SQL Saturday 85 for a Jr. DBA

SQL Saturday 85 is a little under 5 weeks away and it will be coming to you live in Sunny Orlando Florida on September the 24^th.  During a planning meeting my friend and the Fearless Leader of MagicPASS, Kendal Van Dyke (@SQLDBA | Blog), had suggested writing blogs aimed at a particular level of attendee.  Last week I took a swag at Why a Manager Should Care About SQL Saturday, and this week I thought we would shift gears and drop from the Manager level of the SQL Stack down to the Jr. DBA level.

“So Balls”, you say, “I’m a Jr. DBA why should I attend SQL Saturday?”

Great question Dear Reader let’s dive right in!

WHERE DO I START?

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When I was in college I went to one of my professors before I graduated and I told him I was scared.  He smiled slyly and asked me what I was scared of.  To graduate I blurted out, I told him I feel like I’m standing on the Iceberg that sank the Titanic holding a snowball. That Iceberg was all of the IT knowledge in the world, and the snowball was all that I knew.  I told him it wasn’t enough, and that I was scared of what graduation would bring.  He smiled and told me that now I was ready.

I said nothing and thanked him for his time, knowing that this was some Yoda communicating to a Young Jedi kind of moment.  However, normally the Young Jedi somehow gets the sage advice.  I didn’t, I left just as nervous and I had arrived, save for one thing.  This brilliant Professor who had run his own software company, had been out in the outside world, and was an international lecturer thought I was ready.  That helped me because either I had this guy fooled, or he saw something I hadn’t yet recognized.   I’d prefer to believe the second one, and I still feel the best is yet to come.

Everyone who is currently a DBA, accidental or otherwise, started out where you are.  We all understand some of the things you have yet to learn.  We understand and have considered ideas that you will have in a few years.  The great thing about that is the places you have to learn are Legion, and the majority cost you nothing but your time.

So if you take me back to my first SQL Saturday I remember it felt all shiny and new.  I was a kid walking into Toy’s R Us all over again, and my mind was exploding with the possibilities of just how AWESOME this would be.   Then before you know it, SQL Saturday is over, you’re at an after party with a swag bag and your mind is still reeling from the greatness of the day.  From start to finish how do you make the most of it?

PRE-CON’S

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I would suggest you start with the Pre-Con’s.  They are only $99, and that includes lunch and all the Coffee & Tea you can drink in a day.   Take a good hard look at what you business is doing and where the most growth is and plan accordingly.   At this stage in your career if you want to go the DBA path we have a great Pre-Con with Microsoft’s Buck Woody (@buckwoody | Blog ) on SQL Server Performance Tuning Using Application Analysis. Click HERE to go to Buck’s Pre-con site!

If you are curious about Business Intelligence then I would Highly Suggest going to the Pragmatic Works Business Intelligence Workshop featuring Jorge Segarra (@SQLChicken | Blog), Mike Davis (@MikeDavisSQL | Blog), Bradley Schacht (@BradleySchacht | Blog), and Kyle Walker (Blog).  Click Here to go to the Pragmatic Works Pre-Con site!

Pre-Con’s are a great way to get to know other folks that are attending as well as getting some time with the speakers as well.  There will be breaks, lunch, and plenty of other opportunity to meet people while getting some quality education from some top notch talent from the SQL Community.

THE MAIN EVENT

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So now we are here, it is SQL Saturday 85.  You’ve registered you’ve signed up for and attended the Pre-con of your choice.  Let’s get to the schedule.  The great thing is we are chocked full of DBA goodness., so let’s get straight to the selections.

Don Stevic – The Fundamentals of DBA-ism

Daniel Taylor – Useful tools for a DBA and or Database Developer

Nathan Heaivilin- Introduction to Execution Plans        

Chad Miller- Storing Powershell Output

Rob Volk- Revenge:The SQL!

Mike Davis-SQL Smackdown SSIS vs T-SQL                   

Don Stevic(@SQL_Superman | Blog) is a fabulous presenter.  This session is all about getting a good base fundamental knowledge as a DBA in the form of lessons learned from Don.  Don most recently presented at the MagicPASS, SQL Server User Group for Celebration Fl, and I had a chance to see Don in action at SQL Saturday 74 Jacksonville this year.  Don is a great guy and he uses a lot of pop-culture references to get some very technical ideas across.  To any DBA that hasn’t seen Don present, this is a MUST SEE.

Daniel Taylor (@DBABulldog | Blog) is a very good friend of mine.  It is my privilege to work with him every day.  He works hard, he’s damn smart, and I think he is quite funny.  Dan is one of those DBA’s that makes you better just by hanging around him.   He is a Sr. DBA and is extremely good at what he does and one of the great things Dan loves to do is figure out the best way to get the best answers as quick as possible.  This is a session that you should go to and soak up as much knowledge as you can.

Nathan Heaivilin is doing a presentation that I saw last year at SQL Saturday 49 in Orlando.  It was the second session of the day and it was great.  The last time Nathan gave this talk his wife and young child were sick and he had been up all night with them.  He walked in tired and apologized to the audience and gave what was still one of the top 3 sessions I’ve ever seen.  If you want to understand what an execution plan is, and how it can help you optimize your Database’s performance then go see Nathan!

Chad Miller (@cmille19|Blog) is a SQL Server MVP and a recipient of the Microsoft Community Contributor Award for 2011.  Chad Maintains the SQLPSX project on Codeplex.  If you are not familiar with Powershell or Chad then you should be.  Chad is a very impressive man, and he is covering how to store the output from a Powershell Script.  The formats you can store the output in, and how you get that output are things you need to know.  Powershell is only going to become more important as you become a more Senior DBA, so go get your Powershell on with Chad!

Rob Volk (@sql_r | Blog) is doing a Session called Revenge: The SQL!  This is all about how you can do cool things in SQL that will make the lives of your problematic users a proverbial hell.  You do not actually want to do these things as they could/will get you fired.  However T-SQL as a language has a lot of little tricks with it.  So go see a really awesome DBA teach you all the things you could do in SQL if you ever really wanted to mess with your users.

Mike Davis (@MikeDavisSQL | Blog), is closing out the show with SQL Smackdown SSIS vs T-SQL.  By this time in the day your head is spinning with all of your new SQL Knowledge.  Let’s toss in a little more by showing the sheer power of SSIS and T-SQL going head to head.  If you have never seen the this presentation you are in for a treat, Mike is an expert showman and this Session promises to launch itself off the top rope with all the power of a 450 Slam.  It should be a good old fashioned slobber knocker, T-SQL should get whipped harder than a government mule.  Come for the knowledge stay for the show, this session will be a treat!

There are 7 tracks going on so if what I pick doesn’t match what your interest is then take your choice over mine, and trust your gut.  So what are you waiting for Click HERE to Register for SQL Saturday 85 and I hope to see you there!

Thanks,

Brad

I’m A Manager Why Should I Care About SQL Saturday 85

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Hello Dear Reader SQL Saturday 85 is just 5 weeks away!  And while we were doing all of the preparations I came across a really great blog by Karla Landrum (@KarlaKay22 | Blog)  Who’s Attending Your SQL Saturdays?.    In conjunction with this I had a great conversation with Kendal Van Dyke (@SQLDBA | Blog) about writing suggestions for what to attend at a SQL Saturday.

“So Balls”, you say, “You get to pick a job to blog about and the first one you pick is Managers? Lame.”

Not so fast Dear Reader.  In most cases when you have IT management they are one of three types A. non-technical and just a manager, or B. Used to be Technical and are now a manager, and very rarely you find type C. a manager and still heavily technical.

In each case this matters because you need to have a manager onboard with learning.  Bottom line.  If your manager doesn’t want people to better themselves, run and get a new job, then you end up in a spot where people are spinning their wheels.  When your manager is supportive of training opportunities then it makes all the world in advancing your career.

So let’s start out discussing why a manager should care about SQL Saturday and then I’ll propose a schedule of what they could attend.

I’M JUST A MANAGER WHY SHOULD I CARE

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Should I have a conversation with a manager that has never heard of SQL Saturday, and let’s say they are being difficult I would assume the conversation would be something like this. 

If you are asking “Why you should care?”  I’ve got two big words for you, FREE TRAINING. 

Their next question should be “If it’s free is it any good?”  “Yes,” I would say,” it is you have people from Microsoft coming, SQL Server MVP’s, and speakers that will be at this year’s PASS Summit that others will pay thousands to see as well.”

Okay so back to the questions, They ask “If it’s so freaking good why is it FREE?”

 “Great question!”, I reply, “The answer is it is not.”

“AH HA!”, They exclaim, “There’s a catch, it’s not free, you want something from me!”

“There is, I need your time as an attendee.  And as a non-profit we have Sponsors, in some cases paying thousands of dollars, so you can have a quality experience.  We have a staff that volunteers and works really tirelessly raising sponsorship money, contracting a venue, contacting & scheduling speakers, setting up schedules, and generally spreading the word about this event.”

“So this isn’t a second rate freebie, this is organized, it has the sponsorship of a Internationally known group that is purely for the sharing, education, and networking of SQL Server Professionals.  The group PASS, The Professional Association for SQL Server.”

At this point if they should be paying attention.  Even if they don’t like you and they are not letting on that they care about this, trust me they are probably trying to figure out how to repackage this and sell it as their idea paying attention .

So Dear Manager I would say this is an event that is Free to attendees, but it is not free.  They are nationally know, and Orlando, Tampa, and South Florida is where they originated from.  So you are getting one of the most established as well.  If you have people that work for you that are SQL Server Professionals you should encourage them to attend.  I would then encourage you to have a short meeting on Monday to get everyone’s thoughts and see what you all go out of it.

SO I’M OFF TO SQL SATURDAY WHAT SHOULD I SEE

“So Balls,” you say, “You’ve sold me!  I’m off to SQL Saturday what should I see?”

First I would say go take a look at our Schedule by clicking HERE and see what we have to offer.  But here are my recommendations.

Today I want you to focus on being a Manager, and that doesn’t mean that you have to do techie Deep Dives, you can, we’ve got them if you’d like to.  But there is a lot you can learn just by still being true to the job you do every day.

Here’s the lineup

Andy Warren – Building a Professional Development Plan

Janis Griffin- Performance Management-2008 MDW- How & Why

Rob Collie- PowerPivot: BI & Massive Data Analysis for Humans

Norm Bowen- Data Conversions Steps, Tips, and Best Practices

William E. Pearson III- Becoming DAX: An Introduction…

Jorge Segarra- Policy-Based Management in a Nutshell

Andy Warren is one of the co-founders of SQLServerCentral.com, don’t know what that is?  Just ask your DBA’s.  He founded the concept of SQL Saturday’s, he is on the PASS Board of Directors.  If you where ever going to gleam insights of how to manage SQL Server DBA’s and how to encourage their career growth this is the man you would get that from.

Janis Griffin will be presenting on a topic called MDW or Management Data Warehouse.  This is a FREE, included feature if you are already paying for an Enterprise level license.   If you aren’t already paying for a 3^rd party software product to do this same task, this will help you get a better understanding of how SQL Server can be leveraged to manage itself.

Rob Collie will be talking about Power Pivot and it is a very hot topic right now.   If you aren’t using this already you will be.  If your business users aren’t already clamoring for this they will be.  Go sit in his session.

Norm Bowen is covering Best Practices for upgrades and conversions.  Something every Manager of a DBA team should be concerned about.  Go get some great tips based off of personal experience.

Bill Pearson is presenting on DAX, and it may sound funny but it is all about the language that is used in side of SQL Server Analysis Services to ask the really detailed questions.  You don’t need to be a guru, but when you are Interviewing for that BI position this could give you some good questions to ask.

Jorge Segarra co-wrote the book on Policy Based Management.  As a manager you look for quicker and easier ways to do thing.  PRESTO!  Policy Based Management.  Jorge will show you how you can literally manage hundreds of servers with this tool.  It was rolled out in SQL 2008 and every DBA should be using this.

Well Dear Reader as always Thanks Again for Reading!

Thanks,

Brad

SQL Saturday 79 Recap – (THANK YOU SQL SATURDAY 79)

It is hard to believe that SQL Saturday 79 has come and gone.  It was held in the Beautiful Carl DeSantis Building on Nova Southeastern University.  The day started out with a 3:30 am wake up.  I wanted to make sure that I had everything posted on the blog before I headed down so if anyone was looking for downloads or slides I could send them to the Resource Page for it.  After a quick shower and grabbing a cup of coffee for the ride, I hit the road about 4:30 am. 

The trip down is 187 miles from the new house in Winter Haven to Nova Southeastern, with registration starting at 7:30 and the keynote at 8 I wanted to make sure to be there in plenty of time.  It was a nice drive down, I always like watching the sun rise in the car.  I used to see it all time during the drive in to DC & on vacations driving from Virginia to Florida before the move down here.   So with the start of a beautiful day and a peaceful drive, I get to the parking garage and run into my good friend Kendal Van Dyke (@SQLDBA | Blog) on the way into the building. 

After finding registration, finding Coffee, and the restrooms it was off to the speaker room to get a Speaker Shirt.  I don’t normally spend a lot of time in the Speaker room.  I love to meet new people at SQL Saturday’s, but I didn’t make it down for the Speaker Dinner the night before so this was a nice chance to meet some of the other Speakers like Mike Hillwig (@mikehillwig | Blog), Herve Roggero (@hroggero | Blog)  , Bradley Schacht (@bradleyschacht | Blog) and it was a chance to say Hi to others that I’ve met before.  Andy Warren (@SQLAndy | Blog), Mike Davis (@MikeDavisSQL | Blog),  Mike Antonovich (@MPAntonovich| Blog ), Jose Chinchilla (@SQLJoe | Blog), Rodney Landrum (@SQLBeat | Blog), and Thomas LaRock (@SQLRockStar | Blog).

Tom LaRock made my day by remembering me.  I have been very lucky and fortunate to meet some really awesome people in the SQL Community.  There are a lot of people that I’ve gotten to hang out with on a regular basis (point’s to the list of names up above), that I just grin ear to ear thinking about.   It wasn’t that long ago that I set in one of Tom’s sessions for SQL Saturday 49, and later read Noel McKinney’s(@NoelMcKinney | Blog) Blog about it.  At the time thinking I want to get in on this, I want to present, I want to blog, I want to take the next step in my life as a DBA.   And now I say “Hi Tom I’m Brad Ba…”, and he say’s “Hi Brad I remember meeting you before.”  Awesome.

“So Balls,” you say “We get it your there, speakers are there, your gushing like a 14 year old at a Justin Bieber Concert, What about the SESSIONS?”

Well Dear Reader, I missed the first one because I was reviewing all my presentations, cutting some material and adding a little more to others.  But after that, I jumped right in!

RODNEY LANDRUM T-SQL ALPHABET SOUP

Rodney is a SQL MVP and has been working with SQL Server for over 12 years.  There are four letters that describe Rodney’s T-SQL Alphabet Soup, no none of the dirty ones, A.W.L.D.    A is for Awesome, W wait for it, L Ledgend ……. D DAIRY.   Ahhh…..Barney Stintson would be so proud.

I would normally blog details, but Rodney’s Presentation is very interactive and a lot of fun.  He goes one letter at a time and asks the audience to guess what command he will use.  This is a great mental exercise for those of us that use SQL, and it is a lot of fun to participate in.   And it will be one of the presentations given at SQL Saturday 85 J , CLICK HERE to look at the full line up for that great event.

BRADLEY BALL PAGE & ROW COMPRESSION HOW, WHY, AND WHEN

My Early Birds! We had another 15 minutes to fill the room after this picture!

Compression is a great topic.  Pictured above is my room as people started coming in 15 minutes before the session started.  I had one of the best crowds I’d ever had.  We cover a lot when I do this presentation, and I had a great group of people. By the time the presentation got started we had almost filled the room.  People asked questions, we had a really good back and forth.

The main thing that I tell people is that when you apply Compression you do not want to do it blindly.  I have a Monday Morning Checklist on my Resources Page and it lists all the steps you can take to determine the tables in your database that are candidates for compression.   I like to think of Compression the way that you would Indexes.  You wouldn’t just toss an index on a table and never check to see if it effected your query plans/query response times, over head for different operations (updates/inserts), or if the data was actually worth indexing.  And Compression needs the same consideration to make sure you do it right.

Compression is also very Dynamic, with the way that Allocation Units work within tables, Indexes, and Partitions you can apply Compression in a lot of different ways and we cover the full gambit.  This was a great start on the presentations and I want to say a BIG Thank You to everyone who attended this was a lot of fun to present and you were a great crowd!

LUNCH

Lunch was served by Azteca Real Mexican Restaurants and it was delicious.  The line was vast, the picture you see above is after waiting for 30 minutes and then going to the back of the line, the sever table was on the opposite end from me.  There were a lot of people to feed and the SQL Saturday team did a great job of getting everyone fed, with hefty portions. 

Quick thinking on their part led them to open a line on either side of the serving table to get the crowd through as quickly as possible.  I chatted with folks in line, sat with Serge & Javier (two new acquaintances) and talked about the emergence of Business Intelligence, the free training offered by the Great Folks over at Pragmatic Works on a weekly basis, and a whole host of other topics.

With my stomach full it was off to see a SQL Rockstar!

THOMAS LaROCK MONITORING DATABASES IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

I can’t speak for you Dear Reader, but I’m seeing a lot of Virtualization going on.  There are some databases that will not translate well, that must have physical hardware.  But these databases are normally the exception and not the rule.  We all know that Virtualization is a great way to reduce your footprint, go green, yadda yadda yadda. 

So you’ve gone Virtual, now what.  Now you are still going to have users coming up to you saying “The Application is running slow, can you fix the database?”  And you will still need to ask the same questions.  Slow compared to what?  Do you have baselines, do you know how your server is behaving, Do you know how your Host & Virtualized instance are working in tandem? 

Ah I got you with the last one, and Tom got me as well.  Tom does a great job of stepping through the different pain points that you have, CPU, Memory, Disk I/O, and Network Latency.  These are all very important things to consider, after all they were important when it was just Physical Hardware.  Now you have virtualized Hardware don’t you want to make sure that you know what is going on?

The presentation is shaped around VM Ware.  The terminology is specific to it and if you are running VM Ware and have Server Engineers talking about crazy sounding stuff like ESX Hosts, then you need to know crazy things like VM Ready Time, Reservations, Limits, and Shares.  You need to know that Swapping and Ballooning can be bad, and if you understand how SQL Server uses memory it translates pretty quick.

Tom talks about his (Patten Pending) BMFF Best Metric Friend Forever.  And when it comes to troubleshooting your VM’s these are things you need to know.  If your working with Hyper-V this is still a great presentation to attend because it will get you thinking about the questions you should be asking, and the terminology that you should be learning to better support your environment.

BRADLEY BALL TRANSPARENT DATA ENCRYPTION INSIDE AND OUT

I’ve worked a lot with Transparent Data Encryption.  It is a great technology and was a great addition to SQL Server 2008.  It is a very simple technology to turn on and off.  And like my friend Colossus to the left it affects the Physical Structure only.

During this presentation one of the cool thing we do is taking an unencrypted backup tossing it into a Hex editor and looking at the data you can start to pull out.  The fact is there is a lot of meta data and header information, but there is also all of your other data stored in plain text.

Then take that same database, apply Transparent Data Encryption, back it up, and place that backup in a Hex Editor.  Aside from some header information that cannot be encrypted so that SQL can still read it, the difference is like night and day.

We do that in this session and then I cover some tips on how to automate the backup and on disk management of your Certificates as well as the impact this will have on Advanced Features such as Mirroring and Log shipping, as well as the additional considerations you should account for when planning your DR strategy.

Once again a very interactive crowd, and a very BIG Thank You to everyone who attended!   Some of the most gratifying moments of the day came in the conversations after this session and my next one.

BRADLEY BALL SQL INTERNALS, RECOVERY MODELS, & BACKUPS! OH MY!

3rd Presentation of the Day we are now in the Home Stretch

This was the first time I had done this presentation.  My good friend Kendal Van Dyke sat in and gave me some great pointers for the next time I do this, and I’m really excited for next time.

I think this is the year where a lot of things clicked for me and I grew the most as a DBA.  I remember reading Paul Randal’s (@PaulRandal | Blog ) about the internal contents of a Page a couple years ago.  And it took me several reads to process it to the point I could make flash cards on it.  This year the internal make up of a Page has become familiar like the view out of a window.   And as I’ve continued on with learning I’ve noticed that there are a lot of things that come up time and time again.

Sometimes I stop and go, “How have I lived my WHOLE DBA life and not known this!”  So this presentation is not about becoming an expert at internals.  It is about getting to the point where you can start that journey.  In it we covered ACID, SQL’s Internal Components, the Data Hierarchy, Transaction Log Internals, Recovery Models, how Recovery Models relate to SLA’s & DR scenarios, the different types of Backups, and what a Piecemeal Restore really does. 

I had a LOT of great questions.  And even though I was able to answer all of them I think a lot of them deserve follow up blogs.  I pointed people repeatedly to the great free resources that are out there, How Do You Learn & Top 5 Reasons You Should Be On Twitter, and encouraged them to do free and paid training where they can.  The point was to better themselves, which is always a good thing.

Another BIG Thank You to everyone who attended this presentation.  I had a great time, and really appreciated all the questions.  After this presentation I had someone come up to me and say "I've been learning on topic X and the way you explained it everything just clicked and I got it."  That is one of the best thing's I've ever been told after a presentation!

WRAP UP

And with that Dear Reader we called it a day.  I sat and talked with Kendal, Andy, and Mike and watched as the raffles began.  It was around 5 pm, a little under 12 hours since I had awoke, and I decided to call it a day, with a 3 hour car ride and another 187 miles to home.  I got some Tweets about the after party, and I wish I had made it.  Maybe next year we will make a family vacation out of this, or even better just me and Mrs. Balls, so we can stay a little longer.

This was a great event and a great day despite all the difficulties the team hit during the day (10 speakers no showed the event)!  We had a lot of great people that filled slots, the team worked tirelessly to get it all pulled together, and by the end of the day I saw a lot of smiling faces.

I Can’t wait till next year.  Now off to SQL Saturday 85 in Orlando September 24^th J!

As Always Thanks for Reading!

Thanks,

Brad

SQL Saturday 79 Deck's & Materials

Good Morning Dear Reader or Dear SQL Saturday Attendee!   This is a quick post to link you over to my Resource Page, CLICK HERE to go to the page.  My Resource Page contains the Slide Decks, as well as the Demos (for my sessions that have demo's), for all 3 presentations I'm doing today at SQL Saturday 79.  It's around 4 am and I'm about to hit the road, hope you have a great day and I look forward to seeing you at SQL Saturday 79 South Florida!!

SQL SATURDAY 79

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This weekend Saturday August the 13^th, I will be trekking down to beautiful Ft. Lauderdale to speak at SQL Saturday 79.  I applied to speak back in March, and at the time I submitted 5 different sessions. I was brain storming at the time.  I’ve done a lot of presenting on Compression, and I love to present on it, but I had a couple other topics that I wanted to present on as well.  And that is one of the great things about SQL Saturday, it is all about giving Attendees the chance to learn, and giving Speakers the chance to present.  And will I ever be presenting!  I will be speaking not once, not twice, but THREE times this Saturday!

“So Balls”, you say, “What will you be presenting on?”

So Glad you asked Dear Reader J, and away we go!

PAGE & ROW COMPRESSION HOW, WHY, AND WHEN

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I’ve presented on this topic at SQL Saturday 62 & 74, SQL Rally, MagicPASS, and Tuesday August 9^th at OPASS, the SQL Server User Group for North Orlando.  Compression is a great topic, and is a technology that I believe will only increase in usage.

So often people confusing Compression, with squeezing more into one place.  It is much more like efficiently packing what you have in the best logical order.  Understanding how compression works, and what you should be compressing, and why compression could help you is key to benefiting from the cost of an Enterprise Edition License for SQL 2008 and up.   

I’m presenting a Deep Dive on this topic at the PASS Summit in October, and this presentation is the perfect preparation for that Deep Dive.  If you get a chance to stop by I’d love to have you, here is the abstract for my session.

“Page and Row Compression are powerful new tools. Vardecimal shipped with SQL 2005 SP2, Page & Row with SQL 2008 RTM, and Page & Row with Unicode Compression with SQL 2008 R2. Get an overview into how each version of compression works internally. Learn how your Allocation Units will determine if your data is a candidate for compression. Understand how your tables Update and Scan pattern’s affect the compression types you should consider. And what you should you take into consideration for additional overhead.”

Next up a little Transparent Data Encryption

TRANSPARENT DATA ENCRYPTION INSIDE & OUT

In the wake of all the hacking scandals that we’ve seen recently, Security is at the forefront of many people’s minds.  If you haven’t had your CIO, Bosses Boss, or your Boss ask you about what you can do to “better secure” your databases, you will at some point.

 If you are paying for an Enterprise Edition License for SQL Server 2008 and above you have Transparent Data Encryption available to you.  It is really easy to enable, but you need to understand how it works, what it does and what it doesn’t do, additional backup considerations, what the impact will be to advanced features, and how this will add to disaster recovery scenarios.   We will cover all of that.  I’ve set up TDE with Mirroring, Log Shipping, on Vendor Databases, and on Custom Databases. 

When we talk about TDE it is physical hardening, like Colossus up above, and if you work with sensitive data this could be a real benefit to you.  I’ve got this chocked full of info.  I love questions so if you’ve got them get them ready because I’d love to help with an answer.  And if I don’t have an answer I’ll research it and blog about it!

Here’s the abstract for this presentation.

“Security is a very important part of your job and in how data is utilized. We have many tools to make data more secure, and starting in SQL 2008 we were able to add Transparent Data Encryption to that list. Find out What it does, What it doesn’t do, how it effects Read-Only Filegroups, Performance, Compression (Backup and Row/Page), and other Advance Features as well as some tips on how to manage it.”

And now a little fun with Internals!

SQL INTERNALS, RECOVERY MODELS, & BACKUPS! OH MY!

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Listing to Paul Randal's (@PaulRandal | Blog) MCM videos, he talks about spelunking in the Database engine. 

As someone who has rock climbed, caved, and generally spent a lot of time hiking around the mountains I really like the mental image of a couple guys lowering themselves deep into the SQL Engine with Hard Hat’s and Light’s on their heads. 

“Hey Paul you ever been here before?”  “Yeah, loads of time check out the granite stalagmites by the Access Methods!”  And if you are looking for spelunking that is what I’m doing, but instead of going caving we are spelunking around the kiddie pool.

Why should you come to this session?  Especially after you’ve just sat through my two other sessions J?  Because Dear Reader I want you to learn.  There is so much to learn when it comes to internals that people can spend weeks, and do, learning about one particular section and still have more to learn.  But as you continue your learning there is a lot of vocabulary you will need to know.

You need to know what the internal Data Hierarchy looks like.  You should know what the difference between a record, a page, an extent, an allocation bitmap, and Allocation Units/IAM Chain’s are.  You should know how your Transaction Log effects your Recovery Model.  You should know the different Recovery Model’s and how they relate to the different type of backups, and how backups relate to Service Level Agreements, SAL’s, and Disaster Recovery, DR.

But unlike any other presentation that I have ever done, this is just a talk, a conversation.  You could do demo’s with this, but that is a lot to squeeze into an hour & ½ .  I want to make sure that when you leave the room you know enough to feel informed.  But that you also know enough, to realize how much you do not know.  And you’re not alone. 

I don’t know it all.  Not even close.  But there are a lot of amazing experts out there that I’m still learning from, and probably will continue to learn from until they retire or I do.  But this will set you up with knowledge you might not have already known, and will make sure you are poised for future learning.  Here’s the abstract.

“The more you know about SQL Server the more you understand how it works. SQL Server is a product we use every day, and most of us know the big concepts. At the 10,000 foot view we know what Databases, Tables, and Columns are. But what makes up those Databases, Tables, and Columns. What are Records, Pages, Extents, and Allocation Units? What are Full, Simple, and Bulk-Logged Recovery? What are the differences between Full, Transaction Log, Differential, or Filegroup backups? This is an introduction to these concepts. In this session you will learn about the internal Structure, Recovery Modes, and Backups and be better prepared to for Future Learning and Managing SQL!”

So what are you waiting for Dear Reader, Click HERE to go register, come up and say “Hi!” and I hope to see you there!

Thanks,

Brad

How Do You Learn?

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A lot of brilliant people have spent a lot of time, some have made careers out of, learning about how we as people learn.  Whether you subscribe to the Kolb’s, Gregorc’s, Honey & Mumford’s Models, or Flemings VAK/VARK model, at this point in your career you’ve found a way to learn and it works for you. 

I once had a professor, Dr. William Perry, that said repeatedly throughout his courses “Learn to Love to Learn!”.  He would talk to us about how as IT professionals you had better enjoy learning because you would be doing it for the rest of your life.  He would also add that if you did not like to learn you were in the wrong field.  He couldn’t have been more right.

“So Balls,” you say, “How do you learn?”

Glad you asked Dear Reader, let’s dive right in.

MY FLASH CARDS            

 Here is a picture of one small part of my Desk.  If you’re someone who has worked with me you’ve probably seen my flash cards.  I started this pile of flash cards when I was working on beautiful Ft. Monroe in Virginia.  I was studying for my TS and then my ITP Certifications for SQL 2005.  I added to my flash cards next when I was working for the Office of the President up in D.C.  I was studying for my TS in SQL 2008 at the time.  As I would take the train in I would read my book and highlight sections that I wanted to make flash cards out of.  Then I would re-read the book making the flash cards.

After studying for and getting my Certifications, I didn’t want to just forget what I had worked on.  So I continued to review them.   Sometimes people would walk up and say “What are you studying for?”, and I would reply with the name of the Certification I was working towards.  Sometimes I would simply reply by saying, I just want to keep the information fresh in my mind.

As working situations arise, having this information fresh in my mind proved beneficial time after time.  Learning provided better situational awareness, which only served to reinforce how important it was to continue to learn. 

Pretty quickly on I started finding myself in situations where, I would have an issue resolve it, and I’d want to continue to learn from it.  So I would make a flash card on the script, or the situation.  My focus had been on learning from books alone, and that was pretty narrow.  I realized it was just as important to expand not only what I was learning, but where I learned it from.

Back in 2009 our VP of Microsoft Technologies had told me about this upcoming event called, 24 Hours of PASS.  It was an online event, so I could watch these 1 hour training sessions from my Computer.  I persuaded work to let me work remotely, so I could watch these training sessions.  This was my first exposure to PASS, and my first window into the SQL Community, (other than the forums for SQLServerCentral.com ).

There was amazing session after amazing session, I learned about NUMA from Thomas Grohser (@tgrohser), I first heard Louis Davidson (@drsql | Blog) discuss relational design, and got my first ever view of Brent Ozar(@BrentO | Blog).  I was hooked, and I had gotten a lot of good information.

“So Balls,” you say, “Where do you get your learning material from books and webinars?”

Great question Dear Reader, but the answer is I get it from just about everywhere.

LEARN FROM EVERYTHING

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When you look at my flash card pile up above, know that I’ve thrown a lot out.  I gave some to friends, and the flash cards have been a constant evolution.  Sometimes material in books are wrong, sometimes material on Books Online are wrong, and sometimes you never know what will be useful.

Here are the places that I take notes from that turn into flash Cards, and would be my recommendations.

A.      Books

Books are a great source of knowledge and there are a lot of really good SQL Server books out there.  Right now I’m reading Microsoft 2008 Internals, Click Here to View.   I’m also reading Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting, Click Here to View.  The great thing about books is that when you buy them, you can always have them with you.  Nothing beats having knowledge at your finger tips.  IPAD, Knook, whatever buy them and study them.

B.      SQL Server Central

Whether it be the Question of the Day, an Article in the newsletter, or a really great discussion on the forums.  There is more information than you could ask for in a lifetime.  You can get help with your problems, and do plenty of learning as well.

C.      PASS SQL Server User Groups

Last month at MagicPASS we had a Microsoft Certified Master speak to us about the Relational Engine and how Cache works Internally.  It was free, we had tacos, and there are a lot of great DBA’s just like you at the meetings.  This is a fabulous place for networking and for learning.  Go to the PASS website and find the User Group nearest to you.  Don’t forget the Virtual Chapters which provide FREE webinars monthly, sometimes twice a month!

D.      24 Hours of PASS

This is another FREE event, I hope your sensing a trend here you don’t have to spend a lot of money to learn, and it will have the TOP names in the field of SQL Database Administration and Business Intelligence.  All it requires is your time.

E.       Channel 9

This is Microsoft’s online learning resource for the Public.  You can find Tech Ed Presentations, Informational videos by the Project Teams, and even new technology previews.  Another great FREE source.

F.       Webinars

Companies like Pragmatic Works, Idera, and Confio are constantly putting on Webinars monthly and for FREE!  You just need to go to their websites and sign up for their free training News Letters.

G.     SQL Saturday

Hey We have one of these coming up in Orlando on September 24^th!  Click Here to Register!  This is an event where some of the top names in our filed present to you for FREE!  You will have MVP’s like Andy Warren(@sqlandy | blog), Rodney Landrum (@sqlbeat | Blog), or Jorge Serraga (@sqlchicken | Blog) just to name a few, presenting for you Dear Reader.

H.      MCM Videos

I wrote a Blog on this once already, MCM video’s You Should Be Watching These, and you should be.  They are a wealth of information, that scratches the surface on what you need to be a Master!

JUST GO LEARN!

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There is also a lot of great training that is not for free, SQL Rally, PASS Summit, and training courses offered by companies like SQL Skills or SQL Cruise.  They are worth their weight in gold, and you don’t have to look far to find a lot of people with the same opinions.

However you learn Dear Reader, just make sure you are learning.  I make flash cards from all these thing, and I review them.  I walk around and share them with the DBA’s I work with, and sometimes we have a quiz of the day on a topic.  I’m sure there are a lot of places that I’ve left off the list if you want to add any please do in the comments below!

Thanks,

Brad

Announcing the Full Day BI Workshop for SQL Saturday 85

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Hello Dear Reader, a couple of weeks ago we had a call for Pre-Conference Speakers for SQL Saturday 85.  That call closed on the same day as our call for speakers back on July 24^th.  The Program Team has been hard at work reviewing submissions as they arrived, and we got some Great Ones!  We were finally able to narrow down the selection process, and select a great event.

I Just wanted to say a quick Thank You to everyone who submitted.  Every Single Presentation we reviewed was top notch, and I would be excited and thrilled to attend any one of them.  To everyone who submitted we really appreciate the time and effort that it took to submit.  Thank You!

This was a very tough decision but in the end there was one Session that we felt would be OUTSTANDING and at the same time offer the variety in subject matter that we felt would best serve our conference attendees.

“So Balls”, you say, “Who DID you pick?”

Ahh Dear Reader we didn’t pick one, no we didn’t pick two or three, but FOUR speakers.  So without further ado I give the Full Day BI Workshop!

Business Intelligence Workshop
Jorge Segarra, Bradley Schacht, Kyle Walkter, &  Mike Davis

Abstract:

In this full-day workshop, you'll learn from the author team of Jorge Segarra, Mike Davis, Brad Schacht, and Kyle Walker how to build a data warehouse for your company and support it with the Microsoft business intelligence platform. We'll start with how to design and data model a data warehouse including the system preparation. Then, we'll jump into loading a data warehouse with SSIS. After SSIS, you're ready to roll the data up and provide the slice and dice reporting with SSAS. The team will walk through cube development and data enrichment with things like key performance indicators, which are essential for your future dashboards. Lastly, we will cover how to report against the data warehouse with SSRS including a primer in how to write MDX queries against the SSAS cube.

Take Home Skills:

Practical knowledge of building a Dimensional Model Designing a simple ETL process using SSIS Designing a Cube Designing simple SSRS Reports Building an integrated process that fully leverages the entire MS BI stack to load a Data Warehouse

OUR SPEAKERS

Speaker Bio(s)

Jorge Segarra  (@SQLChicken|Blog)

Jorge is a BI Consultant for Pragmatic Works and a SQL Server MVP. In addition to being a member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG) he is also a PASS Regional Mentor for the U.S. Greater Southeast region. He has also co-authored the book from Apress “SQL 2008 Pro Policy-Based Management“. Redgate Exceptional DBA of the Year 2010 Finalist.

Bradley Schacht  (@bradleyschacht|Blog)

Bradley is a consultant at Pragmatic Works in Jacksonville, FL. He was an author on the book SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence 24-Hour Trainer. Bradley has experience on many part of the Microsoft BI platform. He has spoken at events like SQL Saturday, Code Camp, SQL Lunch and SQL Server User Groups. He is a contributor on sites such as BIDN.com and SQL Server Central as well as an active member of the Jacksonville SQL Server User Group (JSSUG).

Kyle Walker  (Blog)

Kyle is a Business Intelligence consultant for Pragmatic Works. His current and past work experience includes Integration Services, data warehousing concepts, Reporting Services, and Crystal Reports. He is active in the local and online community as a speaker for SQL Lunch, Jacksonville SQL Server Users Group, and past SQLSaturday events, as well as a blogger on BIDN.com.

Mike Davis (@MikeDavisSQL|Blog)  

Mike Davis, MCTS, MCITP, is a Senior BI consultant at Pragmatic Works. He is an author of a few Business intelligence books. Mike is an experienced speaker and has presented at many events such as several SQL Server User Groups, Code Camps, SQL Server Launches, SQL Rally, and SQL Saturday events. Mike is an active member at his local user group (JSSUG) in Jacksonville, FL.

KICK’N IT SASS STYLE

To Sign up for this event, Click HERE.  This full day of training is for only $99 dollars, which includes all day coffee & tea and lunch.   You may notice that every one of our speakers works for Pragmatic Works.  I’ve had a chance to see the great people at Pragmatic Works performing Half Day Training and Hourly Session, Webinars, Full Day Training, at SQL Saturday’s, at SQL Rally, and at even the Microsoft Offices in Tampa helping to explain and discuss new and upcoming technology.

They are one of the GO TO companies when it comes to BI.   They are the people writing the books, and they are the resource experts that people flock to.  If you are interested in BI, this is a day that you cannot miss!

If you are an old hat at BI, or a newbie this is the session for you.  I attended this same Pre-Con at SQL Rally.  We covered SSIS, Change Data Capture, SSAS, and SSRS.  You will truly get a look at how the full Microsoft BI suite can be utilized for your business.  A sample business was used and we walked through all the different ways to manage the data.  For the full write up look at SQL Rally: Pre Con Business Intelligence Workshop BI END to END.   This was a great day of training, and I’m really excited that we can offer it to you!

A Big Congratulations for newly minted MVP Jorge Segarra (Who will also have a Community Spotlight Session at this year’s PASS Summit), Bradley Schacht, Kyle Walker, and to Mike Davis on getting selected.  Gentlemen I look forward to seeing you in Orlando in September, and Dear Reader I hope you can make it too!

Thanks,

Brad