Microsoft has released two new Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 R2. One is for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 and the other one is for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 2. SQL Server 2008 R2 Service … Continue reading →

All ColoradoSQL user group meetings start at 5:30 p.m. and provide food and refreshments. There is no cost to attend so bring a co-worker…or two. These events provide for great learning opportunities as well as networking with other local SQL Server professionals.

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Northern Colorado SQL Server User Group Meeting
 

Date: Monday, June 17th

Main Presentation:

How NOT to Migrate to SQL Server 2012

Do you want to avoid a potential train wreck when migrating to SQL Server 2012? Todd has just finished up a successful side-by-side migration going from SQL2005 to SQL2012. The project began last summer and launched on 6/8/2013. The system in question is a mission-critical OLTP hosting multi-terabyte databases and is used by the company's website and many internal applications. The system is a FCI+AG running on three cluster nodes, each 384GB, 2P8C. We will look at several challenges to the project and how they could have been better managed or avoided. Shortcomings to discuss (lack of): data leadership, communication, budget, physical servers, virtual machines, disk space, technical expertise, application testing, and disaster recovery. Why you don't upgrade other database systems on the same day that have dual-dependencies. We will also look at tools and documentation which assisted in the migration.

 

Presenter: Todd Kleinhans, Senior SQL Server DBA

Todd Kleinhans has been working with SQL Server since 1999. He has worked as a dba, developer, data architect, manager, and consultant. He is currently a Senior SQL Server DBA consultant at Datavail. Todd is also the current VP of Marketing for the Denver SQL Server User Group. He has presented at user groups, SQL Saturdays, and the Rocky Mountain Trifecta.

 

Meeting Location

UNC Loveland Center at Centerra

2915 Rocky Mountain Ave.
Loveland, CO 80538
Silverton Conference Room 2nd Floor

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Colorado Springs SQL

 

Date: Wednesday, June 19th

Main Presentation:

What every DBA should know about NoSQL

NoSQL is one of the buzzwords you hear going around in the developer world. As DBAs inevitably someone will come to us for help or advice on (or possibly choosing) a NoSQL solution. This session aims to give you a basic understanding in order to best answer those questions for your organization.

 

This presentation will cover: What exactly NoSQL is (and is not), introductions to some of the common NoSQL flavors, dispel some common misconceptions about NoSQL, and we will look at when you might (or might not) want to leverage it for a solution.

 

Presenter: Kelly Martinez, Developer / DBA

Kelly Martinez is a Developer/DBA currently working in municipal government. With over 15 years of I.T. experience he has also worked as a Web Developer in the Open Source space and as a System Administrator on both Linux and Windows.

 

Meeting Location

Hyatt Place - Colorado Springs

503 Garden of the Gods Rd W,

Colorado Springs, CO

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BoulderSQL

 

Date: Tuesday, June 18th

Main Presentation:

Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performances

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Unfortunately, the DBA usually gets the blame for any performance issues that crop up later. Don't let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD and gives you the tools and resources to make better hardware selection decisions to support SQL Server OLTP workloads.

 

 

Presenter: Glenn Berry, SQL Server MVP

is a SQL Server MVP, and he has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS, which proves that he likes to take tests. His expertise includes DMVs, high availability, hardware selection, full text search, and SQL Azure.  He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College - University of Denver, where has been teaching since 2000. He recently completed the Master Teacher Program at Denver University - University College. He is the author of two chapters in the book SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, and blogs regularly at http://sqlserverperformance.wordpress.com.Sql Server. He has worked in all aspects of Sql Server including Administration, Database Development, BI and Reporting Services. He has worked in the Finance and Car Dealership industry.  His experience has included International deployments. Tom is the co-leader of the PASS Virtualization chapter and the past President of the Denver Sql Server User Group.

 

Meeting Location

Confio Software in Boulder

4772 Walnut Street

Suite 100

Boulder, CO 80301

 

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DenverSQL

The Denver SQL Server User Group is organized to bring professionals of all career levels that work with Microsoft's SQL Server, together to learn and network with others. There is no charge to attend, and you are encouraged to bring guests. Food and refreshments are provided by event sponsors.

Date: Thursday, June 20th

Time: 5:30 - 8:30 pm

Main Presentation: Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance

Presenter: Glenn Berry, SQL Server MVP

Glenn Berry is a SQL Server MVP, and he has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS, which proves that he likes to take tests. His expertise includes DMVs, high availability, hardware selection, full text search, and SQL Azure.  He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College - University of Denver, where has been teaching since 2000. He recently completed the Master Teacher Program at Denver University - University College. He is the author of two chapters in the book SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, and blogs regularly at http://sqlserverperformance.wordpress.com.Sql Server. He has worked in all aspects of Sql Server including Administration, Database Development, BI and Reporting Services. He has worked in the Finance and Car Dealership industry.  His experience has included International deployments. Tom is the co-leader of the PASS Virtualization chapter and the past President of the Denver Sql Server User Group.

 

Meeting Location

Microsoft
7595 Technology Way, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

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Nate  ...

Microsoft just released Office Mobile for iPhone today! This is the long rumored application that Microsoft has been ready to release for quite awhile, but holding off until it could figure out how the purchasing would work with the Apple App Store. I'm not sure if/how they worked all of that out, but I do know that the app is free in the App Store and it requires an Office 365 Home Premium or ProPlus subscription. I already have a Home Premium subscription, so I was able to just click the button to sign in to my existing account and it worked. There is a button for those that don't have an Office 365 subscription, not sure where that goes, but I assume it will take you to the appropriate Microsoft page to buy the subscription (which is where the issues with the Apple App Store come in).

This app does not currently connect with Enterprise versions of Office 365, as I tried to log into my accounts provided by Microsoft for our User Group and my company and neither worked. The good news is that once you sign in with your Office 365 Home Premium or ProPlus subscription then you can add other sources for documents (called Places in the app) and from there you can connect to any Office 365 Enterprise account (using the Office 365 SharePoint option in the Add a Place screen) or even your Enterprise hosted SharePoint server (using the SharePoint option in the Add a Place screen).

The benefits to the Office 365 Home Premium subscription are huge the more computers that you plan to install the Office applications on to. You get 5 full licenses to the whole Microsoft Office suite for PC or Mac  and it will always be the latest version of Microsoft Office. Plus you get 20GB of extra space on your SkyDrive account, for me that bumped me up around 50GB total. You also get 60 minutes of Skype World minutes to use on a Skype account for calls around the world. And you get free access to all of these mobile applications that Microsoft is starting to roll out for all platforms. I think that it is an awesome deal at $99.99/year or $9.99/month.

For now it is only on the iPhone, but that is great for my use since I always have my iPhone with me and now if I need to do some quick edits or bring up one of the many Office documents I have on my SkyDrive I can view/edit them in the more familiar Office apps, instead of risking editing them on another app that might mess up the document. Hopefully in the near future this will also come out for the iPad, but at least for now I have it on the mobile device that I use the most.

For more information, here is the link to the Microsoft Office blog post about the iPhone app and the Microsoft Office 365 home page.

While this may not seem like it is a Microsoft BI related post, I'm hopeful that this will also lead to the Excel version on the iPhone doing all of the same cool BI stuff that we can do on the desktop in the near future! I'll let you know as I use the apps more if I find any of that or when those new features are added.

Last night I presented "Capture Change and Apply it with Change Data Capture and SSIS" at the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting as a representative of our sponsor for May, Pragmatic Works. Session went well, got some really good questions and comments to make the session even better which I will be working on before I present it again at the Midlands SQL Server User Group next month!

For those that want to use all of my sample code from the presentation, feel free to download it from the embedded link below and try it out on your own computer. The requirements for these samples to work are SQL Server 2012 Evaluation, Developer or Enterprise Editions, AdventureWorks2012 and AdventureWorks2012DW. Also as I mentioned in the session you must have full admin rights to the SQL Server instance that you are going to try and setup CDC on, so a local instance on your own workstation/VM is recommended.

Thanks again to all of those that attended the Denver SQL Server User Group meeting last night!

Today I presented a session as part of Pragmatic Works free "Training on the T's", called "ABCs of CDC with SSIS 2012". The session was attended by 507 people and I received a lot of positive feedback (even though my voice as a bit rough because of a cold that I'm getting over).

PASS Summit is the world's largest and most intensive technical training conference for Microsoft SQL Server and BI professionals. But more than that, it’s your conference – planned and presented by the SQL Server community, for the SQL Server community.

Join the conference in Charlotte and get the top-notch training, technical tips and tricks, and networking and connections you need to take your SQL Server skills to the next level.

What: PASS Summit 2013

Dates: October 15-18, 2013

Location: Charlotte, NC

Venue: Charlotte Convention Center

Registration:

Application & Database Development

The primary audience for this track is developers and database administrators focused on building and supporting successful applications using SQL Server and related technologies. This track provides in-depth knowledge from industry experts who have successfully used the technologies to solve complex tasks and build real solutions. The track is designed to cover all aspects of SQL Server and related application development, including architectural design, coding, testing, troubleshooting, data access methods, and optimization.

BI Information Delivery

Designed for BI architects, application developers, and BI analysts, this track addresses the implementation and use of front-end technologies that deliver BI to business users and enable self-service BI. It will cover concepts and implementation, best practices, and lessons learned. Specific technologies include SQL Server Reporting Services, SharePoint Server, Performance Point Services, PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint, Power View, Report Builder, Excel and Excel Services, Visio, and .NET. Topics will include scorecards, dashboards, and self-service BI.

PASS Summit offers the following 6 tracks to choose from;

BI Platform Architecture, Development & Adminstration

Designed for BI architects, developers, and administrators, this track focuses on BI infrastructure, administration, architecture, and development on the Microsoft BI Platform. Technical content will cover SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Master Data Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, and troubleshooting and administration of SharePoint Server. Focus will be on best practices and lessons learned, upgrading and migration, scale-up and scale-out strategies, and new capabilities to consider for rollout and deployment.

Cloud Application Development & Deployment

This track is for developers and IT professionals interested in leveraging their existing SQL Server skills to take advantage of the benefits of Windows Azure Data Services. It focuses on concepts and application design, best practices, and lessons learned - whether attendees are looking to develop directly in the cloud, utilize a private cloud solution, or extend their existing environment for a hybrid solution.

Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

This track is designed to equip IT professionals for the challenges inherent in the ever-changing database environment and to prepare them to work efficiently with other professionals involved in enterprise database systems. It addresses the diverse range of topics that DBAs face when working in a production database environment, including consolidation and virtualization, application integration, web integration, capacity planning, data warehousing, and security.

Professional Development

This track offers something for every data professional, whether they are a SQL Server administrator or developer or a BI specialist. It includes sessions to help attendees further their career, with focus on technical writing, speaking, project management, career planning, interviewing for a new job, making the move into management, and more.

Click here for more event details

Nate  ...

 

PASS SQLSaturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server.  Please note that in order to attend one of these event, you must register (registration links are provided for each event).  Please register soon as seating is limited, and let friends and colleagues know about the event.  Most events are free, however a nominal fee may be charged so that lunch may be provided (not pizza).

 

#229 / Dublin, Ireland

Date: Saturday, June 21-22, 2013

Time: Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
           Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Cost: Saturday Free + $22.00 (11Euro) For lunch

Venue: Hilton Dublin, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2

This year they are hosting a two-day, training event covering SQL Server 2012, Business Intelligence, Database Administration and Personal Development.

Friday Preconference Training Day (21st of June) will contain 3 fantastic full day training sessions:
     - Productivity and Leadership Skills for the IT Professional by Kevin Kline
     - Self-Service BI and Office 2013 by Chris Webb
     - SSIS, MDS and DQS by Matt Masson

These full-day sessions can be booked for €249.

SQLSaturday - the GATHERING (22nd of June) will be free one-day training community event with a range of well-known Microsoft speakers, MVP speakers and new community speakers.

Register Now!
Admittance to this event is free, however we do have an optional charge €11 to offset the costs of providing lunch for everyone on the day.

Hotel Accommodation
22nd of June will be a busy night for Dublin hotels. The Hilton Hotel have given us a special rate for our delegates of €159 for a single room B&B / €169 for a double room B&B. These rooms will be allocated on a first-come, first served basis.... so don't hesitate, book now to avoid disappointment!

Event details >> Register

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#226 / South Florida - Davie, FL

Location: 3301 College Ave, Davie, FL, 33314

Date: Saturday, June 29, 2013

Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm ?

Cost: Free, Includes lunch

Event details >> Register

Submitted Sessions

Here is the list of sessions submitted so far. The goal is to feature as many different speakers and topics as possible, but space limitations prevent from accepting every session. Details on each session can be found by clicking the links below.

 

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Nate  ...

Join SQL Server professionals from around the world for free online technical training and networking year round. PASS Virtual Chapters (VC) are interest-based forums that unite the SQL Server community through live webcasts with top SQL Server experts, online forums and resources – including an archive of past presentations, and special training events.

 

HASSUG & H-BI Monthly Meeting - June 11, 2013
 In-Person & Online Event

Language: English

Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013  

Time: 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm (Mountain Time)

Cost: Free

Featured Presentation

Extend Your Knowledge with Extended Events!

Speaker: Janis Griffin, Senior DBA Confio Software, Inc.

Summary: SQL Server Extended Events can be used to gather a wide range of performance information, and in troubleshooting in SQL Server. Extended Events use less system resources and provide better information than SQL Profiler and they allow for correlation of SQL Server event data alongside of OS or Application event data. This presentation will explore what Extended Events are, how to set them up and use them in several case studies in 2012.

About Janis: Janis Griffin has over 25 years of DBA experience including design, development and implementation of many critical database instances. Her primary focus has always been database performance. Before coming to Confio, she held many DBA positions, primarily in the Telecom/Network Industry, working with real-time network / OLTP databases. At Confio, her primary focus is assisting customers in finding and fixing database performance issues.

Introduction to Big Data

Speaker: Tyler Chessman

Summary:  Tyler will answer the question: What is Big Data? Then, he will give a DBA's perspective of Big Data. Finally, he will discuss Microsoft's approach to Big Data via Data Management, Data Enrichment, and Insight.

Event details >> Join Meeting

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Virtualization - "Monitoring Virtual SQL Servers"
Professional Development - Online Event

Language: English

Date: Wednesday, June 12, 2013  

Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am (Mountain Time)

Cost: Free

Speakers: Jes Borland & Grant Fritchey

Summary: Many of the metrics used to monitor performance on SQL Server are completely unaffected by whether or not you’re running on a virtual machine. Some of those metrics are seriously impacted. Knowing which metrics are impacted and, more importantly, why, is the purpose of this session. We’ll spend time outlining what you can monitor normally in SQL Server, and we’ll show what parts of monitoring require you to do things differently because of the nature of virtual servers. You will be able to gather meaningful metrics from your own systems using the information presented in this session.

Event details >> Register

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BI Implementation for Healthcare Surveillance
Business Intelligence - Virtual Chapters - Online Event

Language: English

Date: Wednesday, June 19, 2013  

Time: 8:00 am - 9:00 am PDT

Overview: Business Intelligence (BI) systems are collections of tools that provide the ability to transform huge amount of data into Knowledge and, eventually, informed decisions. BI systems are nowadays are among the essential tools in many industries, such as banking and marketing. Many BI implementations have also been conducted in healthcare, and many of them have already shown significant positive results. This session will highlight the utilization of BI in the healthcare surveillance field. It will focus on a BI implementation that took place in one of the heath councils in the state of Florida. The speaker will start by covering the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure of the council prior to the project initial. He will then walk through the different project phases until the system development completion. The speaker will also highlight the key system components and provide a number of demonstrations to illustrate their functionality and benefits.

Speaker: Raed AlHazme

About Raed: Raed AlHazme holds a master’s degree in biomedical informatics. He is also an MCTS in the Development and Implementation of Microsoft Business Intelligence, HL7 certified, and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified. Raed is currently pursuing his PhD in biomedical informatics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry/Rutgers University.Recently, Raed was the key designer, developer and implementer of a complete BI system for Broward Health Planning Council (BRHPC) at the state of Florida. The system included an Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL), data cubes, analytical reports, analytical maps, and a SharePoint 2010 solution to deploy the BI components. Raed is currently working on expanding the BI system to cover the other health planning councils at the state of Florida.

Cost: Free

Event details >> Register

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DArch - Challenge Designing Finance DW

Language: English

Date: Thursday, June 20, 2013  

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (Central Time)

Cost: Free

Summary: Challenges to designing financial warehouses, lessons learnt In today’s rapidly changing financial world, designing robust and durable data warehouses can be a challenge that does not always stand the test of time. In this presentation, we shall look at some of the challenges and design issues that were encountered whilst designing two custom warehouses and the steps that were required to cope with ongoing requirement changes, indecision from management, and shrinking budgets; all of which affected the progress of moving these projects from the design board to a profitable production stage.

Speaker: Steve Simon, Senior Business Intelligence Development Engineer Atrion Networking Corporation

About Steve Simon: Steve Simon is a SQL Server MVP and a senior BI Development Engineer with Atrion Networking. He has been involved with database design and analysis for over 25 years. Steve has presented papers at eight PASS Summits and one at PASS Europe 2009 and 2010. He has just recently presented a Data Quality Services presentation at the PASS Nordic Rally in Copenhagen. Steve has also presented 5 papers at the Information Builders' (IBI) International Summits. He is a PASS regional mentor & chair of the Oracle/SQL Server VC.

Event details >> Register

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PowerPivot and Complex DAX Expressions
BI Virtual Chapter

Language: English

Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013  

Time: 9:00 am - 10:00 pm (PDT)

Cost: Free

Summary: PowerPivot is a powerful new tool able to slice and dice data in memory very fast. In this session you will learn how to build complex situations like, parent child hierarchies, Many to Many, and using inactive Relationships and learn some string manipulations. Come see these complex DAX functions and leave with some great DAX knowledge. Key takeaways: Learn DAX expressions like parent child hierarchies and Many to Many.

Speaker: Mike Davis

About Mike Davis: Mike Davis, MCITP, is a Managing Project Lead and BI Architect at Pragmatic Works. He is an author with books covering Business Intelligence and SSIS. Mike is an experienced speaker and has presented at many events such as several SQL Server User Groups, Code Camps, SQL Server Launches, SQL Saturday, and SQL Rally. Mike is an active member at his local user group (JSSUG) in Jacksonville, FL.

Event details >> Register

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Summer Performance Palooza 2013
Performance Virtual Chapter

Language: English

Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2013  

Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (Mountain Time)

Cost: Free

Featured Presentations

 

9:00 - How the SQL Server Engine Thinks

Speaker: Brent Ozar

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3571390038980185344
Abstract: When you pass in a query, how does SQL Server build the results? We'll role play: Brent Ozar will be an end user sending in queries, and you'll be the SQL Server engine. Using simple spreadsheets as your tables, you'll learn how SQL Server builds execution plans, uses indexes, performs joins, and considers statistics. This session is for DBAs and developers who are comfortable writing queries, but not so comfortable when it comes to explaining nonclustered indexes, lookups, and sargability.

About Brent: Brent Ozar specializes in making SQL Server faster and more reliable. He's a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server and MVP, and he has over a decade of experience. He coauthored Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting, and he loves sharing knowledge at BrentOzar.com.

 

10:00 - Updates to Statistics and the Effect on Query Performance

Speaker: Erin Stellato, Senior Consultant SQLskills.com

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8095340527805459712
Abstract: Someone comes up to you and says “my query is slow.” Where do you begin? Do you start with the query itself? The query plan? SQL Server DMVs? There are many areas to investigate and one common area of focus is statistics. Statistics are an easy target for blame when performance is poor, and updating statistics without sufficient background information is a popular response as a “quick fix”. But what does updating statistics really do to your query plans? And is that the right solution? While updating statistics may solve your problem in the short-term, it may bury the true root cause. If you’re not familiar with what happens to query plans when you update statistics, then don’t miss this session. We’ll set the stage with a review of what statistics are, how the optimizer uses them, and discuss the various ways you can update them. Then we’ll explore what happens to plans when you do update statistics, and you’ll see why that might not always be the right long-term solution.

About Erin: Erin Stellato is a senior consultant with SQLskills and lives in Cleveland, OH. She has over 12 years of technology experience and has worked with SQL Server since 2003. Her areas of interest include internals, performance tuning, and high availability and disaster recovery. Erin is a SQL Server MVP and an active member of the SQL Server community. She is involved with the Ohio North SQL Server User Group and blogs at SQLskills.com/blogs/erin. You can find her on Twitter at @ErinStellato.

 

11:00 - 10 Bad Habits that can Kill Performance

Speaker: Aaron Bertrand, Senior Consultant SQL Sentry, Inc.

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5110462226512473088
Abstract: Bad habits: we all have them. SELECT * is the obvious one; but in this session you will learn about various other habits and why they can be bad for performance. Come learn how these habits develop, what kind of problems they can lead to, and how you can avoid them.

About Aaron: Aaron Bertrand is a senior consultant for SQL Sentry, makers of performance monitoring and event management software for SQL Server, Analysis Services, and Windows. He blogs at sqlperformance.com and sqlblog.com, has been an MVP since 1997, will soon be a three-time SQL Cruiser, and speaks frequently at various community events. You can find his MVP profile at https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Aaron.

 

12:00 - Using Performance Monitor for your Virtual Servers

Speaker: Wendy Pastrick, Consultant BlueGranite

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/641338885939701248
Abstract: Your SQL Servers have now been virtualized, and you are monitoring them successfully. Do you know what the performance is like on the host, though? Using Performance Monitor (perfmon) we will look at the counters you need to have in place to know if your host is performing well. Set up the counters, collect the data and have meaningful conversations with your Virtualization or Infrastructure team.

About Wendy: Wendy Pastrick is a consultant in Chicago with BlueGranite, a Business Intelligence firm. She has been working with SQL Server since 2001 and specializes in server maintenance, migration and upgrades as well as architecting for high availability and disaster recovery. Wendy is an active member of the PASS organization, currently serving on the Board of Directors and often speaks at local user groups and SQL Saturday events. She has recently been awarded an MVP from Microsoft for SQL Server.

 

13:00 - Looney Tuner? No, there IS a method to my madness!

Speaker: Janis Griffin, Senior DBA Confio Software, Inc.

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2019100622824750592
Abstract: SQL Server query tuning is often more art than science and it can quickly eat up a lot of DBA and/or Developer time. This presentation will outline a method for determining the best approach for tuning queries by utilizing response time analysis and SQL Diagramming techniques. Regardless of the complexity of the statement, this quick, systematic approach will lead you down the correct tuning path with no guessing. If you are a beginner or expert, this approach will save you countless hours tuning a query.

About Janis: Janis Griffin has over 25 years of DBA experience including design, development and implementation of many critical database instances. Her primary focus has always been database performance. Before coming to Confio, she held many DBA positions, primarily in the Telecom/Network Industry, working with real-time network / OLTP databases. At Confio, her primary focus is assisting customers in finding and fixing database performance issues.

 

14:00 - Pivoting Performance Data & Pinpointing Problems

Speaker: Brian Flynn

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2073955257666587136
Abstract: Got performance problems? Struggling crack the case? Whether the problem is SQL Server, Windows, IIS or anything else. I've got a technique for logging and analyzing performance data using tools you probably have. Using these tools I have been able to find needles in haystacks and effectively communicate the nature of the problems to people at all levels. You don't need an expensive 3rd party product if you've got elbow grease and the code I'll give you. In this session, I'll demonstrate how I capture and analyze DMV and WMI counters. I'll tell some stories how this helped me solve some mysteries. You could use this pattern for any counters you can get your hands on. Join me for some mystery SQL theatre!

About Brian: Brian Flynn has been working in IT since his college days in 1995, beginning as a desktop support technician. Since graduating with a Computer Science & Mathematics degree from SLU in 1999, he has served in many roles such as web and database development, administration and system engineering of multiple disciplines including web, database, mail and networking. He has been functioning in management capacities since 2008 and enjoys promoting social interaction and team building among I.T. pros.

 

15:00 - Index Methods You’re Not Using

Speaker: Jes Borland, Consultant Brent Ozar Unlimited

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8999427157149141248
Abstract: There are index methods in SQL Server that can enhance the performance of your queries - but most likely, you aren't using them! Using examples, I'll show you how indexed views, filtered indexes, and compressed indexes work; how they can improve performance; and what situations each is best used in. If you have a solid knowledge of index basics and want to add to your collection, this is the session for you!

About Jes: Jes Schultz Borland is a consultant with Brent Ozar Unlimited and a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. She holds an AAS - Programmer / Analyst degree and has worked with SQL Server as a developer, report writer, DBA, and consultant. She is an active member of PASS, President of FoxPASS in northeast Wisconsin, founder of Tech on Tap, and a LessThanDot.com blogger. Jes frequently presents at user groups, SQLSaturdays, and other community events. She is also an avid runner and chef.

 

16:00 - How to Build an Affordable SQL Server Lab

Speaker: Todd Kleinhas, Senior SQL Server DBA consultant Datavail

RSVP: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5686199500230306048
Abstract: Do you have an affordable lab set-up running SQL Server 2012 on Windows 2012 to learn and play with? In the 70-462 Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases Training Kit, you will need six (!) machines on their own domain to complete the exercises. Using VMWare Workstation 9 ($250), Todd will show how to set up your lab environment on a ~$500 laptop running Windows 7 64-bit, 8GB of RAM, and an SSD drive using less than 40GB of space for the six virtual machines! Using free iso(s), we will run through several of the set-up exercises from the 70-462 Training Kit in order to build out the training lab. Participants will leave with enough knowledge and links to resources to build their own affordable SQL Server 2012 lab.

About Todd: Todd Kleinhans has been working with SQL Server since 1999. He has worked as a dba, developer, data architect, manager, and consultant. He is currently a Senior SQL Server DBA consultant at Datavail. Todd is also the current VP of Marketing for the Denver SQL Server User Group. He has presented at user groups, SQL Saturdays, and the Rocky Mountain Trifecta.

More Event details

Nate  ...

I will be speaking at the Boulder SQL Server User’s Group on June 18, 2013 and at the Denver SQL Server User’s Group on June 20, 2013. In both cases, I will be presenting an updated version of  Hardware 201. … Continue reading →

For those not aware, I’ve been selected as a presenter at this year’s PASS Summit in Charlotte, NC.  I’m deeply honored by the selection and look forward to the experience.  The topic is something I’ve been working on for sometime now:  How should administrators approach monitoring?  This seems like a simple question, but go Bingle [...]

I am curious as to how other DBA’s handle changes to your environments. Specifically changes to your databases. Say for example that you have an application that has been designed in house. A development team develops the application, the services and the database changes that are required to support those changes. As an operational or […]

Wow, take a vacation for a week and all kinds of great things get announced for SQL Server!

For those that missed it, with SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 4 included changes that allow for Power View to now access Multidimensional cubes! Previously Power View was only able to use the newer Tabular Data Models, but now you can use your existing Multidimensional cubes built in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). This change also makes it so that you can write the same DAX queries in your Power View reports against those same Multidimensional cubes without requiring you to use MDX (MultiDimensional eXpressions). The only downside is that it only works with the Power View integrated into SharePoint 2010/2013. Eventually the Power View that is built into Excel 2013 should be able to do this as well, but at this time that update is not yet available (keep your eye on my blog I will make sure to mention it as soon as it is available).

The other big news came out of TechEdNA 2013 in New Orleans today, the next release of SQL Server is going to be named SQL Server 2014! I heard rumours that the SQL Server team was moving away from the R2 name that they used to use for the in-between release (Windows Server teams are still using R2 as they announced Windows Server 2012 R2 as well). The biggest new feature of SQL Server 2014 will be the previously announced "Hekaton" project or In-Memory OLTP as they are calling it now. Should help to provide some amazing performance for databases. Along with that there are many more updates to futher add more cloud/Azure functionality and make it easier to transition to that from traditional on-prem servers. For more details, see this post from the Microsoft SQL Server team and keep you eyes here as I will keep you updated on what I hear as well!

More exciting times ahead with SQL Server, glad I got those SQL Server 2012 certifications out of the way, so that I can be ready for the 2014 versions next year!

Thanks to everyone that attended my "ABCs of CDC with SSIS 2012" at SQLSaturday #200. Got lots of great questions during the session and great reviews/feedback after the session as well. As promised, here is the link to download all of the materials from the session.

I made a huge mistake that to be honest I am embarrassed to admit to. Yet for some unknown crazy reason I have determined it is ok to blog it. What did I do? I didn’t test a new piece of software before I installed it on a server where it could impact my monitoring […]

There are three new upcoming Immersion Event classes from SQLskills, including one that I will be teaching, which is the two-day IEHW class on September 18-19. I am really excited to get the chance to teach the IEHW class, and … Continue reading →

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SQLSaturday #190 in Denver on September 28th is going to host pre-cons on Friday, September 27th! This was something that the Denver SQL Server User Group wanted to do after the great success we had last year with SQLSaturday #169.

While we do charge for these pre-cons, we think that at $99 per person for a full day of training it is an amazing value. Since this is our first year offering pre-cons at our SQLSaturday event we didn't want to go overboard with offering too many options, so we selected 3 pre-cons that we think offer a great range of topics for different SQL Server Professionals (thanks to everyone that submitted pre-cons, we wish we could have hosted all of them). Below are topics and speakers that we have selected along with the links to the full abstract and registration page on EventBrite:

Real World SSIS: A Survival Guide by Tim Mitchell
SQL Server Internals from the Practical Angle by Dmitri Korotkevitch
Predictive Analytics in the Enterprise by Carlos Bossy

All 3 of these pre-cons will be all day on Friday, September 27th and the registration fee does include a continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and refreshments throughout the day. The location for the pre-cons is the same as last year's SQLSaturday in the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church - Community Life Center (10150 E. Belleview Avenue, Englewood, CO 80111) and there will be wi-fi available to all attendees.

If you have any questions about the pre-cons, please email the event committee.

While I'm on the subject of SQLSaturday just wanted to remind everyone that I am presenting my "ABCs of CDC with SSIS 2012" session at SQLSaturday #200 in Philadelphia on June 1st, so please register if you are going to be in that area at that time (the registration is currently waitlisted, but please register as there might be cancellations and the organizers will keep you updated via email). I will actually be flying out to Philadelphia on the Wednesday before to spend some time with my family that lives in the area, so looking forward to some vacation time on the East coast before the SQLSaturday. Hope to see you all there!

I now  have a red, P85 Tesla Model S. I picked it up at the Denver Tesla Service Center on May 3, 2013.  After slightly more than a week of ownership, I am still extremely happy. It is incredibly quick … Continue reading →