A Good Case For Reference

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Good Case For Reference

  • One good starting point for MS might be to post the demo-applications and the related source-code.

    As everybody knows, copy-paste is your best friend 😉

    We've all seen the demo on db availability during restore SQL2000 vs SQL2005, but getting your hands on that demo and getting the code .....

    Especialy for dbas, not used writing non-db code, having easy access to reference code can enhance comunication with developers and dev-teams.

    It's been many times developers tried to outsmart a dba with obscure code, just because they know a dba isn't used on reading .net/java stuff.

    (that changed somewhat with sql2005/clr)

    Likewize with the spatial demo.

    This is very nice to see, but comming back home, it would be very helpfull to have that demo app. and its source code.

    Maybe they should refer to their "Project .." what's is called website and publish the code overthere (because it is a code related website)

    Every demo should be simple and straight forward and the published source code should be explained with some short comment lines (in the code!).

    Johan

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  • Anyone who has used SQLServerFineBuild knows it aims to produce a best-practice install and configuration with a single click.

    SQL Server 2008 brings many new features that would need to be in a best-practice configuration. These include PBM, Audit and the Data Collector. There will also be best-practice uses of other features such as Filestream.

    However, getting to know what these features can do takes a long time, and most SQL Server 2008 installations are likely to leave much of this on the shelf for months if not years. And then there will be SQL Server 2011...

    If anybody is working on a best-practice configuration for PBM, Audit, etc, that they are willing to have included in FineBuild then I would like to hear from you! Your reward would be recognition by me and hopfuly the rest of the industry, and the knowledge that your work has helped put a useful SQL Server 2008 feature into mainstream use.

    Updating FineBuild for SQL Server 2008 is proceeding well, but at present the next release is likely to have only the most basic setup for PBM, Audit, etc, so there is a lot of scope for people in the community to help with this project.

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

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  • Hi Steve,

    Your road trip application would be an interesting use of a genetic algorithm, which has been used before to solve 'travelling salesman' type. As I am sure you know, genetic programming starts by generating a random 'population' (in this case it would be randomly generated routes) and then measuring the fitness of each route using selected parameters (for example, total distance travelled, total number of days spent, anything you want really), and then allowing the 'fittest' members of the population to reproduce by swapping characteristics ( a controlled amount of mutation is also introduced) to produce the next generation.

    It takes only a few generations to produce a population of near-optimal individuals (ie. routes), and because the number of iterations increases linearly with the number of 'genes' (in this case 32 locations) rather than exponentially it can be used for very large 'genomes'.

    In the UK, British Telecom uses a genetic programming system to plan the optimum laying of data cables in housing developments

    David

    See http://www.codeproject.com/KB/recipes/tspapp.aspx

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

  • I guess I would like to see some relatively simple, expandable tools included.

    For example, a good Service Broker example is needed. So, a small windows application that displays jobs and statuses from the Job Agent in the system tray and allows you to just start a job agent job. This could be done through a couple of triggers that update a queue and send messages to the application as well as a queue that the application updates that starts or stops a job. A little pop-up indicating a job started or errored would be nice throughout the day. Allowing it to be attached to more than one server would be really nice.

    Something like this would be a reasonably useful tool and not take much code. Giving us the tool and the source code for it would be useful as an example.

    I think real-world useful items are the best samples. They must get thousands of requests for tools and modifications to Management Studio. Sorting through these and making a couple of non-integrated tools and providing the source code would seem like a good two-for-one deal to me.

  • Michael Earl (7/15/2008)


    I guess I would like to see some relatively simple, expandable tools included.

    I'd second this as I think it would not only help with bits of code to describe situations, it would also provide additional information into the internals of SQL Server and provide people with "oh you can get that data from there too" reactions as well as providing other alternatives for working more efficiently.

    -Luke.

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  • Wow. I'm a biker (the self propelled kind) and a Garmin GPS user and I like your idea immensely. While the Garmin mapping software actually does a segment of what you're talking about the extensibility would be wonderful!

    Frequently I've wanted to take a couple hundred mile trips over a weekend on my bike and have found that it's difficult to come up with places to potty, park, eat and sleep in convenient spots. Adding something like you're talking about to a Microsoft Mapping tool that I could load to my GPS or blackberry, or cell phone along with the "CURRENTLY WORKING" phone numbers and construction delays or washed out secondary roads would be a wonderful use of DOT dollars acquired through by my taxes.

    Great idea!

    Bob

  • Excellent idea for an article, Steve.

    I've often heard of a new feature and thought, "Yeah, but who would use it?" The previous article on CLR was a good example. Obviously, features must come up through suggestions and marketing and committees and cost/benefit tests, so someone must use them (in fact, a LOT of people must use them to make them worthwhile). It would be great to have some examples so that we could use them, too.

    In my case, I currently work for a transportation company, so your baseball stadium app isn't far off from the real world. We often have to determine best (and alternate) routes, calculate fuel costs, etc. We're already looking at the spatial data features of SQL Server, but some examples would be a great help. Making the example application something fun like baseball stadiums (or famous siteseeing stops like Mt. Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, etc) wouldn't hurt.

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  • Steve-

    First of all, since you're a DB guy, I'll forgive your lack of awareness of spatial integration being the holy grail of the GIS industry for the past decade. GIS is the software and processes behind all of our mapping, imagery, etc. applications like Google Earth, GPS Navigators, Military Global Intelligence, and even FedEx/UPS/USPS package routing. Having integrated native spatial DB capabilities is a huge plus over yesterday's "tacked on" solutions.

    Second, as for applications, I think it was Oracle's CEO who prophesied in the late 90's that in the future (um, now?) all information, everywhere would be stored in a database. Well that is coming true to some extent with applications like CRM, BI, of course all internet-based business, and even social networking like MySpace and Facebook. But what about the portability of such information? What if there was a service like phone, water, or electricity, where you could sign up for Database storage and all of your other "involvement" could feed off of web services tied into that data?

  • I know that GIS is heavily used, but I'm definitely not aware of how extensively it's implemented. The "finding directions" and mapping is stuff I've seen, but the shortest paths, timing, cost of lodging, etc. doesn't seem to be readily available. I was thinking on a smaller, simpler scale, an app would provide some good references.

    Service Broker could use something for sure and maybe a job linking/system would be a nice one.

    I was hoping to get some more creativity for something beyond IBuySpy or Contoso or some of the other Microsoft apps. Perhaps an auditing application that can use and read the PBM stuff to determine what's happened on a group of servers?

    Anything more creative?

  • How about a GPS type system that would track the physical location of where your children, grandparents, aged alzheimer afflicted relatives, non-violent criminals etc. are located via the GPS chip in their cell phone?

    The probation officers could set up alert zones based on spatial databases, parents could keep an ear or an eye on where junior is after school. Of course this would help the security industry too because all this data would need to be confidential....

  • Bob,

    Cool idea, but it would duplicate the systems our governments are already working on. If you have done or thought nothing wrong, what have you to fear 🙂

    Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.

    When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara

  • I would like to see a really clear example of how to implement data mirroring with two servers which would allow automatic (if possible) failover to the mirroring system if the mirrored server fails during the processing of an application. Maybe it is out there already somewhere, but I haven't found it, and this is something we need in my office.

  • If you have the 2005 client, the SQL Native Client, then you put two entries in there for the mirrored servers and they automatically reconnect if the primary has failed.

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms366348.aspx

    It's pretty simple and I'm not sure it would be an application. There are some good mirroring explanations on the SQLSKills blogs as well.

  • Thanks for posting the request, Steve! We do actually want to hear what people have to say [every once in a while]. 😛

    Thank you to everyone who's sharing their wishlist items, too. You're always welcome to ping me via my blog or email with ideas for SQL Server community applications.

    BTW, anybody who's reading this and thinks, "Hey, that's just a quick little thing to whip up..." You could be in the next crop of SQL MVP nominees and in the running to win a Windows Home Server if you're willing to put your coding skills where you mouth is... The SQL Heroes 2008 Contest[/url] (url) is still accepting submissions!

    I have already got requests into Ed's group for the spatial demos, and he's promised to help get the spatial album onto CodePlex. There are several spatial demos in the pipeline for the to-be-published spatial project on CodePlex. In the spatial arena, there's also a separate project for the batch geocoder SSIS task (TBP) that's willing to accept community contributions, if anyone's interested in contributing to that project, LMK.

    The SSB queue manager idea has legs, even though Management™ does not like my group to work on tools... (Management™ believes users want Mainstream Scenario™ applications.) I'm wondering if SSB queue management might be relevant to the BIDS Helper project space. Have to chat with those guys. There are a couple of SSB community apps for 2005 (url) that might be a good starting point if somebody's interested in growing that; don't know if they work for SSB in 2008.

    Auditing PBM might be something MPU is already looking at; I'll have to check.

    An open source GPS tracking application is interesting, and must be possible, since there are companies already selling the service. Have to figure out where to source the data, though.

    We have a mirroring failover sample for ODBC that might be a starting point for what you need, jpowers. If you're using ADO.NET, you can achieve similar results for mirroring by adding the failover partner attribute to your connection string and teaching your apps how to retry on a time out (which is what a failover looks like). Without the connection string decoration, the app will only know about the failover partner if it successfully connects before the failover; in the special case where the app starts up after a failover, the app will be lost. There was a SNAC improvement for this story that got cut from Katmai... Let's hope it makes it for vNext. A seamless mirroring failover client is on my list of samples asks to engine, but those folks are deep in vNext planning right now; I'll have to pester them again soon.

    Keep the ideas coming, please!!

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