How To Download Free Sessions From PASS

November 28, 2012 by 1 Comment

For all members of the Professional Association for Server (PASS), are you downloading slides and videos from all sorts of great PASS events?  If not, what are you waiting for ... an invitation? Ok, here it is.  I invite you to download like a madman!  (How a madman downloads, an almost entirely virtual activity, is not the question here, ok?). For starters, there's the recent 24 Hours of PASS event.  I hope you were able to attend all of the sessions you wanted. But even if you didn't get to see any, you can see them now as long as you're a (free) member of PASS.  The session recordings … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferences, On-Line Resources, PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Quick Tip – Speed a Slow Restore from the Transaction Log

November 14, 2012 by 4 Comments

Here's a quick tip for you: During some restore operations on Microsoft SQL Server, the transaction log redo step might be taking an unusually long time.  Depending somewhat on the version and edition of SQL Server you've installed, you may be able to increase performance by tinkering with the readahead performance for the redo operations.  To do this, you should use the MAXTRANSFERSIZE parameter of the RESTORE statement.  For example, if you set MAXTRANSFERSIZE=1048576, it'll use 1MB buffers. If you change the MAXTRANSFERSIZE, keep an eye on the PerfMon objects for Buffer Manager and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Databases, IO, Performance, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , ,

PASS Summit 2012, Slide Decks

November 12, 2012 by 1 Comment

Ok, I have to admit the painful truth. I'm reliably slow to the finish line. This year, I got my slides into PASS HQ by the skin of my teeth, the weekend before the event was to begin.  Although I could say with a straight face "I uploaded my slides!".  I have to be honest that I wasn't surprised when many of my attendees said that they weren't available for download by the time my session started.  OTOH, I also have to say that I really do prefer for attendees to focus on the presentation while it's being presented and that they should grab the slides afterwards.  But that's just my personal … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Conferences, Cool Technologies, Databases, PASS, Performance, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Virtualization Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

PASS Summit 2012, Day 1

November 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the most positive experiences I can have, as a former leader of the PASS organization, is when I see a neophyte become a passionate support and champion for the community. On my first day in Seattle, before the event had even begun, I was stopped several by people who'd attended their first PASS Summit last year. But this year, they were excited to tell me that they'd started user groups in their own community, spoken for the first time at a PASS event, or even helped launch a SQL Saturday event. Wow! To go from a complete newcomer in the PASS community to an active and engaged … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferences, PASS, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , ,

Conquer Your Fear of Virtualization with a Free Day of Training at PASS!

October 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

  Click the link above to register! Presented by my buddy, David Klee at House of Brick, one of the nations top VMWare consultancies specializing in Oracle and SQL Server deployments. David has a great write-up of this boot camp at http://www.davidklee.net/2012/10/01/virtualizing-your-business-critical-sql-servers-free-boot-camp-by-house-of-brick/. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Architecture, Conferences, Cool Technologies, Databases, PASS, Presentations, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Virtualization Tagged With: , , ,

Katie is growing up too fast

October 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

And she's looking quite old too!Her most recent birthday, July 26th, was her 11th.  She's as tall as her sisters and mom, even though she's in 6th grade.  Don't let the unibrow and handle bar mustache fool you - she's a beautiful young lady!She's also bonkers. … [Read more...]

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SQLCruising & Josie

October 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I sometimes teach a class on SQL Server on a cruise ship. This spring, the cruise went to Alaska.I was lucky enough to have some extra room on the Alaska cruise. I gave my mom the open bunk.There were great people with whom we shared the cruise, like my friend Mala.And some beautiful views, such as the Mendenhall Glacier (behind me).My favorite place on this cruise was the beautiful city of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.I'll be doing another cruise next spring with the awesome team at SQLCruise.com.  I get to bring Rachel this time - to the Caribbean islands! … [Read more...]

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The Zombie PerfMon Counter That Never Dies! Quick Tip

October 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The PerfMon Counters That Just Won't Die One of the things that's simultaneously great and horrible about the Internet is that once something gets posted out in the ether, it basically never goes away.  (Some day, politicians will realize this.  We can easily fact check their consistency).  Because of longevity of content posted to the Internet, a lot of performance tuning topics become "zombies".  We shoot 'em in dead, but they keep coming back! In other words, those old recommendations were a suggested best practices for long ago, for a specific version of SQL Server, but are now … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Challenges, Databases, IO, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , , , , ,

Katie was so Tiny in 2008

October 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This is when Katie was in the process of losing a tooth.  It's kind'a funny. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Katie

Sam Graduates

October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I brought the little girls up to scenic Depauw University near Indianapolis to see Sam graduate.  The girls were so wonderful.  I really enjoyed spending that time with them.The campus was delightful.  Sam's girlfriend, Stephanie, was also a real gem.He's hard to see, but Sam is directly in front of the "Depauw University" banner on the left.Sam graduated with a 4.0 average and went on to win a Fullbright Fellowship to study archaeology and Spanish in Mexico at the site of some ancient Mayan ruins.  Kudos to you, Sam! … [Read more...]

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