle Professionals" - A Microsoft Whitepaper, probably the best place to get started: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/d/69d1fea7-5b42-437a-b3ba-a4ad13e34ef6/SQLServer2008forOracle.docx

Free Training: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/dd548020.aspx

Classroom training (will cost you): http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?ID=50068A&locale=en-us

Terminology Differences: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2383466/oracle_and_sql_server_basic_terminology.html

Datatype mapping between Oracle and SQL Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151817.aspx

The "other" direction - can still be useful for the Oracle professional to see the other side: http://blog.benday.com/archive/2008/10/23/23195.aspx

Backup those keys, citizen

BuckWoody — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:14:50 GMT

Periodically I back up the keys within my servers and databases, and when I do, I blog a reminder here. This should be part of your standard backup rotation – the keys should be backed up often enough to have at hand and again when they change.

The first key you need to back up is the Service Master Key, which each Instance already has built-in. You do that with the BACKUP SERVICE MASTER KEY command, which you can read more about here.

The second set of keys are the Database Master Keys, stored per database, if you’ve created one. You can back those up with the BACKUP MASTER KEY command, which you can read more about here.

Finally, you can use the keys to create certificates and other keys – those should also be backed up. Read more about those here.

Anyway, the important part here is the backup. Make sure you keep those keys safe!