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...]
The Zombie PerfMon Counter That Never Dies! Quick Tip
Filed Under: Challenges, Databases, IO, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, Developer, DMV, Monitoring, Troubleshooting
Help Me Update the History of SQL Server
I was chatting with my buddy, Buck Woody (Twitter | Blog), about a week ago and we were discussing that it's pretty hard to put together the entire history of SQL Server. Then the thought hit me that I'd already done this, to a degree, in my book Transact-SQL Programming. This was the first Transact-SQL programming book on the market way back in the SQL Server 7.0 days and even included full coverage of both Microsoft and Sybase variants of T-SQL. The thing is, I was never able to put out a second edition due to some legal and contractual issues. So, help me catch up on the history of … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cool Technologies, Databases, Opinion, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: Career, DBA, Developer
Timewarp: What Is a Relational Database?
Relational?!? Move On, Geezer! Maybe you're thinking that relational databases management systems (RDBMSs), like Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle, are going the way of punched cards and rotary phones. After all, there's been a lot of hype these days in the IT media about the rise of so-called NoSQL (Not Only SQL) databases. Many new and upcoming CS and MIS graduates who like working with data might think that relational databases are, at best, soon-to-be legacy systems and, at worst, are a career dead-end. Wrong!!! It's true that all the cool-cat computing services (Amazon, Facebook, … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Architecture, BigData, Cloud, Cool Technologies, Databases, NoSQL, Opinion, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Azure, cloud computing, DBA, Developer, NoSQL, Oracle, SQL Server 2012
Secure Your Spot at the Nashville SQL Saturday!
PASS SQL Saturdays are free 1-day training events for IT professionals interested in Microsoft SQL Server, providing a variety of high-quality technical sessions, all happen through the efforts of local volunteers. The leadership team of the local chapter of PASS here in Nashville (Facebook | LinkedIn) have worked hard to make this year's SQL Saturday a day of great training and networking. The local NashSQL leadership team includes yours truly (blog | twitter), Joe Webb (Twitter | Blog), Louis "Dr SQL" Davidson (Twitter | Blog), Christina Leo (blog | twitter), and Shelton Dickson … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Cool Technologies, Databases, Nashville SQL Server Users Group, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Best Practices, Career, DBA, Developer, Leadership, Professional Development, SQL Server 2012, Training
Two New Slide Decks. Plus, the Week in Colorado.
I had the honor of traveling the great state of Colorado last week, speaking at the PASS chapters in Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver. At all three events, we had a stellar attendance and, at least in Denver, broke all the records in recent memory both in terms of overall attendance and in first-timers. Denver, in fact, was standing room only and had nearly 30 first time attendees. Great news! I also want to give a special shout-out of thanks and appreciation to Chris Shaw (Twitter | Blog) whose hard work and tenacity ensured that all of Colorado got to see me speak. From left to … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, IO, On-Line Resources, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Video Tagged With: Best Practices, CodePlex, DBA, Developer, Leadership, Performance, SQL Server 2012, SQLSaturday, Tools & Scripts, Troubleshooting, Video
Come See Me. I’ll Probably Be Just Down the Street Soon!
Even though I've recently changed jobs, I'll still be speaking at a lot of SQL events across the country and internationally. There are still a few trips that I've yet to finalize, in particular with the fine folks in Houston, run by my friend Nancy Hidy (blog | twitter), and my friends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, run by my friend Mark Ginnebaugh (blog | twitter). Also, do to some missed deadlines, it looks like I won't be speaking at the Nordic SQL Rally this fall. My bad! On the other hand, you can see when checking my roster, that I hardly have time to catch my breath with this … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Conferences, Cool Technologies, Databases, Nashville SQL Server Users Group, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: DBA, Developer, Leadership, SQLPASS, SQLSaturday, Video
Two TechNet Radio Sessions You Don’t Want to Miss
I was recently honored to speak on TechNet Radio in two separate sessions about BigData & Hadoop and cloud databases (specifically SQL Azure). The show debuted on the TechNet homepage under “Today’s News” and on the TechNet Edge homepage. In each of these shows, I did what I like to do for all the parties I attend - bring a friend. To make my life easier, I simply reposted the verbiage that TechNet used, rather that to write my own. About the BigData/Hadoop video: Microsoft SQL Server MVP Kevin Kline and Vice President of Database Development at Quest Software Guy Harrison (blog | … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, Architecture, BigData, Cloud, Databases, NoSQL, On-Line Resources, SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Video Tagged With: Azure, BigData, cloud computing, Crowdsourcing, DBA, Developer, Hadoop, NoSQL, Quest Software, SQL Server 2012, Video
New Toad for SQL Server Beta
A new beta build of Toad for SQL Server (v5.7.0.527) is available at: http://toadforsqlserver.com/beta.jspa It's free and, afaik, doesn't have a short expiration date. It contains popular features such as compare & sync (for database schemas, servers, and data), a full transaction log reader and DML undo feature, debugger, intellisense, auto-complete, code formatter, and a lot more. Check it out! (There's also a version of Toad for Cloud Databases, which gives you SQL-like capabilities against a bunch of NoSQL databases). This drop contains a couple of fixes in the areas: Database … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cloud, Databases, NoSQL, On-Line Resources, SQL Server, TCD blog post Tagged With: DBA, Developer, Quest Software, Toad, Tools
Azure Trust Services
You might have noticed that Microsoft has recently launched a cool set of Trust Services for Azure. This is an application-level encryption framework that can be used to protect sensitive data stored on the Windows Azure Platform. One of the hindrances to adoption of Azure that I keep hearing about is trust and security. If you want to learn more about protecting your data in the cloud you can read up HERE. I'm not pushing you to get into Azure (even though you should), nor am I subtly trying to make you feel guilty for ignoring the cloud in general nor Azure specifically (subtle, ain't … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cloud, Databases, NoSQL, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Azure, cloud, Developer, Security, SQL Server 2012
Flexibility When Waiting on Locks
Speaking at a recent SQL Saturday, an attendee in one of my sessions wanted to know how they could more flexibly react to locks on their application than to wait for blocks to occur and then kill the SPID at the head of the blocking chain. They were also interested in some alternatives to using the SQL Server syntax like the WITH (NOLOCK) hint, since that might have unintended consequences due to allowing reads on uncommitted data. One alternative I suggested is the SET LOCK_TIMEOUT n statement. Since most of the attendees hadn't heard of this statement, I figured it'd make a good blog … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Coding, Databases, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: Developer, SQL Server 2012, Transact-SQL Programming
