Apologies

Hello all!

I wanted to apologize to you. I haven’t been keeping up with the blog well at all over the last couple of months. I have simply been struggling with motivation. I have enough for my work commitments, but extra-curricular stuff has just been lagging. So, please allow me to say I’m sorry for not getting more sharing out there.

Next, I’m making a commitment to you that I will be posting regularly again from this point forward. As a part of that, I’d sure love to hear from you on what kind of content you’d like to see. Do we need more on execution plans, or on SQL Server fundamentals? Would a bunch of stuff on Extended Events or Query Store be more interesting? How much DevOps stuff would you like to see here? Anything goes, just let me know in the comments.

While 99% of the lack of posts has been just due to my inability to self-motivate, the virtual nature of conferences these days has lead to radically less interaction. Meaning, I’m not getting the questions that so frequently drive my blogging. So, in addition to any feedback you have, I do have another small request. When you attend a virtual conference, regardless of who is presenting, toss the presenter a bone. Ask a question.

Right. Enough of that stuff. Off to work on real blog posts again.

20 thoughts on “Apologies

  • Peg Dullnig

    Can you offer any advice for SQL jobs writing to OneDrive/Teams/SharePoint? I understand OneDrive is the storage for all three. My research points to SSIS or a 3rd party package.

    • Yeah, that would probably be a job for SSIS. This isn’t my strongest area of knowledge. I’d suggest tracking down Andy Leonard. He’s got a lot of information along these lines. Thank you for the feedback though. It’s very much appreciated.

    • Marcus Bacon

      Extended events needs more coverage because the last few contracts I worked, the DBA lead or team lead promoted from the DBA ranks, always suggests using Profiler when performance issues arose. I usually proceed to look at extended events and am sometimes chastised for not using Profiler. I show other DBA’s how to use extended events. I think it is an awareness/training issue the many senior DBA’s have not updated their performance skill set. It might be helpful to use some provocative subjects that “dismiss” profiler so the leads are exposed to the concepts of extended events.

      • Preach it brother!

        I get not using Extended Events. I also get not recommending using them. I do not get actively advocating against them. That just seems wrong. We’ll just have to keep spreading the good word on Extended Events.

  • hey, Grant. Please, do not beat yourself up. You will need to decompress after the PASS situation, for example. If I was you, what would you say to me? Something wise and warm, I bet. So please, take a breath. Life is too short and sometimes we need to pause.

  • Thomas Andrews

    Query Store would be great, if I am honest. Though I must admit that’s because we should be getting off SQL Server 2012 this year, finally, and so using Query Store to ensure that query plans don’t go out the window with the new Cardinality Estimator would be great. 🙂

    • JSON! Go wash your mouth, or fingers, something.

      Anyway, totally attempting humor. I will try more Extended Events stuff. There’s always more to talk about with those. And yeah, I use JSON more than I ever thought I would, so a post or three on that wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Thanks for the feedback. Apologies for the bad humor.

  • Robert

    Totally understandable, I think it is hard to be virtual. Even though I’m an introvert, I’m excused at end of day :). Love what every you produce all good.

  • Tom

    I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on applying patches & SQL server updates. “Don’t run them straight into production” aside, are there best practices, tools you would recommend to help apply them and / or pitfalls through experience to avoid?

  • Hi Grant. Why apologize? If you need free time to reset your head after a very weird year, who’s the community to deny you that? I’ve never seen the contract that binds you to produce x amount of blogs. Quality trumps quantity.

    As for ideas to blog, I’m struggling a bit as well but getting deeper into both query store and ExtendedEvents is never a bad idea. Clients still look weird when i suggest those tools. Most question are regarding (performance) overhead.

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