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Virtualization: How and Why You Should Get On the Bandwagon
 | Virtualization is one of the very few technologies that is a perfect "Go Green", it not only saves on electricity but also saves capital and operational cost for companies. Virtualization has already started transforming computing as we know it (at least as we used to know it). VMWare, the virtualization technology pioneer is bundling their hypervision software into servers, very soon all servers will be virtualization enabled by default. As more and more companies adopt virtualization, demand for virtualization skills from engineer to Admins will increase ( and we are already seeing it). |
How does a Systems/Network guy get started on this exciting technology? We posed this question and a few others to 3 people who have, I think, as much if not more hands-on experience with virtualization than anybody out there. First, a few words about our "Virtualization Experts". Bob Plankers: A system administrator, system architect, and designer, Bob has over 20 years of technology experience spanning desktops to servers, storage and networks. Bob blogs as the "Lone Sysadmin", a moniker he coined after the "Lone Gunmen" of X-files, and also because many Sys Admins are lonely, one person against a whole organization that doesn't understand what
they do or how valuable they are when they're doing a good job. Bob is of the firm opinion that technology is easy, its the people + technology that is hard. Scott Lowe: A technical lead specializing in virtualization and virtualization technologies, Scott is the author of the number 2 ranked blog in the "Top 10 blogs that VMware administrators must read" list from VMware-Land. Scott is a contributor to SearchVMware.com, a VMware-focused website with technical articles, how-to's, tips, and news. He has also had a few articles published on SearchServerVirtualization.com. Martin MacLeod: Martin is an expert in deploying new servers,
decommissioning old ones, server and data center migrations, blade
deployment VMWare and grid
projects. Martin is the author of Blade Watch,
a blog where he tracks blades and grids. His blog shines a bright light
on the "dark arts" and mystery that surrounds servers and data centers.
It is a repository of information that System Engineers and Admins need
to know.
Q. For a SysAdmin, what is the best way to get started in virtualization technology, what are the pre-requisite skills needed? Bob: The best way for a system administrator to get started in virtualization is to just start doing it on a small scale. There are numerous free products out there intended as starting points, whether it's the Linux KVM project, Xen, or VMware Server, and getting those products running on older hardware isn't a huge project. Create a test virtual machine or two. Learn how to clone them. Put a web server on one virtual machine and use a performance testing tool, like ApacheBench (ab), to put some load on the system. Watch the system under load and learn how to find the bottlenecks. Fix them if you can. Do the same for two virtual machines and watch how they interact. Learn how to give one of them priority over the other. Get to know the technology before you start putting real workloads on the system, but then make a plan to do it for real.
The prerequisite skills you need to get into virtualization are the same fundamental skills you need as a system administrator. Technology is easy, in that you can always learn how to configure VMware ESX, how to build a SAN, or how to configure a switch. The tricky parts are being good at linear troubleshooting, so when you're having a problem you find and fix it rapidly. You need to be good at diagnosing performance problems in operating systems. You need to be good at communication, to be able to accurately convey ideas, concepts, problem reports, and resolutions to those around you that aren't going to know as much about virtualization as you, and will be jumping to incorrect conclusions about virtualization. On top of it all you need to have an eye towards efficient machine management. When it's really easy to create lots of virtual machines you'll suddenly find yourself with 200 of them. How are you going to manage those? Have you thought about the tools you need? Are you the type of admin that looks into the future and sees the challenges ahead and the tools you need, or the type that looks back and complains about how much work 200 virtual machines is?
Scott: Virtualization technology in and of itself is not terribly difficult to understand. I believe that any reasonably experienced sysadmin will be able to pick up virtualization technology as easily as any other technology. The difficult piece for many sysadmins will be understand the other technologies that are directly impacted by and involved in the use of virtualization; namely, security, storage, and networking. Sysadmins will need a greater understanding of these areas and how virtualization impacts these areas in order to be successful.
Martin: The best way to get into virtualization is to look at your field, unix/linux/windows and look at how people are using virtualization on that platform. To understand the concepts, the opportunities available and think about how you could apply these in your role, in your work place. For example if you?re a Sun Sys-Admin, what are the virtualization possibilities, what things would you consider in your set up and how would you go about it. Consider downloading the different virtualization tools and trying them, it can be a great way of understanding the technology and the concepts. The key skills are in knowledge of the platform, a degree of capacity planning/performance analysis, and an understanding of service delivery.
Q. Virtualization is a catch all word, that includes server, storage, file and application virtualization. What has been adopted the most and why. Why are some areas lagging in adoption?
Bob: I don't have market data but I suspect server virtualization is the hands-down winner for adoption. Why? Because it's easy and saves a lot of money, right away. Storage virtualization is nice but when it comes down to it the return on investment hasn't been as great, often due to licensing fees. That's changing, with especially with technologies like block-level deduplication, but it's got a long way to go.
Application virtualization is a neat concept, too, and along with desktop virtualization they're really starting to gain ground.
Scott: Server virtualization, as exemplified by VMware ESX, Citrix XenServer, Virtual Iron, and the open source Xen hypervisor, is the most commonly deployed form of virtualization, and it is what most people think of when you use the term "virtualization". If I had to rank the other areas in terms of adoption, I would list storage virtualization next; this is a technology that is seeing broader adoption and usage by a variety of vendors. File virtualization, application virtualization, and presentation virtualization are relatively newly-defined areas--although some have existed under previous names for quite some time--and it will take some time for users to understand what these things are and how they can help them achieve their business goals.
Martin: Virtualization covers many arenas, from the server, network, storage and application standpoints. The focus in recent times has been on virtualization of the server, whether we?re talking about the Windows, Linux or Unix servers, and for some has been to answer issues of data center space and power, of consolidation. Virtualization of the server is the first step, we in essence abstract the application from the hardware, that we need not be tied to one server model, one set of infrastructure. The next step is to further enable the infrastructure through virtualization of the network and the storage, enabling us to use the capacity we have more effectively and further enable what we can achieve with the infrastructure. What we ideally want to achieve though is virtualization of the application and the infrastructure, where I allocate workload to a layer which hosts the service, the compute resources I need, where the application resides and on what infrastructure it is powered on is dependent on the availability and the performance requirements of the application. We can think of application virtualization in terms of grid/hpc or cloud computing at the moment, but mixing grid with a virtual storage solution, where I might have the immediate application data on high performance storage systems, but my archive data, my logs stored on less expensive, less immediate storage ? linking the application with the storage requirements based on need.
Q. Is virtualization a vendor specific skill, a VMWare expert is a VMWare expert and is unqualified to work with XenSoure?
Bob: Most of the virtualization concepts are the same between products, but the implementations and management methods are completely different. Most businesses also pick one product to use everywhere, so the folks working with it become experts in that specific software. For example, I'm great with VMware. I know how to troubleshoot performance problems, I know the management interfaces very well. I'm less experienced with Xen, and what I can do in VMware in seconds often takes considerably more time on Xen. It's a practice problem, in that the more I use Xen the better I'll get, but very few of the techniques are common between the two.
Scott: Refer back to question #1. While some areas are vendor-specific, i.e., knowing how to configure VMotion is uniquely VMware-related. In addition, many of these solutions are architecturally quite different from one another. Other areas will be the same across all server virtualization solutions. The key, as mentioned earlier, is understanding how these server virtualization solutions will impact security, storage, and networking. Once a sysadmin has a good understanding of the impact of server virtualization on these related areas, he or she will be able to more easily assimilate other virtualization solutions as well.
Martin: I've been asked this question before and I have mixed feelings about it.
My ideal virtualization person would be vendor neutral as much as possible, they would be knowledgeable on Xen, on VMWare, Hyper-V, x-VM amongst others. Let me phrase it this way; if you?re qualified in Linux, in Microsoft or VMWare, you are qualified in that platform. As a Windows server guy therefore, I know the basics in Linux I know the commands for disk space, to tail the logs and see what?s going on, but I would not be the guy to call at 3 in the morning to ask why my Linux server had crash dumped.
At the same time there are commonalities between the virtual platforms. We seek to achieve the same goal. The best practices we adopt, the systems we deploy and the way we set things up might change on a per hypervisor basis. Even the way the hypervisor virtualizes the hardware might change but the end goal is the same. For that reason, I would suggest that being qualified in one virtualization product would be suitable to work in a role managing or deploying a different virtualization platform with the right research and possibly training. It?s all going to depend on the role, the project and the business or risk involved, as well as the way we do business, the rules within your organization.
Q. What is your prediction regarding where virtualization technology can take us? Bob: Virtualization is simply just the addition of a layer of abstraction, whether you're abstracting an operating system from hardware, or storage from the servers. Once you have that layer of abstraction there are lots of possibilities for what you can do. VMware's VMotion and Storage VMotion technologies are a good example of things you could never do before. Beyond that, there are lots of opportunities to use that abstraction to solve other problems, like disaster recovery and business continuity, clustering, workload management, software development, etc. In storage we're seeing deduplication, thin provisioning, and other technologies emerge. It all revolves around money, though, as businesses only want to spend precisely what they have to in order to get the job done right. If you ask yourself "what is my IT budget paying for?" chances are the answer will be something you can use virtualization on.
Scott: There are others out there far smarter and far more involved in the evolution of virtualization technology than I am. For what it's worth, though, I think that full hardware virtualization, such as that provided by VMware ESX, VMware Server/Workstation, Hyper-V, XenServer, and others, will evolve in two directions. First, on the server virtualization side, the layer of abstraction created by the virtualization layer will continue to strengthen and expand. This virtualization layer will make it possible to mirror VMs (two VMs performing the same tasks on two different host systems in real time) and provide very detailed and granular snapshot/checkpoint functionality, for example. On the desktop virtualization side, however, this virtualization layer will continue to get "holes" poked in it to streamline operations. This is typified by technologies such as Unity (found in VMware Fusion and in new betas of VMware Workstation 6.5), where the boundaries between the guest operating systems and the host operating system continue to blur and disappear. Thus, although these products are based on the same technologies, the ways in which they will evolve will be very different.
Martin: It?s an interesting one and a conversation I have regularly. I wonder if we will see the concept of a floating infrastructure. How cool would it be if my infrastructure followed the sun? Or even better the cooling/power costs? If I could have the infrastructure move to the data center with the lowest operating costs at that point of the day, if London could trade from New York, if Tokyo could be Moscow?s failover site rather than have a disaster recovery site? Where my infrastructure is not tied to a specific location?
Doing so would need a number of different technologies, and significant investment. We?re not there yet, but in a few years time with the cost of power going up, I wonder if the economic drivers might be there, do I really want my data center on 24/7 from a cost point of view? Could the 24/7 systems not move around to the data center that is on at that point in time?
One other thing is whether we will see a transition from Windows/Unix type roles to a more split type of guest and hypervisor support roles, I need guys that can support virtual machines (quite possibly cross platform) and guys that can support the hypervisor (again possibly cross platform). This is something I have mixed opinions about, we?ll have to see.
Q. What advice do you have for systems guys evaluating virtualization?
Bob: Set up a real test environment for yourself, so that you can learn the technologies without affecting real workloads. Go slow, and don't plan to virtualize your whole data center in a month. Don't plan to virtualize everything; some things don't make sense in a virtual environment. Be part of the user communities for your product, because they'll help you with tips and advice you won't get from the vendors. And finally, know what your goal is. Why are you virtualizing? To save money? To add cool features to your data center? To say you have virtualization? Knowing what your goal is helps you figure out what course to take.
Scott: Effectively embracing any form of virtualization--be it server virtualization, storage virtualization, I/O virtualization, whatever--involves abandoning old ways of thinking and understanding new ways of using this technology. Just because physical servers were provisioned a specific way in the past doesn't mean that virtual servers should be provisioned in the same way. The same could be said for configuring virtualized storage or allocating virtual I/O resources. Be willing to "think outside the box", or else you won't be able to take full advantage of virtualization in your environment.
Martin: When evaluating virtualization platforms, look at the licensing models, consider what is included, what the end user perception of the platform is, and remember that there is room for more than one virtualization platform. You might well have one platform for one operating system or application, and another for the mainstream, the shared infrastructure. Do download the different virtualization platforms and try them, speak with friends/colleagues and see what they are using.
A special thanks from me and OdinJobs to Bob, Scott and Martin for the insightful discussion. Find the latest VMWare Jobs to get started on a virtualization career
SQL Server Experts: Part III - Becoming a SQL Server MVP and other Career Choices
Part 1: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
Part 2: Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer
Part 3: Becoming a SQL Server MVP and other Career Choices.
6. Whats a SQL Server MVP and what does it take to become one?Cristian: MVP means an acknowledgment from Microsoft for the work done in technical communities or for contributing by writting books or delivering technical presentations.
I personally run two IT communities, one of them being dedicated to SQL Server.
Andrew: A Most Valued Professional (MVP) is an award by Microsoft in recognition of work to promote our stuff to the wider community including SQL Server. To achieve this a nominee would be doing some or all of the following: - Supporting a community portal (like http://www.sqlserverfaq.com in the UK)
- Blogging,
- Actively helping on Forums
- Podcasts
- Presenting
- Writing articles
- Posting resources on codeplex (e.g. scripts, projects etc.)
Namwar: SQL Server MVP (Most Valuable Professional) is an honour instead of a certification. Microsoft recognises your contribution to the community and awards you MVP status. You need to keep sharing your knowledge to maintain MVP status. Sharing of knowledge can be done in various ways like Blogs, Presentations, writing books or magazine articles etc.
Brent: The Microsoft Most Valuable Professional program recognizes folks who go way, way, way out of their way to give back to the community - doing things like teaching others, helping out with problems, and getting involved with community events. I wouldn't worry about how to become one: either this kind of thing is in your blood, or it's not. If you like to give back, start doing it. Good things like MVP awards will come in their due time, but focusing on that is putting the cart before the horse.
Denny: The MVP award program is a program run by Microsoft to acknowledge the outstanding work of IT professionals within the IT community. Microsoft awards MVPs for most every product they have including Microsoft SQL Server. You can't apply to become a Microsoft MVP, you must be nominated by either a current Microsoft MVP, or by a current Microsoft employee. After being nominated the selection committee will review your public postings, articles, web casts, etc and if your content is found to be of exceptional status then Microsoft will grant you the MVP awarded for one year. Each year they review the community contributions of the current MVPs to ensure that they are still active in the community. More information about the process and what it means to be a Microsoft MVP can be found on the MVP website.
Brian: A SQL Server MVP is a community award from Microsoft for participation and passion over the previous 12 months. The exact criteria for selection isn't revealed.
Chris: An MVP is a person that does a lot of work above and beyond what they are paid to do to help people get educated about SQL Server. This is a reward that is offered by MS, and there are very few.
Pinal: Just help community in any way you can.
7. What will you recommend to others for keeping track of whats happening in SQL Server? Cristian: MSDN and Technet blogs.
Andrew: There are loads of great community sites:
Namwar: - Keep an eye on SQL Server news groups.
- Subscribe to RSS feeds of good SQL Server blogs and read them whenever you find time.
- Microsoft SQL Server Home Page
- Read good books as recommended by your peers.
- Attend seminars and group meetings wheneve possible.
Brent: Read blogs! They're like free books, plus they're free, AND they're written by some of the same great people who wrote the books you know and love. Dozens of DBAs out there are writing some phenomenal blogs, like StatisticsIO.com and SQLSkills.com.
Denny: There are a number of fantastic websites out there which have information about what's going on in SQL Server. The Microsoft SQL Server web page is a great start as is the Microsoft Connect web page . The connect web page is where all the bugs that the beta testers have found are logged giving the user base a direct line of communication to the developers of SQL Server. There are also a number of excellent blogs on SQL Server. My blog "SQL Server with Mr. Denny" is of course a most excellent resource (enough of the shameless plug already). The Microsoft PSS engineers have a blog where they talk about some of the more interesting issues which they have come across. I also keep an eye on the blogs of a couple of friends of mine Kevin Kline, and Denis Gobo to name a couple. I also keep an eye on a couple of forums to keep myself up to date. I regularly read and post on Tek Tips , the IT Knowledge Exchange and Less Than Dot . Between all these resources I'm able to keep track of most of what's going on with SQL Server.
Brian: Developing a core list of blogs related to SQL Server, staying active on a community site like sqlteam.com or sqlservercentral.com, and keeping up the general feeds for Microsoft news. Chris: Virtual conferences on SQL Server
www.sswug.org
Pinal: Notes of a SQL Server MVP and Database Administrator
8. Whats the next logical career step for you? Cristian: As I have 8 years of SQL Server knowledge the next logical step was to use the knowledge. You can do that as a consultant as a trainer or in my case as a content developer. I love to write about SQL Server.
Andrew: My wife and friend think I have the best job in the world, so apart from a move to the product or customer advisory teams in Redmond I am happy where I am.
Namwar: I am now working in Business Intelligence area mostly and using the products like SSAS, SSRS and Sharepoint 2007. Although Sharepoint is not part of the SQL Server itself but it is one of the greatest collabration tool built entirely on .NET and SQL Server. Using all these tools in a systematic way allows you to create efficient solutions which are quick to develop, resilient, manageble, highly useful and have low total cost of ownership.
Brent: I just made my next step, actually! I'm now working for Quest Software as a SQL Server Expert. I get to use my years of database experience to help build tools that make other DBA's lives easier. Instead of helping DBAs one at a time, now I'm helping thousands every day. For me, that's as good as it gets.
Denny: Currently I am a Senior Database Administrator and Architect for a Network Security firm named Awareness Technologies . Since I'm quite happy in my current position, I don't envision myself leaving anytime soon (much to the delight of the owner of the company). However were something to happen the next step I see in my career is probably going to be moving into a consulting company, or professional services company.
Brian: I'm currently serving as an infrastructure and security architect so the next logical step would be to continue in this career path.
Chris: I would like to achieve my SQL Server MVP.
Pinal: I am currently working as Project Manager. I am hoping to have more responsibility as project manager.
I would like to personally thank Cristian Lefter, Andrew Fyer, Namwar Rizvi, Brent Ozar, Denny Cherry, Brian Kelley, Chris Shaw, and Pinal Dave for taking the time to share their views, opinions and suggestions and making this as interesting, a 3 part series, as possible. Thank You Guys.
SQL Server Experts: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
 | We started out hoping to talk to one or two SQL Server experts, to get their perspective of SQL Server, their work, and what it takes to be a SQL Server DBA/Developer. The response to our questions far surpassed our wildest expectations. We have received responses from the "Who's Who" of the SQL Server world. Our discussion with the experts will cover how they got introduced to SQL Server, their views on SQL Server, their work, and their advice on a SQL Server career. The discussion is posted as a three part series. Part 1 and Part 2 are posted today and Part 3 will be posted tomorrow |
Part 1: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
Part 2: Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer
Part 3: Becoming a SQL Server MVP and other Career Choices.
Let me start by introducing the expert panel.
Cristian Lefter: Founder and President of the Romanian SQL Server User group, Cristian is a developer turned database administrator who currently owns MicroTraining, specializing in SQL Server consulting and training. Cristian is a frequent contributor and reviewer for SQL Server Professional, ASPToday, Microsoft e-learning among others. To SQL or To SQL ? There's No Question is his motto.
Andrew Fyer: A Microsoft evangelist, no really, Andrew is literally a Microsoft evangelist, part of the Microsoft Technet Team, his official title is IT Pro Evangelist. His areas of expertise are SQL Server, the database engine, Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services, coupled with ProClarity and its successor Performance Point. He blogs at "SQL Server Relational and Beyond"
Namwar Rizvi: Author of SQL Tips, Namwar's passion is software. Namwar has all the technical certifications from Microsoft and has delivered projects across multiple industries using Microsoft technologies.
Brent Ozar: A Database Administrator by day and a traveling geek by night, Brent believes database management is the best thing in the computer industry. Brent loves to share his knowledge, according to him "helping is the key to being a successful DBA". Brent is the domain expert for Quest Software and in his job, he helps database administrators at various companies. Brent loves to travel, you can see where he is headed in Dopplr. He can be reached at brentOzar.com
Denny Cherry: The resident SQL Server Expert in SearchSqlserver at Techtarget, Denny has managed SQL Server installs, including a 175 million users installation at MySpace.com. Denny specializes in system architecture, performance tuning, and replication. He is currently a Sr. Database Administrator and Architect at Awareness Technologies. He blogs at SQL Server with Mr. Denny.
Brian Kelley: A SQL Server columnist and author, Brian is an infrastructure architect for AgFirst Farm Credit Bank. Brian writes for Sql Server Standard and he blogs at Sql Server Central about databases, infrastructure and security. He is the president of the Midland SC, chapter of PASS.
Chris Shaw: Founder of the Colorado Springs SQL Server Users Group, Chris is the founder and Director of SQL on Call, a Colorado Springs based company that provides remote DBA services. Chris has worked in companies like Yellow Pages Inc, Ford Fairlane Motor Credit, Wells Fargo and AT&T Wireless. Chris is currently writing a weekly column on Database Team Management. His weblog.
Pinal Dave: Author of over 600 SQL Server Articles, Pinal is a Database Administrator and a Web Application Architect. Database also his passion and hobby. He is a frequent column writer in SQL Server Magazine. His "Journey to SQL Authority" blog is an excellent source of SQL articles that is a must for novice and experts alike.
Now to our discussion..... 1. How and When were you introduced to SQL ServerCristian: 2000 as a developer I had to build a web application based on ASP and SQL Server.
Andrew: 1998. I was working for Marks & Spencer (UK store chain like Macy's) who were very Microsoft centric. They were rolling out a project using SQL Server 6.5 and I found it very easy to adapt my access and CA-Ingres SQL skills to this.
Namwar: I started working in SQL Server in my university days (1998) and SQL Server 6.5 was my first experience. Since then I am implementing solutions of various kind and have used all versions of SQL Server i.e. 7/2000/2005 and now 2008 in its beta and release candidate cycles.
Brent: I started working with SQL Server in the late 1990's. I wrote a web application that stored its data in Microsoft Access, and after a while, I realized that Access wasn't going to be my long-term solution. I looked at the next step, and Microsoft made it relatively easy to migrate that application up to SQL Server. I've never looked back!
Denny: My first introduction to SQL Server was Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 back about 1997 or so. I started using Microsoft SQL Server professionally as a DBA and Database Developer around 1999 or so. We had build several business processes in Microsoft Access, and the transaction logging within Microsoft Access was causing the Access databases to fill and corrupt them selves every couple of days (we were pumping 10s of thousands of rows through the Access database every minute). We had a trial edition of SQL Server 7 available to us, so we decided to upgrade the systems to SQL Server. I never looked back after that.
Brian: I was introduced in 1998 with SQL Server 6.5. We were using it to be a back-end for web applications.
Chris: In 1995 I was working with MS Access for an antifreeze recycling company. I was offered a job because of my Access skills but I would have to learn SQL Server. I took the job and since then I have been a dedicated DBA. That company was Yellow Pages Inc.
Pinal: I was introduced to SQL Server 5+ Years ago, when I started my job as web developer. 2. Why would you recommend SQL Server vis-a-vis other databasesCristian: It's cost effective and does the job.
Andrew: Two things - It gives you a bigger bang for your buck, you get all this useful stuff (reporting and full text searching for example) with it that fits together very easily and it is really simple to manage.
There's a huge community behind it so if you are in trouble someone has the answer, and with 12% of all jobs on the leading UK job board wanting SQL skills you have a good choice of careers or candidates depending on which side of the interview you are on.
Namwar: There are many reasons for recommending SQL Server but most important are:
Lower TCO: You can have lower cost of ownership along with enterprise quality performance even you can have SQL Server Express free which can provide you excellent database backend in small applications.
Excellent Tool Set: You have a vast set of tools like SSRS, SSAS, SSIS etc. You can design your solutions in native Visual Studio
.NET Integration: Native integration of .NET platform
Brent: SQL Server scales from a handheld PDA all the way up to multi-terabyte data warehouses. At one of my employers, our sales force had thousands of Windows Mobile PDA's across the country, all running the SQL Server engine. Every sale went into the handhelds, got consolidated into central OLTP SQL Servers, and eventually fed into a multi-terabyte SAP BW data warehouse running - you guessed it - SQL Server. I got involved with all levels of that deployment and had a fantastic time. Being a DBA is a ton of fun no matter what platform you pick, but SQL Server gives you the best chance to get into any organization and start contributing immediately.
Denny: I recommend Microsoft SQL Server over enterprise database platforms for a few reasons. One is cost, another is features, and the third is ease of use. While MySQL is free to install and use, MySQL DBAs and support can get quite costly as the number of DBAs is much smaller than Microsoft DBAs, especially the number of top tier DBAs is much smaller than Microsoft DBAs. Oracle, is just expensive plain and simple. Especially when you start adding in features like Replication, and the annual maintenance costs.
Feature wise Microsoft SQL Server can easily hold it's own with the big boys of the RDBMS world, and at a fraction of the cost.
As for ease of use, Microsoft SQL Server is the only RDBMS where people actually use the tools regularly. Most Oracle folks use Toad for query writing and basic Administrator, and MySQL folks use phpAdmin to manage the database platform. Microsoft's T/SQL implementation is very complete, and very close to being fully ANSI compliant. In my opinion T/SQL is very easy to learn, and work with where I didn't like working in PL/SQL at all.
Brian: I like SQL Server because of its flexibility and its capabilities. I think SQL Server 2005 took a huge step in establishing SQL Server as a definite player in the enterprise market. However, which database platform to use is determined by a multitude of factors and SQL Server may not be the best fit for a particular situation. If a shop generally works in Microsoft technologies, then typically SQL Server is the best fit.
Chris: The cost per transaction in an enterprise environment is smaller then any other database server in its class.
Pinal: It is Microsoft Technology and very easy to use. Support, online documentation and integration with Windows Operating system is excellent when using SQL server.
Continue to Part 2 of our discussion with SQL Experts, Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer.
SQL Server Experts: Part II - Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer
3. What is the most stressful part of your job when working with SQL Server?Cristian: For me nothing about SQL Server is stressful except people that call me to help them cause their hard drive just failed and they have no backup.
Andrew: Implementation from dev/test to live. There are so many variables to worry about and there are usually security issues that don't always come out in test.
Namwar: Firstly, using SSIS (previously known as DTS). It is still not mature enough. You can have memory errors, package corruptions etc. Secondly, managing multiple versions of object (SP,view, trigger, UDF) code.
Brent: The most stressful part of the job is always, always, always being on call. When someone's application goes bump in the night, they're going to want the DBA on the phone just to make them feel better. Until proven otherwise, developers seem to suspect the database is at fault, and it's the DBA's job to prove otherwise.
Denny: I would have to say that the most stressful part of my job as a Database Administrator is dealing with angry managers when there is a system problem or system crash. I have a tendency to get a little cranky when my systems don't work correctly, and so far all my managers have learned early on that when something is broken asking me for status updates every few minutes is less than productive.
Brian: Dealing with service pack deployments.
Chris: Working with non-technical Managers when I am working through a Crisis.
Pinal: Working on production environment during project release day. Lots of things are usually going on when release is taking place and debugging any issue on production server is always challenging.
4. Production DBA, Development DBA and SQL Server Developer ? Are these roles inter-changeable or do you think that each role is specialized, that there is little chance of crossover.
Cristian: You cannot master SQL Server if you are not familiar with each of the three roles. I would also add programming and networking knowledge.
Andrew: I think you should be able to do 60-80% of the other roles no matter which one you're in. Dev should closely mirror production and actually in today's world, dev and test should be virtual machine based on production. Development for me has been in business intelligence so this is specialised but a BI developer has to have a very good understanding of teh DBA role to deal with scale and get performance.
Namwar: I would say neither these roles are completely same nor they are completely separate. Mostly all these roles require knowledge of database tuning, management, availability etc. On the other hand, they have slightly different responsibilities:
Production DBA: They are more focused for keeping the system running at optimum. Since sometimes they just got already running systems and cannot suggest fundamental changes in database design therefore, they have to live with it and needs to make sure whatever implementation they have it should run smoothly.
Development DBA: They are more involved in designing the databases and can impact the changes in database structure. They have a good chance to optimize the system at first place instead of trying to optimize it after having issues in production.
SQL Server Developer: They are more towards writing TSQL code and should have good knowledge of efficient data manipulation techniques. Most of the time they do not know much about physical aspects of databases and servers.
Brent: These roles are interchangeable at small shops (less than, say, 25 SQL Server instances) but beyond that, the roles quickly diverge and have very little overlap. Today's production DBA at a large, 100-server shop writes very few stored procedures from scratch, and today's development DBA at that same shop does very little disaster recovery planning. When you're managing 100 database servers, tasks like disaster recovery, backup & restore, storage planning, SOX compliance, and so on are a very full time job for the production DBA.
These roles diverge even faster with each new release of SQL Server: Microsoft adds more features to new technologies like SSIS and SSRS, and it's tough for a single DBA to master all of those technologies plus do their regular production server maintenance. With the release of SQL Server 2005, I decided to focus on just one technology (the database engine itself) and get better at that one aspect. I recommend that same path to other DBAs - get great at SQL Server *or* SSIS *or* SSRS, but don't try to take on the entire portfolio. You'll spend your whole week learning, not delivering.
Denny: I would have to say that each of the three database roles; Production DBA, Development DBA and Database Developer are all specialized, but to fill any of these rolls well, you should have at least a passing knowledge of what the others do. As a DBA you really can not effectively tune a stored procedure for a developer without knowing the T/SQL which is being run, what it's suppose to do, and why it needs to do it. As a Database Developer you can't write effective queries without knowing how the indexes are laid out, and how the index settings are going to impact the insert and update performance of the queries.
Brian: Production and development DBAs have similar skill sets, but in larger organizations they should be separate roles. SQL Server developers can transition through the development DBA ranks to be a production DBA but while someone could do both of these roles, it's hard to do them well in a complex configuration.
Chris:There is some cross over, A P-DBA should know how to performance tune, and write SQL to accomplish Administrative tasks. However, I think other then that there really is fewer tasks that cross over.
Pinal: I just think they all are same. Everybody can take over each others job very easily and under the hood they all have same skills.
5. Name 2 exciting, new SQL Server features either in SQL Server 2008 or is upcomingCristian: Resource Governor and Extended Events.
Andrew: Policy Management to control and monitor the whole estate, and filestream to store large chunks of unstructured data so that they can be rapidly streamed and still be part of the database. I am working with Mercedes McLaren on using this technology to store car telemetry from Formula 1 races.
Namwar: 1. Data compression feature: If used properly it can great increase the data manipulation.
2. New Data Types: HierarchyID, DATE (only date), TIME (only TIME) and best of all Spatial Data Types (this will be really a big addition and will open up the stream of new type of geographical applications)
Brent: First, SQL 2008's data compression rocks. Sure, disk space is cheap, but disk performance is not. Compressing the data means that we can read less data off the disk, thereby reducing the I/O subsystem loads. CPU cores, on the other hand, are still getting cheaper every year, and it's easy to justify spending some of our newfound cores doing compression & decompression.
Second, and maybe not as sexy, there's the better auditing & compliance tools. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements were tossed at database administrators, making our jobs tougher without much more budget money or man-hours. Microsoft's making compliance easier for us, and while it's hard to get excited about it, anything that makes it easier for me to take vacation is a win in my book.
Denny: Two of the features which I think are among the most exciting features of SQL Server 2008 are the Resource Governor and the filtered indexes. The Resource Governor allows the DBA to decided just how much CPU and memory a pool of users can use on the system in order to ensure that there is always enough CPU and memory available for business processes; preventing reporting and other batch operations from taking all the load of the SQL Server.
The filtered indexes is an amazing new feature. It allows you to create your indexes against a table, but only include a subset of the records from the table. As an example, say that you have a table where the column you want to index is 60% NULL values, and when ever you are going to query the table against that column you will always be giving it a value. You can now tell the index to only index the records in the table which have a value in the column, leaving out the 60% of the rows which have a NULL value in the column. This makes your index ~60% smaller meaning that you can load it from disk faster, and it takes less space in memory to keep the index in cache.
Brian: Transparent data encryption and policy-based management.
Chris: Data Compression - I am not sure how exciting this is. I am curious to see how this impacts a production database and the processors. Policy Based Management
Pinal: PBM (Policy Based Management ) would make DBA's life easier. Data compression
The concluding part of our discussion will be posted tomorrow. (Its now available)
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