Lara Rubbelke

Big Data Learning Resources

Lara Rubbelke — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:38:00 GMT

I have recently had several requests from people asking for resources to learn about Big Data and Hadoop. Below is a list of resources that I typically recommend. I'll update this list as I find more resources. Let's crowdsource this... Tell me your favorite...(read more)

SQL Server Separation of Duties Whitepaper Released

Lara Rubbelke — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:17:00 GMT

Hot off the virtual press, the SQL Server Separation of Duties Whitepaper is now available! SQL Server 2008 R2 provides the full breadth of tools to support restrictive compliance and security requirements. This whitepaper will associate the features...(read more)

You want to grant someone permissions to do WHAT?!?!

Lara Rubbelke — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:32:00 GMT

Have you ever heard of these types of requests? True story! I have had each of these and many more: A customer needed to grant a business user the rights to issue a KILL command – without giving them sysadmin or CONTROL SERVER. A customer wanted to grant...(read more)

Connect Spotlight: Rename Instance Name

Lara Rubbelke — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:48:00 GMT

Every now and then customers ask me how they can suggest changes or behavior changes to SQL Server. Many of us are aware of Connect , where you can add feature recommendations and vote on other people’s suggestions. There are a LOT of recommendations,...(read more)

Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 5.0 Beta

Lara Rubbelke — Tue, 25 May 2010 03:19:00 GMT

Do you know where SQL Server is installed - everywhere it is installed? Do you really know where SQL Server is installed? Are you looking for a tool that will help you discover any rogue instances so you can better manage these instances? The Beta 2 for...(read more)

Women in Technology Microsoft Career Webcast: Learn More About Microsoft Services Roles

Lara Rubbelke — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:20:00 GMT

Since I joined Microsoft over 2 1/2 years ago, many of my friends and colleagues ask me how I like it and how things are going. To be more precise, often these friends tip their heads to the side and ask with great concern “How are you doing? Are you...(read more)

SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP Available

Lara Rubbelke — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:54:00 GMT

The first public CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2 is available for download. Read more about it at the Data Platform Insider blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2009/08/10/download-sql-server-2008-r2-august-ctp-today.aspx...(read more)

Automating SQL Server 2005/2000 Policy Evaluation

Lara Rubbelke — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:11:00 GMT

The Enterprise Policy Management Framework version 3.0, a new version of the framework to support policy automated policy evaluation for SQL Server 2000 and 2005, has been posted to codeplex.

For those who are not familiar with the tool, the Enterprise Policy Management Framework is a reporting solution on the state of the SQL Server enterprise against a desired state defined in a policy. The key capabilities are to extend Policy-Based Management to all SQL Server instances in the enterprise, including SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. The EPM Framework will automate a scheduled evaluation of a set of policies against a group of servers, and provide reports for DBAs to understand where they have instances and database objects which are not complying with an organization’s defined standards.

The new 3.0 release includes the following enhancements:

Supports nested server groups in the Central Management Server

The previous versions did not support Central Management Server groups that were nested in parent groups. This restriction has been removed and you may now design CMS groups to fit your organization, and leverage these groups for the EPM Framework.

A new parameterized PowerShell execution

The PowerShell script has been updated with parameters. This enhancement will significantly ease how you may deploy the solution, so you only have a single script to manage. The previous versions would have required multiple versions of the PowerShell script you were to design the execution strategy by server group and policy category.

Policy results are stored in a table format

The new version 3.0 will shred the policy result XML document to a PolicyHistoryDetail table during the evaluation. The previous version only stored the XML data and issued queries against XML results stored in a SQL Server table named PolicyHistory. This update will greatly improve performance during reporting and provides a better platform for the community to build customized views and reports. This could also improve storage – you can purge the data in the PolicyHistory table if you do not require the XML results.

New Report Parameters

Based on feedback from the community, the new version includes parameters in the reports to support filtering by Central Management Server group. This will be a very important criteria for large organizations who would like to focus on specific groups of instances.

Fixes to error reporting logic

Not much to say, other than the logic that identifies errors stored in the tables is fixed.

Updated Documentation

The documentation has been updated, and should be much easier to follow when setting up the framework.

The EPM Framework leverages the Central Management Server, PowerShell, Reporting Services 2008, and Policy-Based Management. You will need at least one instance of SQL Server 2008 and an instance of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services to support the framework. I will dive deeper into installation and configuration of the framework in subsequent blogs.

Please let me know if you are using the framework, and if you have suggestions for future enhancements. I am going to be integrating SQL Server 2008 Policy History centralization into the framework in the next version.

Should I Compress My Indexes? New Compression Whitepaper!

Lara Rubbelke — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:27:00 GMT

A very well written study of the compression is now available: Data Compression - Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices. This study provides guidance on best practices for designing, implementing and managing compression in your environment. I found this whitepaper to be full of useful guidance and scripts to monitor and manage compressed tables.

The paper starts with tips and tools to help decide what to compress. It then guides the reader through considerations for implementing compression and estimating necessary resources to complete compression. The final sections of the paper provide guidance and evidence on management topics – space management, performance management, partition management.

I am certain that those who are considering compression will find these concepts, scripts and tools to support the full lifecycle of compression. I know that I will keep this on my short list of favorite whitepapers!

Achieving PCI Compliance Resources

Lara Rubbelke — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:36:56 GMT

This past week I was delivering some events for customers on supporting Mission Critical databases with SQL Server 2008. During the compliance conversation I mentioned that there were a couple of new resources available related specifically to PCI compliance.

Parente Randolph published a whitepaper on how to leverage SQL Server 2008 features to meet PCI compliance.

Furthermore, these auditors presented a TechNet webcast on the same subject.

I would also highly recommend the SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide which will complement the above resources with technical implementation examples.

Another EKM Vendor Announced Support

Lara Rubbelke — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:05:00 GMT

This week Thales announced that their nCipher product line now integrates with SQL Server 2008 EKM. This announcement follows SafeNet as our second vendor to support EKM.

Standardized SQL Server 2008 Audit

Lara Rubbelke — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:24:00 GMT

Isn’t life grand when you have a standard approach? That is typically my frame of mind, which is one reason why I advocate for a standard approach to designing, deploying and managing your SQL Server 2008 audits. I have developed the attached standardized scripts which should get you started on your standardized approach.

The script SetupAudit_Shell is a single SQLCMD script that will create the Audit, the Server Audit Specification, and a Database Audit Specification in every user database (except Model and TempDB). The script is written to send the audit data to a file destination. You will need to alter this part of the statement if you prefer to send your audit data to the Windows Security or Application log. The Server Audit Specification and the Database Audit Specification statements do not specify the audit action groups – you will need to supply these based on what you want to audit.

The script SetupDataAccessAudit_Shell is a script to alter an existing Database Audit Specification with table level audit actions. This will apply the exceptions to your standard audit when compliance goals require you audit DML activity from tables which store sensitive data.

The remaining scripts (DisableAudit_Shell, EnableAudit_Shell, RemoveAudit_Shell) are scripts to help manage the audits which are deployed with the defined standards.

SQL Server 2008 Auditing Resources

Lara Rubbelke — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:31:00 GMT

I love auditing! I know – I hear it all the time – I am very strange:-) Since I first started working with SQL Server 2008 in the early CTP process, Auditing was near or at the top of my favorite features in the new version. Below are some of my top resources to help you understand auditing – and build some great solutions to centralize auditing data from multiple sources.

A new whitepaper was recently published as a comprehensive description of the new feature, followed by comparisons of capability and performance with other methods to collect and store audit data. This whitepaper is a great resource for anyone who is researching methods to implement an auditing capability.

In addition to the excellent whitepaper just mentioned above, the SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide is another great resource for understanding how to implement and manage your SQL Server 2008 Audit feature and data. Please be sure to download the complementary SDK which includes some helpful solutions to jump start your audit initiative. I am particularly impressed with the materials in the SDK co-developed by Denny Lee (Microsoft SQL CAT) which centralize audit data from multiple sources to a single audit warehouse – complete with reports! When you download the SDK, you will find the various solution files (SQL scripts, SSIS and SSRS projects) in the SQL Audit folder. This is a great solution to get you started on compliance reporting across a number of instances.

I will be releasing some additional audit materials in the next couple of weeks. These will include enhancements to the reporting available in the SDK (let’s pull audit and Policy history data together!), and standardized master audit scripts to generate consistent audits across all instances and databases. If you are in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area, please consider attending the upcoming TechFuse conference on March 17 to see these materials in action. Can you think of a better way to spend St. Patrick’s Day? :-)

Enterprise Policy Management: Updates, New Whitepaper, and Upcoming Webcast

Lara Rubbelke — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:21:00 GMT

The next version of the Enterprise Policy Management Framework has been published to CodePlex. The new version includes error trapping and error reporting, and a few bug fixes. Please be sure to download the documentation as well, which will help you understand how to use the PowerShell variables to scale the execution in your environment.

A new whitepaper has been published outlining the intent of the Enterprise Policy Management Framework. A big thank you to Tom Davidson for all of the hard work writing the paper.

Finally, anyone who is interested in an introduction to Policy-Based Management and a demonstration of the EPM Framework in action can attend my TechNet webcast next Thursday, March 12: TechNet Webcast: Governing Your Enterprise with Policy-Based Management (Level 300). This webcast is best suited for those of you who…:

are currently frustrated with managing a SQL Server environment that is inconsistently deployed
want to reduce the time you spend developing and running scripts to determine issues in business and regulatory compliance
simply want to see a better way to manage groups of servers to better scale your time

Join in the webcast, it is sure to be fun and enlightening! In short, you will walk away with an understanding of Policy-Based Management, how to use the SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management framework to support down-version (SQL Server 2000 and 2005) policy evaluation, and how to implement the EPM framework (see picture below) for an understanding of policy compliance across the enterprise.

Happy Square Root Day!

Lara Rubbelke — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:28:00 GMT

For those out there like me who find a weird sense of joy by discovering math patterns in our daily life, Happy Square Root Day!