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Monitoring on a Budget

Bert Carles from SQLServerCentral.com

Have you ever been asked for information you couldn't provide because you didn't have an historical monitoring tool? Try thisMore »

Importing Text-based data: Workbench

Additional Articles from SimpleTalk

Robyn and Phil return with some fresh ideas about how to import text files into SQL Server, without resorting to DTS or SSIS scripting. They go on to show how much can be done in TSQLMore »

Declarative Management Framework - Performing Policy Management

Additional Articles from SQL Server Universe

The Declarative Management Framework is a new policy based management framework included with the upcoming SQL Server 2008. Using this feature administrators can define policies to govern their SQL Server environments much like in the Windows environment. This article, written based on the SQL Server "Katmai" July CTP introduces you to the DMF and shows you how you can perform policy management.More »

My wife and I are in "open enrollment" for benefits where we have to choose our medical plan, our dental, vision, life insurance and more. It's an annual process that is thankfully simpler since I haven't had any benefits to compare against for a few years. That may change at some point, but I'm glad we don't have to go through two plans and compare them. It's enough of a chore to go through one.

We managed to fit in a lunch together, and listened to the call from her company's HR person. It was interesting to hear the presentation and how her company is pushing proactive health. They're using a carrot and stick approach with physicals and "health coaches" to try and help employees live healthier lives. The presenter mentioned that healthier employees do a better job and save the company (and themselves) money.

What was very interesting to me, and inspired me to write this, was a question at the end. This is a high-tech company that develops computer telephone systems and like many of the companies I've worked for, they are mostly composed of white-collar workers that put in lots of hours. One of them asked this question regarding the healthier lifestyle promotion: if the company wants employees to be healthier, than will it give them time to exercise?

The question was taken under advisement, supposedly to be presented to management. I haven't heard anything back on an answer, but it was definitely a question embraced by the employees, but one that made management nervous.

I thought it was a great question, but it's a hard benefit to apply equally. There are plenty of people who won't exercise or do anything to improve their health, there are some that take it to an extreme, there are some how eat well, some who don't, and some who are naturally very healthy because of genes. Note that you could fall into more than one of those categories. I know I do, with exercise to keep in shape, but not the best diet in the world.

As computer-based workers, we tend to be fairly sedentary and couple that with poor dietary habits overall, it's certainly a burden that employers have to bear when our health worsens. I tend to look at that as part of the cost of doing business. Just as you can't hire all superstar DBAs or developers, you won't hire all healthy people.

The corporate culture, however, can easily make things worse. No facilities on site (for larger companies), no healthy meals, a lack of subsidies for gym memberships are all neutral in my opinion. They are nice, they help, but a lack of them doesn't hurt. But time is important. Not allowing time for employees to work out, if they want to, with brutal work or travel schedules, is detrimental to an employee's and the overall corporate health.

Most of us can exercise, and many of us will if we have time. However it tends to rank below work and family time. By giving employees some time around work, making it a "benefit", you build a lot of goodwill and breed loyalty by showing you care about the employees.

It's the action, not the words, that matter the most.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA

The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted. You can get feeds from there.

• Video Podcast - 30.8MB, Quicktime
• Video Podcast - 11.5MB WMV
• Audio Podcast - 6.1MB, MP3

Today's podcast features music by the beautiful, jazzy, Robin Stine. Check her music out at www.robinstine.com.

I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

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Today's Question:

In which filegroups must the mdf (or first file) file reside in a SQL Server 2005 database?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

This question is worth 2 points. We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers.

We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer. To submit a QOD, simply log in to Contribution Center.

What will be the output of this query if run by a normal user?

RAISERROR ('Invalid Input', 20, 1)
GO

By Abhijit .

Answer: Msg 2754, Level 16, State 1, Line 1Error severity levels greater than 18 can only be specified by members of the sysadmin role, using the WITH LOG option.

Explanation: Only sysadmins can raise severities greater than 18. Therefore this will generate an error.

Ref: Database Engine Error Severities - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164086.aspx
Raiserror - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178592.aspx

» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Get all user def table info with rowcount and size

Mohit Nayyar

"sp_spaceused" procedure is really handy to get the updated information about space usage by database or tables. <BR/> <BR/> I combined the same with another very useful procedure...More »

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.

SQL Server 2005 : Administering

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SQL Server 2005 : Business Intelligence

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SQL Server 2005 : Development

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SQL Server 2005 : SQL Server 2005 General Discussion

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SQL Server 2005 : SQL Server 2005 Strategies

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SQL Server 2005 : SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning

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SQL Server 2005 : SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

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**************DD/MM/YY to MM/DD/YY************ - :crying: Hi, I need help on the following.I have a column 'Date' in Staging table with the following [b]Data type=varchar(50) Format/Style='dd/mm/yy' Example='18/11/07'[/b] I need to...

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SQL Server 2005 : T-SQL (SS2K5)

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SQL Server 7,2000 : Administration

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MS SQL 2000 - How do I track a user who deleted SQL DB objects? - Hello All, Newbie here, Just wondering is there a way to track down what logged in user (mixed mode) who deleted...

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SQL Server 7,2000 : Strategies

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SQL Server 7,2000 : SQL Server Newbies

read statements - Hello, don´t know if i am right here. i have the following problem. i´m using a program which works with sql...

SQL Server 7,2000 : Performance Tuning

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SQL Server 7,2000 : T-SQL

separate log file for DTS package - Hi all, DTS package appends the log into a single log file after its execution. Is it possible that it logs...

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Reporting Services : Reporting Services

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Data Warehousing : Data Transformation Services (DTS)

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Testing Center : SQL Server Security Skills

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