What PASS sessions will I try to attend?

AaronBertrand — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 19:55:00 GMT

Every year at PASS, I do the same thing. I hmm and haw over which sessions I want to go to, and I end up making some tough choices at game time. This year I believe I'll be pretty busy, so my typical pie-in-the-sky view of how much I'll be able to attend just isn't going to pan out. Instead, I have selected 5 sessions that I really want to try to attend; it may be a lofty goal, but I'm going to do what I can to make it happen. This post is as much of a reminder for myself as it is meant to be interesting to you; probably even more so.

(As a side note, I believe you'll need to be signed in to the PASS web site in order to click any of the below links.)

Tuesday, November 9th

DBA-492S : Tracking Waits with Extended Events : Andrew Kelly
4:30 - 6:00
This was a tough choice; there are a LOT of good sessions in this time slot! In the end, my curiosity about Extended Events won out over interesting sessions from SQLCAT, Adam Machanic, Kevin Kline and Ben Nevarez.

Wednesday, November 10th

DBA-588C : CSS Update Queries - Under the Hood : Conor Cunningham
10:15 - 11:45
DBA-599C : Inside SQL Server Latches : Bob Ward
4:30 - 6:00
These both look to be excellent sessions, and I don't think my brain will have room for much else on this particular Wednesday.

Thursday, November 11th

DBA-449M : Expert Query Performance Troubleshooting : Boris Baryshnikov, Conor Cunningham
1:00 - 2:15
DBA-346M : What's new in T-SQL in the Next Release of SQL Server : Tobias Ternstrom
2:30 - 3:45
Again, I just don't see how I can go wrong at either of these sessions. I always feel I have performance troubleshooting skills to learn, and of course I am interested in what new T-SQL functionality will be coming our way in Denali.

Less than two weeks to PASS Summit 2009

jmkehayias — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:39:15 GMT

Coming right off a excellent weekend in Central Florida with SQL Saturday, PASS Summit is now less than two weeks away. Hopefully by now you have already registered since there was a lower price for early registration, but in the event that you haven't there is still time to register. This will be the first major conference that I will be attending where I will also be speaking. I'll be presenting Opening the SQL Server 2008 Troubleshooting Toolbox: An Introduction to Extended Events which should be a good introduction, leading into Adam Machanic's Spotlight session Advanced SQL Server 2008 Extended Events: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting Techniques.

Opening the SQL Server 2008 Troubleshooting Toolbox: An Introduction to Extended Events
Presenter: Jonathan Kehayias (OSI Restaurant Partners)

Session Details

New in SQL Server 2008, Extended Events bring a refreshing new deep look at what actually happens inside the Database Engine. This session will focus on how to use the default system_health session to perform initial troubleshooting, and how to create custom sessions using the available events, targets and actions available in the Extended Events metadata. The session will wrap up with how to use the information stored in the targets to solve specific problems.

Advanced SQL Server 2008 Extended Events: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting Techniques
Presenter: Adam Machanic (SQLblog.com)

Session Details

Imagine tracking and aggregating wait statistics at the session level rather than the server level. Imagine seeing exactly how long each step in your query took and figuring out the real cost of that index scan. Imagine capturing an exception with an associated callstack--no more guessing about exactly which component failed and why. When you're done imagining, open your eyes and attend this session, where you will learn all of these techniques and more, all thanks to Extended Events (XEvents)--SQL Server 2008's powerful new tracing infrastructure. Designed for DBAs and developers who already understand the basics of XEvents, this session will go from 0 to 60 in the first few minutes. You will see a number of code examples and gain an understanding of how to maximize XEvents for performance profiling and troubleshooting purposes. If you are serious about making your SQL Servers fly, this is one session not to be missed.

If you are interested in Extended Events in SQL Server 2008, these are two can't be missed sessions for PASS. Hope to see you there.

Search results matching tags 'PASS' and 'Extended Events'

What PASS sessions will I try to attend?

Less than two weeks to PASS Summit 2009