tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156003582024-03-06T23:53:14.576-06:00Instead of working, I blog.Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.comBlogger127125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-31474806914737855862010-05-27T10:49:00.001-05:002010-05-27T10:49:59.069-05:00Good Press is AwesomeJust double posting for a while till everyone gets the hang of the new location. Don't forget that officially my blog has moved here and I won't be posting very much longer at this location.
I know Jen's already blogged on this, but this is my little contribution to the whole, how cool are we, theme.
Brad Mcgehee just came to speak at our user group and to my surprise he thought enough of whatSean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-88938402669218290032010-05-06T10:32:00.000-05:002010-05-06T10:32:29.158-05:00New Blog LocationHey everybody... after like 5yrs of blogging here, I've made the decision to move this blog over to MidnightDBA.com.
Jen and I are consolidating our blogs in the same location so she's moving too. I'm pretty much up and ready to go in the new location so update your RSS feeds to point to the new location because this'll probably be my last post at this address. Maybe I'll double-post for a Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-16183464308329146222010-05-05T12:13:00.000-05:002010-05-05T12:13:14.329-05:00Data ExplosionHey everybody... it's been a while since I've blogged, but that's what starting a new gig will do to you. I've had so many new things to rant about here and I'm sure I'll be getting to those in the future, but right now I want to share a funny story with you.
We had a group of devs who were trying to run a fairly simple insert and it kept filling up the disk. And when I say it was filling up Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-18113199672035224562010-04-02T09:02:00.001-05:002010-04-02T09:02:31.435-05:00Powershell 2.0 Get-Member EnhancementsThe other day I blogged on a cool way to alter database file properties.  And I promised I would film the solution for you.  Well, I got home that night and started filming but when I pulled up sqlps I was stopped dead in my tracks by something I couldn’t explain.  The methods to get and set were missing.  I checked my other box and they were there, so what happened?  TheSean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-16748764557483651212010-03-31T10:18:00.000-05:002010-03-31T10:18:07.114-05:00Powershell to Alter Database File PropertiesMan, I still just get so jazzed when I work with powershell. Every time I need to do something long and hard(that was for you Buck), I look in powershell and it lets me just lay back and enjoy the long and hard.
So this time we've got like 85 DB files for our main DB. I know that's a lot but it's been spread across so many LUNs for so long and it's just grown and grown as it's filled up the Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-35208419172577690832010-03-23T22:23:00.001-05:002010-03-23T22:23:36.611-05:00The xp_CMDShell CurseI interviewed a couple guys for a DBA position the other day and I asked one of my usual questions which is simply to discuss xp_cmdshell and its implications.  Without hesitation, I got the same answer twice.  Both guys gasped and talked about the evils of xp_cmdshell.  So I let them go on and then presented them with a couple scenarios that we discussed.  And again, all of Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-86497904561592315922010-03-10T22:51:00.001-06:002010-03-10T22:51:19.033-06:00People Leave JobsOne thing I see from time to time is when someone leaves a gig they’ve been at for a long time, their workmates get upset.  It’s like they’re personally offended that the guy is choosing to work somewhere else.  Look, I know it’s easy to build relationships with people you work with and it’s easy to bond with people you spend so much time with.  Hell, you might even say that you’veSean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-8576584453575728072010-03-10T11:19:00.000-06:002010-03-10T11:19:27.539-06:00SSIS Email ChainToday's blog is actually an email chain between me and a user. It's only a single question and reply, but I think it's good info.
Q:
Hey, would you agree that a monthly load process is better served as an SSIS – even if you have to push/pull from text files for now – than as a series of SPs or DLLs?
A:
if you're staying on the same box for the load then SPs can be an attractive offer because Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-20537358976593394742010-03-09T23:24:00.001-06:002010-03-09T23:24:54.475-06:00Deleting Production DataWhile talking to a group of devs late last week the topic of deleting prod data came up.  Since I’m the big MVP of the group they wanted to know what the official word from on-high is.  The question is simple, and the answer is even simpler and frankly it’s one of those that was solved so long ago it just doesn’t hold any interest for me anymore.  I’ll hash it out here again thoughSean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-49262145839543554422010-02-10T10:30:00.004-06:002010-02-10T10:59:22.318-06:00What makes Powershell Awesome?I was asked to write a quick blog on what makes PS so awesome. And while it's a huge topic with many many examples, I'll give you a couple just to get you going on how cool it is.1. It makes it really easy to add things to your process that you never could before. Let's take for example that you want to make a change to your DB but you want to backup the schema for an object or a set of Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-33764370637372270722010-02-09T11:48:00.001-06:002010-02-09T11:48:57.953-06:00A Timeless LessonYou think I’d learn after all this time in DBs not to take the data for granted.  Here I’ve been troubleshooting a complicated query because I had some anomalous results when it turns out that the data wasn’t categorized correctly and I spent all that time on the query for nothing. I’m telling you this not only to remind you to not take your data for granted, but to show you that no matter Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-87032864674810272662010-02-03T22:54:00.001-06:002010-02-03T22:54:24.636-06:00Ken’s LegacySome of you may remember an obscure little man who used to take a shot at writing now and then.  His name was Ken Henderson.  And he wrote (among others) small series of books called the Guru’s Guide to SQL Server.  He also wrote a little tome on SQL internals.  Now, Ken isn’t with us anymore, but his legacy lives on.  I remember sitting in Ken’s office at MS a few times Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-17661271297187801222010-01-27T17:21:00.001-06:002010-01-27T17:21:55.451-06:00Experts are SharpYou know I was thinking just this morning about the last round of interviewing I did to find a new DBA at work.  And that of course got me thinking about some of the interviews I’ve done in the past.  There are a few that really stick out.  The ones that are sticking out right away are the ones who didn’t know anything and claimed that they had so much experience and were so good Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-60077280971702957752010-01-11T16:32:00.002-06:002010-01-11T16:33:25.651-06:00Bad GuysHere I am on a conf call while shooting bad guys with my baby boy.Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-43462579302227383862010-01-06T13:23:00.003-06:002010-01-06T13:34:53.880-06:00Valid OpinionsA friend of mine was in a meeting yesterday and he called me right after because he was upset. Apparently he and someone else had conflicting opinions about how to do something that neither one of them had ever done before... so they were both essentially guessing.He was mostly upset because he said the other guy's opinion was just as valid as his and so far it's brought the group to a Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-80898241203148564802009-12-29T15:52:00.001-06:002009-12-29T15:52:04.844-06:00Complete CoverageI talked to a dev friend of mine recently and he presented me with a very common problem that he ran across at work.  With it being the holidays still, a lot of the members of his team are on vacation.  Well, a problem came up and he was stuck troubleshooting by himself because he couldn’t get anyone on the phone.  And to top it off it’s a very complicated system with no clear Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-51046014898787215042009-12-15T12:17:00.001-06:002009-12-15T12:17:33.487-06:00Xmas List 2009 PostedHey everyone, go check-out our new techie gift guide this year… http://infoworld.com/d/applications/last-minute-xmas-wish-list-2009-296   Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at: http://MidnightDBA.ITBookworm.com Read my book reviews at: www.ITBookworm.com Blog Author of: Database Underground – http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/sean-mccown Follow my Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-2623180856908066492009-12-15T12:07:00.001-06:002009-12-15T12:07:55.576-06:00The Best DR Plan in ExistenceSomeone just wrote to tell me that they just had a major outage on their main DW server due to one of the teams upgrading a driver.  There was nothing wrong with what they did, so there’s no reason to believe it would have brought the entire system down. All I can say is that they had the best DR plan in existence and I had to share it with you so you can mimic it in your own shops.  Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-19444694598841822752009-12-08T08:49:00.001-06:002009-12-08T08:49:55.799-06:00Speaker CallWe’re holding our first SQL Saturday event in Dallas and I’m in charge of speakers.  So this is an official call for speakers.  If any of you speakers out there are going to be in Dallas (or would like to come) on May 22, then send me an abstract by Feb 15 and we’ll get you going. Send the abstracts directly to me at KO@KenpoSecrets.com OK, that’s all I’ve got for now. Watch my free Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-30654228318202577082009-12-03T13:41:00.003-06:002009-12-03T13:47:05.651-06:00New webcastHey guys... this is my first real video blog... let me know if you hate it too much.Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-79948359302946907392009-12-02T21:23:00.001-06:002009-12-02T21:23:18.834-06:00New BI SiteI recently had a conversation with Brian Knight and he told me about his new site.  Actually, I was supposed to have posted this mon, but I’m only now getting around to it.  I could sit here and tell you about Brian’s new site, but it may be best to hear it directly from Brian himself: The site is focused only on BI for Microsoft developers. We’re launching with more than 150 blogSean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-72781249070793986342009-11-23T15:34:00.003-06:002009-11-23T15:38:17.080-06:00Pirate CoderI find myself multitasking again with my little one.Today I'm testing some HA scenarios with replication while simultaneously being a pirate.Enjoy.Watch my free SQL Server Tutorials at:http://midnightdba.itbookworm.com/Read my book reviews at:http://www.itbookworm.com/Blog Author of:Database Underground – http://www.infoworld.com/blogs/sean-mccownFollow my Twitter:http://twitter.com/MidnightDBASean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-12565927517654411022009-11-20T08:51:00.001-06:002009-11-20T08:51:58.504-06:00The Juice BoxI had a very typical conversation with my 2yr old yesterday.  It went something like this… The Juice Box Benji:  More juice daddy. me:  Ok, go throw the box away and bring me another one. so he goes and throws it away then looks at me. me:  Ok baby, now bring me another box. about a minute later he shows up with a brown box that some books came in. me:  No baby, Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-21444150400453276292009-11-19T13:31:00.001-06:002009-11-19T13:31:33.181-06:00Job SecurityJob security is a really big concern for most DBAs because we tend to automate ourselves out of a job.  It doesn’t have to be though. First I’d like to talk about the worst way possible to ensure you keep your job.  I’m talking about those guys who write impossible processes that nobody else can support.  They think that if they’re the only ones who can support it then the companySean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15600358.post-69388467338373108192009-11-17T22:07:00.001-06:002009-11-17T22:07:57.889-06:00FlatlinersHave you ever heard something so stupid or been asked such a stupid question that it actually made your brain flatline?  And I mean truly flatline in the way that you actually can’t form a complete thought well enough to respond.  I suppose to a large degree you have to decide whether they’re being serious or not.  One of the things I used to get flatlined on all the time was Sean McCownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02472636630901268842noreply@blogger.com0