Category: CrossRealms

Chicago, CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 6)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Increase the Number of TEMPDB Data Files

If you’re having issues with queries that contain insert/update statements, temp tables, table variables, calculations, or grouping or sorting of data, it’s possible you’re seeing some contention within the TEMPDB data files. A lot of Microsoft SQL servers I come across only have a single TEMPDB data file. That’s not a Best Practice according to Microsoft. If you have performance issues when the aforementioned queries run it’s a good idea to check on the number of TEMPDB files you have because often times just one isn’t enough.

 

SQL Server places certain locks on databases, including TEMPDB, when it processes queries. So, if you have 12 different databases all running queries with complex sorting algorithms and processing calculations of large datasets, all that work is first done in TEMPDB. A single file for TEMPDB doesn’t only hurt performance and efficiency but can also slow down other processes running alongside it by hogging resources and/or increased wait times. Luckily, the resolution is super simple if you’re in this situation.

 

Increase the number of data files in TEMPDB to maximize disk bandwidth and reduce contention. As Microsoft recommends, if the number of logical processors is less than or equal to 8 – that’s the number of data files you’ll want. If the number of logical processors is greater than 8, just use 8 data files. If you’ve got more than 8 logical processors and still experience contention, increase the data files by multiples of 4 while not exceeding the number of logical processors. If you still have contention issues, consider looking at your workload, code, or hardware to see where improvements can be mode.

 

PRO TIP: When you increase the number of your TEMPDB data files (on its separate drive… remember?) take this time to pre-grow your files. You’ll want to pre-grow all the data files equally and enough to take up the entire disk’s space (accounting for TEMPDB’s log file).

 

Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Leave a comment or send me an email to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have!

Chicago, CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 5)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Separate Your File Types

It’s too common and important of an occurrence to not mention the need for file separation in this series. If you’re running Microsoft SQL Server of any version, it’s important you separate your file types to different logical or physical locations. “Data” files, “Log” files, and “TEMPDB” files shouldn’t ever live in the same logical drive. This has a big impact on performance and makes troubleshooting issues much harder to isolate when it comes to finding read/write contention as a suspect.

It’s understandable, the quick need of a SQL Server pops up and you install a Development Edition or Express Edition in 10 minutes leaving file types to their default locations. However, once this system becomes a production server, you better know how to relocate these files to new locations or do it right the first time around. It’ll be easier earlier on rather than after the data grows and needs a bigger maintenance window to move.

To keep with Microsoft Best Practices, you can use a drive naming convention similar to what I’ve listed below to help remember where to place your files. If you’re fortunate enough to have physical drive separation, all the power to you. For most servers I see in this situation, it’s best to start with logical separation at a minimum to yield some powerful results.

Filetype Mapping:

– C:\ – System Databases (default MS SQL installation location)

– D:\ – Data Files

– L:\ – Log Files

– T:\ – TEMPDB Files

– B:\ – Backup Files (with redundancy of course…)

Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Leave a comment or send me an email to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have!

CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 4)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Don't Forget to Enable "IFI" on New Installations​

Instant File Initialization (IFI) is a simple feature with performance benefits often left behind on installations of SQL Server that have seen their share of upgrades or migrations. If it wasn’t available in previous versions of Windows Server or Microsoft SQL Server, there’s a good chance someone unfamiliar with its purpose didn’t enable it during an upgrade. Why risk enabling a new feature to a system that’s been stable and passed the test of time? During installations of SQL Server 2016 onwards, this presents itself as the “Grant Perform Volume Maintenance Task” checkbox SQL Server asks you to check on or leave off (1). It can be enabled in older SQL versions as well, though by different means.

The benefits of enabling this means being able to write data to disk faster. Without IFI enabled, anytime SQL Server needs to write to disk it first must zero out previously deleted files and reclaim any space on the disk that was once used. This happens anytime a new database is created, data or log files are added, database size is increased (including autogrowth events), and when restoring a database. Enabling the IFI feature can bypass this “overwriting the disk with zeros” process used in the Windows file initialization process. The resulting benefits to disk performance compound as data grows and especially when non-solid-state media is used.

An analogy to what’s happening here is when you’re formatting a USB thumb drive and being presented with “Perform a Quick Format” checkbox. This would be like enabling IFI where Windows basically just claims all the diskspace quickly and lets you go about your day. Without the Quick Format, Windows goes through and writes zeros to each sector of the drive (which also reveals bad sectors – but unrelated to SQL’s IFI usage) which takes much longer. It’s essentially writing enough to cover all available space, hence taking longer. You’ve probably noticed these differences in formatting speeds before. The performance benefit of Quick Format is like SQL Server with IFI enabled. It’s becomes more evident as the size of storage or data increases.

Note (1) : If you’re using a SQL Domain User Account as a Service Logon Account instead of the service account (NT Service\MSSQLSERVER) SQL Server defaults to, you’ll need to grant the account “Perform Volume Maintenance Tasks” separately under the “Local Policies”. Double check your SQL service account has this right granted to be safe. For instructions on granting permissions, you can follow Microsoft’s documentation here.

If you want to know other ways to enable IFI on your server without the re-installation SQL or want to know how to check if IFI is enabled, feel free to reach out.  Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Leave a comment or send me an email to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have!

CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 3)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Edit Change Database Auto-Growth from Percent-Based to Fixed-Size Growth​

  • Edit
 
 

In the ideal world all the Microsoft SQL Servers I came across would have their databases pre-grown to account for future growth and re-evaluate their needs periodically. Unfortunately, this is almost never the case. Instead, these databases rely on SQL’s autogrowth feature to expand their data files and log files as needed. The problem is the default is set to autogrow data files by 1MB(*) and log files by 10%(*).

Since this was such a big issue with performance, Microsoft made some changes in SQL Server 2016 onward, where the data files and log files will default to a growth of 64MB each. If your server is still using the 1MB autogrowth for data and 10% autogrowth for logs, consider using Microsoft’s new defaults and bump it up to at least 64MB.

Growing a data file by 1MB increments means the server must do extra work. If it needs to grow 100MB – it must send over 100 requests to the server to grow 1MB, add data, then ask the server to grow again and repeat. Imagine how bad this gets for databases growing by gigabytes a day! This is even worse if growing by a percentage. This means the server has to do some computing first before it can grow. Growing 10% of 100MB is easy to account for but as the log file grows it can quickly get out of hand and runaway bloating your storage system while adding CPU overhead as an extra kick in the rear!

The change is luckily very simple. Right-click one of the user databases using SQL Server Management Studio and select “Properties”. From there click on the “Files” page. Next expand the “…” button near the “ROWS” cell and change this to 64MB or greater (depending on how much room you have to work with and growth expected). Do the same for the “LOG” file type. That’s it! You’re done and gave your server some well needed breathing room!

Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Feel free to reach out to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have!

Chicago, CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 2)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Database Compatibility Levels Left Behind Post-Upgrades & Migrations

What’s common with almost every Microsoft SQL Server I come across that’s recently been upgraded or migrated to? The user database compatibility levels are still stuck in the past on older SQL versions. The compatibility level remains on version of SQL the database was created on. This could be several versions back or a mixed bag of databases, all on different versions. When Microsoft SQL is upgraded or databases are migrated to newer versions, the compatibility levels don’t update. It must be done manually. It’s important to update those databases to the most recent version to take advantage of all the newer version’s features. Good news is it’s very simple to change and only take a minute.

Changing the compatibility level upwards doesn’t really hold any risks unless there’s linked servers involved that run on much older versions of SQL. Even then, it’s usually relatively safe change. If you’re unsure, check with your DBA or reach out to me for questions. All you need to do is right-click the database is SQL Server Management Studio, select “Properties”, choose “Options”, and update the drop-down selector for “Compatibility Level” to your current version of SQL Server. It’s important you don’t forget to update these settings after migrating or upgrading to a newer version of MS SQL Server.

Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Feel free to reach out to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have! 

CrossRealms, Microsoft, MS SQL, Tips & Tricks

Tips and Tricks with MS SQL (Part 1)

Dec 6, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Change your Power Plan

By default, Windows chooses “Balanced” as the recommended Power Plan on a new Windows Server deployment. It’s an option you should change and one that’s most often overlooked in my experience. Production SQL servers usually aren’t being powered by mobile laptops with batteries, so we’ll need to use an option that gives SQL more breathing room. The goal is to make sure the server is always on-the-ready and not sacrificing processes or services for the sake of fairly minimal reduction in power consumption.

Instead of “Balanced”, choose the “High Performance” mode. Your SQL Server will thank you. This is easily done by going to the Control Panel, clicking on “Power Options” and picking the power plan more optimized to run SQL Server. Those that are savvy could easily update the changes to all their SQL servers at once by using a Group Policy.

Any questions, comments, or feedback are appreciated! Feel free to reach out to aturika@newtheme.jlizardo.com for any SQL Server questions you might have!   

Chicago, CrossRealms Team

Plants with Sam: Spider Plants

Jul 16, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Hi, it’s Sam with the next segment of Plants with Sam! If you’re a little late to the plant party, my first post with more details about this blog series and why I’m doing it can be found here. 

 

Today I would like to talk about the spider plant. These plants are pretty popular for two reasons: they’re super easy to take care of, and given the right conditions, they produce babies like crazy!

 

I got my own spider plant from a friend, and it was a baby from one of her main plants. The way this works is if the conditions are right (lots of light and warm temperatures, as well as a snug pot), they will send out a shoot from the middle of the plant and at the end of that shoot, a miniature spider plant will grow. It’s best to wait until the tiny spider plant is starting to grow its own roots, then you can just pinch it off and stick it in the soil!

Here are some tips and tricks that will help you care for your spider plant:

Light

Spider plants prefer nice, bright light, but they will also be alright in lower light conditions.

Water

They don’t need water too often, just about every other week or so. Let the soil dry out completely in between waterings. If your water has a lot of salts or minerals in it, it would be best to use distilled water or rainwater.

Soil

Most soils that drain quickly work fine for these plants. It’s best to use soils that don’t have a lot of fertilizer in them.

Temperature

Spider plants like it a bit on the warmer side, so it’s best to keep the temperature between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. They will survive in temperatures as low as 35 degrees, but they will not grow much if the temperature is under 65.

Fertilizer

Less is more when it comes to fertilizer for spider plants. Use a diluted houseplant fertilizer in spring and summer.

If you follow these tips, your spider plant will have no issues being happy and healthy! Don’t forget to stay tuned for more plant care tips!

Chicago, CrossRealms, CrossRealms Team

My Experience at CrossRealms

Jul 16, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Hi, my name is Dayoung KO, I’m from Korea and I am working as a marketing intern at CrossRealms. I am studying abroad here at IIT, and this internship is a part of my schooling. Since the internship class that I’m in is only scheduled for 6 weeks, this will be my last week here at CrossRealms.

 

Thinking back over the past few weeks at CrossRealms, I can describe the experience in a few words: “I’ve learned a lot.” I remember the very first day I met Usama, the president of CrossRealms. He told me that he wants me to learn as much as I can from here as well as share my culture with my co-workers who are from different cultures. As a result, I learned not only about the marketing field I’ve been working in, but I’ve also learned about building personal relationships with coworkers with different cultural backgrounds.

 

One thing I enjoyed about CrossRealms, is that every employee is free to speak their mind. Regardless of what kind of work I’ve done, I participate in almost every meeting for marketing. My co-workers always asked my opinion and had me speak out during the meeting. I felt totally free to give my opinion and ask questions when I did not understand certain things. I could feel myself building real relationships with them and felt that they have truly respected me. My co-workers were interested in Korean things, so we went out as a company to Korean restaurant so that I could talk about Korean culture and food. I know that not all the companies in the US have the same culture, but the culture of CrossRealms is totally different from Korea, in a positive way.

 

I really appreciate having been a part of CrossRealms though it was only for 6 weeks. Thanks to Usama, Sam, Unme, Johanna, Candice, Matt, Constantine, and Jasper! I hope to see you guys again.

 

안녕하세요, CrossRealms에서 마케팅 인턴으로 일하고 있는 한국에서 온 고다영입니다. 인턴십 과정이 포함된 프로그램으로 IIT에서 방문학생으로 수학 중입니다. 이 인턴십 과정이 6주로 예정되어 있기 때문에 이번주가 CrossRealms에서의 마지막 주가 될 것입니다.

 

CrossRealms에서의 지난 몇 주를 회고해보면 딱 한 문장으로 설명할 수 있을 것 같습니다. “많은 것을 배웠습니다.” 창업자인 Usama를 만났던 첫 날을 떠올리면 그가 저에게 했던 말이 기억에 남습니다. 그가 제게 기대하는 유일한 것은 제가 여기서 배울 수 있는 최대한 많은 것을 배우고 다양한 문화권의 동료들과 저의 문화를 나누는 것이라고 했습니다. 그 결과로 저는 제가 일했던 마케팅 분야뿐만이 아니라 문화적 차이와 인간관계를 맺어가는 과정을 배울 수 있었습니다.

 

이 회사에서 좋았던 점 중 하나는 모든 동료들이 서로의 의견에 스스럼없이 자신의 생각을 말합니다. 제가 어떤 업무를 하고 있던 상관없이 저는 거의 모든 마케팅 회의에 참여했는데

 

동료들과 상사는 항상 제 견해를 물어봤고 회의 중에 제 의견을 피력할 수 있도록 도와주었습니다. 그 결과로 자유롭게 제 의견을 말하고, 궁금한 것이 있거나 이해가 안됐을 때 스스럼없이 질문할 수 있었습니다. 저는 그들과 개인적인 인간관계를 형성해가고 있음을 느꼈고 그들이 저를 존중해준다는 느낌을 받았습니다. 또한 모든 동료들이 한국에 관심이 많아서 다같이 한국음식점에 가서 문화와 음식을 나누기도 했습니다. 미국의 모든 회사의 문화가 이와 같지 않은 것은 사실이지만, CrossRealms의 사문화는 완전히 긍정적인 의미에서 한국과는 몹시 달랐습니다.

 

비록 6주에 불과했지만 그 동안 CrossRealms의 구성원이 될 수 있음에 감사했습니다. 제 인턴십 과정은 끝났지만 저는 계속해서 CrossRealms와 함께 나아갈 예정입니다. Usama, Sam, Unme, Johanna, Candice, Matt, Constantine, 그리고 Jasper까지 모두에게 고맙습니다! 다시 만나기를 기대할게요

Written by Dayoung KO

글: 고다영

Chicago, CrossRealms Team

Plants with Sam: Snake Plants

Jul 16, 2019 by Sam Taylor

Hi, Sam here with the latest installment of Plants with Sam! As a reminder, I’m starting a new blog series on the care of plants to complement CrossRealms’ Let’s Grow initiative. My first post with more details can be found here.

 

Today I would like to talk about the snake plant. The snake plant is a part of the Sansevieria family and another common nickname for it is mother-in-law’s tongue.

 

Sansevierias are perfect plants for those who tend to be forgetful, and don’t always water their plants. I just recently got one of my own and love the way it looks. We have one in the office as well. They can grow to be pretty large so they make great floor plants when they are older.

 

Snake plants are very tolerant and can survive most conditions, including low levels of light, as well as drought and just being ignored in general.

Although it is easy to care for, here are a few tips and tricks to keep your snake plant happy:

Light

While sansevierias can handle any light and can handle low light or full sun, it is best to give it indirect light.

Water

Because snake plants are considered succulents, they can be very susceptible to rot. It’s best to not water too often, and barely any water at all during the winter. Try to let the soil dry out completely between waterings.

Soil

Most soils that drain quickly would work fine for these plants, but since they originate from the desert, sandier soils will work best.

Temperature

Temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit are best. Anything below 50 will damage the plant.

Fertilizer

Feed with a mild cactus fertilizer once during the growing season or a balanced liquid slow-release (10-10-10 fertilizer) diluted to half-strength. Don't fertilize in the winter.

If you follow these tips, your snake plant will have no issues being happy and healthy! Don’t forget to stay tuned for more plant care tips!

Chicago, CrossRealms

EXPERIENCE CHICAGO: CUSTOMER REFERRAL PROGRAM

Jul 11, 2019 by Sam Taylor

As a thank you for a decade of innovation and success, we’re introducing a referral program that offers you an opportunity to truly Experience Chicago!

As the summer winds to a close, we ask you to help us continue to grow! If you’re happy with the IT services your company utilizes, refer a friend or business connection so we can continue to improve our services.

When you refer a qualifying client to CrossRealms, we will treat you to your choice of one of these exciting, uniquely Chicago experiences:

  • Chicago Helicopter Experience Tour
  • Chicago Line Architectural Cocktail Cruise
  • Chicago Sports Game
  • Exotic Car Tour

If you’re proud to call us your IT provider, spread the word! If you know someone in need of IT services, you’re eligible! Click the link below to participate and learn more! http://newtheme.jlizardo.com/experiencechicago/