My database crashed today. My ‘production’ database that is. The one I rely on for product demonstrations, that thing I do that Quest gives me money for. Pretty funny considering in the last few weeks my blogs have included such gems as: Are You a Real DBA – I argue that you are indeed NOT if you have not went through the crash and recovery nightmare What Databases Should You Back Up – I argue…
So the news is out, Charlotte NC is a destination city! image courtesy Wikipedia 2012 Democratic Presidential Convention 2013 PASS Summit Already folks are wondering, hey, where is Charlotte? And, can I get good sushi there? Charlotte is a city I visit frequently. Here are a few things I’ve picked up along the way: It’s the ‘Queen City’ – but so are a half dozen other towns in the US The downtown area is called…
A lot of good news this week about jobs here in the United States and a bunch of new hires for the month of April has many people feeling much better about the US economy. After being hammered with depressing reports for the past two years, it’s very nice to see the pendulum swing in the other direction. Quest has hired a couple hundred people in the past few months. This is kind of a…
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me to help them setup their database application or utility to not ‘let someone do something in the database they are not supposed to do’ over the past 10 years, I would literally have about $347. This is generally how it goes: Them: We want your tool, but we don’t like that it lets user do X. Me: Awesome! I want to give you our…
Disclaimer: I work for Quest Software. I am paid to promote and help sell their software. Did you know we also give away a lot of software, with no intention of selling it? One of the most popular database platforms out there is MySQL. I’m going to guess that’s because it is free (for now). Apparently it is downloaded more than 70,000 times a day. WOW. I don’t use MySQL Jeff. If you are a…
Wait a sec, we don’t let developers even look at Production, much less touch it! There’s no way they can break anything over there. Whew! Jeff was just pulling our chains! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s even worse than you think. The code that those developers wrote? Guess where it runs everyday? That’s right – in production. So instead of them fat-fingering in production, a bad piece of code…
I’m sorry, I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a ‘fake’ DBA Jeff! Ok, so labeling someone as a ‘real’ DBA is a bit insulting to DBAs everywhere. If you have children, that makes you a parent. If you are responsible for a database, then you are a DBA. So what exactly am I getting at? What do you most fear, and have you ever faced that fear? If you are sitting there…
“Look for things that make them go!” – from ST:TNG, “Samaritan Snare” (Wiki) I have a tendency to relate everything in life back to a Star Trek or South Park episode – it’s a personal problem and I’m currently in therapy, courtesy my DVR. But back to Oracle… How often have you been asked to help with a performance problem, but the person asking for help lacks the ability to describe the actual problem? The…
A lot of folks contact me off-line, asking if I really do hate Chet, or do I just like kidding him. Mostly, it’s me forgetting that Chet hates it when I InitCap his Twitter handle, @oraclenerd. Or am I remembering that he hates that? Hmmmm… Anyways, I needed to write this post so people would know, that, ‘yes’, I really do like picking on Chet. He refuses to wear my Toad t-shirts, and more importantly,…
Jealousy is not an emotion I generally feel for the SQL Server technology stack. I covet their Twitter camaraderie, but I ‘know’ that Oracle can counter just about anything thrown at it. People that Helped Me with this Post I was reminded that even old dogs can be taught new tricks while monitoring the #SQLSaturday conversation going on in Chicago this weekend. The subject of monitoring INDEXES came up, and it was casually mentioned that…