I’ve had enough time off from traveling after my surgery to finally travel again. First on the circuit , set for August 27th, is Omaha, Nebraska and SQL Saturday #91. As a former Crimson Tide alum, I was stoked about going to the University of Nebraska, our once and future rivals on the Grid Iron. But after a moment’s confusion, I remembered that the Huskers are over in Lincoln, not Omaha. (May Bear have mercy on my soul.)
Almost all of the speakers are friends. Many are Microsoft MVPs. So it’ll be great to catch up with these fine folks and, I hope, get a chance to meet many attendees. I’ll be doing three of my favorite presentations: SQL Server Internals & Architecture, End-to-End Troubleshooting for Microsoft SQL Server, and Top Ten Most Crucial DBA Mistakes. As I write this, I realize that I’ve got to get busy and post those other slide decks in the slides section of my website!
I’ll also be visiting a few customers for the two days before hand, signing a few books, and otherwise trying to be productive. In the parlance of my employer, that means helping with sales.
Next month, on September 17th, I’ll be speaking at the Atlanta SQL Saturday #89. I’m presenting just one session at the event itself, though I’ll be hanging out at the Quest booth much of the time. If possible, I’m also going to spend as much time as I can in Bob Ward’s sessions.
In addition, I’ll be presenting a full day pre-conference seminar on Friday, September 16th covering all sorts of SQL Server performance tuning and optimization content. There are only a few seats left, so if you’re so inclined REGISTER HERE ASAP. All attendees will be getting a big goodie bag with posters, a signed copy of one of my books, and a T-Shirt.
Atlanta is an easy 4-hour drive from Nashville. And the weather is usually great in September. So this should be a fun event in every way!
My employer, Quest Software, was once again named to the SD Times 100 list, this year in the “database and integration” category! The program recognizes the top leaders and innovators, looking back at each company’s achievements from the year before. Out unwavering market leadership was also reinforced in 2010 with IDC ranking Quest as “the top independent database management and development tools vendor serving distributed and other non-mainframe systems”· Other innovations contributed to our win, such:
Ongoing innovation within the Toad product family, including the introduction of Toad for Cloud Databases and OraOop in support of emerging database technologies
Community initiatives like NoSQLPedia aimed at educating the traditional relational database professional on new database platforms
And the launch of Project Lucy, our free Azure-based diagnostic service for SQL Server professionals
If you want to check out some of the buzz/congratulations taking place on Twitter for Quest and the other organizations that made the list, follow the #sdtimes100 hashtag.
Thanks for your support! And if you’re not currently a customer of mine, but are curious, drop me a note for a free long-term license.
That’s right! An all new version 8.0 of Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise is now GA and updated trials are live on the website. Some cool stuff therein:
• Support for SQL Server 2011 (Denali) – Spotlight can now be used to monitor SQL Server 2011 databases (Denali CTP1 and CTP2 releases).
• Project Lucy integration – Use Project Lucy to analyze the performance of your database and compare your experience with everyone else who uses the service.
• VMware memory diagnostics – Analyze virtual memory using charts similar to that used to analyze virtual CPU.
Version 6.5 is hot off the presses HERE. Some very cool new features include:
Adaptive Compression to continually optimize backup compression for best performance
Backup Templates to easily manage and deploy backup jobs to multiple instances
More powerful remote deployment facility to simplify server deployment and configuration
Fast Compression to deduplicate data at the server and further reduce backup times and data volume
LiteSpeed keeps getting faster and faster!
Toad for SQL Server
Version 5.5 is GA with lots of new features and benefits include:
Greater consistency with Toad for Oracle
- New session browser
- Added filtering to schema compare and synch
- Same installer as Toad for Oracle
- Bundle installers
- Enterprise option in the license key to display “unlimited” seats
Database Administration Enhancements
- Index defragmentation
- Manage database storage
- Discover SQL Server Instances
- Virtual Indexes for User Defined Alternatives (SQL Optimizer)
Database Development Enhancements
- Improved critical Code Completion functionality and overall performance
New bundle executables are now available for download:
Supports EBS – Storage Maximizer works with SharePoint External BLOB Storage (EBS) to leave a GUID behind in the content database that references the location of the external content. The end users will see the same link and can still open the item as if it were stored in the SQL content database. Support for RBS will follow 3 months after the 1.0 release.
Rules Engine – Storage Maximizer allows a SharePoint administrator to set rules that automatically remove content to selected external repositories based on content criteria, including size, type, date and number of versions. Administrators can quickly deploy rules to reduce content database size without having to perform complicated rule calculations.
Flexible Storage – Offload content to various content repositories within a single install. Utilize various levels of storage that range from direct attached storage, network storage to cloud-based storage. Storage Maximizer works with the following cloud storage providers, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure.
Content Externalizing Scope – Set the scope for externalizing documents form a Site Collection to a document library.
Reporting Dashboard – View the amount of externalized content in an easy to read graphical chart and view details of how much content is externalized to the various repositories, the status of those repositories and the events happening with content externalization.
Integrated Management – Storage Maximizer integrates with Central Administration and looks indistinguishable from other SharePoint features. It installs no agents or services, but Storage Maximizer is a fully integrated solution that leverages existing APIs and Services.
Encryption and Compression – Secure your external data with Storage Maximizer encryption and compression to ensure only those going through SharePoint with the proper access can view and change the data.
Enabled Search – Storage Maximizer maintains SharePoint search capabilities to ensure you find the data you need.
Document Re-entry – Bring your externalized content back into SharePoint easily with Storage Maximizer. Never lose your external content, when you disable the link between SharePoint and the external content, Storage Maximizer will bring that content back into the SharePoint content database.
Toad Extension for Visual Studio 1.2 is now live. You can access it HERE.
Key new features in Toad Extension for Visual Studio v1.2:
Deployment Scripts: the pre- and post-deployment scripts of TFS are now supported.
XML Columns: supports tables with XML data type columns.
Nested Tables: supports tables with up to two levels of nested table type columns.
Synonyms: synonyms can now be imported into your DB project
Source Navigation: You can now use F12 navigation to find the definition of items in the code editor.
Stored Procedures: generate Oracle stored procedures that use insert, update, or delete statements.
Toad for Data Analysts 3.0 us now in free beta. You can access it HERE or at ToadWorld.com
Discover, query, and analyze data across any data source without being a SQL expert. Toad for Data Analysts (TDA) is a data discovery tool designed for data management professionals and analysts who need to access a wide variety of traditional, non-traditional, and emerging data sources to visually run queries, federate and analyze data, and create reports to support analytics and business intelligence. With Toad for Data Analysts 3.0, you can:
Easily discover data across disparate data sources including leading RDBMS platforms, all ODBC enabled sources, and Netezza, Teradata, Excel, Hadoop and NoSQL
Harness the power of SQL to visually create complex queries, visually analyze data, and create reports for self-service business intelligence and analytics without being a SQL expert
Work offline or on-the-go with Toad’s embedded database where you can integrate and cleanse data right from your desktop
Dramatically increase productivity by automating reporting and sharing of information and reports
It’s old news, but two other products in the Toad family have seen a recent refresh:
Benchmark Factory for Databases v6.5 You can access it HERE.
The highlight of this release is wizard-driven workload capture and replay for Oracle, enabling users to accurately anticipate and measure the performance impact of database changes such as patches and upgrades, OS migrations and more. Benchmark Factory is a very flexible, simple database scalability testing tool and, if you’re an Oracle user, also less expensive than Oracle Real Application Testing. If you’re like me and want shortcuts, watch THIS VIDEO to see what the tool can do without the need to download, install, and tinker with it. Quest Code Tester for Oracle v2.0 available HERE. I wish we had this for the other database platforms!
The highlight of this release is the new Test Explorer console that replaces the Test Dashboard. The Test Explorer offers a simplified workflow and greater usability in creating and managing the entire code testing process.
Did you know that Toad for SQL Server has some nice features for users of policy-based management (PBM)?
Importing Policies
For example, Toad can import policies into a PBM server, so that you don’t have to manually create them every time. You can import policies that you have exported from other servers, and you can also import the Microsoft Best Practice Policies. (Read about the concept HERE). The Microsoft policies are a great place to start learning what you can do with PBM, by simply importing them and inspecting their various configurations. They are installed by default and simply need to be imported from the following directory:
%installdir%\100\tools\policies\
Under the directory mentioned above there are several others broken out by technology like SSIS and SSAS. For the Microsoft Best Practice Policies, focus on the policies in the “%installdir%\100\tools\policies\Databaseengine\1033” folder.
As an example exercise, let’s import the Microsoft Best Practice Policy named “Database Auto Shrink”. Follow these steps:
Right click on the policies folder and select import.
In the Import dialog, click the ellipsis next to “File to Import” and navigate to the policies folder mentioned above.
Interested in my various performance tuning and troubleshooting videos about SQL Server? These videos feature my good buddies (and uber-SQL Server experts) Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and Buck Woody (blog | twitter). View these insight-packed training videos from our SQL Server training events originally presented on March 3 and July 21 of 2010:HERE.
You can watch the videos now at the URL above or order a DVD, shipped free of charge in the USA and Canada, HERE.
The Toad for SQL Server review that was recently conducted for SQL Server Magazine was published online – and we got 5 out of 5 diamonds!
This is an improvement from the 4.5/5 stars Michael Campbell gave the product in a 2009 review. The review is very positive, with Michael citing the product’s highly customizable management and development solution, and writes that it “one-ups SSMS by including server, schema, and data comparison tools, a log reader, and a wide assortment of other options, capabilities, and utilities.”
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.
I’ve had enough time off from traveling after my surgery to finally travel again. First on the circuit , set for August 27th, is Omaha, Nebraska and SQL Saturday #91. As a former Crimson Tide alum, I was stoked about going to the University of Nebraska, our once and future rivals on the Grid Iron. But after a moment’s confusion, I remembered that the Huskers are over in Lincoln, not Omaha. (May Bear have mercy on my soul.)
Next month, on September 17th, I’ll be speaking at the Atlanta SQL Saturday #89. I’m presenting just one session at the event itself, though I’ll be hanging out at the Quest booth much of the time. If possible, I’m also going to spend as much time as I can in Bob Ward’s sessions.
