Moving to SQLBlog.com

At the beginning of the week I was contacted by Adam Machanic and asked if I was interested in moving my blog from Blogger to SQLBlog.com which is run by Adam, and Peter Debetta. This was originally something that I thought would be easy to do, but when it came down to it and I had to make a decision it was really hard to do. I've spent the last year blogging on this site, building a reader base, and using the content here to help answer questions on various forums. Currently I get just under 200 hits a day and have over 50 subscribed readers to this blog, so why would I want to move my blog?

Well, the main reason is the extended reach that exists for SQLBlog.com due to the other bloggers who blog there including Kalen Delaney, Kevin Kline, Adam Machanic, Simon Sabin, Peter Debetta, Aaron Bertrand, and numerous others. Now some might call me a sell out, but in reality the whole reason that we blog is to have people read what we write. I've been pretty successful building readership on my own, but by blogging at SQLBlog.com, I can grow my readership even further and faster.

So that being said, if you follow me here, I hope you will continue to follow me on SQLBlog.com. I plan to leave this blog in place since there are thousands of links to its content online and I would hate to orphan those links. You can follow my new posts on the SQLBlog RSS feed for my new blog at:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/rss.aspx

The link to the actual blog is:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/

Wordle and blog content

This post has been migrated to my new blog on SQLBlog.com. You can find this post at the following address:
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jonathan_kehayias/archive/2009/01/16/wordle-and-blog-content.aspx

Windows Live Writer 2009 Released

... and yes this blog post was made with the newest non-Beta version of the tool.  I usually just stick to post regarding SQL Server, but this one has nothing to do with SQL Server aside from the fact that I use Windows Live Writer to Blog about SQL.  If you have a blog, are new to blogging, or are planning on blogging in the future, give Live Writer a look test.  It is free, and it connects to most public blogging sites without any real configuration.  All you have to do is install it, point it to your blog, provide your username and password and it is ready to publish anything you type up.

http://download.live.com/writer

Some reasons I use Live Writer:

1. I can start a new blog entry and save it locally when I get ideas that I'd like to blog about but don't have the time to dedicate to writing the entry.
2. It has a Microsoft Word like interface that is familiar.
3. It accepts plugins that allow you to do things like add tag clouds, insert videos, pictures, formatted code (this doesn't work out so hot with blogger.com as I learned a few months back due to CSS issues and overlaps).

You can also manage multiple blogs with a single install of Live Writer.  I think it is one of the better tools I have in my blogging toolbox.

Time to Rant : Applications and Administrator Rights

It is 2009, and I am shocked to find that applications today still show up with a requirement to be a sysadmin on SQL Server, and in the case of one particular application I am helping troubleshoot today, a Local Administrator on the SQL Server machine.  As an application developer myself, I understand the due diligence required to properly design an application to follow proper security best practices, and it isn't hard to do if you do it up front.  Since I am not one to roll over on security I am willing to spend the hours/days to figure out the appropriate rights necessary for an application to work in SQL without being a sysadmin, but I don't know many people who can/will do that much leg work.

So why does the app need to be a sysadmin in the first place?  All to often it is just because that is how it was written, and it makes it easiest.  Often there is absolutely no need to be a sysadmin.  SecurityAdmin and DBCreator roles are initially needed to do the install so that the login can create the database for the app and setup security properly for it.  After this, DBO rights to the database is all that it actually needs, and you can drop the server level roles from the login.

Another place I see that apps need elevated rights is where the application has builtin administrative functions.  One app I have seen has a console that will allow the user to change max server memory for SQL Server from the application.  Thank you no, that is my job, and I don't want/need some application admin playing with my server configuration.  Why do application developers think that this kind of thing is a good idea?  We already have applications to manage SQL Server with.  I think that this is one of the reasons that the quality of applications that are out there has decreased in recent years.  Rather than create a focused application that solves one problem, it seems like application vendors want to do it all, which generally only means one thing, they won't do any of it very good.

So that leaves a question for the community of readers:  What do you do with applications like this?  I know in past discussions on SQL Server Central that some people use virtualized SQL Servers to solve this problem, and isolate the database on its own VM, but is that really a solution?  Now you get server sprawl and added licensing costs because the application, for lack of a better word, sucks?