August 9, 2017 at 5:00 am
ThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMI thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
August 9, 2017 at 5:57 am
Brandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:00 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMI thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
How poetic. Sad, but poetic nonetheless. I've seen servers sitting out in office environments at a previous employer where they learned to tape a piece of paper with "DO NOT UNPLUG" on the power cord. And no, there was no UPS,
August 9, 2017 at 6:27 am
ThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMSteam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine......and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
Reminds me of my second .dotcom. They created a "server room" for us to put all the servers in. It had several large water pipes and a water sprinkler in it. We pointed it out and asked for changes. We were told that we were crazy, that the pipes wouldn't burst and the sprinklers wouldn't go off.
...
Less than a week later, guess what? The sprinkler head itself failed and started spraying water. Luckily it happened while one of us was in the room. We got a tarp over the servers and lifted a couple of them off the floor (which we were told was also not a problem).
You have to love Harvard graduates. "You can always tell a Harvard Man, but you can't tell them much."
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
August 9, 2017 at 6:44 am
Ed Wagner - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:57 AMBrandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:00 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMit I thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
How poetic. Sad, but poetic nonetheless. I've seen servers sitting out in office environments at a previous employer where they learned to tape a piece of paper with "DO NOT UNPLUG" on the power cord. And no, there was no UPS,
At a former employer, the server room was formerly a bathroom. I'm thinking it took the idea of water-cooling the equipment to a whole new level.
Work laptop is definitely more powerful than my DB servers. I think my personal one does too.
August 9, 2017 at 8:34 am
Thom A - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 9:25 AMBrandie Tarvin - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 9:08 AMYIKES!
I don't suppose this is a thing you can document to show them (and their boss) where they need to improve on the process?
Some of it is documented, some of it is because the data is the way it is in the system, which produces "odd" results where totals don't match the sum of the values. In these cases, the problem is normally that someone missed a value out on the user interface, or loaded something one month and completed it in another.
When training, the biggest point I made was that the Totals are always correct. If the SUM doesn't add it's because someone did something wrong. Unfortunately, it seems that they've done the opposite in some areas, and corrected the total to meet the SUM, but in others just removed offending rows. That means that the historcc totals were all wrong to start with, but offending rows need to be amended. This, normally means that a user needs to be told of their mistakes so that can fix it (and learn from their mistake).
I''m gong to go over with them when they're back next week, and discuss where they went wrong. I also found out that the person they submit the files to noticed these problems months ago, but kept quiet on it and just kept sending them back to him till they "looked" right. So, I have at least gone back and asked them why they didn't escalate to problem to myself in the first place.
Hopefully, in the long run, it'll build a better working relationship. Just frustrating that I've lost a few days tracing everything back. >_<
When all else fails, manipulate the data.
Maybe some kind of audit report could be done?
I wonder what they would say if a bank took their deposit, did not credit their account, but 'fixed' the problem by deleting their deposit?
Probably would be unacceptable.
August 9, 2017 at 8:39 am
Greg Edwards-268690 - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 8:34 AMThom A - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 9:25 AMBrandie Tarvin - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 9:08 AMYIKES!
I don't suppose this is a thing you can document to show them (and their boss) where they need to improve on the process?
Some of it is documented, some of it is because the data is the way it is in the system, which produces "odd" results where totals don't match the sum of the values. In these cases, the problem is normally that someone missed a value out on the user interface, or loaded something one month and completed it in another.
When training, the biggest point I made was that the Totals are always correct. If the SUM doesn't add it's because someone did something wrong. Unfortunately, it seems that they've done the opposite in some areas, and corrected the total to meet the SUM, but in others just removed offending rows. That means that the historcc totals were all wrong to start with, but offending rows need to be amended. This, normally means that a user needs to be told of their mistakes so that can fix it (and learn from their mistake).
I''m gong to go over with them when they're back next week, and discuss where they went wrong. I also found out that the person they submit the files to noticed these problems months ago, but kept quiet on it and just kept sending them back to him till they "looked" right. So, I have at least gone back and asked them why they didn't escalate to problem to myself in the first place.
Hopefully, in the long run, it'll build a better working relationship. Just frustrating that I've lost a few days tracing everything back. >_<
When all else fails, manipulate the data.
Maybe some kind of audit report could be done?
I wonder what they would say if a bank took their deposit, did not credit their account, but 'fixed' the problem by deleting their deposit?
Probably would be unacceptable.
Hopefully this report isn't one of those federally mandated reporting tools that could land the company in serious legal trouble.
August 9, 2017 at 8:47 am
Brandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 8:39 AMHopefully this report isn't one of those federally mandated reporting tools that could land the company in serious legal trouble.
Heh, no. It is, however, a Financial document (a Bordereau), so still very important it's accurate.
I'm just pleased it not a Lloyds of London BDX. Those files are awful (and have a mandated format: https://www.lloyds.com/~/media/files/the-market/i-am-a/delegated-authority/reporting-standards/premium-template-v5-20170522.xlsx?la=en). Who doesn't enjoy creating Excel documents with 196 columns..? :sick:
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
August 9, 2017 at 9:04 am
Brandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:00 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMI thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
That reminds me of a true story at a previous employer years ago. We are talking DG minicomputers. There was one system in the Milford computer room that kept failing once a week at 5 PM. They had been working on this problem for weeks to no avail. Well, the time was coming again and they had all the operators, system admins, even big wigs in the room watching the system. At the appropriate time the system failed. Only this time they also heard the door to the computer room open and close. Turns out this one system was not plugged into the power under the subfloor, it was plugged into an outlet in the wall. The janitor would unplug the system and plug it back in rather than just step over the plug.
August 9, 2017 at 9:59 am
Lynn Pettis - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 9:04 AMBrandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:00 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMI thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
That reminds me of a true story at a previous employer years ago. We are talking DG minicomputers. There was one system in the Milford computer room that kept failing once a week at 5 PM. They had been working on this problem for weeks to no avail. Well, the time was coming again and they had all the operators, system admins, even big wigs in the room watching the system. At the appropriate time the system failed. Only this time they also heard the door to the computer room open and close. Turns out this one system was not plugged into the power under the subfloor, it was plugged into an outlet in the wall. The janitor would unplug the system and plug it back in rather than just step over the plug.
Oh my. Now that's a good story. Tell me...How long did it take the old Data General to come back up?
August 9, 2017 at 10:58 am
Grant Fritchey - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 6:27 AMReminds me of my second .dotcom. They created a "server room" for us to put all the servers in. It had several large water pipes and a water sprinkler in it. We pointed it out and asked for changes. We were told that we were crazy, that the pipes wouldn't burst and the sprinklers wouldn't go off.
...
Less than a week later, guess what? The sprinkler head itself failed and started spraying water. Luckily it happened while one of us was in the room. We got a tarp over the servers and lifted a couple of them off the floor (which we were told was also not a problem).
You have to love Harvard graduates. "You can always tell a Harvard Man, but you can't tell them much."
Are Harvard's tech graduates as bad as their MBAs? Until now I've only heard that quotation in connection with the latter.
Tom
August 9, 2017 at 12:35 pm
Thom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 8:47 AMWho doesn't enjoy creating Excel documents with 196 columns..? :sick:
I had to create an SSIS package to load a file with almost 700 columns to it.
Talk about FUN.
August 9, 2017 at 12:42 pm
Brandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 12:35 PMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 8:47 AMWho doesn't enjoy creating Excel documents with 196 columns..? :sick:I had to create an SSIS package to load a file with almost 700 columns to it.
Talk about FUN.
That reminds me of the time that we had a client with three different vendors that supplied data in a specific format with about 200 columns. The client decided that they wanted to add about 20 columns to this file, but the vendors were all implementing the changes at different times. So I had to modify the SSIS package to accept the file in either format, determine which format it was in, and then import based on that format.
Drew
J. Drew Allen
Business Intelligence Analyst
Philadelphia, PA
August 9, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Tom_Hogan - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 6:44 AMEd Wagner - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:57 AMBrandie Tarvin - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 5:00 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 4:11 AMThom A - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:31 AMThomasRushton - Wednesday, August 9, 2017 2:21 AMTom_Hogan - Tuesday, August 8, 2017 1:42 PMit I thought my dev and test instances on the same machine sharing 4 GB RAM was bad, then I found out the production server has only 6 GB of memory.I remember one place I worked where my work-provided laptop had more processing power than any of the servers - including the database server...
Were these servers also running on steam and the size of a small house? 😛
Steam? Not as such. At least, not normally... The "server room" was just an area under a countertop. Also under this countertop ran the pipe that fed the coffee machine...
...and not even that was the biggest problem with that area. That (a) it was open to all, and (b) next to a hole in the floor that led down a spiral staircase to the basement, in combination with the above, all seemed to pale when confronted with the very real trails of mouse droppings that we would regularly find there...
HA! At one of my former places of employment, we had one server sitting out in the customer service area accessible by anyone who could get into the office (granted, there was a whole keycard thing for employees). What this meant, though, was one night the cleaning crew couldn't find a plug for their vacuum cleaner. Guess what device they chose to unplug so they could finish vacuuming the office?
Boss was NOT HAPPY.
How poetic. Sad, but poetic nonetheless. I've seen servers sitting out in office environments at a previous employer where they learned to tape a piece of paper with "DO NOT UNPLUG" on the power cord. And no, there was no UPS,
At a former employer, the server room was formerly a bathroom. I'm thinking it took the idea of water-cooling the equipment to a whole new level.
Work laptop is definitely more powerful than my DB servers. I think my personal one does too.
Hey at least you had connections to the water system..... last company i worked at refused to keep the AC into the server room working and instead provided us a portable AC unit for when it wasn't. The server room didn't have a hookup to the building's water supply and guess what they were too cheap to spring for a few thousand to hook one up so someone had to manually empty it's water collection thingy every few hours.
So when that was running, which we ran with the door open, which was still not able to keep the room cool enough we'd hear the server heat alarms beeping all day. And considering noone was there over night or on the weekends to empty the water it's pretty amazing more stuff didn't burn out.
August 10, 2017 at 1:46 am
Anyone want to help out here? No DBA, no SQL knowledge.
https://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/1890533/Just-new-to-SQL-server-error
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
August 10, 2017 at 4:09 am
So I have a weird little thing I'd like to do with SSIS, but Google doesn't seem to find what I'm looking for. Not urgent... Any thoughts over here?
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