Microsoft Document Watch for Operational Excellence

August 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Back when my day-to-day duties included database administration work and enterprise architecture, I became rather obsessed with the idea of operational excellence.  I read everything I could on the topic.  I made a list of favorites, which became somewhat shabby over time, as I dog-eared important pages and scribbled notes in the margins.  (Perhaps that list of favorites might, in and of itself, make a good blog post).  Fast-forward a decade and I'm still mightily interested in operational excellence for IT organizations.  It's just that so much good material is available for free on the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Architecture, Compliance, Cool Technologies, Hardware, On-Line Resources, Security, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Strategies, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Virtualization Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

ETL Demo with Data From Data.Gov

August 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A little over a month ago, I wrote an article (Is There Such a Thing as Easy ETL) about expressor software and their desktop ETL application, expressor Studio.  I wrote about how it seemed much easier than the native ETL tools in SQL Server when I was reading up on the tool, but that the "proof would be in the pudding" so to speak when I actually tried it out loading some free (and incredibly useful) data from the US federal data clearinghouse, Data.Gov. If you'd rather not read my entire previous article - quick recap, expressor Studio uses “semantic types” to manage and abstract mappings … [Read more...]

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Managing Complex DB Environments

August 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Check out the new white paper “Key Methods for Managing Complex DB Environments” at Quest.com. Heterogeneous database management hassles used to be much less common than today. When I first started at Quest nearly ten years ago, I'd put forward that on 15-20% of my big customers regularly managed more than one major database platform. (That doesn't mean they didn't have more than one, rather secondary platforms were either unmanaged or considered entirely unimportant). Today, I'd put forward that 70-80% of my big customers support at least two major database platforms. Often, they support … [Read more...]

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Microsoft SQL Server Internals & Architecture Matter!

August 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

EPIC FAIL!  This was supposed to go out last week.  But I didn't schedule it properly, so I'd just like to point out that there are lots of other great webcasts to watch at the Pragmatic Works webcast URL below.  Plus, my session will be available via streaming by the end of the week.  And thanks the the 1600 folks who registered!   -=-=-=-   Come join me on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT for a free webcast covering the internals and architecture of Microsoft SQL Server.  It's not everyday that a dry topic like this is presented in a fun and easy to … [Read more...]

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What I’m Reading, July 22 2011

July 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I read too much, and that, my friends, is an entirely separate topic for a blog post. But I thought I'd share with you a little more about what I'm reading because sometimes, if I'm lucky, it might be something you'd enjoy too. So I'm going to start sharing what I'm reading at least once per week, partly so that I don't firehose too many reading links directly into your brain (where I to do it say once per month) and partly to solidify in my own mind the information that I'm reviewing. So here are a few good links for the seven days leading up to July 22, 2001: Microsoft and Whitehouse … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, BigData, Challenges, Cloud, Cool Technologies, Databases, Gov2.0, IO, NoSQL, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time, Trends, Virtualization, Web2.0

Microsoft Windows Platforms Blog Watch

July 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Remote Desktop Services Component Architecture Poster Grab your own poster! A visual guide to key Remote Desktop Services technologies in Windows Server 2008R2   Virtually Free Get the latest update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2 and be sure to bookmark the Windows Virtualization Team Blog.  Be sure to check out blog World Simplified is a Virtual World. And doncha evah neglect application virtualization, such as the goodness at the App-V Product Team Blog.   Let's Optimize Some Desktops (Assuming You Have Gone Full Cloud … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Cloud, Cool Technologies, Databases, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting Ahead of the Curve – Big Data

July 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I have to confess that I'm incredibly excited about BigData.  I haven't been this excited about new innovations in IT since relational databases first appeared on the scene early in my career.  But what is BigData? Back in those days, I can still feel the echos of adrenaline when I was hired to work on a NASA project that would involve over 100Mb of data.  ONE HUNDRED MEGABYTES! Good grief, that was fantastically huge to us on the team.  (That database was over 130Mb when I finally moved on to another project).  And remember - PC software was installed using 640Kb floppy disks at the time.  … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, BigData, Challenges, Databases, NoSQL, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Wednesday Quest: Plenty O’Betas and Product Releases

June 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Spotlight on SQL Server 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. We also … [Read more...]

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Pain of the Week/Expert’s Perspective: Performance Tuning for Backups and Restores

June 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

First off - the Pain of the Week webcast series has been renamed.  It's now known as The Expert's Perspective.  Please join us for future webcasts and, if you're interested in speaking, drop me a note to see if we can get you on the roster! The bigger your databases get, the longer backups take. That doesn't really seem like a huge problem — until disaster strikes and you need to restore your databases as fast as possible. Join my buddy Brent Ozar (blog | twitter), a Microsoft Certified Master of SQL Server and good friend, as he reveals ways to make these critically important … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Databases, Performance, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , ,

New Releases in the Toad Family of Tools

June 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

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 … [Read more...]

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