The blog of Andy M. Mallon
Notes from the work, the community, and everything in between.
Writing a good resume is hard. People will tell you lots of rules about what you should always or never do with your resume. Should you follow those rules? Are things different because of your industry/background/geography/niche? Should you be clever or …
Continue readingI loved playing Number Munchers on my Apple IIc This morning, when I logged into Twitter, the tweet at the top of my timeline was from Shane O’Neill (blog|twitter). It was to his blog post, Shane, What’s wrong with DELETE EXISTS?. It’s not that unusual that …
Continue readingThe latest malware to make the headlines is really interesting to me. It’s a ransomware worm called Petya. Ransomware is particularly interesting to me as a DBA, because DBAs are responsible for keeping data safe, and ransomware is specifically designed to …
Continue readingUPDATE: Unfortunately, due to a change in plans, I'm not going to be at PASS Summit this year, so I won't be hosting this meetup in 2017. Check out details here. Last year, I organized an (unofficial) PASS Summit LGBT Meetup. It was a bit of a last-minute …
Continue readingOver on Stack Exchange, someone asked why their transaction log was growing very fast during a full backup. An interesting tidbit to this question is that the database is in SIMPLE recovery – so the log should stay tiny, right? Wrong. While taking a full …
Continue readingIn this post, I explain Azure SQL Database DTUs (Database Transaction Units) and the differences you might see between the documentation and practical usage.
Continue readingAs part of my role on the SentryOne Product Advisory Council (PAC), I'm going to occasionally be contributing posts over at SQLPerformance.com
Continue readingEarlier this month, I got an email with the subject line “Congratulations 2017 Microsoft MVP!” I immediately commenced doing a Snoopy happy dance (my dog, Callie, picked up on the excitement and joined in). If you aren’t familiar with the MVP Program, you …
Continue readingSQL Saturday Night Fever SQLSaturday Boston was February 25. I was invited into the organizing team in 2015, and this was my third time helping to put together the event. But this time was different. This time, I was running the show. I wanted to do a quick …
Continue readingIn SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), you can configure the sender address for email subscriptions at the instance level. This means that every email sent from your SSRS server will come from the same address. (On each subscription, you can optionally …
Continue readingShortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA This series of short posts will demonstrate some lesser-known features, keyboard shortcuts, and other tips that make my day as a DBA more productive. None of these are groundbreaking super-secret features–they are the …
Continue readingI hate RSS readers I love my new bot For some reason, about once a year, I go hunting for a new RSS reader so I can keep track of blogs that I like to read. It’s always the same process: Dig through reviews to find an app that I think I will love. Come up with …
Continue reading© NY Times, Carl Richards Last night, I was sitting at home with my husband, when I got an ominous message from Aaron Bertrand (blog|twitter): You up? I'm about to blog about you. You've been warned. ~ Aaron Bertrand Uhhh.... OK? It was 10:30 on a Friday …
Continue readingIt’s T-SQL Tuesday, the blog party that SQL Server expert Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) started. This month’s episode is hosted by Kenneth Fisher (blog| twitter). The topic: Backup & Recovery ## Your backups are my bread & butter Backup & recovery are a DBA's …
Continue readingNext month, I’ll be speaking at two SQLSaturday events. Washington, DC - #SqlSat574 - December 3, 2016 Being a DBA is like play Pac-San. Eat all the LUNs before the SAN Admin chases you away. The DC SQL Saturday was the first SQL Saturday I spoke at–so this …
Continue readingFor this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, I asked people to blog about the same old problems we’ve been dealing with for years. There were some great posts, including a batch of first-time contributors. You’ll notice some overlapping themes as you read through these …
Continue readingPASS Summit has tons of opportunities to meet like-minded folks, in addition to seeing old friends. There are the Women In Tech and Birds of a Feather Luncheons. There is the Community Zone. Friends catch up over coffee and meals. There are vendor parties. …
Continue readingBack in August, Allan Hirt (blog|twitter) tweeted: Allan Hirt@SQLHA twitter In the roughly 25 years of I have been in IT, we’re still dealing with the same problems. 6:23 PM · Aug 30, 2016 I had a slow day, so I generated a storm of responses. This month’s …
Continue readingWhat is T-SQL Tuesday? T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party hosted by a different blogger each month. This blog party was started by Adam Machanic (blog|twitter). You can take part by posting your own participating post that fits the topic of the month and …
Continue readingToday, SQL Sentry announced the release of Plan Explorer 3.0. There are a few big changes, so let’s dive right in. Plan Explorer just got free-er Up until now, Plan Explorer was essentially a freemium product. There was the free edition (which was really …
Continue readingHave you ever wondered what the best option is for making your data available in your environment? I was asked by Carlos L Chacon (blog|twitter) to be part of a panel on his podcast for an episode discussing some of the options–availability groups, mirroring, …
Continue readingLike most people, I’ve changed jobs a few times in my life. My path from teenage grocery store cashier to Database Architect was a complicated and multi-step journey. During that journey, I’ve made some good decisions, and some bad decisions. If you’re like …
Continue readingWhen you’re interviewing with a new company, pay attention to their benefits. Even the ones that aren’t important to you personally. Benefits don’t just include health/dental/vision insurance and retirement/pension (I’ll call these “core benefits”). It …
Continue readingMost of us spend at least eight hours per day working. In America, we spend an average of 25 minutes commuting, each way. That’s nine hours dedicated to work every day. You probably see your coworkers as much as you see your friends and significant other. …
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