Featured Article(s)
Best practices of synchronizing threads
There might be situations in your applications where multiple threads are accessing the same data at the same point in time. Some may be updating the data, some reading them, etc. In such situations, you need to synchronize the access to this data, mostly because if multiple threads are accessing the same data concurrently. we often say that this is an example of concurrent data access. One thing that you should keep in mind is that Microsoft .NET does not offer you implicit synchronization when accessing a shared resource. You need to do this explicitely. This article takes a look at the best practices that one should follow when synchronizing threads for restricting access to shared resources.
Virtual SQL Server Conference Update
Well, for those of you attending the conference, thanks. It’s been a huge success, with more than 820 attendees from literally around the world. We’ve had a lot of fun chatting with everyone and are looking forward to the final day of the conference, then turning everything loose for a week of additional on-demand access starting tomorrow. Your feedback has been outstanding and we’re excited to say we’ll be doing this again – keep your eyes peeled for more information here. If you’re interested, you can still register and access the final day of content, then all of the stuff on-demand starting tomorrow – just head to the conference site: http://bitonthewire.wpengine.com/conference.
DBA Evolution
Some additional feedback on changing the role – and looking forward.
Allison wrote to say: "Tip’s for DBA’s – learn how to swim different strokes, don’t stand on the shore with a ‘DBA’ sign on your forehead, find an open niche and become a SME.
Maybe I should apply to Johns’ company. I have experienced exactly what he described as DBA scope creep because I was lucky enough to be tapped as the ‘SharePoint DBA’ for our department a couple of years ago . I understood SQL full-text indexing and searching which was a trouble point at the time and it all evolved from there. We host and support multiple SharePoint farms for our company as well as external customers. I have become more of a SharePoint architect, administrator and content cop with an emphasis on performance, capacity planning, high availability and disaster recovery (Sounds like SQL skills doesn’t it ). Oh yea and throw in OS, IIS troubleshooting fun…..
Even though you SHOULD NOT mess with the SharePoint database schema, you still have to be familiar enough with it to understand the purpose of the various databases and objects. About the only SQL scripts I write anymore are to report on specifics that management wants that just isn’t provided OOB.
Oh and my vote is yes on Management Studio….we have 30+ instances, multiple Reporting Services, and SSIS instances and appreciate being able to monitor with one tool."
And this from Tom, which I just HAVE to post: "Agreed – there’s a ton more stuff out there that Microsoft is asking us to learn, and they’re trying to make things “automatic” for us. I’ve had such trouble with SQL 2005 – and reported so many bugs on it that after awhile I was on a first name basis with the folks over there – they could tell when I wasn’t using SQL 2005 because I wasn’t reporting bugs that day… It was that bad. The UI design was abysmal and needed a learning curve all of its” own… Performance was a nightmare (I was one of 4 dbas managing 200 instances). Eventually they asked me to come over and tell them in person what I thought…
They said they’d work on it – but after so much frustration – I ended up reporting the following bug (only half in jest)
https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=253524&wa=wsignin1.0
They report that this bug has been fixed.
<rant>
What I wish they’d let us do is be SQL dba’s. Trying to get a certification in SQL, while trying to learn all the new stuff that’s coming down the pike, while trying to do your job – while – heaven forbid – trying to have a life outside of work – you’re always, always behind the power curve, and it all feels like there’s never a chance to actually catch up on anything to the point of actually “knowing” it.
</rant>"
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