Real-Time Monitoring, Diagnostics, Tuning…
…for your SQL Server and Windows Server metrics. Find out about real-time information, historical reporting, performance and diagnostics information and a whole lot more. SQL Sentry Performance Advisor brings a new, killer tool that you can use to dig into and keep track of your servers. Check it out – it may be just the ticket for getting your arms around your server performance and management.
Data Chain of Evidence
I had several people write in with suggestions that the best way to make sure information is "pure" and accurate is to use the equivalent of an accounting system-type double-entry system. Basically, checks and balances to make sure the information used for financials is correct. Look at the basic numbers. validate them, make sure they stand up to checks from other sources.
It’s a solid approach. (Can you hear the "but…" coming?) But…
I can’t see how this is possible from an everyday Joe perspective. If you’re just pulling your information from the database using a view you created or using a view created for you, or even just re-sorting your worksheets and filtering on values… how do you know it’s the right information? So many of you wrote in to say that part of the data usage responsibility lays with the users of that information. They have ask the right questions, so architects can extract the right information to satisfy the questions. Yes, agreed.
I don’t think there is an answer though, for those that are using more ad-hoc means, or even "passed-along" information (a worksheet from someone else sent to you for further modification and usage). Validating that data, and the changes that may have been made to it since inception, is extremely challenging. Probably so much so that it becomes too expensive (time- or resource- or pain-wise) to really check out the numbers.
The net? Think twice about information you’re using. Not that you shouldn’t use it, just think about it. Think about where it comes from, who has touched it, what they did with the information, how they determined that it solved your request, etc. Just consider it, make sure it’s what you really want to know and need to see, and that it’s based on the right core, foundational data elements.
You do this by asking questions.
"Where did this information come from?"
"Was it pulled together from more than one source – and if so, how, and how did you check it?"
"Is this information re-checked to make sure it foots to the source from time to time? When was the last check?"
…etc.
You’ll learn a lot about where it came from, how it was derived and whether it’s what you really should be basing decisions on in your work.
Watch the Latest SQL Server Video Program
SQL Server 2008 Features: Chris Shaw takes a look at some of the new features of SQL Server – and how they work. This is a special airing of his session from the June Virtual Conference. Find out about key features, what benefits they offer, how they could apply to your work and your upgrade efforts and more.
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