Search results matching tag 'developer'

Hear the SQL Server 2012 story on DotNetRocks

KKline — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:32:00 GMT

I was privileged to have a chat with my buddies over at www.dotnetrocks.com, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell, episode number 876 (876!). Listen to the most popular internet audio talk show for .NET developers! Here's the abstract:

Carl and Richard talk to Kevin Kline about the latest features in SQL Server 2012. The conversation starts out talking about the new features that developers will love, like windowing - no need for cursors anymore, you can request a window of records from a set and move easily window-to-window. Kevin also talks about the new column store index that is especially useful with repeating data. There's also a discussion on the role of SQL Server in an increasingly NoSQL world, along with cool new technologies like Hadoop, Cassandra and Hekaton. Kevin closes with an offer of some free tools at SQL Sentry, including Plan Explorer, a tool to help you understand the query plans that SQL Server makes from your queries. Check it out!

Let me know what you think. Thanks,

-Kevin

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- Google Author

SQL Server in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services – Updated Documentation and Best Practices for GA, Upcoming Blogs

SQLOS Team — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:04:16 GMT

It’s been just over a week since Windows Azure announced the GA of Infrastructure Services, marking the beginning of a fully supported Infrastructure as a Service in Windows Azure, with SQL Server as a major component.

Pre-installed SQL Server VMs are available for pay-per-hour usage in the Windows Azure gallery. Currently Enterprise, Standard and Web edition VMs running on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 are available, with more SQL Server editions coming soon. SQL Server editions running on Windows Server 2012 images are also on the way. For more details on the scenarios and benefits of running SQL Server workloads on Windows Azure Virtual Machines, please visit the SQL Server blog post here.

We are very happy to announce that the updated technical documentation for deploying and running SQL Server in Windows Azure Infrastructures Services is now available online. When deploying SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines, we recommend that you follow the detailed guidance given in the new SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines documentation in the library. This documentation includes a series of articles and tutorials that provide detailed guidance on:

Over the next few weeks we are planning a series of blog posts to provide more detailed information on specific SQL Server topics. Subjects in the pipeline include: high availability, disaster recovery, performance, application migration and security. Let us know what topics you would like to see covered in this series by adding comments to this post.

SQL Server Team

Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

Squishy Limits in SQL Server Express Edition

KKline — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:19:00 GMT

It's an old story you've probably heard before. Provide a free version of your software product with strict limitations on performance or other specific capabilities so that folks can give it a try without risk, while you minimize the chance of cannibalizing sales of your commercial products. Microsoft has take this strategy with SQL Server Express Edition, not only to increase adoption in the student market but also to counter the threat of open-source (i.e. free) relational databases like MySQL for entry-level applications.

One such limitation of SQL Server Express Edition is that it supports no more than 1GB of RAM for the instance. Of course, you could have many Express Edition instances on a single Windows server, each with its own 1GB of RAM.

But what does that metric of 1GB of RAM actually mean? The key thing to remember is that the restriction is for buffer cache. Since SQL Server has many other caches, even when not counting the plan cache, there are plenty of other caches within SQL Server. (Run a query against sys.dm_os_memory_clerks if you'd like to see some of the others). Because only the buffer cache has the strict 1GB limitation, you can actually watch SQL Server Express Edition's memory working set size grow to around 1.4-1.5GB due to the other memory caches at play.

Pawel Potasinski, a SQL Server MVP from Poland (Twitter | Blog), once posted an interesting repro for this behavior:

-- Assess amount of databases resident in buffer cache

SELECT
 CASE
 WHEN database_id = 32767 THEN 'mssqlsystemresource'
 ELSE DB_NAME(database_id)
 END AS [Database],
 CONVERT(numeric(38,2),(8.0 / 1024) * COUNT(*)) AS [MB in buffer cache] 
FROM sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors 
GROUP BY database_id 
ORDER BY 2 DESC; 
GO

-- Assess amount of tables resident in buffer cache
SELECT
 QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(p.object_id)) + '.' +
 QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(p.object_id)) AS [Object],
 CONVERT(numeric(38,2),(8.0 / 1024) * COUNT(*)) AS [MB In buffer cache] 
FROM sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors AS d 
 INNER JOIN sys.allocation_units AS u ON d.allocation_unit_id = u.allocation_unit_id 
 INNER JOIN sys.partitions AS p ON (u.type IN (1,3) AND u.container_id = p.hobt_id) OR (u.type = 2 AND u.container_id = p.partition_id) 
WHERE d.database_id = DB_ID() 
GROUP BY QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(p.object_id)) + '.' + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(p.object_id))
ORDER BY [Object] DESC;
GO

-- Fill up Express Edition's buffer allocation
IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.test', N'U') IS NOT NULL
 DROP TABLE dbo.test;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.test (col_a char(8000));
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.test (col_a)
 SELECT REPLICATE('col_a', 8000)
 FROM sys.all_objects 
 WHERE is_ms_shipped = 1;

CHECKPOINT; 
GO 100

The bottom line for the hard memory limit of SQL Server Express Edition is "Yes, it's limited. But it's a squishy limit. Not a hard limit."

Although your mileage may vary, I'd bet a dollar that you'll find more than 1GB in the active working set for your instance of SQL Server Express Edition. I am curious, however, if you're seeing much variation between versions and even service packs of SQL Server? Let me know if you try this out on more than one version and/or service pack level of SQL Server. Did it change much between versions? Let me know!

Enjoy,

-Kevin

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Google Author

SQLintersection!

KKline — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:47:00 GMT

The best emotion to describe how I'm feeling is 'astounded'. I'm astounded that I'm in such august company to be speaking the SQLIntersection (#iSQL) conference. Read the blog post from my first SQL Server mentor, Kimberly Tripp, which tells you all about SQLintersection.

Check out this list of speakers:

Aaron Bertrand, Sr. Consultant, SQL Sentry, Inc. [blog | twitter]
Andrew J. Kelly, Mentor, SolidQ [blog | twitter]
Bob Ward, Principal Architect Escalation Engineer, Microsoft [blog | twitter]
Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
Conor Cunningham, Principal Architect, SQL Server, Microsoft [blog]
Grant Fritchey, Product Evangelist, Red Gate Software [blog | twitter]
Jeremiah Peschka, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
Joseph Sack, Principal Consultant, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
Kendra Little, Managing Director, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
Kevin Kline, Director of Engineering Services, SQL Sentry, Inc. [blog | twitter]
Kimberly L. Tripp, President/Founder, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
Mat Young, Senior Director of Products, Fusion-io [blog | twitter]
Paul S. Randal, CEO / Owner, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
Paul White, SQL Kiwi Limited [blog | twitter]
Steve Jones, Editor, SQLServerCentral.com [blog | twitter]
Sumeet Bansal, Principal Solutions Architect, Fusion-io [blog | twitter]

Read the list of SQL Server sessions here. On top of the list of outstanding sessions to attend, I'll be giving a keynote on Tuesday afternoon. Witness:

So the only thing between the attendees and the booze in the reception hall is our keynote address?!? Oh yeah, that's going to go down real smooth, isn't it? I'll last about as long as a puny henchman between James Bond and the villain of the movie. Sumeet Bansal, from Fusion-IO, will have to survive until the credits roll. We'll be talking about high performance computing on SQL Server 2012 with an eye towards high availability, AlwaysOn, and Availability Groups.

If you're in Las Vegas, I hope to see you there! If not, you should consider coming to this excellent conference.

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter!

Demo Mastery for the Technology Evangelist

KKline — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:02:00 GMT

In the same way that the finest presentations involve much more than the simple relaying of information, the finest software demos are much more than just presenting features.

REMEMBER: The goal of a demo is to INSPIRE the audience to use the software/technology, not to teach them every nuance of software/technology.

I've spent the last 10 years learning how to give good presentations and to give good software demonstrations. Here are several tips to take your software demonstration from informative to masterful:

1. Know your audience

Whenever you start a demo, make sure you have a good idea what the audience is interested in. That way you can focus the attention of the audience upon things that actively engage their imagination. You really, really want the audience to be thinking about how they're going to use the software that you are presenting. If it if you're not presenting on something that they're interested in, they'll mentally disengage. In some cases you'll even see them open their laptops and start to answer emails. That's the last thing in the world that you want to happen.

In many cases, I'll begin a presentation by asking my audience to tell me more about themselves. I want to know how much of their time is spent as a developer, as a DBA, as a designer. If nothing else, I can change the sort of examples that I use to be tailored specifically to the audience that are presenting to.

Truly bad software demos have problems. The code doesn't work. The beta software crashes. The screen shows the dreaded blue screen. But that's one thing. What you really want to avoid, is the truly mediocre software demo. The quickest path to a mediocre software demo is to simply show every feature and explain each in as much detail as you can. It's like those games that sit in our closet that no one likes to play. Most all of these games are ones in which one person takes a turn while everyone else waits. No one has any fun except for the three or four minutes in which it relates directly to them.

2. Start, but only start, with an agenda

It's always a good idea to inform your attendees of what you would like to present. What you present the agenda it's a great idea to confirm that this agenda is what the audience is looking for. Before I learned to do this on a regular basis, I found that my presentation might contain two or three lengthy sections of my software demo which were completely uninteresting to the audience. The customer is really numbed by this waste of time. It's far better to tell the audience what you are going to tell them.

Here's my routine when I start a demo. Confirm that your agenda is of interest to them and recheck the time constraints of the meeting. Then, get to what they are interested in. This flexibility also provides you the opportunity to inject other software demonstrations that are much more pertinent to your audience. Audiences love a presenter who can think on their feet and are flexible to the interests of the audience.

3. Skip the lengthy intro

This is a aspect of demonstrations and presentations that I struggle with. I worried a lot that I hadn't demonstrated enough credibility with my audience. And so for many years of my technology evangelism role, I spent a lot of time telling the audience about myself and about the company. What I found over time though, is that audiences actually give you an initial dose of credibility. It's up to you to maintain and even enhance that credibility through a strong demo and a good presentation. Better to have a very short introduction and get straight to the meat of the presentation.

Call out - Mouse Cursor Movement: It's especially important to remember in online demos that there is usually a great deal of latency between what you do on your screen and what your audience sees on their screen. So it's important to remember to MOVE YOUR MOUSE SLOWLY AND THOUGHTFULLY! I've sat in online webcasts, and even in in-person events, where the mouse literally disappeared on one section of the screen and reappeared elsewhere because the presenter was moving their mouse cursor here, there, and everywhere. If you want the audience to see what you're doing with the mouse cursor, keep it slow.

4. Show what is pertinent

One of the most important things a software evangelist can do is to show the most important and pertinent take away of their software. Let's you are trying to teach an audience about the extreme ROI (return on investment) of a particular kind of business intelligence strategy, it's crucial that you figure out in advance what are the key takeaways that you would like your audience to remember. Typically in audience will only remember two or three very salient points about your demo. If the BI presentation spends the first 30 minutes showing how to build a report but never once mentions ROI, what do you think the audience will remember? Once you know what is pertinent to your audience and what you want the key takeaway to be, you should focus the rest of your energies on building an airtight demo that supports those takeaways.

You will see the inverse of this many times in a mediocre or poor demo. At the end of the demo the audience will feel like they have sat through product training, rather than a call to action that inspires them to use the product. I've sat through demos in which the presenter carefully walk through several different menus, tabs, and wizards. And after 30 minutes of that, I now knew HOW to use the software, but I still didn't know WHY I would use the software.

In the worst cases, showing everything that your software can do may leave the audience feeling that it is too complex, too detailed, or too overwhelming for them to use effectively. Remember that a software demo is not design to train the audience. A software demo is designed to inspire the audience to use your products.

5. Don't get sidelined

We usually get sidelined in our demos by two things: questions from the audience and "technical difficulties" a.k.a. bugs.

Questions from the Audience

It's usually a good sign if your demo is provoking questions from the audience. However, you don't want to demo to turn into free consultation to solve one person's problem. Nor do you want to turn into fact-finding for one very narrow set of interests or to become the arbiter of some sort of political dispute between factions in the audience.

When taking questions, remember to repeat the question to the audience. This ensures that you fully understood the question, that the questioner asked for what they meant, and that if there is any recording going on the question will be picked up by the recording system.

But my typical rule of thumb is to only spend a couple minutes on a single question and questioner. Once a single questioner goes beyond a couple minutes, you can usually tell if you're heading for the sidelines. It's at that point that I asked the questioner if we can take the question off-line and come back to it afterwards so that everyone else can benefit from the time that we have set aside right now.

Technical Difficulties

Another form of sidelining are bugs in the software and outright crashes of your demo environment. Many times this simply can't be avoided. This is especially true if you are demoing a beta version of the software. But there are couple important things to remember if you are sidelined by a bug or crash.

First, mention if you're using a beta and that it might not be fully stable. Also, be sure to mention that the software WAS stable when you prepared the demo. Second, test your demo after conducting a full reboot of your demo environment. I've seen many demos crash because the presenter made other changes in the environment but only tested for the software demonstration itself. Third, Don't draw attention to bugs that you encounter during the demo, especially if they're just cosmetic. It's important not to do things like slap your four head and exclaim "what the hell is that?" If it's a bigger bug that hampers or interferes with functionality, you might state that it's normal functionality is… XYZ. Finally, if you experience a major bug or crash, immediately disconnect the projector or the desktop sharing application. There's nothing worse than seeing a presenter struggle with the bug in front of the entire audience.

6. Hit the jackpot

All good jokes have a punchline. All good action movies have a climax. All good newspaper stories have a headline. Your demo needs to have a jackpot, where the audience can clearly and immediately see how your software pays off.

Let's say you're doing a demo of the new columnstore features in SQL Server 2012. You could spend a lot of time showing the conceptual underpinnings of a columnstore index. You could show the state was to create columnstore indexes, to modify them, to drop them. You could admonish the audience and ways to build read-write systems so that they can easily get data into and out of columnstore indexes.

But what's the real payoff of a columnstore index? It is incredible fast for a particular kind of scenario on SQL Server. So in this example, your jackpot is to show how difficult that scenario is under normal circumstances and then immediately show how easy and fast it is with the columnstore index. Bingo! Your audience is hooked. They immediately see why they want this. There inspired to start using it. Now, they want to figure out how to use it and want to know when and under what conditions they should use.

Are you an SC, technology evangelist, or technology presenter? What are your tips for a better demo?

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter

What's It Like on a SQLCruise?

KKline — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:25:00 GMT

I always seem to get a question or two along the lines of "What's it like on a SQLCruise?" as I present at various conferences, SQL Saturdays, and user group meetings. Since we just finished up the 2013 Miami SQLCruise, I thought it'd be a good time to recap so that you can judge for yourself if you'd ever want to do it yourself. Personally, I think that Tim Ford (Twitter | Blog), together with his wife Amy, are doing better than ever in making the cruise both a top-quality learning experience and fantastic social experience. I've heard from many attendees that they learned enough in the first day or two to make the whole trip worthwhile and, keep in mind, some of these attendees paid for the trip out of their own pocket.

Loads of pictures at http://sqlcruise.com/cruise/past-cruises/sql-cruise-caribbean-2013/.

SQLCruise Content

SQLCruise is, first and foremost, a training event. On each cruise, Tim usually pulls together four or five very well known experts in the industry who, in turn present several hours training. Each day the ship is at sea is a day spent in class. Example of the agenda is on the lower right. When the ship is in port, it's a day of activity and adventures. Tim spends quite a bit of time coordinating with the speakers so that the curriculum is both unique and well tailored to the students.

But each and every night, whether at sea or in port, is spent in 'office hours'. For many attendees, office hours are their favorite part of the learning experience. Since Tim caps registration at 15 students, that means the students get virtually unfettered access to the experts. If you've ever attended a conference, you've probably encountered that common scenario where the speakers are busy with presentations and, at the conclusion of their session, are mobbed by attendees with questions. They're lucky to get 3-4 minutes of the speaker's time. On the other hand, the students get hours and hours to talk about whatever is on their mind. And since we're on a cruise ship in the tropics, office hours usually look like the image at top right. It's both very relaxing and very educational.

Another aspect of the content on SQLCruise that makes it unique is the amount of time spent on personal and professional development. The majority of attendees are not newbies. They're mid-career professionals who are doing well and their career and want to take it to a higher level. But as we often find, our earlier years in IT are spent learning how to be really good at the technology part of our career. We like technology and, sensibly, it's the immediate problem we face in day-to-day productivity. But as the years progress and we earn a few promotions, we come to find that rising in the ranks means a lot of communication and, gasp, office politics. The speakers, in many cases, have careers the students would like to emulate. This is where SQLCruise really shines. Imagine being able to pick the brains of senior technologists and managers in a friendly and welcoming environment. How great is that? In fact, many SQLCruise attendees (I know of several from each cruise I have attended) have used the professional counseling they received on the cruise to enact an energetic new phase in their career with big pay raises, exciting new jobs, high-profile blogs, and all sorts of other really cool things like that.

You'll have to suffer through excursions like Trunk Bay on St. John's in the US Virgin Islands.

SQLCruise Experience

Now that I've told you about the grueling educational side of SQLCruise, did I mention that we do all of this ON A CRUISE SHIP IN THE CARIBBEAN?!? The cruise ships are, if you will, an enormous Vegas hotel on the water. There are casinos, a constant parade of entertainment, live music, comedy, pools and water slides, discos and dancing, live game shows - the works. Ask Neil Hambly (Twitter | Blog) about the dancing!

Several of the sponsors also help to put on really fun contests and activities, some of which produce some really funny antics. There are fun scavenger hunts and other team relays which, if you can get over your inhibitions, are a ton of fun. Another aspect that makes the SQLCruise a unique experience is the fact that most attendees bring at least one other person, if not their entire family. That means that there are plenty of people for your significant other to hang out with while you're in class. Kids have built-in playmates, over and above the kids' activities that the cruise line keeps running around the clock. Lots of folks, including me, have also brought along a parent or several parents. They all have a great time and, in many cases, look forward to meeting their new friends again on a future cruise. Would it surprise you if I mentioned that most of the parents are not the type to start emailing each other as soon as they get off the ship?

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of SQLCruise for many attendees is that you're on a cruise ship in the Caribbean hundreds of miles from bandwidth. That means very limited connectivity. Although I've witnessed a student or two have to miss a class to put out some sort of fire back at the office, this is a really rare occurrence. In fact, it's much less common than what I've seen at the big conferences because you're so disconnected from all fast forms of bandwidth. Yes, there is an expensive sort of satellite connectivity on the ship. But your boss would have to be pretty desperate to keep you on the front lines while on one of these trips. Now I don't know about you, but my training events are always more enjoyable when I don't have the cares of the office weighing on my mind.

SQLCruise Instructor Allen White (Twitter | Blog) teaches about PowerShell for the SQL Server professional at right. Notice his casual but totally appropriate attire. Shorts, sandals, and comfy shirts are the norm even in class.

SQLCruise Cost

SQLCruise costs less than $200/day for the training. That compares to more than $300-400/day training costs of most commercial training centers who use the Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC). On the other hand, there's the cost of the cruise itself. But again, the cruise is all-inclusive for lodging and meals (but not alcohol). So, for me at least, the cost of cruise itself was actually a little cheaper than a standard, nice American hotel chain like a Hilton, Marriott, or Sheraton.

Another, less tangible benefit of the expense of the SQLCruise is that the instructors are never unable to answer your questions, compared to many training centers whose trainers have never actually had a career built around the topic they're teaching. It's a huge difference.

Finally, if you're weighing the idea of paying for a trip like this out of your own pocket, consider that training expense are tax deductible. In my experience, probably a third of attendees cover their own costs. In a few cases, employers cover the training and the attendee covers their travel expenses. And for the rest, their employers cover the cost. Check out the FAQ and other resources on the website for tips on convincing your boss that this is the right training for you. As an aside, SQL Sentry gave away a full registration to the event - winner Mickey Stuewe is in the center of the picture at right. Congrats Mickey!

It's a great event and a great way to spend a week. I hope to see you at a future SQLCruise!

-Kev

-Follow me on Twitter

The Year That Was - 2012

KKline — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 19:31:00 GMT

2012 was, simply stated, a year that kicked my butt. When I wasn't struggling professionally, I was struggling personally. Health issues, culminating in a diagnosis of Type II diabetes, and the passing of my father soon after Thanksgiving marked my biggest struggles. I apologize to those of you who are normally on my Christmas card list for not sending any this year. The wind was not in my sails. On the positive side of the ledger, I made a scary but exciting leap to SQL Sentry midyear. This was a huge shake-up after 10 years with my previous employer, but one which has been met with unbridled enthusiasm everywhere I've gone. Thank you for the handshakes, high-fives, and hugs! We're doing some really exciting things at SQL Sentry (such as SQLPerformance.com and Plan Explorer Pro) and I hope to engage with you more than ever in 2013.

Blogging Activity, Plus Leadership Skills & Professionalism

2012 marked a bit of a shift in my content creation direction. I've seen an uptick in struggles in the non-IT part of our career - communications, leadership, motivation, goal-keeping, all of those sort of things. I feel like I have some wisdom to contribute in that space. So, in addition to technical blog posts, I been putting down more of my experiences and lessons learned on the interpersonal side of the IT career path. My top ten blog posts for the year reflect some of that new direction:

Do You Have One of "the Three W’s" to Sit on a Board of Directors? -- Important tips for any IT pro considering a role in strategy and executive leadership.
Timewarp: What Is a Relational Database? -- With all the talk about NoSQL databases, let's go back to the fundamentals.
Want Another Reason to Hate iTunes? -- A throw-away article that precipitated a maelstrom of comments. Them Apple fanboys are passionate!
Why Do IT Pros Make Awful Managers? -- Not all IT pros make awful managers, but when they're awful it's often for similar reasons.
High-Availability White Papers and Resources for SQL Server -- Read the latest about AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and more.
New White Paper: SQL Server Extended Events and Notifications -- SQL Server 2012 great augments the Extended Events feature set. Find out how.
Build Your Own Microsoft Operations Management Pack -- Resources to build out your own SCOM management pack.
Help Me Update the History of SQL Server -- I started with SQL Server when it was still an OS/2 product. Jeesh! Lots of versions have come out since then.
TIE: Recorded Webcast Available: Extend SCOM to Optimize SQL Server Performance Management and The Expert's Conference (TEC) - For AD, SharePoint, Exchange, PowerShell and Other Admins -- Pointers to a webcast about extending SCOM and the TEC conference.
A Fond Farewell to Quest Software -- I learned so much in 10 years at Quest Software.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph about blogging, I'm putting more energy into best practices for professional growth among IT pros. Along those lines of thought, I started a website called ForITPros.com with my long-time friend Joe Webb (Twitter | Blog) and, in partnership with SSWUG, developed a 2-DVD set and streaming media class called Leadership Skills for IT Professionals containing 14 hours of leadership and soft skills training specifically crafted for IT teams.

I've also been working with PASS on the Professional Development Virtual Chapter (VC), led by Mark Caldwell (Twitter). We've already got a full year of content schedule and are trying to figure out how fit in more sessions. Maybe moving to more than one webcast per month? The PASS Professional Development VC archive has lots of great content for you to review and future sessions are detailed at the PASS Professional Development VC homepage.

In-Person Activity

2012 was busy where I actually appeared in person or put in a big effort to write or create content. Here's a run-down: Articles (2), Conference Spoken (12), Customer Calls (88), Customer Visits (4), Magazine Columns (14) at SQLMag.com and DBTA.com, New Books (1) with Ross Mistry, PASS Chapter Presentations (12), Pre-cons/Full-day Seminars (4), SQL Saturdays (4), SSWUG Sessions (4), TechNet Radio Broadcasts (2), Technical Book Reviews (3), and Webcasts (10).

In 2013, I expect to travel a bit less. But I also expect to do many more webcasts. Let me know if you have some ideas about what you'd like to learn! One business trip that I refuse to give up, though, is SQLCruise. (Register!) I know it sounds like the worst possible way to learn. I mean who'd want to learn on a cruise ship in the Caribbean?!? (I hope you could detect the sarcasm dripping from those two sentences.) But here are two favorite aspects of of SQLCruise that are totally ferreals - 1) You simultaneously can relax and focus on learning. You are disconnected from the mainland. You don't have to worry about the mobile phone going off. 2) You get extended ours in a intimate setting with the top talent in the SQL Server world. It's always a pleasure to attend a conference session from the best in the industry. But you'll get hours of time to talk with these veterans of the industry about your specific problems and situations. It just doesn't get better than that.

Social Media

It's hard to believe that only a year ago, 2011, was my first year on Twitter. By years end, here's where my stats had moved: 5,507 tweets (up from 3,452 tweets), 661 following (up from 531), and 3,720 followers (up from 2,656) . I didn't check my social media numbers last year, so I've got no point of comparison. But I'm currently sitting at 2,327 LinkedIn connections and 1,157 Facebook friends. One of my standing policies on Facebook is that I don't "friend" someone who I haven't personally met. That doesn't help detangle the hopeless mess I've created by having only one identify on Facebook, both personal and public. So, on the one hand, I owe all of my longtime friends a big apology for all of the SQL talk and, on the other hand, a big apology to all of my professional friends for not posting enough news and advice while dilute my status updates with personal minutia. Oh well - it is what it is.

My blogging activity for 2012 was the lowest it's been in many years, down to 44 entries, down from 77 in 2011 and well into the hundreds in 2010. My answer to that sort of doldrums for 2013 is to get sloppy! And by that, I mean less of a perfectionist and more of a content machine that just cranks it out! Most of you, as my readers, have been very forgiving of a misplaced verb, a missing punctuation, or -heck- a totally malformed sentence that makes no sense at all. So I'm going to try much harder to churn through the 700+ nascent blog posts in my notes folder and get those ideas out there!

I hope to see you following me on Twitter soon! Thanks,

-Kevin

Learn More About SQL Server IO and Query Tuning in These Webcasts

KKline — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:50:00 GMT

I'm doing two new webcasts next week on Wednesday, December 19th, one in the morning and the other after lunch.

SSDs are a Game Changer for SQL Server Storage

No, session is not exclusively about SSDs. But this is my first session on IO and storage tuning that emphasizes SSDs over hard disks. As Bob Dylan said "Times, they are a'changin'". This session on Wednesday, December 19th at 11:30 AM EST, sponsored by Astute Networks, takes you through all of the basics of storage and IO tuning, regardless of the underlying storage technology. I'll show you how SQL Server handles storage structures, how to identify IO activity on Windows and SQL Server, and best practices for minimizing IO bottlenecks. Register now for: Storage IO Best Practices for SQL Server and a New Approach to Solving Application Performance Issues.

Write Better SQL Queries

The next webcast on Wednesday, December 19th at 2 PM EST, is with me, Aaron Bertrand (Twitter | Blog) and SQLCruise Impresario & Microsoft MVP Tim Ford (Twitter | Blog) as we take you through the query tuning process, discussing important DMVs to use during query tuning, as well as demonstrating several essential query tuning techniques that every SQL developer should know. Not only are we presenting an hour of top quality technical content, we’ll also be giving away some cool prizes, including the grand prize of a paid registration for the upcoming SQLCruise Miami, a $1,395 value! Register now for: SQL Server Query Tuning Best Practices, Hosted by Kevin Kline and Aaron Bertrand with special guest Tim Ford

I hope to see you at both of these sessions next week! Best regards,

-Kev

-Follow me on Twitter!

Let's Talk Licensing and Virtualization for SQL Server

KKline — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:23:00 GMT

I have two new articles up on Database Trends & Applications magazine. I'd love to get your thoughts and feedback!

Welcome to the Weird, Wild World of SQL Server Licensing

Not long in the past, SQL Server licensing was an easy and straightforward process. You used to take one of a few paths to get your SQL Server licenses. The first and easiest path was to buy your SQL Server license with your hardware. Want to buy a HP Proliant DL380 for a SQL Server application? Why not get your SQL Server Enterprise Edition license with it at the same time? Just pay the hardware vendor for the whole stack, from the bare metal all the way through to the Microsoft OS and SQL Server....

DBTA E-Edition - December 2012 Issue

Virtualization Conquers the Database

I was privileged to deliver a session entitled Managing SQL Server in a Virtual World at the PASS Summit 2012, the largest annual conference for Microsoft SQL Server. It was a packed house, literally at standing-room-only capacity. I delivered the session with my friend David Klee and we were swarmed by attendees after the session wrapped up. With almost 600 people in the room, we conducted one of those informal polls that speakers like to do along the lines of "Raise your hands if …" and the informal findings were very telling. Probably around 90% of the attendees used VMware and SQL Server in some capacity and at least 60% used it in production environments. Another important fact was that only 10% of the attendees were actually able to get information on the performance of the actual VMs themselves. Most had to get all of their information and support from the VM / System administration staff....

DBTA E-Edition - November E-Edition Issue

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How To Download Free Sessions From PASS

KKline — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:02:00 GMT

For all members of the Professional Association for Server (PASS), are you downloading slides and videos from all sorts of great PASS events? If not, what are you waiting for ... an invitation?

Ok, here it is. I invite you to download like a madman! (How a madman downloads, an almost entirely virtual activity, is not the question here, ok?).

For starters, there's the recent 24 Hours of PASS event. I hope you were able to attend all of the sessions you wanted. But even if you didn't get to see any, you can see them now as long as you're a (free) member of PASS. The session recordings are now available for streaming from the 24 Hours of PASS Archive website. Review your favorites or catch up on some of the sessions you missed, by gum! Questions? Contact us at 24hrs@sqlpass.org

Next on the list for downloads are the PASS Summit 2012 highlights. The navigation is a little weird. But all you have to do is simply click on the keynote that you're interested in. And may I recommend, as always, the excellent session from Dr. David Dewitt. Again, you need to be a PASS member, but it's free. And I'd be remiss not to mention the SQLPASS YouTube Channel.

During and immediately after each PASS Summit, attendees are able to buy the event records for around $175. That's over 150 hours of training, over three weeks of training I say, for under $200!!! I hear that this year, instead of a massive DVD set, we'll be getting a slim 32- or 64Gb thumbdrive. Yeah! But did you know you can also watch sessions from earlier years, free for members, at http://www.sqlpass.org/LearningCenter/SessionRecordings.aspx? That's right, brothers and sisters, if you didn't get to go to older events and didn't buy the DVDs, you don't have to bribe that scruffy mangy dog of a DBA to get your own look at the sessions. And since SQL Server versions don't change enormously from one year to the next, most of the content remains valuable and worthwhile for several years. For example, most recommendations and sessions from the PASS Summit 2008 event are still valuable even if you've upgraded to SQL Server 2012.

Take Another Look at PASS Virtual Chapters

Don’t have a local PASS Chapter near you? Want to learn from your desk? Or are you simply looking for more opportunities for free SQL Server training and learning every month with fellow IT pros from around the world? Virtual Chapters (VCs) are a great way to get involved in the PASS community from your own home or office. Virtual chapters are targeted, online monthly webcasts from top-rated speakers with related subject matter from one month to the next, such as database design, performance, virtualization, etc. Here’s how. But wait - there's more. All of the VC sessions are also recorded and posted online for later viewing, usually within a month of the initial broadcast.

Enjoy!

-Kevin

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