Search results matching tags 'SQL Server' and 'Support'

I Am Here To Help™

andyleonard — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Introduction

This isn’t a trick. It’s not a gimmick. It’s not bait-and-switch. It is selfish; please allow me to explain:

I Am Here To Help™

This has been my motto for the past few years. How can I serve you today? Are you thinking about starting a User Group and don’t know where to begin? I can help. Are you planning an event and encountering obstacles? I can help. Having trouble getting an SSIS package to do what you want? I can help. Trying to troubleshoot a SQL Server issue? I can help. Have a question about raising chickens or guinea fowl? I can help.

For things with which I cannot personally help you, I know someone who can either answer your question, put you on the correct and best path for an answer, or who knows someone who can help.

“How Do I Contact You?”

There’s an Email link in the upper right corner of this blog. Or you can email me at andy.leonard@gmail.com. Or contact me on Twitter.

“Why is this Selfish?”

I’m glad you asked! Because I enjoy helping you. I believe everyone is put into life for a purpose, and serving you is my purpose. I am thrilled each time I get to help someone.

Helping others makes you feel awesome. People can give you money and things, but no one can give you the satisfaction that comes from contributing.

Helping others is contagious. I’ll talk about this more in a future installment of my series on Managing Teams.

You can get in on this too. How? Pull over next time you see someone stopped on the side of the road with the hood of their car up or standing next to a flat tire. Help someone struggling to load their groceries from the shopping cart into their car. Call someone and tell them you’re thinking about them. Add an encouraging comment to a blog post or send a friend or co-worker or enemy or competitor an email just to say “Hi” and catch up. If you have nothing left due to the economy – financial, emotional, intellectual, social, or any economy – offer the next person you see a smile. Smiles are free in every currency. Be nice.

Conclusion

Try it. And holler if you need a hand. I’m here for you.

:{>

SQL Server 2005 SP4

andyleonard — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Steve Jones (Blog - @way0utwest) shares he found a post confirming Microsoft's intention to deliver a Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2005! Cool. Thanks for responding to the community, Microsoft.

When SQL Server 2005 was released, the community told Microsoft 5 years was too long to wait for a new release of SQL Server. Since they released SQL Server 2008 - less than three years after the release of SQL Server 2005 - the community has repeatedly communicated this was too soon.

I think both are accurate: for some folks, three years is too soon. For others, five years is too long.

Which describes you?

:{> Andy

Spit it out already!

BuckWoody — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:11:11 GMT

You’ve probably seen that commercial where the chewing-gum company van stalks the guy who has been chewing the same piece of gum too long, and they attack him and make him chew another piece.

I feel like that with SQL Server 2000. Almost every shop I go into has at least one primary application running on SQL Server 2000. Now, don’t get me wrong – SQL Server 2000 is a fine piece of software engineering. From over TEN YEARS AGO. In “software time”, that’s like a thousand years or something.

While it was great for its day, the newer versions are faster, more secure, and more robust. And every time it doesn’t get upgraded, SQL Server is perceived as “not as fast/strong/etc” as other platforms (which are upgraded, of course).

Now, I’m not suggesting that anyone upgrade for upgrade’s sake. We all have work to do, and the last thing we need to do is change out a platform when there’s no need.

But there is a need. SQL Server 2000 isn’t in mainline support any more. That means it can be attacked easier and so on. And it doesn’t scale like the new offerings, nor does it have any of the new features the latest versions have.

“Oh”, you might say, “I don’t use those features anyway.” Well of course you don’t – you can’t if you still have SQL Server 2000! How do you know the ways you could help your organization if you don’t experiment with the new stuff?

But it isn’t the DBA I would chase down and steal gum from. It’s the vendors.

Every time I raise my eyebrows when I hear about the SQL Server 2000 installs, the DBA shrugs and says “The vendor won’t certify SQL Server X, so we have to stay at SQL Server 2000 or 2005.” And I say, that’s just lazy. Unless the vendor codes specifically for deprecated features, a simple test run during their software development should allow them to move forward. I’m not saying that’s an easy task, but certainly they’ve tested their software releases once in the last ten years, no? If not, doesn’t that make you nervous?

Anyhoo, spit out the SQL Server 2000. Or I might have to fire up the company van.

Applying SQL Server Service Packs and HotFixes

andyleonard — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Some notes about the SQL Server Service Pack Installation Engine. I like it - a lot. The new engine goes to great lengths to prevent my having to bounce a physical server to apply a service pack. No matter how you slice it, it takes less time to stop and restart a service than restart the server.

You will reach a point in the installation where a dialog similar to the following displays:

If I were to suggest one change for the SQL Server Service Pack installer, I would suggest disabling the Next button until the check is complete on this "Checking for locked files" screen. A lot of people have been conditioned by disabled buttons to click-if-it's-enabled. So they see the Next button available and just click through this step. The step allows you to do this and stops the check for locked files. However...

Some Service Pack (or hotfix) patches may not be applied as a result.
You may be required to reboot the server to complete the Service Pack (or hotfix) installation.

So for now, no blindly clicking the Next button!

When locked files are discovered the dialog displays something like the following:

My advice: Stop here, open the Services console and stop each of the identified services manually. After each has been stopped, click the Refesh button and you should see the next screenshot:

If you do not see this screenshot, you haven't stopped all the impacted services. Rinse and repeat until you get a "No locked files found" message. Then click the Next button.

As installation progresses you will see a screen similar to the following:

This screen shows you what's being updated and gives an indication of progress. Progress indications good.

When the Installation Progress indicates all is complete, click the Next button to proceed. A summary displays all SQL Server-related services and their Service Pack / HotFix disposition:

Be sure to restart the services you manually stopped before proceeding!

This explains why some service pack installations don't "take." If you believe you've installed an SSIS SP, for instance, but are still seeing that pesky issue that was supposedly resolved, this could be why.

:{> Andy

SQL Server Management Studio Standard Reports

andyleonard — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:01:00 GMT

Buck Woody has a great series going on SQL Server ManagementStudio Standard Reports.

The SQL Server team did a great job developing these insightful and intuitive reports. I often show them to customers and during presentations and the response is always positive.

:{> Andy

SQL Nexus, SQLDiag, Retrace Information

andyleonard — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:35:00 GMT

Ken Henderson blogs about some cool new utilities / tools for SQL Server: SQL Nexus, SQLDiag, and Retrace!

:{> Andy

What's That Ticking Sound?

andyleonard — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:22:00 GMT

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4 mainstream support ends 8 April 2008 and - as of the datetime of this post - they are sticking with that date. That's 4 months and 3 days from today.

There are still a lot of SQL Server 2000 instances out there...

:{> Andy