This month the subject is “The Long and Winding Road”. If you want to read the opening post, please click the image below to go to the party-starter: Wendy Pastrick (Blog | @wendy_dance).

After I skipped the last few T-SQL Tuesday posts, I saw the topic Wendy suggested for this month. That’s an interesting one, so I’m kind of back again…

One particular sentences that stuck with me, was “Let’s make these stories about the tech and how that has led you down a certain path”. A few months ago, I blogged about leaving my former employer. There I got a change to discover a bunch of new technologies and discover what I really wanted. But the path started earlier.

During my first internship, I started working as a desktop support engineer and help desk employee. This meant I needed to install, replace and fix PC’s, phones, network, etc. After the first internship (6 months), I stayed with the company as a part-time employee. Then I decided to stay there for my second internship of 6 months, which I filled working as a system administrator.

When I was still busy with exams and finishing my education, the company asked me to stay with them. They had an interesting role in mind for me: SQL Server consultant. At that time, I’ve never wrote a single query (except a few trials in my database classes at school), but I accepted the offer. The learning curve was pretty steep, but I managed with the help of my wonderful colleagues. My first experiences with SQL Server were very interesting, and it really triggered me to learn more about it, even though it was SQL Server 2000 back then.

After 2 years I got the opportunity to start as a .NET developer within the same company. Because several colleagues left, there was a high demand for software engineers. So with no knowledge of ASP and VB, I started to discover this new world. After a few months, I moved from ASP to ASP.NET, from VB to C#, and eventually worked with WCF, Silverlight, NHibernate, etc.

After 2.5 years of being a software engineer, I came back to the database world. I can’t explain why, but I missed something in my daily job that I had before. When searching for a new job, I found a company that seemed to fit my ideas of a great company and a huge challenge: multinational, young team, great colleagues, lots of learning opportunities, etc. There I started out as a BI- and SQL Server developer, and I found what I was missing in my previous job: data!

One thing I’ve learned after this wide variety of jobs, is that I love databases and data. In my current job of DBA I can combine the 2 things I love the most: data and technology. As a DBA I’m not only responsible for keeping the databases alive, but also for data quality, database performance, etc.

So this is the ultimate job for me, at least at the moment. But if I ever change jobs, I’m definitely not leaving the SQL Server world! Not only because I love working with databases and data, but also because of the wonderful community. At first I didn’t know what to think about the “SQL Family”, but now I know it practically IS a family. The people have the same issues as you, the same interests, and they love to help you out. So I’m never going to leave that behind again!

In my quest to find a free to use modelling tool, I found draw.io. It’s a free online modelling tool, with an amazing amount of options!

If you open the link, the web application will load. Once it’s loaded, you see a blank drawing. In this blank drawing, you can add your shapes, texts, etc.

You can click on General in the left column to collapse it, and then right-click on General. Now a menu will pop up that allows you to add more shapes to the menu:

 
For example, if you add the Rack shapes to the menu, you’re able to add all kinds of server rack images to your diagram. For example the racks from Dell:

 
So as you can see, there are a lot of possibilities when you use draw.io. And if you ask me, it’s a good alternative if you need to draw up a diagram quickly, and don’t have Visio installed.

But on the other hand, you have a lot of opportunities to find out the best practices of doing things. An example of that is moving a system database. About two weeks ago we decided to order 4 SSD’s for our SQL Server. We plan to store tempdb and the SSAS data on these disks, hoping that it will reduce resource costs on our environment.

So with no experience of moving system databases, I started thinking about how to do this. You probably need to stop the SQL Server, move the MDF and LDF files, change the start-up options of SQL Server, start the service, hope that SQL Server finds the new location, etc. But after a quick peek I found a much simpler solution: just modify the current file location!

 
Check the current location and file sizes
Before moving your database (in this case I’m moving my tempdb), run the query below, and store the result just in case all goes south:

SELECT name, physical_name, state_desc, (size * 8 / 1024.00) AS InitialSize
FROM sys.master_files
WHERE database_id = DB_ID('tempdb');

 
The reason you also want to store the initial sizes, is that if you restart the SQL Service (one of the next steps), SQL Server will set the files to the default file sizes. And you don’t want to run on those default settings of course!

 
Set the new file location
You can set the new file location for your tempdb, by running the query below. In this example I’m moving my datafiles to the D:\ volume of my machine:

USE master
GO

ALTER DATABASE tempdb 
	MODIFY FILE (NAME = tempdev, FILENAME = 'D:\MSSQL\DATA\tempdb.mdf')
GO
ALTER DATABASE tempdb 
	MODIFY FILE (NAME = templog, FILENAME = 'D:\LOG\templog.ldf')
GO

 
After executing this statement, you’ll see a message like this appear in the Messages window:

The file “tempdev” has been modified in the system catalog. The new path will be used the next time the database is started.
The file “templog” has been modified in the system catalog. The new path will be used the next time the database is started.

 
So the file location is altered, but the running values are not changed until your machine is rebooted, or the SQL Service is restarted.

Now just restart the SQL Service (or the machine if you like to), and run the first query again. This way you can check if your tempdb is stored in the right folder, and if the initial sizes are correct:

SELECT name, physical_name, state_desc, (size * 8 / 1024.00) AS InitialSize
FROM sys.master_files
WHERE database_id = DB_ID('tempdb');

 
The service should stop and start without issues. After the restart you’ll see that SQL Server created a new MDF and LDF file at the new file location. After a successful restart, you can delete the MDF and LDF files from the old location.

 
Now, was that so hard?
So as you can see, not all changes in SQL Server are rocket science. One thing I’ve learned, is that from now on, I’m not going to assume the worst, and hope for the best!

 
UPDATE
As Pieter Vanhove (Blog | @Pieter_Vanhove) mentions in his tweets about msdb/model and master, in some cases you need to do a little bit more work. Because the tempdb is the database with the least probable cause of breaking SQL Server (it’s recreated if the SQL service starts), you can move it by changing the settings.

On the restart, the “Running values” (current settings) are overwritten by the “Configured values” (new settings) you set with the query you ran, and tempdb is recreated.

But the other system databases require a little bit more effort. If you want to move master, model or msdb, check out this link.

And thank you Pieter, for pointing out this stupid mishap to me!

 
Downloading it
The drama starts with downloading the tool. If you go to the download location of the tool, there’s no mention of a trial-version. They do like to tell you that it’s free… A lot of times… But guess what… It isn’t!

 
Installing it
After downloading the tool, I started the installation. Again, there’s no mention of any kind that I’ve just downloaded a trial version, and that you need to pay for the tool after 7 days.

 
Use it
After the installation I started the tool. The tool shows you for the first time that you’re actually running a triall:

After I clicked on “Try”, I was prompted to enter a SQL instance to run the tool on. After giving it my SQL Server instance location and name, it showed a pop-up really quick. Apparently it installed a bunch of crap on my SQL instance! Again, there is NO mention that it needs to install objects in your msdb! Also, SQL Server Agent needs to run on your instance, because Deadlock Detector can’t run without that.

So what does Deadlock Detector install? I’ve created a screenshot of all the objects that are installed:

 
Uninstalling it
Okay, the tool wasn’t what I was looking for, so I wanted to uninstall it. But how do I get rid of all those objects that were created in my msdb database?

First I uninstalled the tool, hoping that it would also drop all the objects it created. But at the end of the uninstall, it sent me to this webpage. So I’m suppost to download a special uninstaller to get rid of your installer?

Okay, so I downloaded the special installer-uninstaller, and ran it. Close, but no cigar… The tool ran, returned no errors, but the objects still existed. Running it again, ended with the same results.

To check it yourself, run this query:

SELECT *
FROM msdb.LakeSideLockLogger._LakeSide_DbTools_LockLog

If it’s still running you’ll see record appear that tell you that there were deadlocks on your system. Even though you closed the tool and, like me, expect it to shutdown, the services still run.

To check if the objects still exist on your server, run this query:

SELECT *
FROM msdb.sys.objects
WHERE 1 = 1
AND is_ms_shipped = 0
AND Name LIKE '_LakeSide%'

So what do you do then? Right, I sent the company a support call. I’ve waited more than a week by now, but still no reply. Not even a reply that they’ve received my mail. So a really, really bad service of SQL Solutions if you ask me…

So after a lot of searching, I saw a really small reference to another uninstall method: from the tool itself. So I’ve re-installed the tool, and tried that:

And that worked for me!

 
Conclusion
Apparently more people had issues with uninstalling the tool, looking at results like this.

The thing I learned from this, is to dig a little bit deeper if I look at a new tool. The website of the tool’s manufacturer might not be the best source to find out how a tools functions…

As a SQL Server developer you and I both know that using the right tools can be a lifesaver. But my first weeks as DBA gave me the feeling this is more important than ever before. Having the right tools can save you a lot of time, and can actually help you make time for the important stuff. In this blog I’ll try to show you which tools I use nowadays, and the reason why you should use them as well.

 
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for SQL Server 2012
If you’re working with SQL Server, you’ll need a version of SSMS (3rd party tools excluded). My first experience was with SQL Server 2000, and back then the “Enterpise Manager” and “Query Analyzer” were a drama to work with. If you look at the last version of the SSMS that is shipped with SQL Server 2012, then you’ll see that SSMS has come a long way!

Because I’m administering SQL Server 2008R2, I can’t use SSMS 2012 for everything, but it’s still my main tool. Just because of the performance enhancements, and the Visual Studio look and feel.

You can download the studio as a separate installation from this location.

 
SSMSBoost
One of my favorite SSMS add-ins is SSMSBoost. This allows you to quickly create and use snippets in your SSMS, script data with a few clicks, and quickly find objects in your databases.

SSMSBoost won the Bronze Community award for “Best Database Development Product” 2012, so I’m not the only one who appreciates this add-in! You can download the tool from their website. After the installation, you can request a free community license on the website.

 
sp_Blitz
If you take over a server as DBA, there’s only one way to determine the health of that server: sp_Blitz! This script, build by Brent Ozar’s company “Brent Ozar Unlimited” (Website | @BrentOzarULTD ), gives you a full overview of the “health status” of your SQL Server.

This also gives you a list of items you might want to fix, in order to ensure a stable and maintainable environment. The items are sorted based on importance, so you know which items you need to fix first. An excellent start for every new environment!

You can download the sp_Blitz code from this location.

 
sp_WhoIsActive
If you start out as a DBA it’s hard to find a good point to start from. What do you want to fix first? Your users keep complaining that they’re queries are running slow, your manager wants more and more performance from the same hardware without any real hardware changes, etc. A good point to start from is finding our which slow running queries and stored procedures your users are executing.

sp_WhoIsActive, written by Adam Machanic (Blog | @AdamMachanic ), gives you the ability to quickly gather this information, without any hassle. Once you’ve deployed the stored procedure to your machine, you can start using it to pinpoint issues on your SQL Server.

You can download the sp_WhoIsActive code from this location.

 
SQLjobvis
The last hurdle I needed to take, is to find out which SQL Server Agent Jobs were running on our environment, and at which time. Because I didn’t want to document this manually, I tried to find a tool that did this for me. Then I came across SQLjobvis.

SQLjobvis, written by SQLsoft (Website), is a free tool that visualizes the jobs on your SQL Server. It shows you all jobs and the result of the execution. You can select the data you want to see by date, and with color codes it shows the result within the date range you set.

You can download SQLjobvis from this location.

 
SQL Sentry Plan Explorer
And last, but not least: SQL Sentry Plan Explorer. I’m glad Pieter Vanhove (Blog | @Pieter_Vanhove) reminded me I forgot an important tool!

SQL Sentry Plan Explorer, written by SQL Sentry Inc. (Website), is a lightweight standalone app that helps you analyse execution plans. By making it more graphical than the default execution plan viewer in SSMS, it’s easier to spot the bottleneck.

You can download the tool from this location. And don’t forget to install the SSMS add-in, so you can directly view your execution plan in the SQL Sentry Plan Explorer from SSMS, when you right-click your execution plan.

 
What tools do you use?
There are many more DBA’s out there, and every DBA has it’s own toolbelt. So I’d like to know which tools do YOU use to get the job done? Let me now by leaving a comment, or contact me by Twitter or mail, and I’ll add it to the list of must-haves!

The reason I wanted to do this, is that I want to allow the users of my report to toggle different layers in the map control. That way, you can pre-build all the different layers you think your users need into a single report, and just let them toggle the layers themselves. That saves you a lot of time building a report for every single combination of layer-types.

Multi-layer map control
In order to keep it simple, I used the report from my previous post. Specifically, the version with the standard PushPins. And the only layer I want them to be able to toggle, is the PushPin layer on top of the basic map.

Creating a parameter
Because your want to present an easy solution to your users, I want to create a Boolean parameter that they can use to toggle the PushPin layer. To create this parameter, right-click on Parameters in Report Builder, and choose “Add Parameter”:

In the general options window, make sure you fill in a Parameter Name, a question for your users (so they understand what they need to do), and a Data Type (in this case a Boolean, that’s either True or False):

Because you don’t want to keep your users waiting if they open your report, you might want to give the Boolean a default value. You can do this by adding a default value to your Boolean:

By doing this, the Boolean is True by default. So the user doesn’t have to pick a value if he runs the report for the first time. This might come in handy if you need this as an extra feature in your report, and not a feature you need to configure before the report shows your data.

Expression
Now you need to configure your map layer to use the parameter you created to toggle it. Double-click on your map control, and once you see the Map Layers menu on the right, you can do this by right-clicking on “Layer Data”:

Now click on Visibility, and under Layer visibility, click the last option, and press the Fx button:

In the Expression window, fill in the following expression:

Now if you run the report, you’ll see the Boolean appear in the top bar of your report. By default, it’ll show the PushPins:

And if you change the Boolean to False and press “View Report”, you’ll see the may without PushPins:

With a little help from my friends…
This post isn’t just written by me, but also with the help of Valentino Vranken (Blog | @ValentinoV42. He helped me out on Twitter, because my expression didn’t work as expected. So Valentino: I really appreciated your help! Thank you!

Starting with a single layer
To start off easy, you could use the same steps I used to create my first report. This is a single layer report with a full map of (in this case) the Netherlands.

The next step is adding a few pushpins. How about visualizing the three biggest cities in the Netherlands: Amsterdam (790.000 people), Rotterdam (616.000) and Den Haag (The Hague, 502.000).

Creating a Point layer
Before creating a point layer, you need to determine what data you want to present to your users. In my case, I chose the center of each city. This might not be the actual center, but I tried to get as close to the center as I could.

Now that you have your data, you can create the Point layer in your report. Start by double-clicking on your map control, and in the “Map Layers” window, click on “New layer wizard:

Now choose the bottom option “SQL Server spatial query”, and click next.

Choose the bottom option to add a new dataset to your report, and click next.

Click next to choose the datasource that’s already in your report, and click next.

Now click on the option “Edit as Text” in the query designer:

Type or paste your query in the editor, and press the Run button. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the result in the bottom window:

In the next window, make sure you add a Point layer, and not a Polygon layer:

Now you will see the new layers I mentioned before:

For this report, choose the bottom one: Analytical Marker Map, and click next.

In the next window, select the dataset that contains your points, and click next.

In the window with options, make sure you select the right type of marker (in this case PushPin):

Once you’ve done that, click Finish. Now you see a double layer map with 3 PinPoint on your map:

Using a custom PinPoint
I can imagine that you might want to use your own PinPoint image on your report. This is possible, but remember this might screw up the readability of your report.

In the Map Layers menu, right click your point layer, and click Point Properties:

Now change your marker type from PinPoint to Image, and click Import:

Now if you select an image, the name of your image will show in the “Use this image” text box. If you want to, change the “Marker size”, so your logo will appear larger on the map. Now if you click OK, and run the report, you’ll see something like this:

And if you can’t resist, you can download this EPIC marker right here

Report
I’m starting with the report that I created in my previous blog post. I’m not going to add data to the report, but instead change some options.

Mouseover tooltip
Because you’re working with a full map in your report, it might be hard to see what kind of location you’re looking at. So the easiest way to fix this, is to add labels to your map control. But if you have a lot of small polygons, you might end up with somethings that looks like this:

In the image above you see the province of South-Holland. In the red rectangle, you see the 2nd largest city of the Netherlands: Rotterdam. But this illustrates the issue, that if you have a lot of small polygons, you won’t be able to see the labels.

So a workaround for this, is to add a tooltip (a mouseover label) to your report. This will show the label you selected, if you (or the user of your report) can see what the polygon represents. So how can we do that?

Go to your Design window, and right-click on a polygon in your map control, and click on “Polygon Properties”:

In the next window, click on the “Fx” button next to the Tooltip textblock:

In this window, enter the following expression:

Now if you hover over your report, you’ll see the following tooltip:

 
Clickable polygons
If you want to spice things up even more, you could also add a click-event to your report. In my case, I wanted to add a click-event that showed the users the Wikipedia page of the city.

Start by right-clicking again on a polygon in your map control, and click “Polygon Properties”. Now go to the Action tab, and click the “Fx” button again:

Now fill in the following expression:

Now if you go to your report, you can click on a polygon and it will open up the Wikipedia page for that specific city.

Another option would be to open up a report via a click-event, to show your users more information from another report. Or maybe you want to redirect your users to a specific page on your intranet. Just imagine all the opportunities…

For every report I create, I use Report Builder 3.0 myself. This tool is a bit smaller and more responsive than the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS).

Create the basic report first
Starting to build your report starts with creating a blank report from the menu in Report Builder:

Once you’ve done that, you need to add a data source to your report:

Then add a map control to your report, by right-clicking on you report, and choose Map:

Double-click on the map control, and in the menu that appears on the right, choose “New layer wizard”:

Click the last option (SQL Server spatial query) and click next.

Now you’re asked if you would like to create a new dataset in you report. In this case, you can just click next.

The same counts for the next step, datasources. Just select the datasource you created earlier, and click next.

In the next menu, we can select the data we want to use. In this case, I just want to select a city name and a spatial object. You can write this query in your SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), or in this window. I wrote it in SSMS, and I want to copy it to my report. If you want to do the same, you need to click the option “Edit as Text”:

Just paste your query into the editor, and press the run button. Report Builder will retrieve your data, and shows you the results below:

Click next, and select the options you like in the next few menus. I’ll stick with the basic options. I didn’t change anything in the first menu, and in the next chose “Basic Map”:

Click next, click Finish. There you go, you just created your very first Spatial Report!

I’m so glad I can finally tell you the good news! I’m so excited to start my next challenge! From next week, I’ll be a Microsoft SQL Server DBA. And if all things work out in the first few months, the planning is that my job will also include Oracle, MySQL, and MongoDB later on.

But for now, my challenge is to become a DBA with expert knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, and all the features that ship with it. As far as I know now, my planning for the upcoming year is to build a test environment for the SQL Server environment they have now, and a migration of the system to SQL Server 2012. That sounds like a hard work for my first year, but I’m really excited!

Until now, I only worked as a SQL Server developer with a few DBA tasks. The last years I started thinking about my future, and what I really wanted. The only thing I wanted to try out but never had the chance to, was becoming a DBA. And now I get a chance to prove myself as a fulltime DBA. This might end up getting my head blown off the first few months, but I’m excited to test my knowledge and skills, and to expand them.

Thinking about next week makes me both nervous and happy. Feeling happy because I can prove myself (and others) that I can actually do the things people told me I would never accomplish, and nervous because I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. But I’m totally convinced I get all the help that I need to succeed from my new colleagues, and my SQL Family.

Last year I experienced the commitment and dedication to help one another in the SQL Server community. That’s why they call it the SQL Family. Because it’s a hardworking community, that’s always willing to help you if you need them. They helped me out on several occasions, and I try to help them as much as I can. And with them on my side, the upcoming period is going to be a success!