As expected, Brent “Master” Ozar (Blog | Twitter) already scooped the story, but it never hurts to help seed Boogle searches for “SQL Server 2008 R2 release date”. Well now it’s official: May 21, 2010.
Recently I had the pleasure of going up to Microsoft for an R2 event with Donald Farmer (Blog | Twitter) which I’ll be blogging about soon. At this event they did an overview of the new R2 features and got our thoughts about it. Personally, I think PowerPivot is a really awesome tool that will really help put the power of business intelligence in the end user’s hands in an easy way. Another feature that I get more excited about the more I learn about it is the new StreamInsight feature. I’d still like to test it some and read more about it but I can see some very cool things coming out of that feature.
Update via Brent’s site (reposted with permission):
Update: maybe not May 21. I’m hearing secondhand (nothing NDA) that either the audience heard the dates wrong, or Microsoft announced it wrong. I’m showing a couple of tweets below from audience members to support that it was probably the latter.
In the first part of this week’s documentation series we covered documentation in the traditional sense. In today’s lesson we’re going to talk about a new avenue which many are using as a sort of documentation repository and that is the personal tech blog.
Now I could use this lesson as an entire post on how to get started blogging but I won’t. Instead I will re-direct you to professor Brent Ozar’s series on How to Start a Blog. Consider that your homework assignment for this class. So if I’m not going to talk about starting a blog then what are we going to discuss? How about the significance of blogging or writing for your own personal development and growth? I’m very fortunate in that I have managed to have Tom LaRock (Blog | Twitter) as part of the faculty and this semester he is playing the role of DBA Coach and he touches on some of these points in this week’s lesson as well.
Thanks to Andy Warren (Blog | Twitter) for keeping the community abreast of these things by blogging about their availability. That being said since the community clamored about transparency during the last elections I think it’s time we took advantage of that fact. My plan, and I propose if you write a SQL-centric blog you try it out yourself as well, is to read over the meeting minutes every month and give my take on what I’m seeing come out of them. I’d like to warn you that I may say some things that may or may not make friends but that’s what transparency is all about, right? PASS is for the people, by the people and we really should have a hand in how the organization is run. So that being said, let’s get to the fun part. Now while I do go over points I still highly recommend you read the minutes for yourself as I don’t want your views skewed simply from my points. Again, read the minutes and make your own judgements:
It’s another month and so we have ourselves another T-SQL Tuesday event, this time hosted by Aaron Nelson (Blog | Twitter) with this month’s theme being Reporting. If you don’t know what T-SQL Tuesday is here’s a quick blurb from Aaron’s blog:
You Don’t Know What T-SQL Tuesday Is Yet?
Adam Machanic (Also on twitter as @AdamMachanic) had a great idea 5 months back – Invite new and existing SQL Server bloggers to post about the same topic on the same day. The results have been excellent – diverse skill sets and data related job roles all posting from differing perspectives on the same issue.
Since this is still early in the game, a quick list of the post roundups from the first 4 topics:
#001 Adam Machanic started this off with a topic of Date/Time tricks
#003 Rob Farley got romantic on us and asked about Relationships
#004 Mike Walsh wanted to glean the ins and outs of IO
So given that this month we (Ken Simmons, Colin Stasiuk and myself) are proud to be releasing Pro SQL Server 2008 Policy-Based Management I figured this month’s TSQL Tuesday could tie in nicely. So how can one use Reporting Services in conjunction with the power of Policy-Based Management (PBM) in SQL 2008? Well, you’re in luck!
First off, welcome back class! So this week we’re talking about writing. As a DBA or a developer you are going to be asked at some point to perform a necessary evil called documentation. Why is this evil? Well, it’s not really evil but it is not one of the more glamorous parts of the job, yet it is one of the most essential. Good documentation is everything! Without documentation you can spend all the time in the world developing the greatest system on earth, utilizing some of the most complex and beautiful code ever written but when something eventually (and it will) break, you’re going to be expected to be the one to fix it.
“But I’m working on this really important production issue, I can’t stop everything just to troubleshoot a system I put into production 3 years ago and can’t remember half the things I put into it!” Ah, but if you had only documented it someone else could be supporting the system and you could be blissfully working on the here and now. When we talk about documentation, however, that word means different things to different people. Let’s go over some of the different aspects of documentation within a system and why they are important.
After months of deadlines, late night writing sessions, getting my ass handed to me by ADD and editors, and a loving wife pushing me to write some more the book is now done! A HUGE thank you to Ken Simmons for inviting Colin Stasiuk and myself to be a part of this project. Also huge thanks to all the folks at Apress for doing a great job pushing this along as well as Tom LaRock, whose technical editing on this book was a great asset. According to Amazon, the book should be available April 27th so make sure you buy plenty of copies for you and your loved ones. After all, nothing says “I love you” like the gift of policies that stop developers from horrendous naming conventions Policy-Based Management. You can also get the book directly from Apress by going to http://www.policybasedmanagement.com.
If you missed my recent Twitter announcement, SQL University’s next semester is going to start back up on Monday April 12th. This semester will start with Creative Writing week (aka Documentation). I’ll post the full semester’s schedule and topics shortly over on the main page. This semester I’m happy to say we have a lot of new professors on board as well as some returning ones as well! Make sure to check the Faculty page to see their bios. I’m very excited this project has been so warmly received by the community (HUGE thank you to you all) and this year we have a few additions to the program to help improve upon SQL University!
One of the most prominent changes you’ll see this year is the addition of a new Community Lecture series. These will be live sessions you will be able to watch that will have SQL experts come on and discuss from a wide range of topics. These lectures will be broadcast via UStream in partnership with the all new SQL Server TV! Another new change you will see is the addition of formal feedback. As in school at the end of each semester, the professor hands out class evaluations so they can get feedback on what worked, what didn’t and how they can improve upon the curriculum. This year at the conclusion of the week’s lesson you will see links on the professor’s pages to their respective class evaluations. My hope is that this feedback will not only help each blogger improve their content, writing styles, etc. but will also help improve the overall quality and value that SQL University delivers to you!
For those visiting the site directly you may have noticed I have given the whole blog a fabulous total makeover. Hopefully this new theme is a little cleaner, nicer and better to navigate. Any feedback you’re willing to give on that front I’m more than open to hearing! Speaking of makeovers, over the coming weeks I will be giving the bookstore a facelift as well. The bookstore will be categorized by content (i.e. Administration, BI, Professional Development, etc.) and I am also going to incorporate some more multimedia resources in there as well such as links to SQLShare.com, podcasts, and more. Again, if you’d like to see something added or incorporated into the bookstore I would love the hear your feedback.
So sharpen your pencils, fire up your SQL Server Management Studio and get ready to hit the books again starting April 12th!
That’s right, NoDEMO baby. The NoSQL movement basically says data structure is a waste of your time*. Well you know what I say? I say demoes are a waste. If you come to see a speaker you’re not coming for the stuff on screen, it’s all about the speaker baby. So I propose the NoDemo movement. Doing a technical presentation? Don’t do one demo. It just wastes time and people won’t be looking at you. Look at you up there with your black-rimmed glasses, geeky (and probably free from another conference) t-shirt, and mandatory Apple product.
Want to see the product in action? Go download it yourself. When you present it’s all about you. Attendees came to hear your words flow like Wine. Not to see some mouse float around on screen and click things. Besides, demoes just confuse the masses. “You’re going too fast!”, “What’d you do there?”, “Why does that guy smell so funny?”. We’ve heard it all folks and it just takes time away from you droning on and on about technical specs. In lieu of demos I say you talk about it…in depth. Why show them when you can explain “when you open the menu there’s a small blue box in the top rigtht…well actually it’s kind of blue-gray, maybe more gray…anyhow click that and drag it over, just not all the way. You know between that and the other smallish box…which is kind of the same”. Doesn’t that sound like fun? You know it is. Plus it sharpens your public speaking skills like crazy!
*I really don’t know squat about NoSQL other than it sounds like going back to flat file-palooza to me. Don’t listen to me at all.
The other morning I was migrating an application from a desktop machine to server. Some real fun with this project includes zero documentation from the developer (he was a contractor who did a rush job and left). Thankfully I have experience migrating applications from dev to acceptance to prod so I knew to look for missing assemblies and whatnot.
My big headache this morning, and the source of this posting, was the missing Crystal Reports assemblies since this was developed in Visual Studio 2008. My first indication of a problem was that locally (on the server) I tried pulling up the page and got greeted with the following:
Configuration Error
Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.
Parser Error Message: Could not load file or assembly ‘CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine, Version=10.5.3700.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=692fbea5521e1304’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Source Error:
After some quick Google searching I came across this post at Egghead Cafe with my solution. They provided me links to download the runtime I needed to install. For the sake of helping others I have decided to host the files as well just in case those links die from that link. After installing the runtime on the server I restarted IIS by issuing the iisreset /restart command from the command prompt. After the restart I was able to successfully pull up my page without a problem.
This quick write up comes courtesy of a tweet by Jonathan Kehayias (@SQLSarg) yesterday morning (Please Note: OH means overheard, meaning that statement is something Jonathan overheard. He’s WAYYYYY too smart to actually spread something that dumb as valid advice) . Here’s the tweet:
Ok, so I’ve seen a couple of stupid things written up in the last few days but this one just might take the cake. If you have been a DBA for any amount of time then you’ve more than likely come across a vendor application that uses the ‘sa’ account for access to the database. I won’t get into details about the sa (or system administrator) account here but check out this article by Ken Johnson at SQLServerCentral.com about it (check out the discussion thread as well to learn more).
So what exactly is wrong with that statement in the tweet? Well, as stated by Jeff Smith (@hillbillyToad) this morning:
“Ok Jorge, stop making fun of me”. No, as long as you access things using sa for “simplicity” or “optimization” I’m going to beat this over your head like an Acme mallet. Using ‘sa’ account for everything is akin to being handed the keys to the bank and being told “yeah, go ahead and make your deposits and withdrawals from your own account but try not to touch anything else while you’re digging around the vault”. Seriously, I’m not kidding. Handing someone the ‘sa’ account is handing them the keys to your SQL kingdom. Think about it, if you write an application that is accessing your database with FULL admin rights, what if someone performs a SQL injection attack and drops your production tables for kicks?
SQL Injection: It happens
Listen folks, I know that security can be a pain but it’s there for a reason. Don’t get lazy and just assume the user needs an admin account to access the database because 9/10 times it doesn’t. You could probably get by fine on creating a new schema with write/read access and maybe EXECUTE stored procedures permissions. In fact, secure yourself from SQL injection attacks by wrapping your code in stored procedures in the first place.
There’s a ton of resources out there to learn how to properly secure SQL Server. Get up to speed by reading up about Security and Protection on MSDN. There’s also tons of videos and demonstrations out there. Check out the Quest Pain of the Week webcast on SQL Injection courtesy of Brian Kelley (@kbriankelley) and Kevin Kline (@kekline). Finally (WARNING: Blatent self-promotion inbound) make sure to check out SQL University’s security week from Semester 1. Bottom line is if someone tells you “this application needs to run as sa”, have them give you a detailed explanation as to why. Part of your job as a responsible DBA is to protect your data and your database servers. If they simply don’t know any better then offer to educate them on schemas, security groups, etc. And remember, “because its an optimization” is a stupid answer.
