whitepaper 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!

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.

July 21, 2011

Do You Like Your Writing Boring? Me Neither

In a brief Twitter conversation with Wendy Pastrick (blog | Twitter), who is also another great SQL person out there (just incase you didn’t know), she had this to say:
“I do wish whitepapers were more interesting of a read at times. I’ve fallen asleep on a few.”
I couldn’t agree more, and let me expound on that. (Hey, it’s my blog so I could do it anyway!)

If you don’t know, I’ve written quite a bit over the years (check out some of the links on the main SQLHA.com site which has some of them) including the books I’ve authored or co-authored. I’m always doing some kind of content, and doubt I’ll ever stop. However, when I’ve done some writing for clients, every now and then I’ll get the comments back that the writing style is not formal enough or that I use some colloquial phrases which won’t fly (oops! there’s one …). While I see their point, and in some cases they are probably right, I’ll go back to Wendy’s quote. Most people would rather it be a bit less formal and easy to read than stiff as a board. There is a happy medium somewhere that blends readability with great technical content. They do not need to be mutually exclusive.

I’m not saying more formal writing does not have its place nor were my reviewers wrong. In some cases over the years, reviewers were absolutely, 100% correct. Sometimes things can be a little too informal … and that’s why I have reviewers actually look at not only accuracy of content, but readability. Both are very important not only to me, but you, the reader. If you have content that is well written but sucks in terms of its technical accuracy, why even bother? Same for the reverse: if it is technically right but hard to read and ultimately misses its audience, it’s a waste of time for everyone involved.

I do want to say one thing about reviewers. I always read every comment they write – good or bad. Good ones will call me out on everything, even down to a missing period or a misspelling. If I blundered something technical, absolutely flog me. I have no ego about it. Did I completely miss something I should have talked about? Let me know. Sometimes it’s possible to add, in other cases, no for various reasons that could be their own blog post (ah, politics!).

With lots of reviews come lots of opinions. I often get polar opposites (loved it/hated it). At the end of the day, I need to figure out which one to go with and stick to my decision. I try to take consensus. If there is a lone dissenter, they’re often an outlayer (outside of being technically wrong). If it’s a lot of folks, genuine issue. If it’s some but not all, I need to think about it a bit more. One of the advantages of having multiple reviewers is that it’s invaluable, but it’s also a bit of a curse because it does add a lot of work for an author.

Back to the topic at hand. If doing a whitepaper or training course for someone like Microsoft or another company (which may or may not have my name attached to it), chances are it needs to be a bit more formal. Using colloquial phrases can be problematic even in informal writing because they are not always universal around the world. For example, saying something like, “Boy, implemeting things like this is like taking a swing for the fences and striking out.” While you can get the meaning from the context, it’s a baseball reference. Baseball is far from a universally known sport, let alone its idiosyncrasies and nuances. Over the years I’ve become much better at recognizing that and most of it gets excised before final drafts, but it does not always happen. So I apologize in advance if you do not always get some of that stuff in a publication that has me associated with it.

Having said that, I do rely on editors in this entire process. While I try to catch a lot of this kind of stuff, it’s really up to them to a large degree to try to fix any wording or verbiage that is not up to snuff, or mark it so I can deal with it. Good editors excel at this and bad ones miss it entirely. Every client may even have a “house style” as to how they prefer something to sound/read, and I’m fine with that – they just need to let me know.

Bottom line: realize before you get something to read, it’s been through a lot of people’s hands. One thing with editors that I’ve found is that if they are unfamiliar with SQL Server, sometimes they’ll alter wording in a way that is wrong so I’ll have to work with them to come up with something that works for both of us. Trust me, there’s a lot of work that goes into writing a document that no one ever sees. If it was easier, I think more people would do it (if they like to write, that is; most people hate to compose documentation of any sort).

I’ve had quite a few people over the years after reading some of my stuff (especially my 2005 and 2008 books) that they can hear “my voice” in them. That’s great, because I tend to think that people who know me or have possibly seen me speak can see that. One of the hardest things to do is take concepts that could be difficult or complex, and make them either relatable or easy to understand. For me, it’s not unlike writing a fiction story. What do I mean by that?

Whenever I sit down to write something, especially a whitepaper or book, I try to figure out who my audience is and what story I want to tell. You need to start out at A and end up at Z. The thoughts need to be coherent and build on one another. For example, I’ve always maintained you can’t really talk about SQL Server failover clustering without understanding and explaining the Windows side of things. It’s why I put it in my books and cover it before I talk about the SQL part. However, when I explain the Windows side, I do it from a SQL perspective and address it that way so it ties everything together. So even though Windows is a bit of a left turn, it’s all part of the same thing. It’s up to me as the author, to tie it all together and wrap it up into a neat bow.

A big thanks to Wendy for inspiring this blog post, and all of this is quite relevant as I embark on the planning process for the Denali followup to the 2000, 2005, and 2008 books. By the time you see that book, the content will have been vetted technically by reviewers, massaged and altered (probably a few times), and had its makeup applied so it looks pretty for you. I’ll make a more formal announcement of my plans for the Denali book soon … it’s shaping up nicely.

May 10, 2011

Patching Clustered SQL Server Instances with SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2

One of the things you will eventually have to do to an instance of SQL Server is apply one or more of the following: a community update (CU), service pack (SP), or hotfix. I recently wrote a whitepaper entitled “Applying Updates to a Clustered Instance of SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2” which can be downloaded from this link. It has all the background information you need, and includes how to do things like check for reboots, script thge installs, etc. The scripts for the whitepaper can be downloaded here.

That whitepaper describes the process on how to approach patching clustered instances of SQL Server and patching, but in its examples, covers two more difficult examples because things can be complex and those are not described anywhere else (hence me wanting to write the paper). Read the whitepaper for the background information, but I thought in this blog post I would present the most simple case: one instance on a two-node cluster. All changes will be denoted in red italics.

In this example, to start, the instance is currently owned by Node A and is at SQL Server 2008 SP1 and you are looking to update the instance to SQL Server 2008 Sp2. Both nodes can potentially own the instance at this point.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	Yes	Yes	SP1	No	Yes	SP1

Table 1. Initial cluster state

To start the process, you will first have to remove the node which does not own the instance as a possible owner of the network name resource for the instance. This process and why you need to do it is described in the whitepaper.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	Yes	Yes	SP1	No	No	SP1

Table 2. Cluster state after removing Node B as a possible owner

Install SP2 on the node which is not currently a possible owner of the instance. Once that it is done, it will look like Table 3.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	Yes	Yes	SP1	No	No	SP2

Table 3. Cluster state after patching the instance on Node B

Add Node B back as a possible owner of the network name resource. The cluster will now look like Table 4.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	Yes	Yes	SP1	No	Yes	SP2

Table 4. Cluster state after adding Node B back as a possible owner

You now need to fail the instance over to Node B to start the upgrade of the instance itself as shown in Table 5. This will be the first time you would have to schedule an outage. You should do this in a controlled fashion as to minimize the impact to end users and applications.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	No	Yes	SP1	Yes	Yes	SP2

Table 5. Failing the instance over to Node B

The instance itself and the databases that were online will now be upgraded. The time it takes to do this will be fairly short. Technically you could allow connections after the failover, but you may want to wait until you are able to complete the patching of Node A and test full failover. That is up to you.

As with Node B, remove Node A as a possible owner of the instance’s network name as shown in Table 6.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	No	No	SP1	Yes	Yes	SP2

Table 6. Removing Node A as a possible owner of the instance

Install SP2 on Node A as shown in Table 7.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	No	No	SP2	Yes	Yes	SP2

Table 7. Installing SP2 on Node A

Once Node A has been patched, add it back as a possible owner as shown in Table 8.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	No	Yes	SP2	Yes	Yes	SP2

Table 8. Adding Node A back as a possible owner of the instance

Finally, you should fail the instance back to Node A as shown in Table 8 not because you want it to “live” there (your instance should be able to run anywhere in the cluster assuming you did capacity planning correctly), but because you want to ensure that there will be no problems after the installations are done and that the instance can run on all nodes. If you have allowed connections into the instance already, you will have to schedule an outage or do it during an already scheduled outage.

	Node A			Node B
	Owner	Possible Owner	Version	Owner	Possible Owner	Version
Instance	Yes	Yes	SP2	No	Yes	SP2

Table 9. Final state

February 15, 2011

Tweet, Message Board Post, Blog Post, Whitepaper, Or Book?

As I’ve started to use social media a bit more, it’s been an interesting experiment. Those who know me know that before blogging, Facebook, and Twitter, I did just a little bit of writing (insert sarcastic laugh here). I resisted Twitter for awhile and am still a bit iffy about it to be dead honest. I’m warming up to it.

Using Twitter has been informative on a few levels. Twitter has a basic limitation of 140 characters for a tweet, so if you exceed that (natively, not using another tool which allows more), you need multiple lines. The #sqlhelp hash tag is a great example where you may need multiple tweets to get an answer out.

This really begs the question: what is the best format for what you want to say? A single tweet? A post on a message board looking for responses that are more detailed? A blog post which will be more informative and detailed but not a tome? A whitepaper which can have more content than a blog post? Or do you just write a whole damn book?

Since I’ve done all of the above (in spades!), here’s some advice:

If you’re going to use the #sqlhelp hash tag with a complex question (for example, don’t ask for advice on a high availability architecture and expect a 140 character response that is definitive), put a link to a message board or somewhere similar (even a blog post) that people can respond in more detail.

As a responder – and I’m just as guilty on Twitter sometimes – having multiple answers is sometimes necessary, but if it gets too much, you may want to have the person contact you directly or blog about it. For me, Twitter is hard to follow versus a message board because of the lack of built-in, easy-to-use threading. As I know people do like to see resolutions on #sqlhelp because it may help them, it’s tough.

Having said that, I find #sqlhelp almost more immediate than, say, the MSDN or TechNet forums. There’s something very cool about that.

A tweet shouldn’t necessarily lead to a blog post or something bigger, but it may spark ideas.

If you like to blog (and who isn’t blogging these days?), the next logical step is something like a whitepaper. I find many people have short attention spans, so I try to keep my blog posts reasonable short (relatively speaking of course) and focused. Some people may do a series of related blog posts to break a topic up. That series may equate to a whitepaper. Personally, when I know I want to do a bigger topic.

Writing a whitepaper is easier than you think. Some tips:

1. Get it tech reviewed. Even the best of us have some things which are wrong or makes sense to us the way we word it but not to others.
2. If possible, get it edited by someone who does it for a living. It really does help.

That said, like a tweet or a blog post, sometimes you have a lot to say. I find most people’s tolerance for a whitepaper under 40 or 50 pages of text. If you’re writing a 181 page whitepaper, that’s pretty much a book.

Clearly a book is a big commitment. These days you can self publish if you really want. I’ve talked about it, Brent Ozar (blog | Twitter) has blogged about it, but don’t write a book if you expect to get rich. Do it because you want to and are passionate about the subject you are presenting. You employ all the techniques you would at the smaller levels, just on a much grander scale.

The problem I find with more instant media such as Twitter and blogging is that while it’s often right and good, there’s just as much out there that is bad and incorrect and can cause harm. Even if what is said is technically correct, it could be the wrong advice for some. You need to always put things in proper context. Before I say anything else, let me say I am far from perfect. I do get things wrong at times and if I do, I post corrections or note it in a way that people can see what the right answer is. The last thing I need is someone saying, “Well, Allan said this and it caused my <insert thing here> to fail.” Ugh.

The other mediums such as whitepapers and books tend to have reviewers who will ensure that things are right and the messaging is on point. Even that is a tricky process because if you get multiple opinions about something, it’s up to the author to make “the call”.

It’s great that we have all of this content out there and the ability to do our own – we just need to choose the right one for our messages!

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