jdanton

Typically SQL Server should be only allocated 80% of the physical memory on a server, but fellow SQL Server MVP Jonathan Kehayias has a formula here: How much memory does my SQL Server actually need? - Jonathan Kehayias

Good comment--the sea change is about ensuring things flow quickly and without bottleneck. This really changes when you move into containers and beyond.

The 100%+ LPAR thing is awesome--one of the perfmon counters we use in the Windows world (as someone mentioned above) is Processor Queue Length. Use PerfMon to Diagnose Common Server Performance Problems I like the commentary about the importance of baselining--one of the things I did at a prior job was to build a…

I alluded to it in my last comment, but the other thing to consider is that if you want to automate things (I hate to use the term private cloud) the importance of standards becomes quickly evident. You just can't do large scale automation without standard environments.

Its funny how that works. I loved shell scripting (and I remember without doing it for 6 months), PowerShell isnt quite as simple but is equally effective.

Micheal--Agree completely, that is the approach I normally take (well close--I just use backup and restore, and transaction log shipping), in this case there extenuating circumstances preventing that approach. Right sizing is very important as over allocation of vCPUs will definitely result in a performance penalty.

Great answers folks--I really like the answers around strategies for gaining new skills. One thing I'd like to mention that I thought about yesterday, is the best way to make a job transition like mentioned above is within your own firm. Start trying to get on projects that interest you.

I've run into that challenge before--an application I used to support in a former role was dependent on a serial key. The vendor eventually came out with a software based key. To answer some of the questions around resource allocation--a couple of things are key. In database servers, you nearly always want a memory…

Database moves, are relatively easy--just backup and set up some form of log shipping, and then cutover at cutover time. The complication here is that we can't rename the servers, which makes it a much dicier proposition.

We used Confluence Wiki at Cabletown, and it was pretty decent. We weren't perfect, but it wasn't bad.

Having done a number of large BI projects, docs are the first thing that get cut. Especially when resources get tight, and the ETL invariably changes. The problem with doing it in the design phase is that of changing requirements. I feel like one of the best approaches (aside from a formal docs team) is to use OneNote as a…

That's interesting--I spent about 10 years of my career working in FDA regulated firms, and the pain level was really dependent on the firm itself. Firms that really understood IT were fairly aggressive in their pursuits and successful. I was involved in several FDA audits there, and IT was never an issue. The other firm…

another trick to take advantage of, in SQL Server is that just about any action you do in the GUI can be scripted and saved for reuse later.

It can be really hard to stay on top of things, especially in a smaller shop, where you don't have the resources to dedicate to things like process automation that larger enterprises do. I highly recommend training, whether formal or informal (building VMs on a home machine for example) to stay reasonably current

The P2V solutions tend to work really well, as long as a) you can deal with a decent amount of downtime (meaning the database services are stopped) or you can deal with a server rename. SQL Server and Oracle both deal with this. At one of my previous jobs we had a private cloud environment, where a VM of SQL Server was…

Great comments folks! I appreciate the thoughts--where I was going was not only that as an IT pro you need to keep learning, but what specific approach are you taking to teach yourself "big data" (and I hate that term) technologies. Some handy skill sets I see are: * Python scripting * Linux shell scripting in general *…

Since Windows 2012 it's a very solid framework. Not perfect for SQL but damned near for Windows.

Especially on things like OS version which rarely have impact on the behavior of an application, I really try to push vendors hard. In most scenarios they will work with you, as they want the support dollars.

I'm impressed at the great feedback on this thread. I don't love PowerShell for SQL Server, but I use it where necessary (great for any OS related tasks) I tend to automate DB admin tasks using TSQL and SQLCMD.

Thanks for all of the comments! This is part of a series where we will talk about some more modern approaches of monitoring. What I was trying to illustrate in the post was the ideal way to monitor is through key business processes. This is a big shift from monitoring from a purely system metrics perspective--however, you…

Great commentary guys--I especially like the comments by JBiggley, about the importance of measurement in standards. One of my former employers, that was a very large cable provider on the East Coast (ahem), did a pretty solid job of implementing standards. However, on of my key roles as an infrastructure architect was to…