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June 11, 2015

Features Should Not Dictate Mission Critical System Designs

I was working up a new presentation for the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS on mission critical system design (a bit more on that later) when one of those puzzles of life we all have cooking away on the back burners of the mind suddenly snapped into focus. The story of that puzzle goes a little something like this…

The development team ships a great feature called ladders for changing those light bulbs in high ceilings. They also have a fashionable feature called yellow polka dot cloth, which is just perfect for those retro 70s swimming trunks and bikinis that are all the rage. And they put in a cleverly-engineered tricycle feature loved by our active 4 year olds. Nothing at all wrong here.

Yet many times I arrive onsite to help a new customer with their mission critical system only to find that they’ve currently got a three wheeled, yellow polka dot, monster truck jacked up on stilts. I always used to wonder just how on earth they ever got to this point.

Now, thanks to last week’s epiphany, I finally understand. There is a natural tendency of humans to map what they need to what they have – regardless of any actual correlation between the two. There’s probably a law of needs way down the list about this already, and if not there should be because it really is true.

I guess this was correct in most natural situations. If a caveman needed a weapon to fight off a sabertooth tiger, picking one that was close at hand would be a critical survival skill. Clearly this is no time to start with a blank page and work through exactly what the best weapon would be to kill a huge, hungry cat that is looking at you like you are the answer to all his culinary dreams.

But therein lies the real moral of the story, and it’s just as true for DBAs.

Under pressure you’ll have to take the existing features which are, after all, designed to implement high availability and disaster recovery. The funny thing is that this is relative cheap and fast, but just always seems to fit like that sweater your aunt knitted you for Christmas – one sleeve too short, one too long, a bit tight around the neck, and never draping just right.

The features that ship in the product are great. However, chances are that if you sat down and wrote out real wants and needs for your particular applications and environment you would find that those existing features can get you only part of the way to success. Suddenly the gaps that you never saw when you just implemented HA/DR features become all too noticeable. The plan becomes a bit more complex and you wind up using a feature for this, part of a feature for that, writing some scripts over here, and adding a bit of custom hardware over there. It starts to be, well, work. But now the solution fits. It just feels right and does what it should when it should.

Of course, some knowledge always helps, and I mentioned that I was working on a new session for 24 Hours of PASS called “The Art and the Science of Designing a Mission Critical SQL Server Solution”. If you’ve ever thought about taking out that blank page and starting from scratch, I believe you’ll find it gives you some fresh new ideas and a nice starting point.

I hope some of you will join me there on Wednesday, June 24^th at 8PM Pacific/11PM Eastern. Alternatively, feel free to try to fend off that big cat with a convenient tree branch – but we both know down deep that it’s probably going to end with one very happy feline.

If I’ve achieved nothing else, I hope you take away that what you really need is rarely what you have conveniently at hand and that you must actively resist human nature to see that this is the case.

October 27, 2014

What’s New in Windows Server vNext for SQL Server: Cloud Witness

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should have heard by now that Windows 10 was announced in late September and is due sometime in 2015. A new version of the Windows client always means another version of Windows Server. At the same time the Windows 10 Technical Preview was made available, so too was its Windows Server counterpart. If you have a MSDN subscription, it’s there. More info and where else to get it can be found here. The release will most likely not be called Windows Server 10, so we’ll have to speculate on what they will call it.

With a new version of Windows Server comes changes – usually for the better. I love what both Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 brought to the table for clustering especially with things like dynamic quorum and witness, last man standing, the tie breaker, and more. Until now, I’ve been under NDA not to talk about some topics related to vNext, but today I got the thumbs up on the one I care about the most which would impact things like AG deployments.

One problem with multi-site (or even hybrid) scenarios for AGs or FCIs is that if you need to use a witness resource, where do you put it? There’s a lot to say on that topic which I put into one of the two quorum chapters in the book, but the bottom line is that you basically have two options: have a witness at one of the sites (known as asymmetric witness) or stick it somewhere that all sites can see such as another data center or somewhere in the cloud if you have the right networking. Today’s version of putting a witness in the cloud is the traditional file share witness (FSW). In vNext, you have a new tool in the drawer: cloud witness. It is early days, so there is always a chance this feature may not make the final cut but I sure hope it stays!

This option can easily be seen in Figure 1 in the Configure Cluster Quorum Wizard. It was hiding in plain sight, but like I said, I couldn’t talk about it until today.

Cloud witness option in the quorum configuration wizard

Figure 1. Cloud witness option

This is not a FSW – let me be clear. On the next dialog shown in Figure 2, you have to enter your credentials for Azure storage. Yes, it’s Azure only – sorry Amazon or Google lovers. What this also means is that you need to have the cluster nodes connected to the Internet (not always possible), but this does NOT require the special hybrid networking you would need to normally bridge Azure to on premise deployments. That alone reduces many complexities intruduced with standard hybrid or disaster recovery solutions for SQL Server.

Figure 2. Entering the account information for the cloud witness

After the cloud witness is created, Figure 3 shows what you will see in Failover Cluster Manager (you can also see things in PowerShell, but this looks nicer in a blog post!). The cloud witness is a resource in the WSFC’s cluster group just like a disk or file share witness would be.

Figure 3. Cloud witness and how it looks in Failover Cluster manager

Finally, on the backend in Azure, it creates a GUID associated with the WSFC similar to that of a FSW. Figure 4 shows what this would appear like.

Figure 4. What the cloud witness looks like in Azure

Want to know more about quorum and witness? It’ll be in the book, but if you’ll be at PASS Summit next week, come see my session “Did You Vote Today? A DBA’s Guide to Cluster Quorum” (DBA-311) on Friday, November 7, at 8:15 AM in room 6E. It is a 75 minute session. “Did You Vote Today?” was also selected to be broadcast on PASStv, so even if you’re not at Summit, you can watch it live on the Web. No pressure, right? I may take questions live from Twitter – that has yet to be determined.

July 7, 2014

The TSA Ruined My Demos … Sorta

Happy Monday, all. As some of you know, I will be heading to Europe to be at SQLBits XII next week. I’m really looking forward to it, but I got a bit of bad news this weekend. Bad news is relative here – what I really have is a first world problem. Some of you may have seen the news this past weekend about how passengers flying back to the US from EMEA and the Middle East (official TSA post is here) may be subject to enhanced security measures around electronics. Basically, they want to make sure what you’ve got isn’t a bomb. I don’t want to be the victim of one mid-air. On that level, I totally am on board with that policy. That means things like laptops, cellular phones, portable music/video devices, etc. need to possibly be demonstrated as being able to be turned on at their request.

As a frequent flier, I’m used to changing rules and regulations at the airport. This new one, however, threw me for a loop because it basically torpedoed my portable demo setup. For the past year-and-a-half, I have been using a small form factor PC (currently the Gigabyte Brix i7 configured with Hyper-V; I need to do a new post with how I’ve been using it) for my demos connected to something else. It’s been a really agile – and lightweight – setup. I’m still 4lbs or under. I was going to use the Surface Pro 3 (review coming soon) and the Brix, but not now. The Brix is a real PC – not a laptop. It does not have a battery or monitor.

Therefore by the letter of the law, if they ask me to power it on, I couldn’t without some juice. And I don’t think they’re going to provide me a plug to show them it’s just a computer (and then I’d have to hook it up via the cable to my SP3 … nightmare). That means I possibly couldn’t fly and I’d have to leave it there. Let me think about that … no. I’m not going to abandon something that cost me about $2,000 when all is said and done (would be cheaper now than when I did it …). I’m certainly not going to check it, either. And there’s no saying they wouldn’t remove it from my bag and deem it harmful. No win there. I looked into sending it back to myself (FedEx or something), but since Bits ends on a Saturday, there’s no local FedEx depot near Telford and none in London open late or on Sunday. Basically, a total no go. I am also not chancing that the internet will work, so hosting online or sticking my Brix on a VPN back home would be risky. That is why I am always self contained for my demos – some of which are very complex configurations. I did look for some sort of portable battery solution but that ran into a dead end.

So the SP3 will stay home right next to the Brix. I’m not leaving my fate to the security folks at the airport who may or may not ask me to turn my stuff on. Because of this, I am now basically redoing all of my demos under VMware Workstation on my laptop because I do not want to dual boot my laptop at the moment. I may ultimately also do that so I literally have total redundancy but that’s besides the point.

I do hope cooler heads prevail here over time because this one really hurts me in the short term – I’ve got a lot of work to do now to prepare for Bits this week whereas before I had very little. Long term, this is an investment, but this workload and headache was not one I needed right now. Thank heavens I still have a laptop that has 16GB of memory.

The biggest silver lining here: at least I wasn’t already in Europe when this went into effect. As much as my time will now suck this week, I can deal with it.

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.

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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