I often get hung up in the whirlwind of life,and one of the things that seems to slip my schedule, is remembering when the
TSQL Tuesday comes about. This time I
was fortunate enough to be chatting a New Year’s chat with my buddy Jason
Brimhall (blog|twitter), when I told him that I really
need to get back in the blog beat as I feel I’ve been behind in the blogosphere
over the last few months.
Well, with the New Year underway, he suggested that I get
my game going again by participating in this month’s T-SQL Tuesday #38. I knew when he asked me to guess who this
month’s host is, I was on the hook to stay resolute and accept the
challenge. Then I found out it was
Jason, and I lost interest (JUST KIDDING 😉
Jason, aka SQL RNNR, and one of theorganizers of the SQL Server Society of
Las Vegas, has a great book out available called SQL Server 2012 T-SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach. So, it would be apropos for him to be hosting
this month’s TSQL Tuesday.
So, with this first T-SQL Tuesday of 2013, Jason gets the
distinguished honor of being the host to kick off the New Year with a great,
but perplexing topic. Heck, coming up
with a t-sql puzzle is sometimes challenging, but the tsql Tuesday topic du’jour
requires real introspection and maybe even some courage to pull it off.
Jason’s theme is laid out as follows: “Now for the theme.
A common thing for many people to do this time of year is to do a little self-reflection.
Some set meaningful goals for themselves. Fewer actually accomplish
those goals or even follow-up after initially setting the goal.” Woah, that’s deep! So the theme this month is “Standing
Firm.” The words of the day are resolute, resolve and resolution.
Now I don’t want to make any promises, cause that always
gets you in trouble. 🙂 But, one of the things I’ve been working on
is a comprehensive process and collection of scripts for performance
analysis. I am embarking on a campaign
for HealthySQL™. Yes, this year I want
to raise awareness for the need for regular health checks to keep your servers
humming and healthy. There are so many
neglected and ailing servers out there, that even a simple diagnosis will
highlight major areas for improvement.
Even so, the point is, why wait to the point your SQL Server slumps over
to be rushed to the emergency repair stage?
The reactive break-fix model is passé, and must go the way of the
dinosaur. (I know some high-paid
consultants might scoff at this).
However, we can prevent most major issues before they occur, and before
they escalate. Doesn’t look good when
the customer has to complain they can’t get into their system.
Proactive monitoring and on-going health checks is the
key to a healthy SQL Server. One of the
important things to do is baseline your server, and watch for trends overtime,
carefully looking for deviations from that baseline. Statistics, metrics and metadata all come
into play, and I have just the right bit of holistic healing. I start out with my 15-point health check
which is a snapshot of your current SQL Server environment and serves as the
initial baseline. The data gives an overview
of the server and database configurations, the key KPI performance counters and
measures, and inspection of SQL Server metadata.
So who’s with me?
Let’s make this a Healthy year for SQL Server! I hereby declare to resolve and remain
resolute to raise awareness in the greater SQL Server Community and beyond the
importance of regular health checks, as well maintaining your sql fitness. I will be bringing you throughout the year
more blogs, articles, presentations, and tips on maintaining a healthy SQL
Server. I welcome all SQL Server
professionals to join my campaign and getting the word out on HealthySQL™ The
fate of millions of SQL Servers and the businesses that depend on them are at
stake. Stay tuned – it should be
fun.
Happy New Year 2013!
Jason, thanks for hosting this rendition of TSQL Tuesday. If you want to participate you too can write
a blog post, include the tsql logo, and link to Jason’s
invite.
If you’d
like to host, contact the founder, Adam Machanic (b | t). You can also follow me on twitter @Pearlknows
