Archive
TSQL Tuesday #96: Folks Who Have Made a Difference
I started working as a SQL Server DBA in November of 2007. In November of 2010, I attended my second PASS Summit in Seattle. At the time I was working for a large insurance company, and our Microsoft sales rep had scheduled a dinner for my team at 6pm. The afternoon of the dinner, I went to see Paul Randal (b|t) do a 90-minute Spotlight Session called DBA Mythbusters scheduled until 6:15. About 15 minutes into Paul's session, I texted my boss to let him know I would be late to dinner. The information Paul presented and the way in which he presented made me not want to miss a minute of the session. Walking out of the Convention Center that night, I remember thinking, "I want to do that! I want to teach people about SQL Server!"
The following March, I attended my first SQL Saturday in Chicago. For the session after lunch, I wanted to see Brent Ozar (b|t) present about SQL Server storage. By the time I got to the room for Brent's presentation, it was SRO. Two doors down, Jes Borland (b|t) was giving a presentation called Make Your Voice Heard! In it, Jes provided advice on blogging, presenting, and leveraging social media to increase visibility within the community.
Attending Jes's presentation introduced me to the force of nature known as Jes Borland. Her unbridled enthusiasm for the SQL community gave me the motivation to start teaching people about SQL Server. Within a year I started this blog and started presenting at PASS Local Chapters. I am blessed to have become friends with Jes. She continues to inspire me both professionally and personally.
In April of 2011, I attended SQL Skills Immersion Event on Performance Tuning and Optimization – Part 1, taught by Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp. Since then I have been fortunate to become friends with the two of them. Their involvement in the community never ceases to amaze me. To close I will share my favorite story about the strength of the SQL community.
I attended PASS Summit 2015 with a co-worker who was a first timer. At the Tuesday Welcome Reception, I saw Paul and Kimberly across the room. My colleague and walked over, and as we were waiting to say hello, Paul turned, looked at my colleagues badge and said, "Michael, first timer, how are you! I'm Paul Randal!" Paul welcoming nature and openness to new members of the community is something that I try and emulate on a daily basis.
I volunteer with PASS because I will never be able to give back as much as I've gotten. Paul and Jes are two individuals that have given me an enormous amount through the years and I thank them for it.
Monitoring and Alerting for Availability Groups and Why I Love PASS Summit
I have returned from my eighth PASS Summit and, as in years past, they just keep getting better. I am amazed and humbled that I am a part of the PASS community. PASS has given me the opportunity to meet and learn from many of the best and brightest in the SQL world. When I meet first-timers, I tell them to talk to people, no matter who they are. If you share an interest, they will share with you. If you have never been to PASS Summit, I recommend it. If you cannot make Summit, get involved with your local PASS Chapter or SQL Saturday. Virtual Chapters are another great way to find out what PASS has to offer.
One of the highlights of this year's Summit was Shawn Meyers' (t) presentation on Monitoring and Alerting of Availability Groups. (You will need to be logged in to the PASS website to access the link.) I have worked with Availability Group since its release in SQL Server 2012 and Shawn provided the best solution for monitoring and alerting.
Shawn suggested implementing three alerts:
- 1480 - AG Role Change
- 35264 - AG Data Movement Suspended
- 35265 - AG Data Movement Resumed
Additionally, Shawn provided an MSDN link with recommendations for using Policy-Based Management (PBM) to monitor AGs. The custom policies monitor the recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) for your availability groups. Microsoft recommends 600 seconds, or 10 minutes, for RTO, and 3600 seconds, or 60 minutes, for RPO. You can set your own values when defining the policy conditions.
I have scripted out the PBM conditions, policies, and SQL Server Agent alerts. The conditions and policies can be used as-is, because they use system schedules. The alerts need to updated to replace the TestOperator with an SQL Agent operator of your own.
I hope you can make use of these scripts. And I encourage you to get involved with PASS. You will be amazed at what it can do for you.
Presenting – The Odyssey Continues
As I've mentioned before, I set a goal at the beginning of the year to average a presentation a month in 2014. My presentation, Designing a Recovery Strategy, at the Wisconsin SQL Server User Group this month put me halfway there.
In June, I am presenting Designing a Recovery Strategy again at SQL Saturday #307 in Iowa City on the 7th. And then, for the first time ever, I will be presenting twice on the same day at SQL Saturday #286 in Louisville on the 21st. I'll be doing Designing a Recovery Strategy and Interrogating the Transaction Log (now with 2014!) If you are close to either event, I highly recommend attending. It is a great opportunity to get a free day of training and meet other members of the SQL community.
I close out the month by presenting Interrogating the Transaction Log at MADPASS June 25th. It has been a wild ride, but I've enjoyed every minute of it. Presenting is a great way to give back to the SQL community and I learn more than I thought possible every time I put a presentation together.
Chicago Data Professionals
