Implementing Stretch Database. (SQLServerCentral 1/15/2019)

[SQLServerCentral - www.sqlservercentral.com]( A community of more than 1,600,000 database professionals and growing Featured Contents - [Implementing Stretch Database.]( - [New Preview of SQL Server Management Studio Available for Download]( - [SQL Server Logical Reads – What do they really tell us?]( - [Approximate COUNT DISTINCT]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) - [Creating my own Map Shapefiles for Power BI]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) Featured Script - [Files with larger disk consumption]( The Voice of the DBA Measuring Effectiveness I've never been the guy that produced code the fastest, or the most code in a day. I haven't been able to show that I work the most hours, or that I even keep great hours. I'm often late or erratic in the times I come and go from work. I don't show that I am closing tickets in consistent times as I often will be slow to close new issues. I haven't ever been the employee of the month. What I have been is effective. I get things done. I leave the organization and the job better than when I found it. I work to deliver value for the salary I'm paid. That isn't something you can easily measure with many traditional metrics that people use, but there are ways to decide that I'm a good employee. It's a little ephemeral and sometimes uncomfortable to have an employee that doesn't seem to fit the same model as most other employees, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't want me working on your staff. [This article on measuring DevOps]( tries to explain how you can determine if your DevOps process is working, which is a similar ephemeral way of working. When we implement DevOps, we don't have large project plans, we don't look forward to completing a system. We undertake a set of work, knowing that we don't have an end date. We just keep doing work and getting things done that are needed. In this case, how can we measure if a project was on time, on budget, and finished? I'd argue, as would the article, that those aren't good measurements. Those are the ways we would traditionally look at work, but in software, those aren't often the things we want to look at. If we deliver software that meets some requirements, but users struggle to use it or complain, is it done? Most management would call it done, just like the airlines mark the plane as leaving on time when it pushes back from the gate. Standing on the runway for 45 minutes doesn't count against that target, even though I'd call that leaving late. The article talks about picking things that bother a manager or team members about the software or their process. Some of these are easy, like the time to deliver a new server or recover from a failure. Others that I've found to be useful are the time to assemble a release or deploy software to an environment. While we can sometimes play with what these numbers measure by moving to smaller set of changes or altering our process, we'll quickly find out if we have a lot of overhead in our work by adding these measurements. What about the software itself? Can I actually compare the time to deliver report a vs. report b? One might be much more complex than the other. That's true, but we ought to average out delivery estimates over time, and we can certainly separate out query writing of the complex logic against the time required for formatting. In fact, it might be good to start to measure different parts of software delivery to find out if certain people are better at some parts, or if requirements from clients are causing unnecessary delays. I know I've certainly had some formatting complaints require more time to get right than the entire rest of the software. It can be hard to develop metrics that have outcomes and are truly actionable, but it's a better way to determine if your team is improving. Relying on simple and traditional metrics is lazy, and allows for lots of argument and debate over whether a team is doing well or not. Tackling those specific items that are irritating to management or customers might take some work, but you'll end up with a list of things that can be targeted for improvement and show progress that actually means something. Steve Jones from [SQLServerCentral.com]( Join the debate, and [respond to today's editorial on the forums]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The Voice of the DBA Podcast Listen to the [MP3 Audio]( ( 4.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at [iTunes]( and [Libsyn](. [feed]( The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. ADVERTISEMENT [GDPR](www.red-gate.com/gdpr?utm_source=ssc&utm_medium=pubemailad&utm_content=gdpr-ready&utm_campaign=GDPR&utm_term=20190115-slot2) How to make your SQL Server development GDPR ready Redgate’s SQL Data Privacy Suite helps you to build a data catalog of your SQL Server estate, and put in processes to protect and monitor personal information. [Find out more about how our tools help with GDPR compliance](www.red-gate.com/gdpr?utm_source=ssc&utm_medium=pubemailad&utm_content=gdpr-ready&utm_campaign=GDPR&utm_term=20190115-slot2) [Webinar]( DevOps: What, who, why and how? Wednesday January 23 16.00-17.00 GMT / 10.00-11.00 CST - More and more organizations are turning to DevOps as a way of working together to improve the efficiency and quality of software delivery and start adding more value to the business. But what exactly is DevOps and what does it mean for you and your organization? [Register now]( Featured Contents  [] [Implementing Stretch Database.]( Deepak Prasad Sahu from [SQLServerCentral.com]() Learn how you can enable the Stretch Database feature in SQL Server 2016.[More »](Database/180824/) ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] [New Preview of SQL Server Management Studio Available for Download]( Additional Articles from [Database Journal]() On September 24th Microsoft released the first Community Technical Preview for SQL Server 2019, which was CTP2.0. At the same time Microsoft pushed out a new preview for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) known as version 18. Now is the time to download this new preview SQL Server trace, the most common tool DBAs use to evaluate query performance, provides the ‘logical reads’ counter on which many DBAs rely for evaluating a query’s I/O performance. In this article, we will examine this counter’s true meaning and provide examples that prove it can sometimes be quite misleading[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Approximate COUNT DISTINCT]( SQLEspresso from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( We all have written queries that use COUNT DISTINCT to get the unique number of non-NULL values from a table....[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Creating my own Map Shapefiles for Power BI]( Rayis Imayev from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( (2019-Jan-06) In the past, I used to always rely on shapefiles crafted by others to create my map visualizations in...[More »]( Question of the Day Today's Question (by Steve Jones): I have a new SQL Server on Linux instance set up. I want to enable some trace flags on instance startup. What should I do? Think you know the answer? [Click here](, and find out if you are right. --------------------------------------------------------------- We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers. This question is worth 1 point in this category: SQL Server on Linux. We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer. To submit a QOTD, simply log in to the [Contribution Center](. ADVERTISEMENT [The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win]( tag=redgatsof-20 linkCode=as2 camp=1789 creative=9325 creativeASIN=0988262592) The company's new IT initiative, code named Phoenix Project, is critical to the future of Parts Unlimited, but the project is massively over budget and very late. The CEO wants Bill to report directly to him and fix the mess in ninety days or else Bill's entire department will be outsourced. [Get your copy from Amazon today]( tag=redgatsof-20 linkCode=as2 camp=1789 creative=9325 creativeASIN=0988262592). tag=redgatsof-20 linkCode=as2 camp=1789 creative=9325 creativeASIN=0988262592 Yesterday's Question of the Day Yesterday's Question (by Steve Jones): Which DMV shows me a list of all the Extended Event (XE) sessions defined on my instance? Answer: sys.server_event_sessions Explanation: sys.server_event_Sessions contains a row for each Extended Event session defined on an instance. Ref: sys.server_event_sessions - https://[docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-catalog-views/sys-server-event-sessions-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [» Discuss this question and answer on the forums]( Featured Script [Files with larger disk consumption]( Junior Galvão - MVP from [SQLServerCentral.com]() How to use this script is quite simple: 1 - Download the script, open in your access to a tool instance or Server Microsoft SQL Server; 2 - Preferably use for the first runs a development or test environment; 3 - The logged on user must have View Server State permission so you can get the data returned by sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats Dynamic Management Function that replaces the old fn_virtualfilestats function; 4 - After running note the values given in column [AVG IT Stall in MS], she represents the parameter which we must examine how possible to handle disk latency related reading activities; 5 - The values presented for this column should be identified according to the table below: < 1ms: unbelievable; < 3ms: excellent; < 5ms: very good; < 10ms: within the expected; < 20ms: reasonable; < 50ms: limit; > 100ms: bad; > 1 sec: severe disk contention; and > 15 sec: serious problems with the storage or disk. 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