Vendor Software Lessons From Consulting Vendor Software

Andy Wickman Father of 2 boys and 1 girl Principal Consultant & Technology Leader at Moser Consulting Avid sports fan Baseball is the best sport GO ASTROS!! Worked in over 20 industries 17+ Years working with SQL Server Love making SQL Server run faster Tech Leader; Basically means I am the main point of contact for SQL Server related things. From presales help to interviewing to helping consultants keep up their skills and learn about SQL Server. I often get asked what we can do to help a client or how we can prove ourselves to a client.

Session purpose People who have worked as a DBA at 1 or 2 places. Goal of this session is to help these DBAs feel better about the stuff they are seeing in their environment. Unfortunately, what you are experiencing is NORMAL! You are all probably smarter than me. I assumed that since vendors make their money building software, they’d include performance and a DBA as a part of the process. WRONG!!

My Vendor Expectations Vendors – 3rd Party Software Make money on software Well designed applications DBAs included thru development process The Threat Vendors, “We won’t support the installation if you don’t …” Clients scared off by not having this support You are all probably smarter than me. I assumed that since vendors make their money building software, they’d include performance and a DBA as a part of the process. WRONG!!

Setup Lesson: NEVER ASSUME VENDOR KNOWS WHAT THEY’RE DOING Get documentation stating hardware & installation requirements Set up a meeting with the vendor to go over requirements Ask questions on EVERYTHING that seems off: What is the most recent version of SQL Server that is supported? Do you have any clients running a more recent version of SQL Server? What is their experience? How much disk space is needed to start? What is the expected size in year 5? Why does the database need to be on its own instance? Why do the database and application need to be on the same server? Why do non-production instances need ENTERPRISE licenses? Why does MAXDOP have to be set to 1?

Setup Vendor documentation says most recent version of SQL Server supported is 2008 R2. SQL Server 2014 is out of Mainstream support. What is the most recent version of SQL Server that is supported? This is one of the most common things I see. About half the time, the documentation hasn’t been updated “Oh, that’s an old version of the document, we support up to 2016” They say the documentation is updated. You’re stuck with 2008 R2. Or are you?

Setup Vendor says the most recent version they support is 2008 R2 What is the timeline for supporting a supported version of the database engine? Do you have any clients running a more recent version of SQL Server? What is their experience? We have clients running up to 2017 They report it runs faster Why do you not support 2017? “We haven’t set it up in our lab and tested it” At this point, its your client’s decision to risk not having vendor support. You’ve done your job and gotten the information to help them make an informed decision.

Setup Documentation says 150 GB. What does this mean? You’ll feel silly when 1 year in and the database is 10 GB. It is very common that this is the figure specified in the documentation as the 5 year (or more) growth size, NOT the startup size. “Is the 150 GB the initial size?” “What is the expected growth per year?” Depending on your client’s disk space policies, this might have just saved them some money and worries over the next couple years.

Setup Vendor says database must be on same server as the application As we all know, it is a best practice to have SQL Server be the ONLY thing running on a server. “Why does the database need to be on the same server as the application” Get the TECHNICAL reason for this Most of the time, this is just the implementation consultant’s PREFERENCE. I’ve only run across 1 application where we had to do this. Application hard-coded connection as LOCALHOST

Setup Vendor says their database has to be the only database on the instance “Can we use a multi-tenant instance?” “How heavily used is this application?” Get the TECHNICAL reason for this This can save the client MILLIONS of dollars! Engaged with a new client. 30 different Vendor Applications. 25 different PROD instances for this Most of the time, this is just the implementation consultant’s PREFERENCE. I’ve only run across 1 application where we had to do this. SQL Jobs that would break if there were other DBs on the instance

Setup Vendor says MUST use Enterprise Edition for NONPROD instances Developer Edition is the SAME as Enterprise. “Can we use Developer Edition instead?” “Will Prod instances still be supported?” 3 Environments Local DR & 2 remote DRs 8 processors per Server 32 processors PER environment. Required SAME for Dev & Test – TOTAL of 96 PROCESSORS – ENTERPRISE $7000 per processor 672K v 224K Can I get a percent of the savings I’m providing the client?

Tuning When it comes to performance tuning within the database, some vendors are more flexible than others. “Why is the code using deprecated joins?” “Is the code using stored procedures or ad-hoc sql?” “If using stored procedures, can we modify these?” “Can we modify indexes?” “Why can’t we drop indexes?”

Tuning - Code “Why is the code using deprecated joins?” “Is the code using stored procedures or ad-hoc sql?” “If using stored procedures, can we modify these?” Even if they’re using sprocs, vendors will almost never let you modify the code. In order to get things changed here, have to go thru entering a bug and hope the vendor takes it seriously. Even then, it’ll take a long time to get to production.

Tuning - Indexes Some vendors are more flexible than others. “Can we modify indexes?” Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes DO NOT DROP indexes. “Why can’t we drop indexes?” Some queries use INDEX HINTS Application is UNUSABLE!! There are no CLUSTERED indexes Content Management System Vendor indexed EVERY POSSIBLE COMBINATION!!

Application Performance Always be honest and do what is best for the client. Sometimes the only thing you can do is provide technical reasons why something is happening. Band-aid until a long-term solution can be found Come to Jesus meeting with Vendor Walked into what we thought was a kickoff meeting. Expecting 2-3 client representatives. Actually walk into a meeting with 15 people (2-3 of which are client) and unsure who is who. 5 years customizing product BLOCKING Vendor had spent 5 years customizing this product. Testing started to prepare to roll it to production and performance was AWFUL BLOCKING issue Start to dig in

Application Design The more I dug, the worse it became. What do you see? Vendor had spent 5 years customizing this product. Testing started to prepare to roll it to production and performance was AWFUL BLOCKING issue Start to dig in

Summary THIS IS NORMAL ALWAYS be honest and do what is best for the client ASK questions on anything and everything that seems suspicious NEVER ASSUME vendor knows what they’re doing

Questions? Questions? Long-term goal of setting in cloud and connecting to network