As I sat there, I ended up reflecting back on 2025. I found myself gravitating to these three questions:

• What went well this year?
• What did I learn?
• What should I focus on next year?

If you’re a leader, I’m guessing you rarely get this kind of thinking time during your workday. I know I don’t. Our calendars are packed with calls, team meetings, and those “quick questions” that turn into two-hour troubleshooting sessions.

But here’s what I’ve learned: the quality of your strategic decisions is directly tied to the quality of your thinking time.

And thinking time doesn’t happen by accident. You have to protect it.

What Went Well This Year?

When I asked myself this question, I didn’t think about our biggest projects or flashiest achievements. I didn’t think about when we migrated almost 2,000 databases as part of an upgrade project. Or the performance tuning we did that resulted in a $36,000 reduction in annual Azure spend for a client.

Instead, I thought about the relationships we strengthened. The trust we built with clients. The problems we solved before they became crises.

For you, this might look like:

• The audit that went smoothly because your security documentation was solid
• The successful disaster recovery test that was possible because you kept refining the process
• The team member you mentored who’s now ready for more responsibility
• The support resources you provided your team through a trusted partner

These aren’t always the things that make it into board reports. But they’re the foundation that everything else is built on.

What Did I Learn?

This year reminded me of something Eisenhower once said: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

The need for planning cannot be overstated. It’s critical. Even if the plan doesn’t always work out the way you intended.

The plan itself wasn’t the point. The thinking I did while creating the plan was the point.

Because I’d thought through our capacity, our ideal client profile, and our service delivery model, I could adjust quickly when reality didn’t match my spreadsheet. I knew which opportunities were a good fit for us and which ones to let go. Because we’ve intentionally built a small but incredibly talented team that genuinely wants to see our clients succeed, we were able to identify and create ways to help them.

I watched the same dynamic play out with clients. The institutions that had documented their SQL Server environments, tested their disaster recovery plans, and mapped their compliance requirements adapted quickly when needed. They were positioned for success even when the unexpected happened.

Planning isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about building the muscle memory to respond when the future surprises you.

What did you learn this year about planning and adapting? Maybe it was:

• That your three-year technology roadmap needs quarterly reviews, not just annual ones
• That the disaster recovery plan sitting in a SharePoint folder isn’t the same as a tested DR plan
• That “we’ll address that next quarter” eventually becomes “why didn’t we address this sooner?”
• That having an expert on call beats having a plan to find an expert when something breaks

These lessons matter. Write them down. They’re not just hindsight—they’re your blueprint for better decisions ahead.

What Should I Focus On Next Year?

For me, the answer was clear: I need to help more financial institutions and healthcare organizations understand that they have options. Most CIOs think they have two choices for database management: hire a full-time DBA (expensive and hard to find) or make do with whoever can “figure it out” (risky and unsustainable).

There’s a third option: fractional DBA services that give you expert oversight without the full-time price tag.

For you, your focus might be different. Maybe it’s:

• Finally getting your SQL Server environment documented and audit-ready
• Building a disaster recovery plan that you’ve actually tested
• Move a little further along the SQL Server Maturity Curve
• Finding a partner who understands banking compliance, not just databases

Whatever it is, the key is to actually choose something. Not everything. Something. And move toward it. Make progress.

The Power of Quiet Reflection

Here’s the thing about those early Saturday morning moments: they’re rare. And precious.

During the week, we’re in execution mode. We’re responding, reacting, solving, and fixing. That’s necessary work. But it’s not strategic work.

Strategic work requires space. It requires stepping back from the urgent to focus on the important.

So, here’s my challenge to you as we wind down 2025 and usher in the new year:

Block Off Time Just to Think, Then Protect It

Maybe it’s Saturday mornings before your family wakes up. Maybe it’s a long walk at lunch. Maybe it’s 90 minutes with your calendar blocked and your office door closed.

Whatever it is, protect it. The decisions you make during that quiet time about where to focus, what risks to address, and which partnerships to invest in will help shape your entire year.

Your Turn

As you think about the year ahead, I’d encourage you to ask yourself those three questions:

1. What went well this year? Celebrate it. Learn from it.
2. What did I learn? Write it down. It’s wisdom you paid for.
3. What should I focus on next year? Pick one or two things. Not everything.

And if one of those focus areas is “finally get our SQL Server environment to a place where I’m confident, not just hopeful,” let’s talk. That’s exactly what we help institutions do.

If you’re a CIO wondering whether your SQL Server environment is as healthy and secure as it should be, I’d be happy to have a conversation. No sales pitch. Just two people talking candidly about database management. Schedule a time here.

The post Why Quiet Reflection Leads to Better IT Strategy Decisions appeared first on The SERO Group.

Whether you’re a SQL Server DBA, IT team leader, or senior executive, I hope you’ll find these books interesting or insightful.

So, here are the four best business books I read in 2024.

Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni

In Working Genius, Patrick Lencioni introduces a model that helps individuals and teams understand their natural talents and areas of frustration in the workplace. By understanding and aligning their work with their strengths, individuals and teams can increase productivity, reduce burnout, and achieve greater fulfillment.

• The Six Types of Genius: Each person has two areas of natural talent (genius), two areas of competence, and two areas of frustration. Recognizing these can lead to better self-awareness and job satisfaction.
• Genius Categories: The six types include Wonder (asking big questions), Invention (creating ideas), Discernment (evaluating ideas), Galvanizing (rallying people), Enablement (providing support), and Tenacity (ensuring completion).
• Team Balance: Effective teams include all six areas of genius. A lack of diversity in these strengths can lead to inefficiencies, frustration, and unmet goals.
• Self-Awareness Improves Work: Knowing your strengths and frustrations helps you focus on tasks that energize you and delegate or collaborate on tasks that don’t.

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lemmington

In The 12 Week Year, the authors share their productivity system. They claim that with it, you can achieve more in 12 weeks than most people do in 12 months by shortening the planning and execution cycle. The shorter cycle creates a sense of urgency and focus that drives consistent action. Instead of setting yearly goals, the authors encourage breaking them into manageable, time-bound objectives to achieve results faster. They also highlight the importance of clarity, accountability, and measurement to stay on track.

• Shorter Time Frames Lead to Focus: 12-week cycles eliminate the complacency that comes with annual goals and maintain high levels of focus and urgency.
• Clarity Drives Success: Clearly defining goals and breaking them into actionable weekly tasks ensures alignment and progress.
• Measurement Matters: Regularly tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) allows you to track progress and adjust if needed.
• Accountability is Key: Sharing your goals with an accountability partner or creating team metrics creates positive external pressure to stay committed.

Leading Growth by Anthony Iannarino

Anthony Iannarino is known for his work and writing in sales and sales leadership. In Leading Growth, he highlights leadership’s role in fostering a growth culture and building high-performing sales teams. He also emphasizes aligning strategies with customer needs to drive sustainable success. The book outlines strategies for overcoming common challenges in sales, including unproductive behaviors, lack of alignment, and ineffective leadership practices. All of these apply to non-sales teams, too.

• Leadership Drives Sales Growth: A strong sales team requires a leader who sets clear expectations, fosters accountability, and motivates team members to excel.
• Client-Centric Approach: Aligning sales strategies with customer needs builds trust and long-term partnerships, which are critical for sustained growth.
• Overcoming Challenges: Leaders must address unproductive habits and inefficiencies within their teams to unlock higher levels of performance.
• Culture Matters: A growth-oriented culture encourages innovation, collaboration, and resilience, driving both individual and team success.

Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell

In Buy Back Your Time, Dan Martell introduces a powerful framework to help entrepreneurs and leaders reclaim their time by strategically outsourcing tasks and focusing on high-value activities. Martell argues that time is your most valuable asset, and by “buying it back,” you can create more freedom, reduce stress, and scale your business effectively. The book offers advice on identifying tasks to delegate, building systems for efficiency, and prioritizing what matters most.

• Time is Your Most Valuable Asset: By identifying and offloading low-value tasks, you can focus on activities that drive growth and bring personal fulfillment.
• The Buyback Loop: Martell outlines a repeatable system: audit your time, determine what to delegate, and reinvest the freed-up hours into strategic priorities.
• Delegate, Don’t Abdicate: Effective delegation requires clear instructions, the right people, and systems to ensure tasks are completed to your standards.
• Focus on Your Zone of Genius: Spend your time on activities where you excel and create the most value, leaving other tasks to those better suited to handle them.

Your Thoughts?

Have you read any of these books? What was the best book you read last year? I’d love to hear about your thoughts on LinkedIn or just by email.

What’s Next?

If you manage SQL Servers and want to learn how The SERO Group supports clients, let’s have a conversation. We help keep SQL Servers secure, reliable, and running smoothly. Let’s schedule some time to talk.

Just For Fun

By the way, here are some of my favorite fiction and non-fiction books that I read in 2024.

• West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
• Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
• Nancy Wake: World War II’s Most Rebellious Spy by Russell Bradden

The post The Best Business Books I Read in 2024 appeared first on The SERO Group.

How Coach Wooden’s approach applies to Successful DBAs

Coach Wooden famously started each season teaching his group of highly skilled, elite basketball players how to tie their shoes. He believed deeply in the fundamentals. He also believed in preparation, both mentally and physically.

So, how would this apply today? What if Coach Wooden led a team of DBAs rather than a team of star athletes like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton?

Here are a few areas that come to mind.

• Thorough understanding
• Attention to detail
• Continuous learning
• Proactive planning
• Mental resilience

Let’s look at each one.

Thorough understanding

Great basketball teams and great players are students of the game. They study their opponents. What do they do well? Where are the weaknesses in their game? What strategies or approaches should we pursue against them?

Just as basketball players need to study their opponents, DBAs must have a deep understanding of the database system they manage. This involves staying updated on the latest technologies, best practices, and industry trends.

They set aside time to learn, to research their craft, and to improve their skills. They research performance tuning techniques, high availability options, and of course disaster recovery planning.

A well-prepared DBA builds a strong foundation of knowledge and expertise. And understands that learning never stops.

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – John Wooden

Attention to detail

While playing professional basketball in the NBL, John Wooden once had a streak of 134 consecutive free throws made over a 46 game stretch. 134 free throws. Without missing a single one. That’s just doesn’t happen by accident. You have to practice for it.

Like the meticulous attention John Wooden gave while playing, and while leading other basketball players, DBAs must pay close attention to detail in their work. This goes far beyond making sure you include a WHERE clause before running an UPDATE or DELETE statement. It’s in every area of a DBAs responsibility.

When writing stored procedures, DBAs use best practices. For example, they avoid implicit type conversions by paying attention to data types. (See How Do Implicit Type Conversions Affect SQL Queries? – The SERO Group). They are also aware of nested views and how they can affect performance (See How do Views Affect SQL Server Performance? – The SERO Group)

Successful DBAs are concerned with security and who has access to the data, with backups and their ability to restore, and with monitoring and knowing the health of each SQL Server in their charge.

Attention to small details matters.

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden

Continuous learning

Success doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t just fall into place. regardless of how talented you, how smart you are, or how well you played the last game, success takes practice. Dedicated. Determined. Practice. Continual learning. Continual improving.

And that goes for the DBA, too.

Successful DBAs know that SQL Server is not static. Microsoft is constantly improving the product, refining it to better meet the ever-changing and ever-growing needs of the marketplace.

And as a result, DBAs need ongoing learning and development. There are always new things to explore, existing areas to go deeper in, and related components to leverage.

Successfully DBAs embrace that. They actively seek opportunities to expand their knowledge. They go to user group meetings, they watch training videos, they attend webinars, and they deep-dive into self-study.

A prepared DBA is always looking for ways to enhance their skills and stay relevant. They aren’t “too busy,” They find the time to improve.

“Never mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden

Proactive planning

Seldom does a basketball team just walk out on the court without a game plan. No. Most have a strategy that that they believe, if executed well, will pave the way for their success. What defense will they run? What mismatches can they exploit? Will they try to score “in the paint?” Or, take the outside shots?

Just as a basketball team prepares game strategies in advance, a DBA plans for potential scenarios and challenges before they happen. They develop backup and recovery strategies. They document and practice disaster recovery plans. And they put proactive monitoring systems in place.

Prepared DBAs anticipate potential issues and have mitigation plans in place. They want to know about potential issues before they become disruptive events.

“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” – John Wooden

Mental resilience

In basketball, as in life, there are ups and downs. You’ll have good games and not-so-good games. You’ll win some games, and you’ll run out of time in other games. After each game, you must review what went well, and what you can learn.

But once, you’ve learned from it, you have to move on. You can’t constantly live in the past. You have to look ahead and prepare for the next game.

Similar to Coach Wooden’s emphasis on mental toughness in basketball, DBAs need to be mentally resilient. It’s not uncommon for DBAs to face high-pressure situations. And we need to be able to handle the pressure.

Systems go down. Hardware fails. Data is deleted, corrupted, or worse, breached.

A prepared DBA maintains composure, thinks critically, and acts decisively during challenging times. Then they reflect on what they can learn from the experience. And they move on.

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.” – John Wooden

Does it Coach Wooden’s approach work today?

If Coach Wooden led DBAs today, I believe he would be legendary in our community. Sure, it’s a different era with a different set of standards today so it hard to say for sure. But, I believe much of his approach to basketball and life transfers to the world of today’s DBA.

Want to work with The SERO Group?

We help a lot of companies that used to depend on sysadmins as Accidental DBAs. We provide expert-level DBA team services without the HR costs associated with a FTE. If you’d like to learn more, contact us to schedule a short introductory call.

The post If Coach Wooden Led a Team of DBAs appeared first on The SERO Group.

Wherever you are in your career, if you’d like to become better at your job, the first place many people turn is technical training. Online courses like those on Pluralsight , or from Brent Ozar Unlimited or SQLskills, are phenomenal. In fact, we have Pluralsight subscriptions for our DBAs and most have been to either Brent’s or SQLSkills trainings. Highly recommended.

That said, technical chops, while important, are only part of the equation for success. You’ll want to consider the intangibles, too.

“The Go-Getter” by Peter B. Kyne is a classic tale of determination, initiative, teamwork, and service. It was first published in 1921, long before computers and databases. So, while the book may not seem like an obvious fit for a Database Administrator, the lessons it offers can be surprisingly relevant to the role.

Four keys from “The Go-Getter”

Here are four key takeaways from the book that DBAs can apply to their work.

Persistence is key to success

There’s an old joke in the DBA world – what does DBA really stands? Default Blame Acceptor.

Why? Because inevitably things will go wrong. Databases will corrupt, transactional replication will stop working, performance will tank, users with elevated permissions will truncate tables. Sometimes all on the same day. And all eyes are on you to fix it.

You’ll also face challenges that you’ve never seen before, challenges that require you to learn new skills. Maybe it’s setting up a distributed availability group from the local datacenter to the company’s Azure DR presence. Or perhaps the person responsible for the dozens of critical SSIS packages just left the company and now they are your responsibility.

You’ll need persistence. Persistence to stick with a challenging problem until it’s resolved. You’ll need persistence to continually learn new technical skills and keep up with new versions.

The determination and commitment to overcome obstacles can help you succeed in your role as a DBA.

Take initiative

Being prepared to react quickly when something goes wrong is good. Proactively monitoring and maintaining databases, identifying and addressing issues before they become disruptive events, making improvements to enhance performance before users complain. All good things.

Taking it a step further: Preemptively create a playbook to restore critical databases. Develop the scripts that will be required during the restore so you’re not doing it in the heat of the moment. Build a script library that you can use to diagnose performance issues, migrate and upgrade SQL Server instances, etc.

But don’t stop there.

Learn to go “upstream” and prevent issues early. Setup a Failover Cluster Instance or a High Availability Group to help keep systems available. See What’s the Difference in SQL Server FCIs and AGs? and How to Create SQL Server 2019 Failover Clustered Instances in Azure.

Learn to anticipate what problems may appear and address them now.

Be a team player

As a DBA, you’ll work with developers, business and data analysts, system administrators, storage admins, and other stakeholders who rely on the database to do their jobs effectively.

For example, you may work with developers to optimize queries or share best practices. You may collaborate with data architects to design effective data models. Or you may need to troubleshoot issues with network or storage administrators.

Collaboration and teamwork are essential to ensuring that the database runs smoothly and meets the needs of the organization.

Being willing to put the team’s needs ahead of personal interests can help build strong relationships and foster a positive work environment.

Play well with others.

Have a service mindset

Often DBAs have the reputation of defaulting to “no” without even knowing the why behind the question.

“Can I have elevated permissions to…” No!

“I need a new SQL Server insta….” No!

“I think…” No, No, NO!

Defaulting to “no” can certainly make our lives easier. But that’s not why we are DBAs. We work hard to take care of the database and to protect it from accidental or intentional misuse. We strive to make the SQL Server more reliable, more secure, and to make it perform well.

But we should look to do that while adding value and helping others. Take the time to listen to the requests of others and help them accomplish what they need, even if you cannot do it in the exact way they’ve asked for it. Explain why another approach may be better, faster, less costly, etc.

Approach your job with the heart of a servant leader.

What do these keys have in common?

All of these are “soft skills” or “people skills.” These are the skills that can set you apart. They’ll take you to the next level in your journey.

So, while “The Go-Getter” may not seem like an obvious fit for a DBA, the lessons of this short little book that’s over 100 years old can be surprisingly relevant. By staying persistent, taking initiative, being a team player, and keeping a service mindset, you can excel in your role and bring value to those you work with.

By the way and just to clarify, I am not endorsing the “blue vase” test or the management style that led to it in the book. That may have worked in the 1920’s but that’s no way to lead today. We’ve learned better.

Want to learn how our DBAs work with clients?

Want to learn more about how The SERO Group’s DBAs help our clients accomplish their missions? Contact us to learn more.

The post Four “Go-Getter” Keys to Becoming a Better DBA appeared first on The SERO Group.

So how did you do?

And what about this year? What would you like to accomplish in 2022?

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”

– Benjamin Franklin

The year in review

Benjamin Franklin was an advocate for continuous improvement. And one of the ways we can continuously improve is to pause and reflect on our prior goals. In agile terms, to have a sprint review, or a retrospective, over the past year.

Personal goals

We are all people first. As much as many of us love data, we are still people and have lives outside of our profession. It’s good to continually grow and stretch ourselves outside of work.

Did you have any personal goals for last year? Maybe you wanted to learn how to cook or speak a new language? Or maybe you wanted to pick up the guitar again after all these years? What about that kitchen remodel you were planning? Spend some time reflecting on those goals, and how you made progress toward them.

For me, I wanted to further my section hike along the Appalachian Trail. So last summer, I made a 5-day, 97-mile trek . With that hike, I have now completed 730 of the 2,190 trail miles. Or 1/3 of the AT. I still have many years of hiking left, but I’m making incremental progress each year toward a much larger goal.

Professional goals

What were your professional goals for the year? As data professionals, many of us wanted to keep up with the latest trends and technologies that can make our lives, and the lives of our users and stakeholders, a bit easier.

As challenging as 2021 was in so many ways, we saw several data conferences with virtual presences. The PASS Data Community Summit was held in November 2021. It was a great opportunity to learn from top-notch speakers about the latest developments in the data space. GroupBy in October 2021 was another great event for the data professional. And of course there were others.

The big news from 2021 was Microsoft’s announcement of SQL Server 2022 at Microsoft Ignite. Lots of reasons to be excited about this new version of SQL Server.

SQL Server environment goals

Of course, learning cool new things is great. But being able to put them into practice to make your SQL Server environment more robust is where the rubber meets the road.

Last January, I shared Five Goals for Your SQL Servers in the New Year. If you haven’t read that post, I’d encourange you to have a look. To summarize the five goals were:

1. Assess your SQL Servers
2. Update your SQL Servers
3. Start performing health checks
4. Implementing monitoring and alerting
5. Review your Disaster Recovery plans

If you had similar goals, how did you do?

Is your SQL Server environment better today than it was 12 months ago?

Are your users experiencing less disruption? Are you getting fewer calls and alerts? What about your stakeholders and business owners, are they happy?

If not, what would it take to get there?

Goals for the next 12 months

Now, let’s look at some things you may want to accomplish this year.

Personal goals

I’m not much of one for New Year’s Resolutions. Those don’t usually age well.

However, I do find that starting with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey recommends, helps to make sure I’m aligning my effort with what’s important for me and my family.

This year, I’d again like to make a trek or two along the Appalachian Trail, to complete another 150 miles or so. I’d also like to continue simplifying my life by assessing what’s important and saying no to more things. Saying no to some good things so I can say yes to the important things.

I know these aren’t framed in terms of S.M.A.R.T. goals. Rather they are more like guiding principles for me.

What about you? Do you have some goals for this year you’d like to share? If not here, maybe on twitter? Or with others who will help keep you accountable?

Professional goals

If continuing education and deepening connections in the data space is still on your list, there are lots of good options available. The PASS Data Community Summit will be hybrid this year. The onsite location will be back in Seattle, but you can still attend from the comfort and safety of your own home office.

SQLBits is back in London in March 2022, DataGrillen will be in Germany, and the GroupBy conference will be virtual again in 2022. All great opportunities.

Check out Azure Data Community for more events and user groups around the world.

SQL Server environment goals

Where would you like your SQL Server environment to be in twelve months? In this case, be specific and measurable.

Perhaps you inherited some SQL Servers? Or some new instances were added to your team? Maybe you changed jobs and you’ve taken over responsibility for a data environment you’re not familiar with? In any case, the five goals mentioned earlier are a great start.

If you’re already confident in your SQL configuration and monitoring, maybe you can take it up a notch?

Would you like to have five 9’s of availability? That’s less than 6 minutes of downtime this year! Doable, but you have to plan, and budget, for it. Five 9’s is not easy.

Maybe three 9’s is good enough? That’s less than 45 minutes of downtime per month. That’s unscheduled and scheduled downtime. Can you do that and keep your monthly patching cycle? Again, it’s certainly an attainable goal with the right infrastructure and processes.

Designing, documenting, and regularly testing your approach to disaster recovery is another good option. Benchmarking your SQL Servers so you know what is normal, what is abnormal, and when you’re likely to need additional resources is another good option.

Or, what about creating a 36-month plan for your data environment? We just helped one of our clients with that exercise. They came away with a roadmap with a couple of dozen projects to help them design and create the data environment they’ll need three years from now. It’s a worthwhile exercise.

Whatever your goals are for the year, write them down, create a plan, and review progress regularly.

Want to work with The SERO Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

The post The Dawn of a New Year for Your SQL Server Environment appeared first on The SERO Group.

The right configuration settings are critical. Unfortunately, it’s easy to overlook many SQL Server settings and best practices. The defaults are not always the best.

A proper maintenance schedule for your databases and servers is important. So is regular monitoring. And a sound HADR plan that meets the needs of the business is critical.

Is your SQL Server healthy? A free webinar

In an upcoming webinar, we’ll discuss some commonly overlooked SQL Server settings and practices we uncover during our SQL Server Assessments. These can have dramatic effects on your database server’s performance and reliability. And we’ll share what you can do to fix them and help to keep your SQL Server healthy.

Register here for the free webinar on June 23, 2021.

In the meantime, check out these posts.

• Identifying SQL Server Disk Latency
• Scary and Dangerous Things in SQL Server
• Securing Your SQL Servers, What Should You Audit?
• When Was the Last Known Good DBCC CHECKDB Integrity Check?
• Identify Disk I/O Performance Issues for Your SQL Server Using DiskSpd
• Is My SQL Server Configured Properly?
• How Many tempdb Data Files Should My SQL Server Have?

Want to work with The SERO Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

The post Webinar: Is Your SQL Server Healthy? appeared first on The SERO Group.

There are a lots of great free options for learning SQL Server. I shared some in Want to Learn SQL Server? Here Are 3 Free Sources.

Many of those sources are directly from Microsoft through their labs, Channel 9, and EdX programs. Others are from members in the SQL Server community, both individuals and companies, usually in the form of training videos, user group presentations, and MeetUps.

But there are other resources, too, including some low-cost options for learning SQL Server.

PluralSight can be a great place to learn SQL Server

PluralSight has become a leading platform for training videos for all sorts of technical training. Some of the smartest people I know in the SQL Server world have top-notch training videos on PluralSight. I’m reluctant to begin mentioning names here because there are so many. I’m sure I’d accidentally omit someone. Nevertheless, stalwarts from the community who regularly share their knowledge in user group meetings, at conferences and pre-cons (in the pre-COVID days), and online in forums and Twitter’s sqlhelp hashtag have PluralSight courses. If you’re looking for one in particular, here’s a list of PluralSight authors. You can also search the PluralSight catalog of courses.

PluralSight is not free, however. You have to pay to have access to their content. They share that revenue with the contributors, so course authors get paid for their work. Note: I do not have any courses on PluralSight nor do I have a referral agreement with the company. So, I’m not hocking something to get a kickback .

For those of us that like to “try before we buy,” for the month of April 2021 PluralSight is making their content available for free. They are calling it FREEAPRIL.

Want to work with The Sero Group?

While you’re leveling up your SQL prowess, we’ll be happy to help out with any SQL Server needs you may have.

Schedule a call with us to learn more. There’s no obligation.

Footnote: I first started working with Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 back in 1996. In fact, that was one of the first certification exams I passed.

The post Learn SQL Server with PluralSight’s FreeApril appeared first on The SERO Group.

Scary things

Let’s start with scary.

Some things give us pause. We see them, think about them, and begin listing all the ways that something could go wrong.

Rappelling. Rappelling is a good example. Backing up to the edge of a rock mountain face with nothing between you and the distant ground. Leaning back as far as your can. Extending out from the safety of the ledge. Jumping backward with only a rope. It’s unnatural. Our instinct tells us we shouldn’t do it. Every fiber of our being screams “Nope!”

It’s scary.

But just because it’s scary doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. Or dangerous. With proper training and gear, rappelling is a great experience. It’s a lot of fun. And it can be done safely. We are aware of what we’re doing. We have a heightened sense and an increased awareness of the things that can wrong. And we purposely take steps to mitigate any danger present.

Scary things in SQL Server

In SQL Server, upgrades and server migrations can be scary. What happens if things go wrong? Can the migration be completed during the maintenance window? Will users be able to login when the time comes? What about performance afterward?

These are very real issues.

But, as with rappelling, we can take steps to mitigate the scary issues. We can meticulously plan the upgrade/migration. We can perform the upgrade/migration in a test environment first, allowing users to validate and approve before production is ever touched. Backups can be taken before the upgrade begins. The VM can snapshotted.

In short, we’ve identified the potential problems that could arise and we’ve taken precautions.

It may be scary, but it’s safe.

Dangerous things

Dangerous things are more concerning, especially if the danger is not recognized.

Walking along the side of a snow-covered mountain on a peaceful day. The sun warms your face. You can see for miles. Beauty abounds. It’s an exhilarating experience, a serene journey, a peaceful adventure.

Yet, it can also be dangerous. A foot or more beneath the crunch of each step, a layer of ice may have formed between two layers of snow. The ice creates a seam, a seam with little friction. It wouldn’t take much for that snow above the ice to begin sliding, creating an avalanche. And as we all know, avalanches are very dangerous for everyone nearby.

Dangerous things in SQL Server

In SQL Server, danger comes in many forms. Everything may seem ok, at least on the surface, but something could go very wrong, very quickly.

• Untested backups. Having backups but not testing them regularly.
• No alerts. A production SQL Server without configured alerts.
• Ignored alerts. Alerts that are ignored because there are too many false positives.
• Untested Disaster Recovery Plan. A crisis is not the time to try to figure out your DR.
• Assumed RPOs and RTOs. Not being able to recover to the right point in time in the allotted time.
• SQL Server health. Uncertainty about how your SQL Server is configured.
• Deferred maintenance. Preventative maintenance jobs take too long to complete so they are disabled.
• Unpatched SQL Servers. Patching is not scheduled regularly.
• Out of Support SQL Servers. There’s simply no time to upgrade so ancient versions of SQL Servers are still hanging around.
• Reacting rather than responding. Addressing the symptom rather than fixing the problem.
• Conflating HA and DR. High Availability and Disaster Recovery are similar but not interchangeable.
• Unmonitored SQL Server environments. SQL Servers are left on their own to report issues.
• Elevated permissions. Too many people with sysadmin or dbo privileges.

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of all the dangers that can lurk in a SQL Server environment. I’m sure you have some from your experiences. Feel free to share in the comments below; I’d love to hear them.

Mitigating dangers in SQL Server

Recognition is the first step. We must identify and acknowledge the dangers inherent in our SQL Server environment. Then we can do something about them. We can take steps to mitigate the dangers, to reduce or even eliminate the problems we’ve identified.

Here are a few posts that may help.

• How Often Should I Test My SQL Server Backups?
• Is My SQL Server Configured Properly?
• SQL Server Assessments
• When Was the Last Known Good DBCC CHECKDB Integrity Check?
• Should I Upgrade SQL Servers that Are Out of Support?
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery in SQL Server
• DBA as a Service
• Securing Your SQL Servers, What Should You Audit?

And, of course, we’ll be happy to help. It’s what we do.

Want to work with The Sero Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

(To give credit where it’s due. The idea for Scary vs Dangerous was adapted from Jim Koch’s excellent and entertaining book Quench Your Own Thirst.)

The post Scary and Dangerous Things in SQL Server appeared first on The SERO Group.

Goals for your SQL Servers

Although every environment is unique and each business has its own set of important measures for success, here are five goals for your SQL Servers to consider as you plan the coming months. These goals are designed to help build a robust and responsive data infrastructure to support your organization.

1. Assess your SQL Servers
2. Update your SQL Servers
3. Start performing health checks
4. Implement monitoring and alerting 
5. Review your Disaster Recovery plans

Goal 1: Assess your SQL Servers

Whether you’re responsible for one SQL Server sitting in a server room next to you or hundreds of SQL Servers spread around the world, it can be difficult to keep up with the exact configuration of each SQL Server. This is especially true if you’re time is split. For example, when you’re a network administrator, web developer, or systems admin who is also tasked with taking care of the SQL Servers in your spare time.

Uncertainty about the patch level, configuration, and health of each or your SQL Servers creates stress and unease. Doubts creep in.

Do any of these internal dialogs sound familiar? 

• Are the SQL Servers behind on patching? Probably, I’m not sure, but they are working, right? (See Is There an Update for My SQL Server?)
• Are the SQL Servers configured optimally? Probably not. I’ve been meaning to do some research and check. But at least no one is complaining right now. And no new is good news? (See Is My SQL Server Configured Properly?)
• Are the databases healthy? I remember setting up some maintenance jobs a while back, I think. If they weren’t healthy, I’m pretty sure I’d know. 
• We pay a maintenance fee to the application vender. Does that include applying SQL Server updates? I’m not sure.
• Ok, I really should have a look, but ugh, when? 

Now is that time. The new year brings with it an opportunity to examine each of your production SQL Servers to see if they are configured optimally.

So what should you check?

Examine the log files, the configuration settings, the maintenance jobs, the performance DMVs, and patch level of each of your critical servers. Do you have the right number of tempdb files? Do you have any unneeded services running? Are there an excessive number of waits being reported? Are you still using the default values for MAXDOP and Cost Threshold for Parallelism? Etc?

Look for areas of concern, and there will likely be some, and prioritize resolving them. 

Not sure where to start? We can help – Getting Started with a SQL Server Assessment.

Goal 2: Update your SQL Servers 

Once you’ve assessed your SQL Servers, you know your starting point. You know the overall health of each instance. Next, make a plan to address or remediate the instances as needed. 

Start with the most important servers first and attack the Priority 1 issues as soon as you can. The P1 issues are those items that are of grave concern due to security and data integrity, recoverability, and availability. 

“As soon as you can” will mean different things to different organizations. Some environments allow minor changes and patches directly to production servers during off hours. For example, want to apply the latest CU? “Sure. Anytime after 7:00 PM Thursday will be fine.” 

Other businesses have a more standardized process in place. Make a remediation plan; confirm with application venders; present the plan to the Change Control Committee for review, deconflicting, and sequencing; apply the changes to a lower level environment; confirm with the QA team that the changes didn’t introduce ill effects; add the patch to the list for the next quarterly patching window, etc. 

Whatever your approach, get the process started. 

Goal 3: Start performing health checks

You’ve assessed and remediated your SQL Servers. Now, let’s ensure that the environment remains up to date and in good health. Make a plan to check on your SQL Servers regularly.

We recommend Daily Health Checks for your SQL Servers. (That’s what we do for our DBA as a Service customers.)

Create a checklist to review each day. Some things we like to check are: 

• Review the SQL Server and Windows log files for errors, unexpected restarts, excessive failed login attempts, and other warnings that could indicate potential issues.
• Check the history for each scheduled SQL Agent job to ensure none have failed. 
• Examine the size and growth of each data and log file to check for anomalies in growth. 
• Verify that each SQL Server is up to date on patches.

Goal 4: Implement monitoring and alerting 

Proactively checking the status of each of your SQL Servers is helpful. But there may be occasions in between the health checks when the SQL Server experiences difficulties. When that happens, it’s really nice to know that before your users and your boss becomes aware. 

It’s best to identify and resolve an issue before anyone else notices. However, the next best thing is to be able to answer a call with “Yeah, I know and I’m working on it,” rather than “Really? When did this start? Tell me the server again.” 

To get to that point, you’ll want to ensure that all SQL Servers are configured with Database Mail, and that standard alerts are created. We recommend creating alerts for all errors with a Severity level 16 or above, along with errors 823, 824, and 825. There may be other alerts you’ll want to create in your environment as well. 

Additionally you’ll want to ensure that all jobs are configured to notify you upon failure. Make sure to enable the Fail Safe Operator, too. You never know when msdb will have an issue.

Often there are other events inside of SQL Server that you’ll want to know about when they happen. Maybe it’s Disk I/O latencies? Or the occurrence of deadlocks? Or perhaps it’s an excessive number of recompiles? 

That’s when a more advanced monitoring solutions can help. We’ve used most of them in our customer environments and all add value over what you can do solely in SQL Server. Our preference is SentryOne’s SQLSentry. It’s well designed and very helpful.

Whichever you choose, install it, configure it, tune it, and then actually use it.

Too often, we see environments where a monitoring tool was purchased and even installed, but ignored because no one had the time to figure it out. There were too many warnings so the team began ignoring or disabling them. 

Goal 5: Review your Disaster Recovery plans 

Despite all of your efforts to create and keep a healthy system, bad things can still happen. 

Hardware can fail. Databases can corrupt. Users can delete data. Not to mention other issues like ransomware hitting your network, tornados hitting your data center, or any of the other things a year like 2020 can throw at us. (See Protect Your SQL Server from MrbMiner and Other Malware Attacks)

We live in a world where the ability to recover from the unexpected is, well, to be expected.

So, now is a great time to review your High Availability and Disaster Recovery plans. 

• Work with your business stakeholders to understand their expectations. What is their Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recover Point Objectives (RPO)?
• Brainstorm ways to accomplish your objectives. Should you consider Failover Clustered Instances? Or maybe other HA/DR options? 
• Create a cadence to test your SQL Server backups. Restore selected database backups to a test system and run an integrity check on the restored database periodically. Schedule it on your calendar.
• Document your processes. Record the steps and all the information you’ll need, including contact names and numbers, that will be important should an event requiring a recovery become necessary. 
• Schedule DR tests. There is nothing more insightful than actually going the process over a weekend. It will reveal shortcomings and gaps in your plans or documentation. Refine your plans and test again a few months later.

Want to work with The Sero Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

The post Five Goals for Your SQL Servers in the New Year appeared first on The SERO Group.

When Microsoft SQL Server is installed, by default one SQL Server tempdb file is defined. For many systems that may be enough. But, over time, as the database sizes grow, as the number of users increases, and type of queries grow in complexity, one tempdb file may not be able to handle the load. It may become a source for contention.

How to find your tempdb data files

Checking the number of tempdb data files is straightforward. Here are three easy ways: one graphical, one T-SQL, and one PowerShell, so you can use your tools of choice.

List tempdb data files using database properties

Perhaps the most frequently used way to check the number of tempdb data files for a SQL Server is to view the Database Properties. This can be done using either SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio (ADS). I’m using ADS in images below.

Drill down into the SQL Server instance, Databases, System Databases, and right click on the tempdb database. Select Properties in the pop-up menu.

The Database Properties window will open. As you can see in the image below, the SQL Server 2019 container I downloaded is configured with four tempdb data files. That’s not bad, although the size and auto growth settings are concerning.

Of course, while you’re in the Properties window you can adjust the number, sizes, etc, of the data files. Your SQL Server should be restarted afterward.

List tempdb data files using T-SQL

As with most everything you can do using point-and-click in SSMS or ADS, the same can be accomplished using Transact-SQL. Sometimes, it’s just nice to have a library of commonly used scripts on hand so you can quickly, easily, and consistently run them.

In this case, the query below can be used to check the number of tempdb data files currently defined.

SELECT  file_id, 
        type_desc, 
        name, 
        physical_name, 
        [size],
        state_desc
FROM    tempdb.sys.database_files 
WHERE   type = 0 ; 

Here are the results. Of course, you can add additional output columns to see other properties as well, such as max_size, growth, and is_percent_growth.

List tempdb data files using PowerShell and dbatools

Experienced SQL Server DBAs often make extensive use of the dbatools PowerShell module. You get all the flexibility and capabilities of PowerShell combined with the ability to administer most every aspect of your SQL Server.

In the code below, I’m using the Get-DbaDbFile command. The command is fully documented here. I’m connecting to the localhost using the -SqlInstance parameter and authenticating as sa using the -SqlCredential parameter. I will be prompted for the password each time. The -Database parameter allows me to find the datafiles for a specific database. I’m then piping the output to table format for readability.

Get-DbaDbFile -SqlInstance localhost -SqlCredential sa -Database tempdb |Format-Table

Here’s the output from the Get-DbaDbFile command.

Want to know more about your SQL Server configuration?

Here are few other posts for SQL Server configuration settings and tempdb that may be helpful.

• Is My SQL Server Configured Properly?
• How Many tempdb Data Files Should My SQL Server Have?
• Why 9 Out of 10 SQL Servers Aren’t Configured with Best Practices

[EDIT Oct 5, 2021] – Also see How to Configure SQL Server tempdb? for other tempdb configuration settings that can affect performance.

Want to work with The Sero Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

The post 3 Ways to Find Your SQL Server tempdb Data Files appeared first on The SERO Group.