August 18, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Flock of SQL Servers
August 19, 2011 at 2:54 am
SQL Server twitter spammer?
that could make some money 😉
Ben
^ Thats me!
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August 19, 2011 at 4:29 am
No. Can't find the added value.
August 19, 2011 at 5:08 am
No way. And no chance of it happening either in a civil service secure environment!
August 19, 2011 at 5:42 am
I completely understand that many responding to this question will be vehemently against such a thing, or cannot fathom a use for connecting your SQL Server to Twitter, but there are many out there who are already doing it and finding value in it. The two main uses I see are: 1) posting system status such that people can subscribe to it as opposed to sending out tons of emails to people who might just be auto-deleting them anyway, and 2) interacting more directly with the users of your application and not giving away any server specific info.
Since introducing Twitter functionality (for free!) into my SQL# (http://www.SQLsharp.com/) CLR library two years ago now, I have gotten a large amount of downloads for the Twitter functions alone. The response has been much more positive than I had expected. I originally integrated the functionality as I simply thought it would be interesting but was not entirely sure of any real use-cases. However, the community responded rather favorably and people have been using it to do more than I could think up on my own. I certainly do not know all of the ways in which people are using the Twitter functions, but I can say that enough people are doing it to render it valid, even if some argue that it shouldn't be done even if it is possible.
Take care,
Solomon...
SQL# — https://SQLsharp.com/ ( SQLCLR library ofover 340 Functions and Procedures)
Sql Quantum Lift — https://SqlQuantumLift.com/ ( company )
Sql Quantum Leap — https://SqlQuantumLeap.com/ ( blog )
Info sites — Collations • Module Signing • SQLCLR
August 19, 2011 at 6:32 am
Well, when creating a SQL Server Alert, the options currently include email, pager, SMS message, and Net Send. Tweets are typically for public broadcast. SMS messages are equivalent in functionality, but I think more appropriate for sending messages to a DBA, because they can more easily be received on a cell phone. Would anyone find value in adding Tweet as an option for alerts? Perhaps in a senario where you want to send Tweets to a group of users?
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
August 19, 2011 at 6:46 am
Eric M Russell (8/19/2011)
Well, when creating a SQL Server Alert, the options currently include email, pager, SMS message, and Net Send. Tweets are typically for public broadcast. SMS messages are equivalent in functionality, but I think more appropriate for sending messages to a DBA, because they can more easily be received on a cell phone. Would anyone find value in adding Tweet as an option for alerts? Perhaps in a senario where you want to send Tweets to a group of users?
With Twitter you can subscribe your phone to Tweets by a specific user (your SQL Server) and receive the tweets via text message (standard rates may apply:-D). You could use this so that people can subscribe as needed. Of course the on-call DBA may forget to subscribe so you should have a backup method as well.
Since I get mail on my phone, I don't really see a need to have the SQL Server tweet. It might be appropriate for severe errors as the text message may beat an email, but then my phone should be ringing too.
Jack Corbett
Consultant - Straight Path Solutions
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August 19, 2011 at 6:59 am
I'm another DBA who has email access via phone, so I can't see much added value, since I already receive notifications of job failures, account lockouts, etc.
As far as having my applications/database servers read tweets and respond to them - absolutely not. I think that's a Denial of Service attack (even inadvertently) waiting to happen.
Desi
August 19, 2011 at 7:14 am
I don't see any purpose for this where DBAs are concerned but some businesses would love it.
Say for example you work for a company like Perkz or Groupon or HotUKDeals whatever. All of your special offers are stored in an SQL Server database, as are the comments and ratings that users give the items. Once an item or offer has had x comments, or x users rated it at 4 stars and above you can trigger the system to tweet it as a 'hot' deal or offer.
When subscribers join up to see what offers and deals you have, your server can start to 'read' their tweets. With a little bit of clever logic the server can link what offers and deals it tweets about to the kind of subjects and products that the subscribers tweet about. E.g. you get a deal in for a 20% discount voucher on some mountain bike retailer, your server 'reads' about your subscriber "Going downhilling with Dangerous Dave on Saturday! Sweet!" picks up 'downhill' as a tag on the mountain bike offer so re-tweets their comment with the voucher details attached.
Doing all this within SQL without having to faff about with writing custom applications to tie SQL in with twitter would be excellent. Totally unimportant to the DBA but awesome for maximizing the effectiveness of a retailer's marketing.
Ben
^ Thats me!
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August 19, 2011 at 7:18 am
Depending on the kind of service you provide, I can see the value in that letting your geek users know how your server fares. If i notice my favorite service/server is slow as hell, I sure like to know why. I, and am sure others as well, prefer to know why it is slow and when it began much more than to be left in the dark.
This surely invites criticism but also transparency.
--
Thiago Dantas
@DantHimself
August 19, 2011 at 7:27 am
Dizzy Desi (8/19/2011)
As far as having my applications/database servers read tweets and respond to them - absolutely not. I think that's a Denial of Service attack (even inadvertently) waiting to happen.
Hi Desi. I am not sure how this would be susceptible to a DoS attack when it is an outbound-only method. All Twitter interaction is request-based only. You make a request to get data and get a web response. Twitter never contacts anyone.
Take care,
Solomon...
SQL# — https://SQLsharp.com/ ( SQLCLR library ofover 340 Functions and Procedures)
Sql Quantum Lift — https://SqlQuantumLift.com/ ( company )
Sql Quantum Leap — https://SqlQuantumLeap.com/ ( blog )
Info sites — Collations • Module Signing • SQLCLR
August 19, 2011 at 7:32 am
If Direct Messaging is secure enough, I could see that being useful for alerts (I don't use Twitter, so I don't know).
I could see using Twitter for two things:
1. As a backup system, for when the EMail server is down.
2. To post stats 'passively'. Instead of getting an hourly 'I'm OK' EMail, you could check the system's Twitter feed. I would just tweet the numbers, without any description.
August 19, 2011 at 8:20 am
Yes. Several of my servers already tweet, others interface with Twitter and other social media sites in different ways. My most visible server tweeting today is the AndyWeather server.
Having servers tweet (or send notifications of any kind) raises security concerns and increases attack vectors and exposed surface area. Twitter is different in that it's newer and less-tested than other notification services such as email and SMS. There's no right or wrong answer to the question: "Should Twitter be used for notification?" There is a right and wrong answer to the question: "Should I use Twitter for notification?" The answer is going to be different for different users and use cases.
It's normal and good for data stewards to have a negative knee-jerk response to exposing servers in new ways. I want them to react this way. Would that all new surfaces be treated as guilty until proven innocent.
:{>
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
August 19, 2011 at 8:47 am
I don't see a lot of additional benefit from my servers tweeting notifications other than people can sign-up and unsign-up as they wish. SMS and email work just fine for me.
But, I've wanted to setup a server or workstation at my company to read tweets from me and perform some action depending on what the tweet says. One use case would be Silly developer has forgot to close a transaction before leaving for the day. I'm enjoying dinner at a restaurant and silly developer's open transaction is now blocking application users, causing timeouts and the application is essentially unusable. I need to find a wi-fi hot spot, login to work and kill spid or call someone to do that for me. OR I could send a tweet to the office to "kill spid 86 on Server XYZ". Of course there would have to be some security checks enabled so Joe Schmoe can't tweet the same thing. But, I do see a benefit in using twitter for this.
Brannon Weigel
@bweigel
August 19, 2011 at 8:49 am
I can see value in adding Tweet functionality to SSRS or SSIS as a destination.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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