Buck Woody : Conferences, SQL Server

A SQL Saturday in Cambridge – Buck Woody’s Ragtime Database Workshop

BuckWoody — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:49:00 GMT

The SQL Server community is really engaged. They are an active bunch on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, they help each other on forums, they attend conferences. But that isn’t enough interaction – the community started a grass-roots effort to hold local conferences on a Saturday. Free conferences. Odds are there’s one near you… http://www.sqlsaturday.com/default.aspx … and if not, you can start one.

Sessions at SQL Saturdays are all over the map, and there’s something for (almost) everyone, from Business Intelligence to Database Administration and Development. Some of these events have “training days” associated with them – longer, more in-depth training that has a fee. I’ve taught quite a few of these, and of course I’ve done my share of other presentations at the events as well.

I’m honored to be presenting at the Cambridge, UK SQL Saturday this year (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/162/eventhome.aspx) in September. For one thing, I used to live near there and plan to take the family with me to show them my old stomping grounds. For another, I’m excited about the sessions I get to present.

The Training Day

Friday I’ll be leading one of those training days – and I’ll be delivering a very important workshop, where I’ll cover SQL Server – all of it. OK, maybe not *all* of it, and maybe you won’t be a complete PhD after the class, but we’ll do a complete immersion in learning SQL Server as a product from the ground up. It’s a workshop format, so no sitting and listening to someone droning on and on for hours. You’ll be asked to bring a laptop, and do actual work on the product from the first few minutes of the 8-hour day to the last of the workshop. You’ll be jumping in from the very start, and in deep until the end of the day.

But wait – this is kind of a “beginner” thing, isn’t it? Shouldn’t I be doing something on the internals of the locking mechanism of the hashing system in memory on x64 architectures, with complete code diagrams? Shouldn’t you be able to snatch the T-SQL pebble from the master’s hand when you’re done, or be able to shoot the wings off of an XML fly when you’re done?

No.

We need this kind of session. For one thing, you can get that depth in other sessions. For another, we need to have a place for someone that wants to learn SQL Server but doesn’t have a lot of time to do that. We need something relatively inexpensive that a boss can send a developer, administrator or new employee to learn how to take over the SQL Server, or augment the DBA team. We need a place where good habits are formed, and where someone can branch out into a new part of technology, into one of the best places in tech to be – data.

After you’re done with this session, stick around for Saturday – now all those presentations will make more sense. And you’ll be able to network with a lot of folks that already do what you learn about on Friday, and who knows – find out where to look for work in this amazing career field.

What will you learn?

You’ll start with knowing that SQL Server is a database product by Microsoft. That’s all the pre-requisite you need, other than being the technology industry. From there we’ll cover:

The Data Professional Career
Installing, setting up and configuring the right Edition of SQL Server for the job (including SQL Azure)
Database engine fundamentals – How does the engine work, what are the components, what can you configure and tune
Transactions, Locking and Blocking
Creating and managing databases
Database options and their impact
Database Objects including Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Functions and more
General maintenance including backups and recovery
Security fundamentals including users, roles, and object security
Performance tuning fundamentals including indexes and query research tools
Multiple resources to help you get to the next level

In 8-hours. Come ready to learn. You’ll need a laptop, and complete focus for a few hours. You’ll leave with the ability to manage and work with a SQL Server system – and you’ll learn what to do next.

Who should go?

If you’re new to Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS’s) but not technology, and you’re looking to expand your technical reach, coming from another platform (to be sure, there will be some repeat info here), want to explore a new tech career area, want to learn more about developing against an RDBMS or know someone who does.

The registration for the training day is here: https://www.regonline.co.uk/?eventID=1120017&rTypeID=242030

What else are you doing whilst (I love saying whilst) there?

I’m also pleased to be providing the keynote on Saturday. (I can’t wait to see what I’m going to say), as well as two other sessions – more on those soon. My daughter wants to be a Zoologist, so while we’re there we’ll be visiting the Zoology museum at one of the colleges, I’ll probably eat too much and potentially go punting. I’ll also mingle with you, my SQL Family, and we’ll just generally have a good time.

If you’re not busy in September, and even if you are, make plans to come check all this out. It promises to be awesome. (Americans think everything is awesome)

See you there.

Big Data and the Cloud - More Hype or a Real Workload?

BuckWoody — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:57:36 GMT

Last week Microsoft announced several new offerings for “Big Data” - and since I’m a stickler for definitions, I wanted to make sure I understood what that really means. What is “Big Data”? What size hard drive is that? After all, my laptop has 1TB of storage - is my laptop “Big Data”?

There are actually a few definitions for this term, most notably those involving the “Four V’s” Volume, Velocity, Variety and Variability. Others disagree with this definition. I tend to try and get things into their simplest form, so I’m using this definition for myself:

Big data is defined as a large set of computationally expensive data that is worked on simultaneously.

Let me flesh that out a little. To be sure, “Big Data” has a larger size than say a few megabytes. The reason this is important is that it takes special hardware to be able to move large sets of data around, store it, process it and so on. (large set)

If you store a LOT of data, but only use a small portion of it at a time, that really isn’t super-hard to do. It’s mainly a storage issue at that point. But, if you do need to work with a large portion of the data at one time, then the memory, CPU and transfer components of the system have to adapt to be responsive - new ways to work with that data (game theory, knot-algorithms, map-reduce, etc.) need to be brought into play. (computationally expensive)

Once that data is loaded into the processing area (memory or whatever other mechanism is used) it must be worked on in parallel to come back in a reasonable time. You have two options here - you can scale the system up with more internal hardware (CPU’s, memory and so on) or you can scale it out to have multiple systems work on it at the same time using paradigms such as map/reduce and so on. Actually, when you lay this out in an architecture diagram, scale up or out doesn’t actually change the logical structure of the process - in scale out the network becomes the bus, and the nodes become more RAM and computing power. Of course, there are changes in code for how you stitch the workload back together. (worked on simultaneously)

So back to the original question. Is Big Data, as I have defined it here, a workload for Windows and SQL Azure? Absolutely! In fact, it’s probably one of the main workloads, and I believe it represents the latest, and perhaps also the earliest frontier of computing. Jim Gray, a former researcher here at Microsoft and a hero of mine, was working on this very topic. I believe as he did - all computing is simply an interface over data.

Microsoft has multiple offerings on the topic of Big Data. In posts that follow from myself and my co-workers, we’ll explore when and where you use each one. Whether you are a data professional or a developer, this is the new frontier - don’t wait to educate yourself on how to leverage Big Data for your organization.

Hadoop on Windows Azure and SQL Server - Microsoft’s partnership to include Hadoop workloads on Windows Azure and SQL Server/Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW)

LINQ to HPC - Microsoft’s High-Performance Computing SKU of HPC is now in Azure

Windows Azure Table Storage - A key/value pair type storage with full partitioning that is immediately consistent, able to handle huge loads of data and works with any REST-compatible language

Other offerings - Including the new Data Explorer, Project Daytona (with a Big Data Toolkit for Scientists and researchers), Power View and more.

The era of Big Data is here. And you can use Windows and SQL Azure to bring it to your organization.

SQL Server 101: Back to Basics at SQL Bits

BuckWoody — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:47:30 GMT

I’m traveling to the United Kingdom (York, England, to be specific) in September, joining Brent Ozar, Brad McGehee, Kevin Kline, Simon Sabin – and a host of other top-notch speakers. They will be covering deep technical topics ranging from server health checks to SANs and Virtualization. So what will I be talking about? SQL Server 101.

Every time I attend a conference like this, I’m amazed at the depth of technical information you can learn about. And for those of us who make a living at SQL Server, they are a great bargain – you get a “knowledge accelerator” that helps you do your job.

But there’s a segment of folks that don’t always get served at these events. There are lots of technical professionals that work as system administrators, developers, or all-around technical professionals that have been asked to manage a SQL Server system. And there’s also a segment of technical folks that want to learn to be a data professional, but don’t know exactly where to start.

I’m giving a one-day session on Thursday, September 30th at SQL Bits called “SQL Server for the Technical Professional”. It’s an intense, one-day immersion into the world of SQL Server, and will give you a hands-on, lab-style class that takes a technical professional from zero to sixty (kilometers per hour) on SQL Server. You’ll take this concrete information with you:

• SQL Server Architecture

• Server and Database Components

• Tools and utilities for working with SQL Server

• Designing a simple database project

• The Basics of Transact-SQL

• A security primer

• Maintenance and Monitoring basics

During the session, you’ll create a full database project that encompasses all of these concepts.

I’m sure that the folks that read this blog already have a lot of this information – but you probably know a technical professional who has to manage a SQL Server, or who wants to become a data professional. If they know what a Windows Service is, then they’re ready to come. Just have them bring a laptop and tell them to be ready to learn:

I’m also speaking to the SQL Server professionals as well – on Friday the 1^st of September I’ll show you how to create a Business Continuity Plan, and on Saturday we’re planning on a panel discussion on the DBA career – something you don’t want to miss! It’s cheaper than the college course I teach, and for many other conferences and training events. For £450, you get this pre-conference session on Thursday plus full days of training on Friday and Saturday.

Full conference agenda is here: http://sqlbits.com/information/Agenda.aspx

I hope to see you there!

Exploration and Understanding

BuckWoody — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:49:18 GMT

As most of you know, I tend to spend a little time on social networks like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. On one of those networks, Ken Simmons sent the following thought: “One hour sessions give you great ideas you can explore; full day sessions give you in depth knowledge you can use.” He was talking about the difference in a one-hour session and an all-day event at the Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) summit.

He brings up a great point. Many sessions at a technical conference have a “level” associated with them – 100 for beginners through 400 for advanced topics. This can be challenging – if you give a 400-level presentation, you have to assume a great deal of knowledge on the part of the audience, and in one hour you can only cover something very specific at that level. For instance, you could cover in one hour the details of how the locking mechanism works, but only in specific circumstances.

An all-day (or at least more than a few hours) workshop, on the other hand, allows you to start with the basics and move all the way to some fairly advanced information. When you think about it, it’s where you spend the time, in-class or on your own. The issue is when you forget this, and believe that a speaker can get you from 100 to 400 level in one hour – it just doesn’t work like that.

I’ve got an article here on how to attend a technical conference. Might be worth a look.

Presentation Links: SQL Server Performance Tuning (Quest)

BuckWoody — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:54:15 GMT

I worked with a team of folks brought together by Quest software, and we presented multiple sessions on SQL Server Performance Tuning. Here are the links I mentioned during those presentations:

Blitz! SQL Server Takeovers (Brent)

You're minding your own business in your corner office - well, no, you're a DBA, so it's just your cubicle - when somebody says, "Did you know about this SQL Server over here?" Suddenly, you have to find out what the server's doing, how it was set up, and whether things are working correctly. In this real-time session, Brent will show you how he tackles unknown servers in 60 minutes to find problems, take an inventory, and set the server up for easier management down the road.

· SQL Server Best Practices Article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966412.aspx

· How to determine proper SQL Server configuration settings: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319942

· Setting Server Configuration Options (SQL Server 2008 R2, other versions available) : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189631.aspx

· Running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment - Best Practices and Performance Recommendations: http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/9/4/d948f981-926e-40fa-a026-5bfcf076d9b9/SQL2008inHyperV2008.docx

· Checklist: SQL Server Performance: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms979169.aspx

· Script Repository for SQL Server Information: http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/ScriptCenter/en-us/site/search?f%5B0%5D.Type=RootCategory&f%5B0%5D.Value=databases&f%5B0%5D.Text=Databases&f%5B1%5D.Type=SubCategory&f%5B1%5D.Value=sqlserver&f%5B1%5D.Text=SQL%20Server

“Turn your head and cough” – Quick Health Check Using Wait Stats for the SQL Server Takeover (Kevin)

So you’ve survived the SQL Server Blitz and have made sure that your server is properly setup, configured, and under proper preventative maintenance. Now it’s time to play doctor and determining the health of your SQL Server. Kevin will slip on the latex gloves and show you how to determine the health of an unknown server and the applications running on that SQL Server with a quick physical.

· SQL Server Best Practices Analyzer (SQL Server 2008 R2, other versions available) : http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0fd439d7-4bff-4df7-a52f-9a1be8725591

· Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit for SQL Server 2008 (will detect all the way down to SQL Server 2000): http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/dd537572.aspx

· DMV Stats: http://www.codeplex.com/sqldmvstats

· SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1d3a4a0d-7e0c-4730-8204-e419218c1efc&displaylang=en

Lose Wait Fast with Wait Stats (Brent)

It's time for you to get serious about wait loss - no, not weight loss, but wait loss. SQL Server wait stats will tell you what your queries and your server have been waiting on, and you don't even have to use Profiler or tracing! Brent will show you how to troubleshoot issues in real time and check historical data. He'll also show tools to make this process easier.

· Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008 Whitepaper (2005 version also available) : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd672789.aspx

· SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning using Waits and Queues: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc966413.aspx

· SQL Server 2005 Waits and Queues: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2007/11/19/sql-server-2005-waits-and-queues.aspx

· OLTP Top 6 Performance Issues for OLTP Applications: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/bestpractice/oltp-performance-issues.mspx

· Top SQL Server 2005 Performance Issues for OLTP Applications: http://sqlcat.com/top10lists/archive/2007/11/21/top-sql-server-2005-performance-issues-for-oltp-applications.aspx

PerfMon is “Irie Mon” (Kevin)

They say “irie mon” in Jamaica when everything is going well. Performance Monitor is irie! It’s an extremely important tool in the pocket of any IT professional because it’s available on every version of Windows and provides valuable performance information across all of the components of SQL Server, from the relational and storage engine to SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS. Kevin will show you how to make sense of PerfMon’s multitude of counters, how to store PerfMon data for long-term analysis, and how to correlate PerfMon

· Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755081(WS.10).aspx

· Overview of Windows Performance Monitor: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749154.aspx

· Scripts and Tools for Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting SQL Server 2005: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/sql/sql2005/default.mspx

· Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2009/04/14/troubleshooting-performance-problems-in-sql-server-2008.aspx

Performance Monitor and Wait Events Presentation with Quest

BuckWoody — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:41:53 GMT

Quest Software is a great partner with Microsoft, and I’m honored to be able to present with Brent Ozar, Kevin Kline and Ari Weil at a day-long event that you can attend for free. We’re going to cover many aspects of performance tuning, from waits and queues to the Windows System Monitor, which you might also know as PerfMon or Performance Monitor.

It’s expensive to go to conferences, so when your boss complains that you’ll be gone all day, remind him/her that it’s *free*. (Plus, you can tell them I said it’s OK. )

Data-tier Applications in SQL Server 2008 R2

BuckWoody — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:47:45 GMT

I had the privilege of presenting to the Adelaide SQL Server User Group in Australia last evening, and I covered the Data Access Component (DAC) and the Utility Control Point (UCP) from SQL Server 2008 R2. Here are some links from that presentation:

Whitepaper: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff381683.aspx

Tutorials: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210554(SQL.105).aspx

From Visual Studio: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd193245(VS.100).aspx

Restrictions and capabilities by Edition: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645993(SQL.105).aspx

Glen Berry's Blog entry on scripts for UCP/DAC: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/glennberry/archive/2010/05/19/sql-server-utility-script-from-24-hours-of-pass.aspx

Objects supported by a DAC: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210549(SQL.105).aspx

SQL Saturday 27 (Portland, Oregon)

BuckWoody — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:49:00 GMT

I’m sitting in the Seattle airport, waiting for my flight to Silicon Valley California for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event. By some quirk of nature, they are asking me to Emcee the event – but that’s another post entirely.

I’m reflecting on the SQL Saturday 27 event that was just held in Portland, Oregon this last Saturday. These are not Microsoft-sponsored events – it’s truly the community at work. Think of a big user-group meeting – I mean REALLY big – held in a central location, like at a college (as ours was) or some larger, inexpensive venue like that. Everyone there is volunteering – it’s my own money and time to drive several hours to a hotel for the night, feed myself and present. It’s their own time and money for the folks that organize the event – unless a vendor or two steps in to help. It’s their own time and money for the attendees to drive a long way, spend the night and their Saturday to listen to the speakers. Why do all this?

Because everybody benefits. Every speaker learns something new, meets new people, and reaches a new audience. Every volunteer does the same. And the attendees? Well, it’s pretty obvious what they get. A 7Am to 10PM extravaganza of knowledge from every corner of the product. In fact, this year the Portland group hooked up with the CodeCamp folks and held a combined event. We had over 850 people, and I had everyone from data professionals to developers in my sessions.

So I’ll take this opportunity to do two things: to say “thank you” to all of the folks who attended, from those who spoke to those who worked and those who came to listen, and to challenge you to attend the next SQL Saturday anywhere near you. You can find the list here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/. Don’t see anything in your area? Start one! The PASS folks have a package that will show you how. Sure, it’s a big job, but the key is to get as many people helping you as possible. Even if you have only a few dozen folks show up the first time, no worries. The first events I presented at had about 20 in the room. But not this week.

See you at the Launch Event if you’re near the San Francisco area tomorrow, and see you at the Redmond SQL Saturday and TechEd if not.

SQL Server for the Oracle DBA Links

BuckWoody — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:29:00 GMT

I do a presentation (and a class) called "SQL Server for the Oracle DBA". It's a non-marketing overview that gives you the basics of working with SQL Server if you're already familiar wtih how Oracle works. This class and these links DO NOT help you with "Why should I use Oracle/SQL Server instead of Oracle/SQL Server" - I'll assume you're already there, and if not, there are LOTS of sites to help you make that decision.

Although these links might contain slight marketing slants (I don't control them) I've tried to get the best links I can. Feel free to comment here to add more/better links.

As such, these aren't links that help you work with Oracle - they are links to help you work with SQL Server. Some of them contain more information than you actually need, others don't have near enough. Taken together (and with the class) you're able to get done what you need to do.

"Practical SQL Server for Oracle Professionals" - A Microsoft Whitepaper, probably the best place to get started: http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/d/69d1fea7-5b42-437a-b3ba-a4ad13e34ef6/SQLServer2008forOracle.docx

Free Training: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/dd548020.aspx

Classroom training (will cost you): http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?ID=50068A&locale=en-us

Terminology Differences: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2383466/oracle_and_sql_server_basic_terminology.html

Datatype mapping between Oracle and SQL Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151817.aspx

The "other" direction - can still be useful for the Oracle professional to see the other side: http://blog.benday.com/archive/2008/10/23/23195.aspx

Today I talk about you

BuckWoody — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:12:14 GMT

Some time back I posted a blog entry (mirrored here and here) asking you how you design databases. Out of those responses, my own experience, studies I read, and interviews I conducted, I collected a wealth of data. Thanks for your responses.

So what am I going to do with that information? Well, all along I had planned for that to be used today. I am giving a presentation at an event called “TechReady” called “How Your Customers Design Databases”. This is a Microsoft-internal event, where technical professionals like myself, salespeople, and the product team get together to talk about what has been working, what doesn’t, what is coming and hopefully (fingers crossed here) what the product team can do to help us help the SQL Server community.

I’ve mentioned before that I teach database design as part of a course I run at the University of Washington. I’m also planning to give a mini-lecture from that series at TechEd 2010, so if you’re coming stop by. I’d love to meet you.

So today I talk about you – thanks for the input. I hope you and I can make a difference in the product. Might take a while, but it’s nice to know your voice is being heard.

Consolidation Strategy References

BuckWoody — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:11:19 GMT

I have a presentation that I give on SQL Server Consolidation Strategies, and in that presentation I talk about a few links that are useful. Here are some that I’ve found – feel free to comment on more, or if these links go stale:

Consolidation using SQL Server: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee692366.aspx

SQL Server Consolidation Guidance: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee819082.aspx

More references for SQL Server and Hyper-V: http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/Virtualization-with-SQL-Server.aspx

Quick overview of Virtual Server licensing implications: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/morethan250/learn/virtualisation.mspx

SQL Server and Hyper-V best practices: http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2008/10/03/running-sql-server-2008-in-a-hyper-v-environment-best-practices-and-performance-recommendations.aspx

High-Availability and Hyper-V: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.10.higha.aspx

Virtualization Calculator: http://www.microsoft.com/Windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-calculators.aspx

May not be current, but here’s a whitepaper from VMWare for SQL Server: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/SQLServerWorkloads.pdf

More information on SQL Server and VMWare: http://blogs.msdn.com/cindygross/archive/2009/10/23/considerations-for-installing-sql-server-on-vmware.aspx

Server Virtualization Validation Program: http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx?svvppage=svvp.htm

Bonus Post – The PASS Dakar

BuckWoody — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:26:40 GMT

OK, this will probably never happen, and I have no official affiliation with the Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) at all, everyone will think is crazy, but at the PASS yearly conference I would really like to see this competition:

There’s a special race called the “Dakar Rally”, which runs for weeks at a time over some of the most difficult terrain in the world. Hundreds of cars, bikes and trucks (!) start out, only a few finish. People get hurt in this race; some have even died. It goes from extreme deserts to high snowy mountains, through towns and rocky roads. It’s a speed and endurance test that proves you’re the best racer there is on almost any terrain. In the cars there is a driver and a navigator – a team of two.

So here’s what I think would be awesome. Take a series of standard PCs – nothing fancy – and display a data requirement. Users create a database design and a standardized client application (using PowerShell or even SQLCMD) on another standard workstation that does Create, Read, Update and Delete operations for the database. Network is between those systems only.

Each day, the “organizers” of the PASS Dakar set up a series of CRUD operations. Some are small, and lots of them, others are huge BLOBS, streaming data and so on. Two of the “competitors” would run those requirements through their app and to their database. As long as the results match across all competitors, it’s a clean “race”. Round-trip performance is measured for each competitor. Each day they can tune their database, workstation and even the network system for best throughput. That forms a “stage”. Each day, the “Stage Winner” is posted. Competition is held throughout each day.

At the end of the week, the team with the most stage wins is the overall winner. Trophy goes home with them. Next year, the process repeats, and the trophy goes to the new winner.

That would be so cool.