SQL Server Operations Studio

Since I reformatted my Surface Pro 4 so I could have my Docker running again, I also needed to recover my local SQL Server instance I like to have available on my PC.

This was a perfect time to get everything up and running, but instead of my standard way of doing this, use SQL Server Operations Studio, (SSOS).

The Lesson

Most SQL Server DBAs have a GUI took to assist in managing their database environment and unlike Oracle DBAs, (at least before multi-tenant and the cloud) it was common for SQL Server DBAs, (on average) to have considerably more databases to manage on average than Oracle DBAs have.  Some of this is due to the architectural differences, such as a single SQL Server having many user databases vs. Oracle having one database instance with many schemas inside a database.  If you visualize this difference, you realize that the maintenance and backups of each user database would be higher than the single database instance for the Oracle DBA.  These types of differences required the SQL Server DBA to rely on automation and tools to ease their day-to-day demands.

From Microsoft, the SQL Server Management Studio, (aka SSMS and who’s ancestor was called Enterprise Manager) is provided with the installation or as an add on in recent versions.  Numerous vendors have provided incredible products to monitor, manage and support 100’s to 1000’s of databases, including Idera, who I proudly serve as a 2018 ACE.

There are still presentations offered at SQL Saturdays offering tips and tricks with SSMS, even though it’s a 32-bit product, which tells you how important a management tool is to a DBAs sanity, (remember, I made my name on the Oracle side with their Enterprise Manager, so Oracle DBAs may be hesitant to admit it, but they depend on one almost as often!)  With the fact that it is a 32-bit tool and the importance of the tool, Microsoft launched SQL Server Ops Studio.  It reminds me of the love child between SSMS and the original Oracle SQL Developer, which isn’t a bad thing.  Consider what Oracle SQL Developer is today, so that’s where I’m going here.

Not Your Father’s SSMS

The first thing you notice is that you are now working with a modern application that is 64-bit and built for extensibility.  No, it doesn’t have the legacy features that many DBAs will require to get them to transition over immediately, but you can build metrics and widgets to do much of it right now.  It also supports today’s hybrid-  both Azure and On-premises environments, which is something SSMS just isn’t prepared for.

I’ve already reached out to the SSOS group on Twitter to find out how I can offer my feedback to help.  I was part of the Customer Advisory Board for Enterprise Manager before I joined Oracle on the EM team, so I’m aware that this experience could be exceptionally helpful.  It is crucial to have customer feedback to build a product to fulfill what an cloud management and infrastructure tool features.

So, if you haven’t downloaded it and tested it out, consider it.  I’ll be blogging a few posts here and there to offer some insight on my own experiences with the product going forward.