http://www.sqlsaturday.com/

I would LOVE to put together a SQL Server Users Group in Knoxville. Even more I would love to eventually put together a SQL Saturday. (link above) if your interested send me a message.

2 Comments | In: Uncategorized | | #

Database locking issues arose this morning for me. When two updates or selects happen to the same object and the same record, record/page locking occurs. In my defense I was running a script for someone else, also I didn’t realize that there were two recurring jobs that started moments into running my script. I had the DB in restricted user mode. I only knew of one job that was going to start this morning but I should have been done with my work way before it ran.

Here is a simple debug script you can run to see if you have locking on your database and what spids are causing it: 

SELECT status, SPID, CPU, Physical_IO, WaitTime, Blocked, HostName, Program_Name, nt_username,Login_Time, Last_Batch, Open_Tran, waittype, lastwaittype
FROM master..sysprocesses with (nolock)
where blocked >0 or open_tran > 0

Also there is the SQL Server 2000 sp_lock command MSDN article about it’s results is here.

After a phone call or two I managed to disable the jobs and kill off any spids that were keeping my script from finishing. I then reenabled/ran them safely when I was done. The angels sang, the publish was complete, and had passed testing.

Lesson learned? Be more attentive to what jobs are running on the server, ugh. *smacks forehead* Gah.

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | | #

It seems that the question of the hour is always what my opinion is on Normalization. Or maybe they are asking me if I’m normal… hmm, I think I’ll not go there.
What is normalization? Well, its the method in which you reduce redundancy in a database.

There are several industry standards on this, they have fancy schmancy names (not really). The standards I’m covering here were created by an Englishman named Edgar F. Codd.

His concepts go from the most basic form of Normalization 1st Normal Form(1NF), to the stricter form, 3rd normal form(3NF). (There are more however I’m not going to cover them here)

To get the gist of how this all works lets define our database:
Your database stores information on Mickey Mouse and his Balloon Race competition.
Mickey and his friends need three mouskatools to get Donald Duck through the race.
Our table displays which character used which tool.
Mickey and Donald used Stickers to fix the holes in the balloon.
Mickey used the baby elephant to weight down the balloon.
Pete used the rope swing to get unstuck from a tree.
Pluto tags along but doesn’t really do anything.

So you might be tempted to have a table that looks like this.

Lets talk about 1st Normal Form(1NF):
The rule of 1st normal form says that you shouldn’t have any data that repeats within one cell (above). Nor should you, in this scenario, define multiple columns that hold the same type of data(Tool1,Tool2). Basically we are removing redundancy from left to right (horozontally)

In order for us to follow this Form we need to break the above data up into multiple tables with primary keys.

Lets talk about 2nd Normal Form (2NF):
The rule of 2NF says that you must follow 1NF AND seperate out groups of data into their own tables.

3rd normal form (3NF):
The rule of 3NF says that you must follow 2NF, AND remove redundancy from top to bottom (vertically).

So there you go, a basic basic idea of 1-3 Normal Form.

1 Comment | In: Uncategorized | | #

I am in the market for a new laptop, one that will be my primary machine and can be left on 24/7 if need be.

I want to be able to connect it to my dual monitors, it will replace my desktop. My current laptop is a really nice little Sony VIAO and it’s less than 5 pounds, Ive had it for a few years and it’s been good to me. I can run Virtual Machine on it but over time it get’s extremely hot. 

I’ve been thinking about getting a Mac Book Pro with 4GB of RAM. With VMWare I can run windows. But I’m not sure how SQL Server performs. I wouldn’t be using it for a server, just as a development platform. I don’t think it supports dual monitors. I also need to be able to remote into work via Cisco VPN.

One thing I dont like about laptops is the preinstalled software that comes with the machine. I just want Windows please…

Advice is welcome.

7 Comments | In: Uncategorized | | #