Administration Archives

February 14, 2017

Outages In An Increasingly Connected World

I’ve been in the availability game a long time. It seems like at least once a week there is a story about a fairly major outage somewhere in the world due to software, hardware, public cloud failures, human error/incompetence, DDoS, hacking, or ransomware. In the dark ages of IT, when Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other social media platforms did not exist,sometimes you heard about these events. Today, we hear about them in real time. Unfortunately, they can also become PR nightmares, too. Below is a sample of some recent events, all of which happened after January 1, 2017:

Instapaper (The Register’s story; full postmortem)
Delta Airlines (Washington Post’s story)
Australian Tax Office (The Register’s story; what the ATO has to say)
Licking County, Ohio (Newark Adovcate story)
BlueMix/SoftLayer (The Register’s story)
Lloyd’s Bank (one of The Register’s stories)
GitLab (their own postmortem)
Code.org (what they had to say)

The costs associated with these problems also seems to be increasing. Computer problems are no longer just small “glitches”. There are real consequences, whether these are man made outages, systems going down for some type of hardware or software failure, or something else completely. The elephant in the proverbial room is that this is all caused by “the (public) cloud”.<insert picture of old man shaking his fist> This is not true in many cases, but let’s be clear: public cloud providers have had their missteps, too. Technology is only as good as the humans implementing it and the processes around them. Technology won’t save you from stupidity.

Let’s examine some of these very public failures.

RIP Storage

The ATO has had some high profile outages over the last year, a lot of them storage related. Their latest run in with trouble was just a few days ago. This outage didn’t have data loss associated with it, but if you look at the ATO’s statement of February 8th, it’s pretty clear they are unhappy with their vendor. They’ve even hired an additional firm to come in and get to the bottom of things. In other words: in addition to all of the inconvenience and impact to end users and taxpayers, they’re spending more money to figure out what went wrong and hopefully fix the problem.

We’re database folks. Storage is fundamental to us in three ways: capacity (i.e. having enough space), performance (helps get those results back quicker, among other things), and availability (no storage, no database). You need to know where you are in relation to all of those for your database solutions – especially the mission critical ones. You also need to have a good relationship with whoever is responsible for your storage. I’ve been involved with and heard too many horror stories around storage outages and the mess they caused, some of which could have been prevented with good communication.

Oops

Ah, GitLab. What started out as something well intentioned (putting servers up in a staging environment to test reducing load), became the perfect storm. Before I go any further, let me say up front I applaud their transparency. How many would admit this?

Trying to restore the replication process, an engineer proceeds to wipe the PostgreSQL database directory, errantly thinking they were doing so on the secondary. Unfortunately this process was executed on the primary instead. The engineer terminated the process a second or two after noticing their mistake, but at this point around 300 GB of data had already been removed.

Hoping they could restore the database the engineers involved went to look for the database backups, and asked for help on Slack. Unfortunately the process of both finding and using backups failed completely.

Read the “Broken Recovery Procedures” section of that postmortem. It is very telling. Things went nuclear and recovery was messy, but in my opinion, something that could have been avoided. Most failures of this magnitude are always based in poor processes in place – it’s something I see time and time again. Kudos to GitLab owning it and committing to fixing them, but assumptions made along the way (and you know what they say about assumptions …) helped seal their fate. This cautionary tale highlights the importance of making backups and ultimately, restores.

Wait, There Are Limitations?

A few of these tales of woe are related to not knowing the platforms used.

I can’t say whose fault it was (developers? person who purchased said product? There could be lots of culprits …), but look at Instapaper. Check out the Root Cause section of the post mortem: they went down because they hit, and then exceeded, the 2TB file size limit that existed in an older verson of their underlying platform. That is something that anyone who touched that solution should have known, but had specific monitoring in place so that when things got close, it could be mitigated. I call a bit of shenanigans on this statement, but applaud Brian taking full responsibility at the end:

Without knowledge of the pre-April 2014 file size limit, it was difficult to foresee and prevent this issue.

It’s your job to ask the right questions when you take over (hence the accountability part). Now, to be fair, it’s a legitimate gripe assuming what is said is true and RDS does not alert you. Shame on Amazon if that is the case, but situations like that are the perfect storm of being blind to a problem that is a ticking time bomb.

Similarly, Code.org suffered the same fate. I’m not a developer by nature, but even I know that 4 billion lines of code is not a lot, especially when you have a shared model. Their own webpage alludes to over 20 billion lines of code written on the platform. Their issue is that they were using a 32-bit index which had a max of 4 billion rows of coding activity, and had no idea they were hitting their limit. I would bet that some dev along the way said, “Hey, 4 billion seems like a lot. We’ll never hit that!” Part of the fix was switching to a 64-bit index which holds more (18 quintillion rows), but famous last words …

On the plus side, this new table will be able to store student coding information for millions of years.

A Very Real World Example

In the US right now, there is the chance of a major catastrophe in Oroville, CA because of the Oroville Dam. There is nothing more serious than possible loss of life and major impact on human lives. I was reading an article “Alarms raised years ago about risks of Oroville Dam’s spillways” on the San Francisco Chronicle site, and like a lot of other things, it appears that there is a chance this all could have been avoided. Of course, with things of this nature, there’s a political aspect and a bit of finger pointing (as there can be in businesses, too), but here is a quote I want to highlight

Bill Croyle, the agency’s acting director, said Monday, “This was a new, never-happened-before event.”

It only takes once. I’ve seen this time and time again at customers for nearly twenty years. Nothing is a problem … until it’s a problem. No source control and you can’t roll back an application? No change management and updates kill your deployments and you have to rebuild from bare metal? You bet I’ve seen those scenarios and customers implemented source control and change management after.

Let me be crystal clear: hundreds of thousands of people and animals being displaced is very different than losing a few documents or some data. I have no real evidence they did not do the right repairs at some point (I’m not an Oroville Dam expert, nor have I studied the reports), and yes, there is always something that you do not know that can take you down, but statements like that look bad.

Pay Now or Pay Later – Don’t Be The Headline

Outages are costly, and to fix them will take more time, money, and possibly downtime to fix. Here are five tips on how to avoid being put in these situations and giving yourself a potential resume generating event:

1. Backups are the most important task you can do as an administrator. At the end of the day, that may be all you have when your fancy platform’s features fail (for any number of reasons, including implementing them incorrectly). More important than generating backups is testing them. You do not have a good backup without a successful restore. With very large sets of data (not just SQL Server databases – data can mean much more such as files associated with metadata that is in a RDBMS), finding ways to restore is not trivial due to the costs (storage, time, etc.). However, when you are down and possibly closed for good, was it worth it the risk only to find out you have nothing? No.

2. Technical debt will kill you. Having systems that are long out of support (and probably on life support) and/or on old hardware is a recipe for disaster. It is definitely a matter of when, not if, they will fail. Old hardware will malfunction. If you’re going to have to search eBay for parts to resuscitate a server, you’re doing it wrong. Similarly, for the most mission critical systems, planned obsolescence every few years (usually 3 – 5 in most companies) needs to be in the roadmap.

3. Have the right processes in place. Do things like test disaster recovery plans. How do you know your plans work if you do not run them? I have a lot to say here but that’s a topic for another day.

4. Assess risk and mitgitate as best as possible. Don’t bury your head in the sand and act surprised when something happens. (“Golly gee, we’ve never seen this before!”)

5. Making decision on bad information and advice will hurt you down the road. I can’t tell you how many times Max and I have come in after the fact and clean up somebody else’s mess. I don’t relish that or get any glee from it. My goal is to just fix the problem, but if you have the wrong architecture or technology/feature implemented, it will cause you years of pain and a lot of money.

Are you struggling with any of the above? Have you had or do you currently have availability issues? Contact us today so SQLHA can help you avoid becoming the next headline.

May 21, 2015

Mission Critical SQL Server Book Update – May, 2015

UPDATE – December, 2016 – see this blog post

These days, one of the things everyone asks me is related to the book – mainly “How is it coming?” – a nice way of asking “Is it done yet?” It’s been awhile since the last update, and I figured it is time for a new one. If you are subscribed to the pre-release content, look for new chapters starting the week of May 25 (next week). Everyone who is not subscribed will need to wait for the final, completed book. There is a chance I may decide to put a few preview chapters up, but only when some more hit the pre-release folks; it is only fair.

So why the delay? Writing a book and publishing it on your own is much harder. My previous books were all done through a publisher who had editors and other bits of infrastructure I do not have at my fingertips. For the most part, I am a single threaded, one man show on the production of this book.

When I put the book up for preorder in July of 2013, I had an idea what I was signing myself for because I had written books before. Writing and publishing – especially self-publishing – is a whole different ball game if you want to do it right and not just dump raw Word files into the world and call it a book.

The good news is that I recently found an editor so the book will have a nice level of spit and polish. I’ve worked with her in the past, and am looking forward to seeing what she delivers. Having said that, primary writing and reviews must be completed before I can turn it over to her.

The only thing I can equate this to is when I scored a friend’s musical in the mid-1990s. I had played in tons of pit bands going back to when I started playing bass in 1980, so I figured, “How hard could this be?” Oh, how naïve I was. Between learning the scoring program, writing and arranging for multiple instruments, rehearsals, corrections – you name it. This was not a one day or one week process. I learned a lot, but it was very painful. Arranging got a lot easier after that, and so, too, will any future projects I do in the self-publishing arena.

Add to that my normal day job (consulting, training, as well as running SQLHA with Max), presenting, eating, sleeping, and trying to live my life somewhere in there along with the writing – oy! There just is only so much time and energy I have. However, I do believe all of these things play into one reason I believe that my books have been well received in the past. I bring real world perspective and experience to the table. If I am not doing this stuff for real, it’s just lab work.

For example, Max and I spent the better part of last year working with a large customer on a virtualized SQL Server project which also leveraged quite a few new storage and networking technologies not usually used with SQL Server. What was gained there will be filtered into the book, so you will be getting a lot better content than if I was not also actively doing consulting projects.

In more good news, I have pretty much cleared the decks for the next month or two to get all of the primary writing completed. Chapters need to be reviewed, and then reviewer feedback and corrections incorporated. Once all of the chapters are done, they will be handed off to the editor. Last but not least, all of the final formatting needs to be finished on the edited chapters. This is the entire book process in a nutshell.

Below are some specific questions that I want to address now because I have been asked from time to time. I have also updated the FAQ accordingly.

What content/chapters will the book contain?

While it may change a little, this is the near-final chapter list with my working (read: not final) titles:

Basics of Availability
Data Center Principles
Brief Intro to the SQL Server HA Features
Windows
Networking Part 1
Networking Part 2
Storage Part 1
Storage Part 2
Security
WSFC
Quorum Part 1
Quorum Part 2
Planning FCIs
FCI 2008 R2
FCI 2012
FCI 2014
Scripting Installations
Planning AGs
Implementing AGs
Cluster Admin/Troubleshooting
Backups Part 1
Backups Part 2
Admin/Monitoring
Planning Highly Available Upgrades
Solutions
Building Your Own Virtualized Test Environment

As you can tell, this is quite a bit of content. Right now the book will weigh in somewhere between 1000 and 1500 pages in Word prior to any formatting. Many of these chapters are in process, so those of you that have seen the updates may have only seen a few chapters but a lot of these are in various states of completion. If you are subscribed to the pre-release content, you’ll see all of this content soon.

When will the book truly be done?

From a timing perspective, assuming no issues or problems, primary writing should be done by July, edits by late August/early September, and then onto formatting. It really should be released on or before PASS Summit 2015. That is what I am working towards, and I see no reason that cannot be achieved.

I know people have been waiting patiently for Mission Critical SQL Server. My mistake in hindsight was putting it up so soon for preorder and not anticipating some of the roadblocks that popped up since putting it up for sale. I know that now, and will never repeat that again. For that, I apologize and I do believe the wait will be worth it.

I paid forever and a day ago – where is my money?

No one has asked, but I’m being forthcoming here – it’s sitting in a bank account earmarked for paying book costs. It’s not long gone. I made sure this happened for a very good reason. I need to pay people like editors 🙂

I subscribed to get updates to the book once it is released – will I still get them?

Yes! Needless to say, I’ll make sure you are taken care of. See the next question for a touch more detail, too.

If you preorder with updates on or before May 31, 2015, look for an e-mail from me soon. Anyone preordering with the updates option post-June 1, 2015, will get updates for the specified term – one year post-book release.

Will you do anything for people who purchased Mission Critical SQL Server a long time ago and have been waiting patiently?

Yes! I’m figuring out what that will be. This is different than the post-release updates. But the same rules will generally apply: pre-May 31, 2015 and post-May 31, 2015. I do appreciate your patience, and trust me, no one wants this done more than me because it is a big thing on my plate. There are other things I’d like to do which cannot get done until the book is complete.

When you first announced the book, you said it would cover through SQL Server 2012. What about 2014 and 2016 now that they are out or announced? How about Windows Server 2016?

Here is even better news. With the book being delayed, SQL Server 2014 is now included in this version. I will touch on a few 2016 (SQL Server and Windows things) but the first updates to the book will arguably be SQL Server 2016 and Windows Server 2016. Once those are released, I’ll examine what needs to be updated or added, and go from there. It is too soon to tell.

Any current discounts?

Yes. 20% until May 31, 2015 off of anything in the store. Code to be entered at checkout: MAY31

July 11, 2013

Allan’s Mission Critical SQL Server Book Ordering Information and FAQ

(Updated 12/31/2016 – see this blog post)

Mission Critical SQL Server is available for preorder here. Below you’ll find all of the information you need about it. And if this doesn’t answer your questions, post a comment or contact us.

1. Why am I publishing the book on my own this time?

This is not because I had a falling out with Apress; we’re on good terms. We just didn’t agree on the vision for the content. I wanted a larger no-compromises book more like my Pro SQL Server 2005 High Availability one; they did not. It’s really that simple. With all of the changes in Windows and SQL Server just through their 2012 versions (as well as SQL Server 2014), this is not going to be anything approximating a 300 page book; that’s too tiny and would be too incomplete. You guys benefit from my being unwilling to compromise here, but I get to drive myself nuts in the process being the perfectionist I am. After this book I may do another for Apress again if this book doesn’t beat me!

2. What versions of Windows and SQL Server are covered in the First Edition?

See the product description on the store for details.

3. What electronic format(s) will Mission Critical SQL Server be available in?

Initially, the eBook and all associated content will be in the ubiquitous Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) format. Most platforms have programs that can read this for free even if your preferred platform isn’t Windows. I hope to offer it in other formats like Kindle/Mobi, ePub, and maybe iBook in the future.

4. Will there be digital rights management (DRM) on the PDF file(s)?

This is a sticky wicket. DRM makes life hard and I respect people do not want it. Passwords make it difficult to put on reading devices. Non-DRMed files make it easier to consume. At the same time, I also don’t want to see my content thrown up for free on some torrent site, nor do I want people to be able to easily republish it. Each copy will essentially be watermarked for who buys it and restrictions as laid out in Mission Critical SQL Server Store and Content Terms apply.

5. Will I only be able to buy Mission Critical SQL Server at http://sqlha.contentshelf.com/shop?

For now, yes. I hope to offer the book elsewhere over time. As noted in #2, the goal is to convert the content to other popular formats such as ePub and Kindle/Mobi – maybe even iBooks. That would need to happen before I can offer the content elsewhere. With the number of graphic elements in the book, that may prove to be both challenging and expensive. If you are wanting another format, contact us. The more evidence I have, the more likely it will be to happen. Converting it to other formats will be costly, so if there is not enough interest, I may not be able to do it. I am being realistic here.

6. I live in <insert country here>. Can I buy the book?

Yes. As long as you can check out, it’s a digital download making it easy to get to you. All prices are in US Dollars.

7. I live in <insert country here> and do not read or speak English well. Will you be offering non-English versions of the book?

There are no plans for the book to be translated to other languages.

8. Will there be a physical/print version of the book?

I would love to be able to offer one. Once the book is complete and I know a page count, I may reconsider a print version if it is possible and the cost will not be astronomical. Stay tuned.

9. What is an updated content subscription and why are you offering one?

Books are like snapshots: they are a moment frozen in time. Updating them is difficult and usually there is a long time between releases. A lot can change in a few months, a year, two years.What I’ve decided to do to combat that is to offer a subscription where you will get all the updated content as it is finished. For example, once SQL Sever 2016 and Windows Server 2016 are released, those updates could be incorporated before doing a major edition of the book which would be a year or two out. This gets you newer content quicker – if you want it.

Also, since the release cadence is changing for the Microsoft server products, traditional publishing just may not be possible for specific versions. By the time you’re done writing it, it’s obsolete. I want to have a good foundation to build upon and just extend it. Hope that makes sense.

10. How long does a subscription last?

It’s a yearly subscription which you will manually have to resubscribe to.

UPDATE 5/21/2015: If you preordered the book with an update subscription prior to May 31, 2015, look for an e-mail from me soon. Post-May 31, it will be only one year from the date that this edition of the book is published. So if it is officially released, say, on 10/1/15, your subscription would end on 9/30/16 if not renewed.

11. How much is a subscription renewal?

It’s $25/year. And as pointed out in the previous question’s answer, you elect to renew or not. My goal is to provide high value content so that you want to.

12. Do I need to buy the book again when you publish a new edition and I already have an updated content subscription?

If you have an active subscription, no. The goal is to only have you buy one major edition of the book and then you get updates as they happen. Information changes over time, and I’m trying to be agile and deliver you content ASAP and not have to wait years between releases. If you only want to consume major versions, just buy the new edition of the eBook when it is published. Simple.

13. If I buy the book from anywhere else but your store, can I get a updated content subscription?

No. If I do convert the book to other formats and offer it for sale elsewhere such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., those stores will only get the major edition (i.e. First Edition, Second Edition, etc.). I have to give myself some sort of exclusive, right? I may change my mind on this once the book is available elsewhere and offer something. Time will tell, but do not hold your breath.

14. Can I get access to pre-release content like other publishers offer?

Yes. It’s not free, but it is pretty cheap considering you’ll get to see things months in advance. Two of the bundles offer this option. There is currently pre-release content with more coming. Remember that the pre-release content has not been reviewed or edited, so it’s going to be raw and could contain errors.

15. Why are things priced the way they are?

I can tell you from authoring books in the past I make pennies on the proverbial dollar taking into account all the work and hours I put into the final product. This time, since I’m self-publishing, I make even less PLUS I’ve got very real, very tangible costs I need to deal with such as editing as well as costs for hosting and selling the book (including fees associated with subscriptions). I am not rich. I can’t operate at a substantial loss. I also know that I can’t charge $100+ for an eBook. I’ve priced the main eBook competitively with other similarly priced books even though it will be larger than most of them. I think it represents good value for the price you’ll pay.

16. Do you offer discounts or coupons?

I run specials, so check the store.

17. Can I use the PDF(s) I get from you directly on any device I own?

Absolutely! See our Mission Critical SQL Server Store and Content Terms for more detail. There’s a reason I chose this format.

18. Can I buy multiple copies of the for multiple people such as a class, seminar, DBA department, etc.?

19. Can I share the PDF(s) of the content with people I know? They’re really nice people and need some information on these subjects. I vouch for them.

NO! The copy you purchase is only licensed for the person buying the book (hence the watermark). I didn’t put DRM or passwords on it. Respect me and ensure that everyone buys their own copy. And if you upload the content to some nefarious site, I’ll see the watermark. It’s things like this that would make me never do this again. I know I can’t stop it 100%, but you hurt me more than you help me.

20. What if I am unsure if I want to buy it? Will you have some sort of a sample for me to look at?

I am planning on providing this as things get finished and posted; nothing is ready yet. If you have read any of my other books or writings, though, you have an idea of what you’re in for. 🙂

[Updated 5/21/15] 21. It’s May 2015. Is the book done?
See this blog post for more details.

February 27, 2013

Devs the New Superheroes and Rockstars? What About IT?

With the proliferation of smartphones and touch coming of age in the mobile and desktop world, we’re really starting to border on Minority Report territory. Applications are an end user’s interface into the online world, and they create the experience. Some are good, some are horrendous. We’ve all seen and used bad applications over the years. As a backend kind of guy who associates himself more in the IT space overall, it is all about the end user and/or the business. It’s something I have to remind some folks when I’m onsite doing work for them. We support them. Having said that, a few things lately have raise my dander – namely Code.org and this blog post (which I saw via Grant Fritchey’s blog post). Why do these bother me?

Let me say this up front: communication is a fundamental issue in many organizations and there’s enough blame pie to go around. Politics and other road blocks can slow any process down causing frustration everywhere. Poor communication and broken processes hurt more than help. However, process and communication should NOT be difficult. Implemented properly, they should be easy and transparent. Things like change management and source control are fundamental concepts in both IT and development, and should enhance things like high availablity. To me, they are cornerstones and core tenets of an overall availabilty strategy. However, how many of you DBAs use source control … go ahead … I’ll wait. In my experience, that number is very low. In a similar fashion, change control and things like testing are often viewed as a nuisance to developers and pushing direct to production can often lead to many headaches for DBAs. We annoy you, you annoy us; perfect recipe for a standoff.

I don’t disagree with the fundamental premise of Code.org. I remember getting started on a Commodore PET and then a 64 with things in BASIC like:

10 PRINT “HI”
20 GOTO 10

Even us IT guys need some programming skillz(tm). (See what I did there? I’m pandering to the hipster crowd.) Things like PowerShell or our very own Transact-SQL (T-SQL to those “in the know”) in SQL Server need you to understand at least fundamental programming concepts. Heck, there’s even WMI and SMO (among other things) if you really want to get adventurous in the Windows/SQL Server world. The longer video Code.org made is cute when the ask the kids what they want to be and when they asked them do they know what a computer programmer is. Most little kids want to be firemen, athletes, princesses, etc. That makes sense. Being a programmer is way too practical. I mean, you don’t see anyone at the age of 5 asking to be a sanitation worker or insurance broker, do you? I’m sure there are some kids, but they’d be a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally small percentage. Kids are allowed to be dreamers. Adults need to pay bills and live in reality most of the time.

But that got me thinking – why is it OK to glamorize just programming in the computer realm? Everything else is as, if not more, important in terms of the day-to-day running. Do you think Amazon.com runs on a single web server and only one database server? Heck no! Both the application they have and the backend are designed to scale and be available. If you’re going to teach programming, kids need fundamental IT basics, too. Things like understanding about backups would serve them well even in their daily lives. How may times to we have to hear things like, “I lost all of my photos on my external hard drive/phone and I didn’t have them anywhere else.” People’s lives are wrapped up in digital.

As I said, apps are the gateway for people. Be it a browser or one on your phone, it makes sense to say that programming and computers should be a fundamental part of one’s education curriculum earlier in life. That part I don’t disagree with. But what they are not telling you about is how to make it all work – the full view of the application lifecycle. It’s one thing to write an app. It’s another for it to work well and perform. Many of us who are consultants would have less opportunities if applications were written properly and scaled and supported what they needed to. I see way too often that applications are often the barrier for upgrades in many environments, leading to many different – and hard – problems to solve as time goes on. How many applications in your environment – third party or custom – support SQL Server 2008 or later? I bet not all do. Or if they did, your company won’t uprgade to it, forcing you to stay on an older version of SQL Server for other reasons like cost … and this puts not only your environment at higher risk as time goes on for issues, but your skills, too. SQL Server 2005 is now nearly 10 years old and four (4) major versions old. That’s like dog years in the technology world.

Developers also make false assumptions – like availability is only IT’s problem. It’s not. There’s stuff they need to do, too, yet they will blame us for their application woes when the application barfs after failover. Too bad, so sad. Now we all live with the pain of your stupid decisions and blinders that you need to be part of the solution from day one, not part of the problem. This is true whether you are using SQL Server, Oracle, or anything else. DBAs are often the last to know about an implementation – and thus, take a lot of heat and blame if/when things go wrong. DBAs need to be in on the planning from day one.

The thing that got me the most was the graphic in the NoDBA post – namely the bit where he has “Heroic Developers” and automatically associates things like bureaucracy and delays with data management. Huh? Sure, DBAs can be a pain in the tuchus. So can devs. Or network admins. Or storage admins (DBAs never have problems with storage folks, right?). You get the point. As I mention, process is a necessary evil for things like availability. In his post, Martin Fowler does acknowledge that one of the negatives of the dev to prod approach can be something like “bypassing DBA groups may also mean bypassing operations groups that know how to keep valuable data backed up and secure”. Amen. But I still won’t allow a dev in production if I can help it.

The bottom line: in the real world, we’re all part of the solution, and may even be part of the problem to someone else. There’s a reason in most cases devs should not just push code – let alone untested code – out to the world. But IT also needs to be more aglie than it has been. That’s one of the things we do here at SQLHA – we help get organizations up to speed and during implementation, do not implement crippling process that does not work for anyone. This is one of the reasons why virtualization and concepts like the private cloud are taking hold – it’s a more agile deployment than procuring hardware for every new deployment. It doesn’t make it right or wrong, but it changes the dynamics. Smartphones and apps have changed the dynamics of even rapid application development. IT unforunately hasn’t always caught up to meet that demand.

It’s time for everyone to grow up. Kids should learn about computers right along with math and other key things, devs and developing applications is important, but so is IT. You really can’t have one without the other, so let’s find a better way to work together and start earlier. That way we can have less finger pointing later on. Deal?

August 23, 2012

When Is It Time To Stop Using a Deprecated Feature?

Twitter conversations can sometimes lead to interesting things. Jonathan Kehayias (Blog | Twitter) and I were going back and forth about something, and in some cases, how we differ on how we teach (some of that was based on teaching or not teaching a deprecated feature). It was a very healthy discussion if you ask me. I really respect Jon and he’s one of the smartest folks on the planet when it comes to SQL Server in nearly every respect. I don’t say that lightly. Paul, Kim, and the rest of the crew over at SQLskills are very lucky to have him on their team.

Be it Windows, SQL, SharePoint, whatever – all of these products at some point release a new version and as part of the lifecycle of that product, some features are deprecated. A good example is that database mirroring has been deprecated as of SQL Server 2012. It’s still in the product, but its development is over and it will disappear from the product in a few versions. Another easy example for me to mention (and what sparked the debate between Jon and I) was the use of the aforementioned cluster.exe in Windows, which was deprecated in Windows Server 2008 R2 and is technically gone in Windows Server 2012 (disclaimer: you can add it back by enabling a certain feature, but it hasn’t seen any improvement or development since Windows Server 2008; more on cluster.exe in a bit). In the immortal words of Hall and Oates, “She’s Gone” (following the Daryl Hall theme from my last post; I was challenged to use “Rich Girl”, but this was more of a natural fit – sorry Rick!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVXIUyshng

That begs the question: when do you stop actively using/teaching/recommending/etc. a certain feature you either know has been deprecated or will be going away (but may not be public knowledge although you have good NDA information which you really can’t share)? The answer, not surprisingly, is “it depends”.

Let’s take the case of my good friend cluster.exe who I’ve lived with for the better part of 10+ years. At this point, I’m not seeing any new deployments of SQL Server 2008 (RTM branch or R2) on the original Windows Server 2008 (no R2); it’s all basically Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. W2K8 R2 introduced the first round of PowerShell cmdlets for Windows Server failover clustering (WSFC). When I wrote my SQL Server 2008 book, W2K8 R2 was just being wrapped up so I documented both. As time has marched on since 2008/9, not only have I personally used cluster.exe less, when I teach my classes or do presentations, I don’t even bother showing it anymore. Why? In 2012, to me it makes no sense to show something that is deprecated and outdated, and is gone in Windows Server 2012. If you’re using Windows Server 2008 R2, you really should be using PowerShell to administer your clusters (one man’s opinion, of course; feel free to disagree). However, there are still exceptions to that rule. For one specific thing in Windows Server 2008 R2, there is no PowerShell equivalent (it’s basically related to availability groups in SQL Server 2012). This is fixed in Windows Server 2012. Similarly, some things that have a PowerShell cmdlet (Test-Cluster), have no cluster.exe equivalent. The pros outweigh the cons for me of not showing or teaching cluster.exe these days. Would I if someone asked? Sure. I’m not so stuck on not showing it; I just think it’s better to learn the stuff you can use now AND in the future when you want to go to Windows Server 2012.

The story is not so cut and dry with a feature like database mirroring. Unlike Windows which really makes it clear cut you need to move on – and quickly, SQL Server keeps a feature around and intact for at least two versions before it goes away (another really good example was DB-Lib). That could possibly translate into almost 6 – 10 years of shelf life, giving you a false sense of security. Sometimes there’s a clear cut feature that replaces it. In the case of database mirroring, a lot of people use it now. That’s one factor, so it makes the announcement that much harder. But the real crux of the problem as I see it is a case of the haves and have-nots. If you are using Standard Edition of SQL Server, Microsoft is recommending log shipping as your replacement. For Enterprise (now Datacenter) Edition, it’s availability groups. AGs are a great evolution of what was started with DBM, but with the new dependence on WSFC for deploying AGs, it may be a non-starter for some. But people who want to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 or whatever vNext (or vNextNext) may be, they need to start planning a roadmap otherwise it makes it that eventual upgrade harder because your back will be up against the proverbial wall. There’s no easy answer here, but it’s a conversation I’m having with a lot of my customers.

When it comes to having NDA information on something to be announced in the future, I can never spill the beans. Sorry. If I do, that puts me at risk with whoever I have the NDA in place with (and that comes with all kinds of legal problems for me if I do). I love my customers, but it’s not worth putting me out of business by letting something slip. That said, I can still steer customers in the right direction without them even getting a hint that there may be an underlying and different reason I am doing so.

I’ll leave you with this one final thought: as much as deprecated features are important to consider in your planning efforts, don’t let it become an obsession, either. DBM is a great example – it’s not going away tomorrow. If you’re using it now, that’s OK. A deprecation announcement didn’t mean to stop using it this very minute; just don’t get complacent about making a decision, either. A few years goes by in the blink of an eye when it comes to IT (just look at the people still running SQL Server 2000 for whatever valid reason and are stuck supporting it). Don’t be that guy or gal keeping the lights on for the few instances requiring DBM for the next 15 years. Be smart, make the right choices, and stay on a supportability path.

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