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Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 04:53:22
Please...I need your sympathy. I REALLY need your sympathy!!!

I just found out that the cursor-infested eav-modeled system I'm responsible for and that I have been crying about for 6 months (http://www.sqlteam.com/FORUMS/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=118113) that ALL the 800+ functional tables in the database are heap tables with no clustered index. There are plenty of indexes, just no clustered ones. I probably should've found out this before but it just didn't occur to me that anyone would be THAT stupid...

- Lumbago

spirit1
Cybernetic Yak Master

11752 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 04:58:00
there, there... i'm sure there's a valid, serious and highly prfessional reason for this

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Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 06:49:11
I've thought a little about it and I wonder: is this really something I should have noticed before as a dba? This is a 3rd party system we've been using on a small scale up until about a month ago and now it's our primary CRM system for all our customers. Is this something you guys check when you start administering a new system...? Maybe I should've posted in the admin forum instead...

- Lumbago
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 06:49:56
You obviously don't understand enterprise-level n-tier heap structures, these will map perfectly to your .Net classes.
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Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 07:04:41
quote:
You obviously don't understand enterprise-level n-tier heap structures, these will map perfectly to your .Net classes.

Hey whitefang; if you ever need I job I know the perfect place for you! They do mostly java but you can just write a custom .net-to-java enterprise wrapper and you're all set

- Lumbago
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RickD
Slow But Sure Yak Herding Master

3608 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 09:02:59
quote:
Originally posted by Lumbago

quote:
You obviously don't understand enterprise-level n-tier heap structures, these will map perfectly to your .Net classes.

Hey whitefang; if you ever need I job I know the perfect place for you! They do mostly java but you can just write a custom .net-to-java enterprise wrapper and you're all set

- Lumbago


Is there an Access back end though? I don't think he could deal with anything more complex.
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SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 09:09:40
Lumbago, be a man and bite the bullet!

Seriously, have your project leader contact the vendor and ask for a valid reason there are no clustered indexes.
Inform you PL about the pros and cons about having CI.



E 12°55'05.63"
N 56°04'39.26"
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blindman
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2365 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 09:22:24
quote:
Originally posted by robvolk

You obviously don't understand enterprise-level n-tier heap structures, these will map perfectly to your .Net classes.


Zing!

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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)

7020 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 10:43:16
quote:
Originally posted by Lumbago

I've thought a little about it and I wonder: is this really something I should have noticed before as a dba? This is a 3rd party system we've been using on a small scale up until about a month ago and now it's our primary CRM system for all our customers. Is this something you guys check when you start administering a new system...? Maybe I should've posted in the admin forum instead...

- Lumbago




Don't kick yourself for not noticing this. Just consider that you might not know yet about much worse things that are wrong with the system.

Of the 50 or so vendor developed systems that I have looked at, I have seen exactly one that appeared to be designed by someone who actually understood logical and physical database design.

I would say that the majority of the vendor designed systems fail to implement some or all of primary keys, clustered indexes, foreign key constraints, normalized tables, or any of the basic things you would expect in a well designed application. I don’t even want to talk about stored procedures with error checking and error messages. We have one vendor application that makes extensive use of server side cursors so that with even small number of users I see over 1,000 batch requests per second.

I would say that over all, vendor designed systems are no better or worse that ones developed by in-house developers or consultants. One consultant recently told me that he didn’t implement primary keys because they were only of theoretical interest with no value in the real world. I just hope that the people designing buildings, bridges, and the cars we drive have more sense.




CODO ERGO SUM
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RickD
Slow But Sure Yak Herding Master

3608 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 11:41:54
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Valentine Jones
[...]
One consultant recently told me that he didn’t implement primary keys because they were only of theoretical interest with no value in the real world.
[...]

Sorry, but you just made my day..
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 13:32:35
We need a poll for "biggest, most eternal feud of all time":

- Hatfield vs McCoy
- Capitalism vs Socialism
- Oracle vs SQL Server
- Developers vs DBAs <-- this is where my money is

Any others?
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webfred
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

8781 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 13:52:45
quote:
Originally posted by robvolk

We need a poll for "biggest, most eternal feud of all time":

- Hatfield vs McCoy
- Capitalism vs Socialism
- Oracle vs SQL Server
- Developers vs DBAs <-- this is where my money is

Any others?


enterprise-level n-tier heap structures vs CI


No, you're never too old to Yak'n'Roll if you're too young to die.
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DonAtWork
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

2167 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 14:01:10
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Valentine Jones
[...]
One consultant recently told me that he didn’t implement primary keys because they were only of theoretical interest with no value in the real world.
[...]

Its ok to say whitefang. Really.



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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)

7020 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 14:48:07
quote:
Originally posted by RickD

quote:
Originally posted by Michael Valentine Jones
[...]
One consultant recently told me that he didn’t implement primary keys because they were only of theoretical interest with no value in the real world.
[...]

Sorry, but you just made my day..


He also explained that he stored dates in CHAR(8) columns (YYYYMMDD) in a transaction table because that's the way he needed them on a report.

At least he had an overbearing and arrogant attitude to complement his complete lack of knowledge of database design.





CODO ERGO SUM
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 14:57:28
So he's been promoted to management then? Or went over to sales?
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SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 15:05:04
Or following the "those who can't, teach..." dogma?



E 12°55'05.63"
N 56°04'39.26"
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GilaMonster
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4507 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 15:22:06
<offers a shoulder>
It could be worse. It could be a denormalised design with no primary keys, no foreign keys, and thousands of 'temporary' tables that were never dropped.

--
Gail Shaw
SQL Server MVP
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Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 15:35:08
It can always get worse. But I guess you know you're in for some good times when updating 500 000 rows with some data takes 19 hours and the vendor says it's due to a disk problem.

- Lumbago
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)

7020 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 16:09:19
Guess you're going to need one of these:
http://www.fusionio.com/PressDetails.php?id=81

CODO ERGO SUM
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Lumbago
Norsk Yak Master

3271 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-12 : 16:16:59
That would be something

- Lumbago
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GilaMonster
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

4507 Posts

Posted - 2009-05-13 : 00:37:39
quote:
Originally posted by Lumbago

But I guess you know you're in for some good times when updating 500 000 rows with some data takes 19 hours and the vendor says it's due to a disk problem.


Head->desk

The system with permanent 'temp' tables was real. I took a look onday, because some operations were slow, and I couldn't figure why.
I found over 20 000 table, all supposedly dropped after they were finished with. Obviously someone never heard of #Temp tables

--
Gail Shaw
SQL Server MVP
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