SQL Server 2008 Archives

December 30, 2016

2016 in Review, A Few Updates, and Looking Forward

Hello, everyone. Can you believe 2017 will be here in just a few days? 2016 seemed to fly by. It’s been quite a year. I wanted to take the time in my final blog post of the year to recap some of what has happened, talk about some stuff that is coming, and update you on some stuff, too.

The Elephant in the Room

There is the matter of the book. As many of you are (as well as I am) painfully aware, I officially announced in 2013. A lot has happened both personally and professionally between then and now. One thing I haven’t talked about but came to a head in late 2015 was my health. Without getting into specific details, from January of 2014 until almost the end of 2015, I was not in good shape. I hurt myself and over time, it got to the point where the pain was so bad I basically couldn’t sit, stand, or lay down without pain. I am a non-“medicate yourself” person, so I didn’t take anything for it. I tried to soldier through it. That was a huge mistake.

I can tell you that the amount of time I spend on the road speaking and going to customers didn’t help, either. There was just no time to stop and get off the road due to work commitments. Schlepping luggage, airplane seats, and everything else exacerbated what was going on. I was shattered by the time I hit hotel rooms. It didn’t help that my hand was also messed up as well which not only affected my ability to type but also my ability to play bass. Since I couldn’t stop using my dominant hand, that took about seven months to heal.

I did my best to put a brave face on things publicly, but if you saw me at PASS Summit 2015, you would have seen me at my low point in terms of how I was feeling. It was hard to miss the Leaning Tower of Allan. Right after PASS Summit, I went back to the doctor and spent the rest of the year and the first few months of 2016 in physical therapy. Luckily for the first time in nearly two years I had contiguous time I could deal with what was going on with me. Knock on proverbial wood, physical therapy took care of things and to date, I feel great. I haven’t felt this healthy in years. If you saw me at PASS Summit this year, it was clearly night and day.

What does that have to do with the book? Needless to say, as time dragged on, it became harder and harder for me to get my normal work done, let alone sit for hours on top of that writing. I’m not looking for a pity party or sympathy, nor am I absolving myself of anything book related, but anyone who has experienced excruciating pain to the point of it being debilitating knows what I am talking about. I’m not active/active, you know. All kidding aside, don’t be a martyr like me if you’re feeling bad: take care of it. I let things go to the point where I had no choice and if physical therapy did not work, surgery may have been something I needed to explore. Quality of life became a very real issue. To put a capper on 2016, I’m just getting over bronchitis which has sidelined me for a good portion of December.

So where does that leave things? I’m back on track despite the bronchitis. My spare time over the past few months (which hasn’t been much – we’ve been slammed with the day job which isn’t 9 to 5 …) has been spent working on the book and should really, truly be content complete over the next little while barring any unforeseen problems.

Before anyone asks, the book will still be covering SQL Server 2008 R2 especially because Microsoft recently announced that they are (unfortunately) now giving the super duper paid extended support option (Premium Assurance – see this and this) which gives up to 16 years of paid support on that as well as Windows Server 2008 R2. It makes what I’m doing more vital than ever since I’m crossing all the major versions of SQL Server and Windows Server. I’ve also made some other hard choices as to what will/will not be in the book:

SQL Server 2016 and Windows Server 2016 are now in scope
Yes, there will be public cloud-related content – not just on premises/physical stuff
SQL Server v.Next – including SQL Server on Linux – is not in scope. This will be part of the first major update to the book, timeframe TBD since we have no release date for v.Next. If you haven’t been paying attention, the paint is barely dry on SQL Server 2016 and we already have CTPs of v.Next (as of the writing of this blog, we’re up to 1.1).

I’ll wrap up this section with this thought: I never intended for things to go this way. I not only thought I’d be done, but I’d be on the updates by now. The road of good intention wound up being full of potholes which bent my rims and threw my car out of alignment. As I have mentioned before, my 2005 book which was much smaller in scope and size, took 3 years. I’m not happy about the circumstances, but there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. They say what does not kill you makes you stronger, right? Again, I’ll reiterate – don’t let health issues build up. Take care of yourself.

Let’s Talk PASS Summit 2016

Once I took care of my health, 2016 really took a big upswing. Besides all of the customer work we did which hasn’t slowed down, some of the highlights of the year included teaching in Australia, precons at SQL Nexus in Copenhagen and SQLBits in the UK, speaking at VMworld in Las Vegas, and the capper of them all: PASS Summit 2016.

I’m very fortunate that I have presented at PASS Summit most years and have had a preconference session for quite a few of the ones in recent memory. I was the first to introduce live labs three years ago and try to push the envelope each time my abstracts are accepted. I am glad PASS took a chance on me then – we had no idea how it would play out – and three years later, it keeps getting bigger and better. By now, we have a lot of the logistics stuff down pat since I keep getting selected. Let me be clear – I don’t assume I’ll get a precon because there are no guarantees. I know I’m lucky.

As with the previous years, we talked about capping the number who could sign up at around 100. There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which is making sure that I have enough proctors (i.e. things are manageable) and the convention center can handle the bandwidth needed. Much to my surprise, at one point when I checked in they had sold over 100 seats – PASS forgot to cap it. We then decided to cap it around 110. People still wanted to sign up, so we upped it to 120. Finally we said the heck with it, and filled the room (capacity: 136).

An additional 36 people does not sound like a lot of people, but from a backend and management perspective, it is. I’ve never done anything that big with labs. I had to talk to the folks hosting the VMs since everyone gets their own set (i.e. hundreds of VMs – not a small backend to have to account for), we conferred with the convention center, and on it went. I had so many people come up to me before and during PASS Summit telling me they wish they could have gotten in – as far as I know, I think I was the only sold out one on Monday (can’t speak for Tuesday). No pressure, right? I remember one encounter going down the elevator at the Hyatt heading over the morning of the precon. One of the conference attendees saw my badge and made the association. He mentioned how he wanted to get in but couldn’t. I mean, what can you say? I’m flattered and humbled by that demand. I never take any of this for granted, and would give the same energy if one person showed up or that sold out room of 136.

Things went off with only minor issues (power, which we took care of in a break; same issue as last year), and it was awesome to see that many people doing labs at once. I snapped this picture during the day.

Figure 1. 136 people doing labs. Glorious!

I also had a half day session on what was new for availability in both SQL Server 2016 and Windows Server 2016. It was an expanded version of a talk I had been doing for over a year, aided by the fact that Windows Server 2016 had just been released so I could demo things I couldn’t before. I had no idea what room I was in, and thought there may be some interest, but there were many good sessions at the same time. Much to my surprise – on the last day of PASS Summit no less – I was in a huge room (400+), and nearly every seat was filled for most of it. Below is a picture of one side as the room was starting to fill. I’d have to look at years past, but it may have been one of the biggest rooms I’ve talked in, and definitely one of the most full. Again, no pressure – just hundreds of people who can skewer you if you suck. Luckily that didn’t happen. I had my best scores ever for a PASS Summit for both the half day and the precon. No complaints, and I can’t say enough how good of an event PASS Summit was – and not just for me.

Figure 2. Room filling up for my half day session

VMware Whitepapers

In addition to contributing to and reviewing this whitepaper from VMware, I wrote one entitled “Planning Highly Available, Mission Critical SQL Server Deployments with VMware vSphere” that was published in November. I didn’t blog about it, and some of you may have missed it. It was my first real return to writing released publicly in a long time. It’s not marketing fluff, and hope you find it useful.

Dual Microsoft MVP

One of the things I am very proud of is that back in July, I was not only re-awarded as a Data Center & Cloud Management (aka Windows Server nee Cluster) MVP, but I was also awarded as a Data Platform (aka SQL Server) MVP. There are other Dual Microsoft MVPs, but it’s nice to be recognized for the two things I do day in and day out.

Selected 2016 Numbers

0 – The number of laptops purchased by me in 2016. Yes, I’m still using the Vaio Z Canvas I got from Japan in June of 2015. More than 18 months is uncharted territory!

3 – The number of noise cancelling headphones employed by me this year. I got two new pair of headphones for travel at the end of the year. We’ll see which one stays. The old pair I used has already not made it back. One of these days I’ll do a blog post on what to consider for noise cancelling headphones.

4 – The number of bottles of Goober Grape I polished off this year.

5 – The number of countries I visited. Besides the USA, I was in these countries: Australia, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, and the UK.

45 – The number of flights I was on and how old I turned this fall.

100,000 – The approximate number of miles I spent in the air this year.

Too many – the number of (in)famous and influential people (not just entertainment folks) who died.

Training, Events, and Public Speaking in 2017

2017 is already shaping up to be a busy year. I’ll be back in the UK for two weeks at the end of March and early April teaching my 4-day Mission Critical SQL Server class in London via Technitrain and then it’s SQLBits 2017, where I’ll also be delivering a Training Day on April 6^th. I will also most likely be speaking at the London SQL Server User Group again the week I’m teaching my class. Register early – both the class and the Training Day are likely to be sold out!

I’ve submitted for a few SQL Saturdays (I usually do about a half dozen a year, give or take), and as those are confirmed, those will be added to the schedule. A few User Groups have approached me, so I’m trying to slot those in as well. Get your requests in early! I’m hope to speak again at VMworld (fingers crossed), and will of course, submit to PASS Summit again.

I’m still working on additional public dates (besides London) for my classes, and should have them nailed down in the next few weeks. Once that’s done, they’ll be posted and we’ll run a special. Stay tuned! In the meantime, if you need some training and would prefer us to come onsite, don’t hesitate to reach out. Get on our schedule early before it’s filled up.

A Note of Thanks

Whether you attended one of my classes or preconference sessions, saw me speak in person or online, read some of my writings, or more sometime this year – including reaching out to me asking where the book is even if you’re annoyed at me – thank you. I do not take anyone for granted and without you, none of what I do is really possible.

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special thanks to my longtime friend and business partner, Max Myrick. 2016 was SQLHA’s best year yet.

Whew!

I only covered some of what happened. 2016 was a quite the year personally and professionally, and 2017 is looking better. I hope to see many of you next year, be it in person or online. Happy New Year!

March 12, 2013

Creating a Clustered DTC for SQL Server Redux

Last year, I wrote a blog post entitled “How to Properly Configure DTC for Clustered Instances of SQL Server with Windows Server 2008 R2”. Today, I was helping a customer and found a few things. I’ve since updated that original post to reflect these findings and to fix a few things. I also took Windows Server 2008 R2 out of the title and the post’s name is now “How to Properly Configure DTC for Clustered Instances of SQL Server (Revised)” since it applies to Windows Server 2012 as well. The URL is the same as the old one, and that does reference W2K8 R2.

As was originally written, that article was assuming a new, greenfield installation. Not everyone is looking to create DTC with a brand new installation, and I realized that there were some gotchas I needed to outline.when you are already up in production. I also fixed a few things in the script.

1. In the script as it was written, one step added the resource as a dependency to SQL Server. That’s all well and good (more on that in a bit), but this had two issues with a non-greenfield implementation:

When you make sure that DTC has the right permissions (“Step Two – Enable Network Access for the Newly Created DTC”), it needs to take it offline. When you add DTC as a dependency to SQL Server, it will take it offline as well. This is fine for a new installation, but not for one that is already up and running. I revised the script to NOT do this and make it a separate thing later.
It doesn’t happen all the time, but we saw it on their installation and I also saw it once on my test WSFC (but not again – so it seems to be phantom). SQL Server Agent went offline. See Figure 1. That’s definitely not good.This is apparently a timing issue – DTC needs to be up before SQL Server. I explain all of this in a bit more detail in the revised post linked above.

Figure 1. SQL Server Agent down

If DTC goes down, it will cause a SQL Server failover by default. You may or may not want this behavior. I’ve revised the original blog post with more information on this.

2. I forgot to put one important line in the script – namely moving the disk resource into the group with SQL Server! The original script did have a gotcha line in there, but I made sure it was done in this version.

My customer was trying to fix a critical path issue that needed DTC up and running for their application, so they wound up putting DTC in its own resource group which is a valid option still in Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012. They only have one instance installed in the WIndows Server failover cluster, so they can ensure DTC lives where the SQL Server instance is all the time to reduce network traffic. This saved them from another possible outage to ensure DTC was up before SQL.

Hope this helps some of you out there …

March 12, 2013

How to Properly Configure DTC for Clustered Instances of SQL Server (Revised)

Configuring the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) for clustered SQL Server instances (FCIs) with Windows Server 2008 and later has been a confusing topic for many. The “definitive” word on the subject for awhile has been both of Cindy Gross’ blog posts ( “Do I need DTC for my SQL Server?” and “How to configure DTC for SQL Server in a Windows 2008 cluster”). In my opinion, with W2K8+, you really should create one DTC for each FCI and put it in with the SQL Server instance. This way it always lives on the node where the instance is currently running.

Having said that, what Cindy wrote doesn’t always work. In fact, the only truly reliable way some of us have found was talked about by my friend and fellow Cluster MVP (also a big SQL guy), Mike Steineke (blog | Twitter) in a post last week entitled “Clustered DTC and Multiple SQL Instances” where he shows how he had to configure DTC. Part of this is ensuring that even though DTC is in the group with SQL, it still gets its own name and IP address; using the SQL Server name can be problematic. To get this done, you really need to script it. I’ve done the work for you. Easy!

This updatated post stems from the blog post “Creating a Clustered DTC for SQL Server Redux“.

A sign that you need to use DTC for a given FCI can be found right in the SQL Server error log. If SQL Server cannot connect to a clustered DTC, you will see an error message like the following:

2013-03-12 10:23:51.670 spid1001 QueryInterface failed for “DTC_GET_TRANSACTION_MANAGER_EX::ITransactionDispenser”:0x8007138f(The cluster resource could not be found.).
2013-03-12 10:23:51.680 spid1001 QueryInterface failed for “ITransactionDispenser”: 0x8007138f(The cluster resource could not be found.).

This blog post now applies to Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012 as well as SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, and 2012 since depending on the OS you’re running, you may have a little of each …

Step One – Create the Clustered DTC in the Resource Group with the FCI (revised 3/12/2013)

The script below I actually created today and is based on my original blog post I wrote back in 2009 for Windows Server 2008 and takes into account what’s in Mike’s post. I actually used this script on a customer installation, so this isn’t something I wrote just for the hell of it. All you have to do is modify the variables up front and run the script. If you don’t know the name of some of the resources, you can use the PowerShell cmdlet Get-ClusterResource to show a list of everything.

For this update, instead of embedding the code, you can download the script from here. Much easier!

A sample execution is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Running the DTC creation script

I also tested this script in Windows Server 2012 and it works just fine.

Step Two – Enable Network Access for the Newly Created DTC (revised 3/12/2013)

Once DTC is created, you must enable network access. This is where if you did things another way (i.e. not the way shown in this post), there’s a very high probability that when you went to go restart DTC (Step 11 below),the process may decide to step out for lunch and then stay away for a permanent vacation.

The steps below are all GUI. Nic Cain (Twitter | Blog) wrote up this blog post on how to configure this using PowerShell if you would prefer to script things.

1. From the Start Menu, select Administrative Tools, and then Component Services (or just run DcomCnfg).
2. Under the Console Root folder, expand Component Services.
3. Expand Computers.
4. Expand Distributed Transaction Coordinator.
5. Expand Clustered DTCs. You should now see something that looks like Figure 2.
  Figure 2. Newly created DTC in Component Services
6. Right click the clustered DTC you just created and select Properties as shown in Figure 3
  Figure 3. Opening the Properties of the DTC
7. Select the Security Tab
8. Under Security Settings, check the “Network DTC Access” box. Under Transaction Manager Communication, check both “Allow Inbound” and “Allow Outbound”. You should now see what is shown in Figure 4. If you need any other options (you know your app better than me), add them. Click OK when done.
  Figure 4. DTC enabled for network access
9. You will now be prompted to restart DTC as shown in Figure 5. If you are doing this against a production instance of SQL Server and you have added the DTC resource as a dependency of SQL Server, it will take SQL Server offline as well. If you cannot do this, select No, but you cannot really use DTC properly until you restart it. To get around this, remove DTC as a dependency of SQL Sevrer, do the restart, and then add it back. Click Yes to restart.
  Figure 5. Prompting for the restart of DTC
10. Click OK at the dialog shown in Figure 6 which denotes a successful restart.

Figure 6. Confirmation of DTC’s restart

Step Three – Testing DTC (added 3/12/2013)

Microsoft has a tool that will create a dummy transaction and can be found in KB 293799. While the best test is always your application, this will at least see if DTC is working. It requires an ODBC DSN to work.

Start Data Sources (ODBC) from Administrative Tools. Note that under Windows Server 2012, you will specifically have a 32-bit and 64-bit version. Run the 32-bit.
Select the User DSN tab.
Click Add.
On the Create New Data Source dialog, select SQL Server Native Client X, where X is the version of SQL Server. In Figure 7, it is SQL Server 2012, so it has a version of 11.0. Click Finish.
Figure 7. Selecting the version of SQL Server
On the Create a New Data Source to SQL Server dialog which will look similar to the one in Figure 8, enter a name for your DSN and for Server, enter the name of the clustered instance of SQL Server. Click Finish.
Figure 8. DSN creation
On the ODBC Microsoft SQL Server Setup dialog, click Test Data Source. An example is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9. DSN created
On a dialog similar to the one shown in Figure 10, if the test was successful, you should see the right output. If you don’t, you will see an error. Click OK.
Figure 10. DSN works properly
Run dtctester using the syntax dtctester DSN username password, where DSN is the name of the DSN you just created, username is a valid user in SQL Server, and password is the password for that user. A sample execution is shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11. Runing dtctester

WARNING Do not create a System DSN. If you do, you may see an error similar to the one shown in Figure 12. This error stems from the fact that dtctester is a 32-bit program and the System DSN created is 64-bit.

Figure 12. dtctester error

Step Four – Optional Configuration Steps (added 3/12/2013)

The steps in this section are optional. Read to see if they apply to you.

Setting the DTC Resources to Not Cause a SQL Server Failover

There are four resources associated with DTC: name, IP, disk, and of course, DTC. If you right click on any one of those and select the Policies tab, you will see what is in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Policies for the DTC Network Name

Notice the option “If restart is unsuccessful, fail over all resources in this service or application.” What this means is that if any one of those resource fails and cannot be restarted, it will cause SQL Server to fail and move to another node. If you are not sure if DTC is necessary but are creating it anyway OR you are OK with DTC failing but SQL still being up and living with whatever not working that DTC affects, deselect this option.

Adding DTC as a Dependency of SQL Server

In the testing my friend Mike did, the only way he could get things to work was to ensure that DTC was up before SQL Server. The only surefire way to do this is to add DTC as a dependency to SQL Server (see the previous section for possible implications of doing this). One of the problems that may occur and was noted in the blog post “” is that there is a chance that SQL Server Agent may go offline. We think this is possibly related to another bug that was fixed, but what is happening is that SQL Server Agent is trying to figure out the name of the instance it is using. If it gets confused, it will go offline. It may start, but it also may not work correctly. The only way it seems to work around this is to make sure that DTC is up before SQL Server starts, hence adding it as a dependency.

Once you get DTC up and running in the group with SQL Server, test your application against it and check in the SQL Server error log as noted above. If you see no DTC errors and everything looks fine in the app, you’re golden. You shouldn’t have to restart SQL Server to take advantage of the newly mapped DTC, but without an application right now, I can’t say this to be 100% true.

Adding a dependency to a resource in Windows Server 2008 and later does not require any downtime.

To add DTC as a dependency of the SQL Server resource in Failover Cluster Manager:

Right click on the SQL Server resource and select Properties.
Select the Dependencies tab.
Click Insert.
On the new line, from the dropdown select the DTC resource you created. An example is shown in Figure 14. If the line is at the bottom, make sure that the AND dependency is selected.
Figure 14. Adding DTC as a dependency
Click OK when done.

To do this in PowerShell, execute the following:

Add-ClusterResourceDependency SQLResourceName DTCResourceName -Cluster WSFCName

A sample execution is shown in Figure 15 along with verifying that it was done correctly.

Figure 15. Creating and verifying the dependency in PowerShell

Mapping DTC to a Specific FCI

Right now I do not have an application to test specifically the combo of DTC and the FCI in the same group that all is well without adding the DTC resource as a dependency. Based on what we know, it may not work. One thing which may solve that issue and/or if you want to truly be anal about things, DTC provides you with a way to specifically map an instance of DTC to only be used with a specific application or service such as a given SQL Server instance. This is done via command line. If you really want to ensure that DTC is mapped to the FCI, you use the tmMappingSet option of the command line for DTC.

NOTE This particular aspect/option most likely will NOT be necessary but I’m putting it in here for the sake of being complete.

Enter the command msdtc -tmMappingView * as shown in Figure X. If nothing is mapped, you will see the output in Figure 16.
Figure 16. No DTC mappings exist
To map the newly created DTC to a specific FCI, use the command: msdtc -tmMappingView -name DTCname -service SQLServerService -clusterResourceName SQLResourceInWSFC, where -service would be MSSQLSERVER for a default instance or MSSQL$NMDINS where NMDINS is the part after the slash and -ClusterResourceName is the name of the SQL Sevrer resource in the Windows Server failover cluster (WSFC). For a default instance it would just be SQL Server, and for a named instance SQL Sevrer (NMDINS). A sample execution for a named instance is shown in Figure 17 and you should see Figure 18 if it is done correctly.
Figure 17. Mapping DTC to an FCI

Figure 18. DTC mapped successfully
To verify things are correct, again enter msdtc -tmMappingView *. You shold now see something similar to Figure 19.
Figure 19. Successful mapping output

November 13, 2012

Not-So-Subtle: Windows Server 2012 Full vs. Server Core and SQL Server Supportability

Hello again everyone. It’s been quite a busy few weeks, especially with PASS Summit 2012 in Seattle last week. I wound up doing a lot of speaking – two regular sessions, a pre-con, and I was over in Redmond on Monday for something else. It was a really great Summit, and I thank everyone who came to the pre-con and the two sessions. It was nice to see such a packed house for nearly everything. Even my failover clustering session which was scheduled to be the last one on Friday had a decent turnout. No matter what the scores wind up saying (and I hope they’re good), I have no real complaints.

I’ve been in Australia for a few days adjusting to the time difference and preparing for the mission critical/HA class with Wardy IT in Brisbane and Canberra. If you’re in Australia, I hope you’ve signed up and I’ll see you there. Anyway, I’m going through the labs I’ve put together for the class and while I’ve noticed a difference visually (more than just a command prompt) between Full and Server Core before, I’ve finally taken the time to grab some screen captures.

As you know, since Windows Server 2008 there has been a Core variant of the operating system. This clearly continues in Windows Server 2012, but there’s an interesting twist. I’ve blogged a little about how you can switch shells between Full, MinShell, and pure Server Core. Microsoft published the important KB article “Using SQL Server in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 environments” (go bookmark it now!). It clearly states the following in terms of switching between the shells when SQL Server is installed:

… be aware that you cannot switch from Full Server to Minimal Server Interface or Server Core when one or more instances of SQL Server 2012 is installed.

To switch from Full Server to Minimal Server Interface or Server Core when one or more instances of SQL Server 2012 are installed, you must uninstall SQL Server 2012, switch modes, and then reinstall SQL Server 2012. However, you can turn on SQL Server 2012 installation prerequisites in Full Server mode, switch to Server Core mode, and then install SQL Server 2012.

Ouch! So clearly you need to choose your shell up front or else you’re going to have to uninstall and reinstall. Truth be told, I have tested and you can technically switch with SQL Server installed. There does not seem to be any issues, but this is how Microsoft has chosen to support how this will work. Also note the following in the KB:

SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2 are not supported in Minimal Server Interface or Server Core modes.

So even if you could get them to work with Server Core since SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 are supported under Windows Server 2012, it doesn’t matter. If you want to use those versions of SQL Server with Windows Server 2012, you’ll need the full GUI.

Here’s a fun fact which can be shown in pictures: if you install just Windows Server 2012 Server Core, did you know the logon screen color is different? Well, it is! See the Figure 1 below – it’s a light blue/aqua/turquoise-y/cyan color.

Figure 1. Server Core Logon Screen

Figure 2 shows when you install with the full GUI you get a grey color. The color does not switch if you change shells to Server Core (or MinShell for that matter), so how you install it influences the color. Assuming you’re not color blind (and no offense to those who are), it’s an easy way to tell how your OS was installed. Neat.

Figure 2. GUI Logon Screen

Hope this helps some of you out there in your planning and deployment. This is important stuff! I’ve got a bit more to say on this topic around clusters, but that is for another post soon …

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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