Another tool I really like is PowerWF. PowerWF is a really cool visual workflow builder that creates PowerShell scripts for you. Turns out that it integrates with PowerGUI!
This video shows 2 different ways that PowerWF Workflows can be run from within Quest Software’s PowerGUI tool.
I was just bragging about how Toad for SQL Server keeps getting better. In that post, I also pointed out a lot of great resources you can put to work immediately on improving your skills with this great tool. (Incidentally, there’s a freeware version without all of the features, but it’s still quite useful. And you can always use the beta product, if you want all of the features and many new features that are undergoing community testing.)
Ain't he handsome?
One of the reasons that Toad is so good is that it’s always been a community-driven product. Back when I used Oracle every day, TOAD was an acronym = Total Oracle Application Development. It didn’t take long for Toad to rise above the acronym transform into the eponymous term denoting “kick-butt database tool” just a few years before Toad began to go cross-platform. Now that Toad is solidly cross-platform with versions for DB2, MySQL, and Cloud to boot, it’s worth pointing out that Toad got to be what it is today entirely from community feedback. Back in the day, when I worked in Quest’s R&D team, the developers literally kept a checklist of cool suggestions from the community and worked against that to develop new features. My point isn’t to fully describe the inner workings of the Toad dev team, rather I wanted to highlight how incredibly important community feedback is to this tool and the developers behind it.
Product documentation and product training are two areas where our customers consistently press us to improve…and one we take if very seriously.
Bold Claims
One of my favorite tools in the Quest Software toolbox for SQL Server (and Oracle) DBAs is called Foglight Performance Analysis, or more commonly, PA. This product can do things that no other tool or amount of customized scripts can ever reproduce. I am dead serious about this claim.
Here you’ll find just about any and all documents you could possibly need, from initial evaluation, through the demo and proof-of-concept (POC) phase, and on through implementation and on-going management. Do we have more documentation? Sure, but this list contains the key documents you’ll most likely want to see.
Training?
I’ve also gotten a lot of questions about training on the Quest tools – Do we offer it? How much does it cost? When do the classes run?
The quick answer is YES! We offer very nice training for a mere $350. Head over to www.quest.com/foglight-performance-analysis-for-sql-server and you’ll see a link to “Find out about Technical Training” that links to http://www.quest.com/sql-training-leadthem/. Once you register, you’ll get to take part in two 2-hour fully remote offerings. The first class is focused on sizing, configuration, and setup of PA, while the second teaches you how to use the product.
Toad Data Analyst, the Reporting Tool for non-technical types
If you’ve attended any of my public sessions about SQL Server technology, then you might remember that I extend a standing offer to provide a free, long-term license to any of several products from Quest Software, such as Toad for SQL Server (including the SQL Optimizer), Toad Data Analyst, Toad Data Modeler, and the awesome performance and scalability testing tool Benchmark Factory.
If you’ve ever wondered about these tools and why I tout them, why don’t you take a couple minutes to look at the on-line demos available at each of the preceding links? If you like what you see, drop me a note and I’ll get you that license I was blabbing about. I thank you and my children thank you! <grin>
I first wrote about useful database maintenance scripts on my SQLBlog account way back in 2008. Hmmm – now that I think about it, I first wrote about my own useful database maintenance scripts in a journal called SQL Server Professional back in the mid-1990′s on SQL Server v6.5 or some such. But I digress…
No, not that kind of script!
Anyway, I pointed out a couple useful sites where you could get some good scripts that would take care of preventative maintenance on your SQL Server, such as index defragmentation, updating statistics, and so forth. One of the script kits came directly from Microsoft’s internal database management team. But, alas, they haven’t published any updates in quite a while. On the other hand, the other set of scripts came from Ola Hallengren, who has done a great job keeping his scripts up to date.
Recently, Ola added support for updating column statistics, both in a generalized update and also updates for only those columns whose statistics have been modified. He’s added some other goodies to the latest release, which you can read about here, http://ola.hallengren.com/Versions.html for all details.
In addition, I’d like to remind you of the white paper I wrote a while back called Automating DBA Processes, which covers many aspects of database automation and cherry picks some of the best practices from many different thought leaders, such as Ola, Michelle Ufford (blog | @sqlfool) who will be speaking at the 24HOP soon, and Allen White (blog | twitter).
Quest Software’s latest community initiative, Windows Azure-based Project Lucy, has debuted! Project Lucy is part infrastructure analytics, part social media experiment, and part performance data warehouse.
The best things about Project Lucy include:
It’s Free – just like our SQLServerPedia website, Project Lucy is free to anyone who wants to upload a trace file
It’s 1oo% web-based – you don’t have to download or maintain anything and updates roll out seamlessly, all the time
It really helps – just generate a SQL Trace on a SQL Server 2000, 2005 or 2008 instance, upload it on www.projectlucy.com, and see for yourself
This initiative empowers DBAs and IT professionals to gain a better understanding of their database performance through automated analyses and collaboration with their peers. Our goal is to allow users to go beyond the benefits of installing and using a commercial product, and tap into an online community to share and compare experiences and results.
Our goal is to test the best ways we can help users learn and understand what their performance data really means, and how they should act upon that data – if at all – in a collaborative, meaningful way. For this debut, Project Lucy will accept SQL Trace files, or zip files containing multiple traces, and will provide a summary of the content and areas where performance can be improved. As y’all use the service, information will become available to help you compare your performance and engage in meaningful discussions with others about the issues you are facing.
Your feedback, your feedback, and participation will drive how Project Lucy evolves. Get involved by participating in the pilot program! And let me know what you think.
Disco, aka Discovery Wizard for SQL Server, like John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" except the pants aren't as tight
I really like the free SQL Server utility from Quest Software, nicknamed “Disco”, that enables you to discover and inventory all versions and editions of Microsoft SQL Server from the mid-1990′s onward. You can see what it does at http://questkb.com/category/sqlserver/discovery-wizard/.
I’ve had a lot of customers who have faced the challenge of bringing an unwieldy and chaotically growing SQL Server infrastructure to heel. It can be really daunting in a big enterprise trying to find all of the SQL Servers tucked behind third-party applications, Microsoft products like Sharepoint, and various tools that use SQL Server as its data repository.
I’m hearing rumors inside of Quest that Disco may be heading towards the great product dustbin in the sky. Me no likey!
If Disco is a tool you use and enjoy, or it’s a tool you would like to use and enjoy in the future, then please post a comment here and/or send an email to info@quest.com voicing your support for Disco. I’d like to see Quest keep this product free and supported, now and in the future.
Cloud computing is more than just the latest buzz word in the IT trade papers. It is a remarkable paradigm shift with as much potential to “turn over the apple cart” of IT computing as client-server had for the world of mainframe and minicomputers. If you’re not spending time to learn about cloud computing, in general, and SQL Azure, in particular, then you’re missing the boat in a big way. (Ha! Two big metaphors in one afternoon. My high-school English teacher would be proud.)
There are mountains, literally MOUNTAINS, of free and high-quality content to be had. For example:
Fire Side Chats are invitation only Live Meetings. They are an hour in length, repeated at different times of day so you don’t need to attend at 3:00am because of time zone issues. Each Fire Side Chat has a key Microsoft individual talking about their area of expertise and answering questions from the audience. The Fireside Chats are aimed at technical experts, MVPs, user group leaders and the like. But they have content of interest for everyone. When looking at the archives, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be many recent chats. But some of the older ones still looked interested. You can register to see one at http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats.
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Microsoft Team Blogs of Interest
Do you ever wish that Microsoft consolidated all of their blogs in one easy to find central clearinghouse? Well, your wish was answered, actually quite a long time ago. BlogMS consolidates almost 250 Microsoft team blogs across a variety of Microsoft product and online services portfolio, with usually about 70 – 80 blog posts per week. Yes, children, that’s two to three HUNDRED blog posts per month.
You’ll find important announcements and details of Microsoft news, product releases, service packs and important support issues. On top of that, I really like all of the great links to Microsoft web resources on the right hand side of the website. If you’re like me (and let’s be honest, most rational or just sane people would not want anything of the sort), you’ll probably bookmark quite a few of those links.
The following BlogMS Resource Guides may also be of use:
You might be familiar with the term “Most Valuable Player”, but haven’t heard that MVPs exist in the professional world too. Microsoft has nearly 3,000 designated “Most Valuable Professionals”. These folks are designated experts who know their subject matter at an expert level and, as an added bonus, they don’t smell like a basketball locker room (SQLRockstar, Thomas LaRock, being a notable exception to this rule).
Late last year a cool new tool was launched called Microsoft Desktop Player. The player aggregates contextual technical content (webcasts, podcasts, white papers) from across all sorts of Microsoft websites having an IT Pro adoption lifecycle. In addition, it also provides links to local resources and news for the Developers and IT Pros based on their local settings, helping to drive the local engagement/relationship. You’ll need Microsoft Silverlight to run the website, but it’s oh-so-cool looking. Check out the details here: http://www.microsoft.com/click/desktopplayer.
Join SQL Server MVP and President of PASS, Kevin Kline as he:
* Identifies the issues that can arise from relying only on modeling tools
* Discusses the 10 most common modeling issues you will face when transforming data models from logical (conceptual) to physical
* Describes how to correctly identify and resolve serious problems
* Provides best practices to resolve issues
My employer, Quest Software, Inc. (QSFT26.15, +0.68, +2.65%) today added Apache Cassandra, an open-source NoSQL database, to its list of supported NoSQL platforms with the second beta release of Toad(R) for Cloud Databases. Toad now supports data access and management for Apache Cassandra, Amazon SimpleDB, Microsoft Azure Table Services, Apache HBase, and any Open Database Connectivity-enabled relational database.
