PASS Summit Archives - Page 3 of 5

October 3, 2014

The State Of The Book – October 2014

Long time, no speak everyone. I haven’t been blogging much this year because I have been heads down doing a lot of things. Here’s a partial list: running SQLHA with Max (we’re busy!), customer work including spending two weeks in the Toronto MTC in September, the Jewish holidays (tonight starts Yom Kippur, arguably the holiest day of the year), wrote a whitepaper for Microsoft, spoke at SQLbits in the UK, am preparing for my pre-con at PASS Summit in a month (which is close to max capacity – don’t miss out!) which will have hands on labs, my Summit presentations, preparing for my class in Boston in a few weeks (Have you registered yet? If not, use the discount code AHBOS350 to get $350 off; a few seats left), and oh yeah – writing Mission Critical SQL Server. As if I need more on my plate, I’m writing a book. I always joke but it’s true – if you’re in it for the money, don’t write a book.

If there is one question I wish I could make go away it is “So when is the book going to be done?” The easy answer is “well finish it and it will”. Sigh. Let me make one thing clear: it’s not done yet. I’m working on it, and today, if you have access to it, you will see the first of many technical chapters. It is the first of two chapters dedicated to WSFC quorum. Yes, you read that right – two chapters on quorum spanning roughly 100 pages. I had a lot to say! Part two is coming if not today before the holiday, before Monday. I still have some screen shots to grab and put into part two. I am very proud of this chapter and I believe it’s one of the better things I’ve written in my career. <shameless plug>In fact, I love the topic of quorum so much, I’m doing a session on it at PASS Summit on Friday, November 7 in room 6E. Don’t miss it! </shameless plug>

Those of you who have purchased the book in any form as a subscription (updates or pre-release content), check your e-mail for one from Content Shelf regarding access to the content and other things regarding your subscription.

UPDATE 10:15 AM – For everyone who has purchased the book only and not the access to the pre-release content or the updates, I have made one chapter available as a free preview.

I know progress has been painfully slow. No one is more frustrated at this point than I am. I usually have a bit of a slow down in terms of customer load in the summer (slowing down is always relative), but that hasn’t happened this year. I’ve been flat out since the beginning of the year. The good news is that the one customer whose work has consumed most of my year is winding down, and I’m almost done all of that prep work, so I’ve had more time to focus on the book. I’m working on the hardest chapters right now, all of which are in various states of completion (quorum, networking, storage, security, troubleshooting clusters). The easy ones will roll out like a factory pressing CDs once those are done.

So what’s the new ETA? At this point I’m not going to nail down a hard date, but let me put it this way: I am taking a vacation planned over a year ago in late November (which will also be a nice birthday present to myself), and if most, if not all, of the primary writing is not done by then, I will not be happy with myself. Also realize that the chapters also need to be reviewed, reviewer comments incorporated, edited, and then made pretty. I don’t want to minimize what’s ahead: it’s a LOT of work. But I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now that content is really start to come down the chute.

Let me put all of this in perspective – my 2005 book (Pro SQL Server 2005 High Availability) took a year to write. I’m just over a year since I put the preorders up (July, 2013), and this book will be bigger than the 2005 one was. Hell, the two quorum chapters alone are 1/8 (about 100 pages give or take) of the 2005 book! Add to that the process of actually putting the final product in your hand – which I am managing myself – and it’s a big undertaking. I believe my model for independent publishing with updates will work. I just need to get v1.0 out the door.

Speaking of updates, I know that Windows Server Technical Preview came out this week for the next version of Windows Server (aka Windows 10 Server – no final name yet). There is a chance some of what’s in there may make v1.0, but realistically given the fact you guys want the content and I want v1.0 done, it won’t be. But the update model accomodates that and you can be sure that one of my first tasks post-v1.0 is to incorporate any changes that vNext. That’s the beauty of the model I’ve put into place, I just need to execute on the vision. I’m doing that, just not at a pace I’ve liked or you have for that matter.

Someone basically said to me recently if it’s not done by PASS Summit, it won’t be worth doing and it’ll basically be a joke and that people are talking. I disagree on the former point; the landscape hasn’t changed and by then a lot of the content will be done – just not finalized. The latter comment, however, clued me in that I have a bit of a PR problem here since I am also on Twitter and such, and it may look like I’m goofing off. I’m sure some folks have said to others “Why is it taking so long? He said it’d be done.” I’m not dumb. I know people talk.

Howver, every waking moment can’t be and won’t be spent on the book. If that’s your expectation, let me reset it for you. I’m not going to apologize for taking breaks or being social from time to time. I also have to eat, sleep, and not think about it from time to time. Other times when I’m not actively writing, my brain is often working on content organization or how I want to approach things; it’s a fluid process. I also need to have a bit of a life, too. Chaining me to my laptop isn’t the best way to get things done. That would be a funny picture, and please, no memes.

I also want to be crystal clear on one point: anyone who has purchased the book is a customer. That is the same as a student in one of my classes or a precon, or one of my consulting clients. Whethe you spent $50 on just the book (which will be v1.0) or purchased a subscription, I have disappointed you, and for that, again, all I can do is offer my sincerest apologizes. I haven’t absconded with your money, either if there’s any thoughts I am doing some cash grab (see earlier comment about books and money). It’s needed to pay production costs and that’s what it’s earmarked for and siloed away.With tonight ushering in Yom Kippur, my apology is oddly appropriate if you know anything about the holiday (which is relative, because I don’t know about you, but atonement and fasting isn’t exactly a party). I know an apology may not be enough for some, and I get that. I really do. I would say this a case where enthusiam met reality, and reality won. In fact, it kicked my ass. Mea culpa.

August 12, 2014

Happy Anniversary (To Me), Training and Book Updates, and Other Thoughts

It is hard to believe that in August of 2007 I made the leap and went independent. Seven years (now starting number eight) later, I’m still doing my thing. It’s hard to imagine how scary it was leaving the confines of regular paychecks to the unknown. I’ve said it many times, but if you don’t have the stomach (or money to pay someone you trust) to run a business, don’t go independent. Having skills to do the job is not enough to make it. When I make the leap of faith and invested in myself, I said I’d see where I was after a year. Then two … and now, I can’t imagine doing anything else. Have I had my share of problems in this tenure? You bet, but as they say, adversity makes us stronger. Life isn’t all sunshine and roses, kids.

SQLBits XII was great and there’s not much to say that hasn’t been said by others. It’s one of, if not the, favorite conference of mine. And I do like PASS Summit, but Bits is just always spectacular. If you ever get the chance to attend or speak, and can – do it!

I am cannot wait to deliver my availability groups precon at PASS Summit in November, and am excited to have everyone do the labs. Let’s see if the Washington State Convention Center’s WiFi holds up 🙂 Have you registered? If not, what are you waiting for?

My plans for delivering my 4-day Mission Critical SQL Server class are coming along. I’ve got dates in Boston in October (before Summit), March 2015 in Philadelphia, and September 2015 in London (with Technitrain again). I am close to solidifying dates in Dallas in early 2015 as well as some other stuff. Stay tuned!

The book is finally coming along nicely. I’ve made great progress over the past few weeks and you guys will see a lot of content soon. I also think I may have found the right editor which is key to making things look pretty for you guys.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you may have seen that Robin Williams tragically passed away today (this was written on August 11th). I loved Robin Williams – he was one of the few people that could consistently make me laugh. He was a very talented individual, and I agree with the cries that if it truly was suicide due to depression (at the time of writing, that has not been officially stated), this will hopefully shed light on true issues that people have both apparent and hidden. Robin certainly had other demons which took him to places I cannot fathom. My thoughts are with his family at this time.

Looking at this from an outside point of view, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be Robin Williams. People expect you to be the Genie or some manic character improvising all the time. There is no way you could lead anything approximating a normal life if the expectation – even if unrealistic – is to be “on” 24 x 7. Don’t get me wrong – he was a comedic genius. I don’t use that word lightly; he truly was. But that has to weigh on you; how can it not? Money and fame do not buy happiness. I didn’t know Robin, and I could be totally off base here, but knowing what I experience even on a small level, I’m not sure I’m not.

A good case in point – see my post about presenting at Summit after my friend Mike died shortly before the conference. August 28th of this month will mark the third anniversary of his passing which makes this post more poignant. In hindsight, there is no way I should have been presenting that pre-con or spotlight session; hell, I probably should not have even been at Summit. I will freely say that now. But I felt an obligation to everyone who paid for that pre-con. So I tried to put my best face on and brave it. I’m sure people would have understood but it would have been hard for everyone involved – including myself – since there would not have been a lot of time for PASS to do something. It was not about the money; I would have gladly traded whatever I was paid to have Mike back. I thought I was doing the right thing for all involved but I wasn’t – at least for me. I needed to grieve.

And let’s face it, in our social media-conscious age, if you have a negative interaction with someone, in minutes – if not seconds – it would be blasted to Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram – you name it. I know when I am at conferences I realize that I need to be “on” regardless of the type of day or week I was having. The last thing I need is to have someone call me this, that, or the other because you know if it’s on the ‘net, it must be true! As an independent consultant any ding is not a good one if it persists. We all have our bad moments, except this time it can leave a lasting impression. This is why when you see me at a conference, during a training class, etc., I am “on”, but when I’m not there, I’m not. That is not to say I am a different person – I am not. But even I need some time not to be answering questions about clusters. I’m not writing my book because I hate the topic! My brain needs to do other things from time to time. I know, shocker.

I lead a life currently filled with first world problems. I am very, very lucky to be fortunate to have a roof over my head, food in my mouth, and clothes on my back. Anything else – including material possessions – is a blessing (and I would be lying if I said I hated some things … like laptops …). I count my blessings every day to have good friends and family and an excellent support system where I can reach out to for advice of all kinds, or just to chat. With that, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to my colleagues and customers, along with my family and friends, who have made these past seven years great. Looking forward to many more.

July 1, 2014

Updates – New Website, Where Is the Book?, Blogging, Training, MVP Status, and More

Hello everyone and welcome to the revamped online home for SQLHA. Besides the heavy customer workload, helping to run a company, writing the book (more on that in a bit), trying to eat and sleep every now and then, as well as all of the training/speaking, I’ve spent the past few months working with our website developer on this massive update. If you are wondering why I haven’t blogged since February, it’s because we put a code freeze on anything with the website until it was complete to ease migration. It was not lack of interest on my part – trust me. Now that the site is live, expect more regular updates from me including a review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3!

In other news, SQLHA will be out and about over the next few months. I’ll be heading over to the UK to speak at SQLBits XII in a few weeks. I’ll be speaking all three days, including delivering a full Training Day (“The A to Z of Availability Groups”). Over the past few months I’ve done some pre-conferences at SQL Saturdays with labs to test the feasibility, but this will be the first major conference I’ll be doing a pre-con where I will also have the labs. It’s bring your own device (BYOD). I’m really excited to get back over for Bits as it’s one of my favorite SQL Server events and I haven’t been in a few years.

Ben will be presenting at IT/Dev Connections in September, and the whole SQLHA team will be attending PASS Summit 2014. I will be delivering a pre-con (“The A to Z of Availability Groups”) on November 4, and both Ben and I will be doing a regular session during Summit. As with Bits, the goal is to have my pre-con have the lab component as well. I’m working closely with PASS to ensure that this happens, but at the scale we need, we need to ensure that the Ts are crossed and Is dotted. Having a lab will change the game at a conference like Summit. I cannot wait. If that wasn’t enough, we’ll once again have The Consultant’s Corner booth along with Denny Cherry & Associates as well as Heraflux. Max will definitely be in there, so remember to say hi to him, too.

This week I was also renewed as a Cluster MVP. I never assume from year to year and it’s always an honor.

Due to popular demand, I have been locking down dates for my 4-day Mission Critical SQL Server class. I’m very humbled people want to take it! Right now there are confirmed dates for Boston (October 20 – 23, 2014), Philadelphia (March 30 – April 2, 2015), and a return to London England (September 28 – October 1, 2015). Other cities are being finalized, and I’m looking at the southern as well as the western United States for now. My goal is to have as many locked in dates well in advance so you can make your training plans for late 2014 and 2015. Also keep in mind that the earlier you register, the cheaper the class is (Boston and Philadelphia have nice discounts at the moment …).

The online plans for SQLHA University are also moving forward, so we’ll have some stuff there, too (won’t spoil all of our plans just yet in that arena, but know that we’re planning some cool stuff if it all works out). That’s my next big thing to tackle once the book is done (outside of any customer work), which brings me to the last order of business: the Mission Critical SQL Server book.

This has been my biggest personal disappointment; I’m not going to lie. I really wanted it to be done and out by now, but given everything on my plate, it just isn’t complete yet. Most of my books have taken anywhere from 6 – 12 months to complete, and this one is appearing to be no different. This one is also larger than nearly every other one, complicating matters. Trust me when I say I want it done arguably more than you guys want it in your hands!

I knew when I started down the self-publishing route there would be bumps in the road. Nearly every one has been eliminated at this point. The biggest problem now is quite literally time. My plan was to have time to complete primary writing of it in May and June, but we have been working on a big customer engagement and that hasn’t left me much time or energy to work on the book. I sleep very little as is. This isn’t an excuse, just reality. Anyone who has ordered the book is also a customer, and I take that very seriously. Things are stabilizing a bit, so the reality of what I’m looking at is to finish writing this summer, have it edited, made pretty, and hopefully out and done well before PASS Summit. Editing and production are unknowns at the time, but fingers crossed it will all go smoothly. Remember I’m also having this reviewed (it’s not just me writing it), so I need to ensure I get at least a few reviews in on each chapter to know I’m not only technically correct, but I haven’t missed anything. There’s a process. I will not put out a crap product, but I also know it needs to get done and in your hands. You paid for it, you deserve it.

I know an apology may not cut it for some of you – and I truly am sorry about this. I know this to be true, but I really am being totally up front here; I have no ulterior motive. If you’ve read my other books, you know what’s coming. If you’ve subscribed to updates, don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. I am a man of my word on this.

There’s also upside to this: SQL Server 2014 content is definitely in now. Maybe not everything, but that’s what the updates will have and once the base is done, I’ll be updating the content hopefully on a pretty regular basis. v1 is always the hard part.

So I’ve been busy … and so has SQLHA! I’m very proud to work with Max and Ben here, and can’t wait to see everyone on the road over the next few months.

November 7, 2013

A Look Back at PASS Summit 2013 and Two Weeks of Training in Australia

Hello everyone! Sorry it’s been awhile, but I’ve been quite busy. I’m writing this in my hotel winding down from two weeks of delivering my Mission Critical SQL Server class in both Melbourne and Sydney here in Australia. I fly back in just over 12 hours. The past month or so has been a whirlwind starting with PASS Summit 2013. For my trials and tribulations with what happened there, see my previous blog post. But what all of this means is I’ve basically been on the road (except for about three or four days) over the past month or so. It is just now I’m starting to reflect on everything since I’ve had a moment to breathe.

As some of you may have heard, the Summit scores were released to speakers today. No, I was not top 10 but my scores were definitely up from last year (yay), and given my trials and tribulations (see said blog post mentioned above), that’s no mean feat. Both of my talks could have been disasters – and they were not. Less than one point separated 200 or so sessions, so the margin of error between top of the pack and towards the bottom was very small. That also says with most people scoring a 4 or above, the quality of presentations and speakers has gone up immensely over the past few years. I consider that a good thing.

Looking at my pre-con (Plan and Deploy Successful Clustered Solutions for SQL Server), I felt the scores were very fair (all above 4) and the highest one was 4.72 (“How would you rate the speaker’s knowledge of the subject?”). It was a very Windows-centric talk (and I advertised it that way) but with a SQL Server slant which I think hurt me (comments like “I learned a lot but I was expecting more SQL.”). Love some of the comments (“Allan is enthusiastic and very clear in his explanations.”; “There’s a reason you’re a cluster MVP. You know your stuff…thanks for sharing the knowledge!”;”Allan is a great presenter. I hope he is asked to speak in the future. “), but I felt some of the criticisms of the content (basically, I tried to cram too much in one day which led to a few time management) were also fair. If I do another pre-con, I’m going to go more deep than wide. Some things I couldn’t control (“Improve the sound quality”), and some things I never really said I’d cover (“I wanted a deeper understanding of clusters. This season [sic] spent to much time reviewing basics and corporate politics and not enough time in the deeper aspects of clusters”) – it was never advertised as a WSFC internals class. Always interesting to read the comments and I do pay attention.

The spotlight session (Troubleshooting Clusters) was a bit of a riskier talk all around (but I did get a 4.93 for “How would you rate the speaker’s knowledge of the subject?”, so clearly I know a thing or two about clusters haha). That one I did say was also very Windows-centric and gave people an out at the beginning. I talked a bit about the non-tech stuff which helps in a troubleshooting effort and a lot about the setup stuff because things like screwing up your AD/CNO/VCO stuff is what causes, say, a lot of Setup failures. But it appears people wanted to see more broken stuff and how to fix that (and part of that is preventing it from happening in the first place!) as well as be more SQL Server – not Windows – centric (which is nearly impossible with AGs and FCIs …). Having done this for so long, I know why people step in deep doo doo with clusters. Someone got what I was going for (“Great session. I agree that a dba really needs to know functions from windows, networking, storage, etc. I see this everyday in my job.”). So did this person (“Cluster issues were well explained. Even for VMs”). But for every one of those, I got one like this (“Did not get much info on troubleshooting ag groups on cluster as described. Lot of time spent on describing where log files are and less on content.”) Because log files (and explaining things like log gaps in the WSFC log) and how to generate them have zero to do with troubleshooting. <rolling eyes> This session is up on PASS TV – I don’t recall spending eons on it. My aforementioned woes bit me a tad more here (“Demos could have been better prepared for us.”), but I didn’t get up there and do a woe is me – I just got on with things. I even got a few comments like “Make room cooler” for good measure. There was plenty of great feedback on how I can tweak this for future deliveries, though.

The biggest problem I face with sessions like these is even though I wind up putting prerequisites, you get people who are not at that level so you have to wind up explaining some basic stuff quickly to provide context or you get dinged for them not understanding. Then you get dinged the other way (“Beginning was vague and assumed a lot.”) – well no !@(& Sherlock – it’s a 300 level session! Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. And then there is the fact that what is 300 to one person is 100 to another and 500 to someone else. You can’t please everyone. I made peace with that long ago.

Thank you to everyone who provided constructive criticism. I truly plan on using it to improve and tweak these sessions should I deliver them again.

The two weeks down here in Australia were a whole different level of preparation and work. Two four-day weeks of teaching with labs. Trust me when I say that at the end of each four-day cycle, I’m spent. But the scores were fantastic and so were the comments. I even got this one (and no, not making it up) “Best SQL training course I have ever attended.” Wow. Seriously. Wow. I am very humbled.

What’s interesting is that in Melbourne, I had four (4!) people do the advanced FCI lab which is all Server Core and scripting, and some folks in Sydney did a hybrid of a few of the levels depending at points what their comfort level was. That gave me some ideas for tweaks to the labs. What is interesting is that I’m getting a lot of comments saying I should expand it to five days (which I will take under advisement) and now that it is over a year since SQL Server 2012 RTMed, I’m getting comments for people wanting even more availability groups content and to dial back some of the FCI stuff. We’ll see. The course has settled into a nice groove and pace, and I’m happy about that. People really seem to love it, especially the hands-on component.

Based on Melbourne and Sydney, I’m really looking forward to the upcoming deliveries in Chicago (December 9 – 12, 2013) and London (February 3 – 6, 2014) even though I am exhausted at the end of the four days; it’s a good exhaustion . For the Chicago class, seats are filling up quickly. Use the promo code BLOG15 to get 15% off to grab one of the remaining seats. Hope to see some of you at one of them because it really is a fantastic course I am very proud of. I’m also going to announce other dates for the class in 2014 hopefully sometime soon as they get solidified. We’ve also got another big announcement around training coming soon …

Before I move on from Australia, I want to thank Peter Ward and the crew over at WardyIT for bringing me to Australia both last year and this year, as well as the staff over at Saxons Learning Solutions in both Melbourne and Sydney for all of their assistance in getting the rooms and PCs set up. It would have not been a smooth couple of weeks otherwise.

The book is kicking into high gear so you’ll hear even more about that soon as well. Should be content complete (or close) before the end of the year – fingers crossed.

I’m going to go get some sleep after packing, but I’m excited about what’s coming down the pike! It certainly does not hurt that I have a job I love where I get fantastic opportunities like these.

October 18, 2013

Even If You Are Prepared, *&%$ Happens

Good morning from the last day of PASS Summit here in Charlotte, NC. All in all, it’s been a great week but it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me. Why? Let me explain.

I got in on Sunday and we had our first company meeting with Max on board. Since Ben lives around here, it made a lot of sense to do it pre-Summit. After we were done and I was in the hotel room, I went to tidy up some things in VMs I had done for demos as well as for the upcoming Australia classes in a few weeks. I was going to hand off the drives here since the guys from WardyIT were going to be at Summit. So far so good.

Then I plugged in the drive – a Mushkin 480GB mSATA SSD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure.

Dead.

I discovered this late Sunday night and did all I thought of to try to resuscitate it. I made sure it wasn’t my computing devices, since I had a new Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD (nice drive BTW – super fast) in an external enclosure as well as the two external Touro 500GB 7200rpm drives to give to Wardy and a Patriot Supersonic 256GB Magnum USB 3.0 flash drive. All said and done, 2.75TB of external storage, and 1.25 in my machines for a total of 4.0TB of storage (most of which is full at this point, sad to say). The VMs I needed were only on that SSD which worked fine the day before. I powered down, unplugged, and just put it in my bag.

What did I do? Well, after a few hours of trying, I went to bed. I knew deep down that the next few days were going to be long, so some sleep would be needed. I got up around 9AM on Monday and started redoing all of the VMs I needed for my pre-conference session on Tuesday. We also had a SQLHA party Monday night, which given where I was, turned out to be a bit problematic personally. I did show up for a bit (Ben and Max were there, so it was OK). I finally stopped working on VMs at 6:30 Tuesday morning, got showered, delivered my pre-con, and just collapsed after. When all was said and done, I was up for approximately 36 hours. On Wednesday morning, I got up and worked until about 4:20 in the afternoon for my 4:45PM spotlight session. On Thursday morning, luckily the Patriot had older versions of the lab VMs and I just used those to do what I needed to do to hand off the Touro drives to Wardy last night.

They say never let them see you sweat, and that is exactly what I did. I sucked it up and got stuff done. Needless to say, I have not been at the convention center too much nor did I go to the NASCAR party last night. I came back to my hotel and just went to sleep.

Before I left on Sunday morning, I (ironically) made a backup of my main laptop (I’ll be on the road quite a bit the next few weeks so it’s always good to do something like that before) and I’ve never had an external SSD die like that on me. I did not think that roughly one day later I’d be looking at having to redo nearly 4 days worth of work, but that is where I wound up.

This does beg the question – how much redundancy do you need when it comes to things like backups? Up until now, I’ve never really had an issue on the road. Now? It has me thinking quite a bit about my demo situation. I was lucky I had that new Samsung drive to be able to rebuild things otherwise I would have been doing a bit of a song and dance both on Tuesday and Wednesday. So I did have the right tools with me, thankfully.

I’ll just chalk this one up to *&%$ happens since in all my years of doing demos, I’ve never had a massive hardware failure like this. I’ll see when the scores are tallied, but I felt really good about my pre-con and the Troubleshooting Clusters session (which was also rebroadcast on PASStv). I may wind up doing the Troubleshooting Clusters session again at some point since it was a lot of fun to do. I am thankful for everyone who came out to both.

Oh yeah, and we had a booth (Consultant’s Corner – #129) down on the exhibition floor with two others (Denny Cherry and Linchpin People). Luckily Ben and Max picked up the slack since when I wasn’t presenting, I was back in the hotel reviving VMs. I will be down there for a bit today, so stop by and say hello. I should be there later in the AM until the exhibition hall closes.

That’s been my week here at Summit. Net positive, but definitely some hard lessons learned. I hope you filled out your evals and left feedback – good or bad (and if bad, constructive) – so I can improve the next time out. See you at an event soon!

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