PASS Summit Blogging

October 28, 2010 at 1:46 pm (PASS, SQLServerPedia Syndication) (, , )

During the PASS Summit I have again been given the opportunity to keep my laptop plugged in… as long as I blog about the Key Notes. So, I’m going to do it, power is hard to come by in that place. Once again I can regale you, near real time, what’s occurring in the key note addresses at the PASS Summit. Once more I’ll have the opportunity to jump on to the table while wearing a kilt.

But, this year, you may not want to read me. Instead, you might want to tune into the key notes yourself. PASS is going to transmit them live. You can go to the this link to watch them. Now, I can hear you, literally, thinking to yourself, “Right, just what I need in my life, to listen to some sales hack tell me about some semi-functional bit of software.” Most of the time, you’d be right. But this is PASS. We don’t just listen to sales hacks stumbling through presentations. We’re getting to learn from Dr. DeWitt again this year. I’m jazzed and you should be too. Dr. DeWitt’s presentation last year was simply amazing. In terms of sheer geek fun, it’s hard to beat. This year should be as good, or better.

I’ll also be tweeting all week. Follow hash tag #sqlpass to find out what’s happening from me and all the other Twitterati.

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Writing Opportunities

October 28, 2010 at 10:00 am (Uncategorized) (, , )

Are you looking for opportunities to show off your elite writing skills and consumate SQL Server knowledge? Want a chance to build up the resume a bit? Are you like me and you have a hard time thinking of ideas to write about? I’ve got a solution for you. There’s a new forum over on SQL Server Central that is all about requests for articles. It’s mostly small stuff, easy one-page articles, a bit more than a blog post but a bit less than a full blown multi-page drill down. Also, if you have ideas for articles that you’d like to see someone write up, you can post them there. You should read the rules about the forum, which aren’t complicated, and then dive in.

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SQL Rally: Performance Tuning Abstract

October 28, 2010 at 8:00 am (PASS) (, , , , , , )

I get the call, you get the call, everyone gets the call. “Hey, my app/procedure/query/report is running slow.” Now what do you do? You go to my full day session at SQL Rally, that’s what. Assuming you vote for it.

I didn’t post the abstract I submitted for the SQL Rally before because I thought that it would be redudant. However, since it’s not right off the voting page (unless they updated it since I voted), if you’re interested, here’s what I thought I would do for a day. If it sounds good to you, please go here and vote for it.

One of the most common problems encountered in SQL Server is the slow running query. Once a query is identified as performing poorly, DBAs and developers frequently don’t understand how to diagnose the problem and often struggle to fix the problem. This one day seminar focuses exclusively on these two topics. Attendees will learn how to identify the queries that are performing badly and learn how to fix them. We will start by learning how to gather performance metrics, both server and query metrics, using tools available directly from Microsoft such as performance monitor, DMVs and Profiler. From there we’ll move into learning how the optimizer works and how it uses statistics to determine which indexes and other database objects can assist the performance of a query. The session takes considerable time to show exactly how to generate and read execution plans, the one best mechanism for observing how the optimizer works. We’ll then look at other DMVs that can assist you when performance tuning queries. With all this knowledge gathered, we’ll move into looking at common performance problems, how they evidence themselves in the metrics and execution plans, and how to address them. Finally, we’ll explore advanced methods for solving some of the more difficult query performance problems introducing such concepts as query hints, plan guides and plan forcing. Through all of this, best practices and common techniques will be reviewed. Attendees will go home with a working knowledge of query performance tuning, a set of methods for identifying poorly performing queries, scripts to assist in these processes and the knowledge of how fix performance problems in their own systems.

To see the other sessions go here:
BI
DBA
Developer
Misc

Although I would prefer that you voted for me, it’s more important that you vote at all (same thing as in real life). Please go here and select the sessions that you want to see.

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