June is going to be a busy month for me. Here is where you can catch me speaking this month.
June 11th – Oklahoma City SQL Server Developers Group
June12th – Tulsa SQL Server Group
June 18th – CACTUSS Central
June 19th – CACTUSS North
June 20th – San Antonio SQL Server User Group
Have you ever heard of IFTTT? It stands for “If This Then That”. I’ve been signed up for the service for quite some time, but I just now got around to really playing with it. So what does it do? It does exactly as the name implies. It is a service designed to perform certain actions based on certain triggers. For instance my first test was to put any Tweet that I favorite into a particular notebook in Evernote. Yeah that’s awesome! What I really want to use it for is notifying all of my social media outlets of new blogs posts.
I used to have a plugin in WordPress that would do this for me via Ping.FM, but thanks to Ping.FM none of those have worked for quite some time now. Seesmic bought Ping.FM and completely redesigned it, but alas that was not something they fixed. I’m glad to say that IFTTT works for me. It’s not instant as it only checks for triggers every 15 minutes, but that’s fine by me. This blog post automatically got sent to my Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
My next step is to get it to handle advertising user group meetings automatically as well, based off of the web site RSS feed. Yeah buddy!
I was fortunate enough to get to present not 1 but 2 sessions at SQLRally 2012 in Dallas last week. As a core organizer of the event, this really made it a special week to present twice and see it all come together. My first session was a community choice pick. The second session I got at the last minute due to a speaker cancellation (and a speaker I was very much looking forward to meeting). Allen White filled the other open slot as we were the next two community choice picks in line.
Both sessions went extremely well, so I was very pleased. If you attended then I hope you were as well. I got my first request for a fan photo and plenty of complements so thank you to everyone that attended! Below are links to my slide decks.
Things have been quiet around here lately and I have a one word explanation….SQLRally. There’s work and family and several other community commitments, but mostly SQLRally. The good news is that the time has come and I couldn’t be more excited. I haven’t been to a SQLSaturday or community event in months and I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms.
I’ll have several after event posts on SQLRally and the process, but I want to highlight two things I am looking forward to. I am hoping you will join me there as well.
If you want the most bang for your buck where you are guaranteed to leave with skills you can implement immmediately, then this is the right investment. You can visit the SQLRally site to choose the best one for you, but here is some insider suggestions.
How to be a DBA – Utility Belt of Tools by Tjay Belt and Chris Shaw. I’m attending this one and it looks to be a great one.
Leadership and Team Management Skills for the Database Professional by Kevin Kline. Have you met Kevin? If not you need to, because he is the most down to earth and personable guy you’ll meet. I watched Kevin present part of this pre-con on SQLCruise earlier this year. I honestly did not expect to get anything out of it and had no interest in a professional development session, but I was sorely mistaken. You’ll learn things about yourself and others you never saw or considered before. This pre-con is guaranteed ROI and I’m not just saying that because of the fruity drinks on SQLCruise.
Demystifying Database Administration Best Practices by Argenis Fernandez and Robert Davis. I’m attending this one and it is by far the one I am most excited about. A pre-con delivered by two SQL MCMs. No way you can lose on that! I know Robert and he’s awesome. I sat at his Birds of a Feather at the Summit last year and he even took the time to help me with a presentation of mine (which I am also presenting at SQLRally). I haven’t met Argenis yet, but I’m looking forward to it. Go watch the #sqlhelp hash tag for awhile and it won’t take long to see why you don’t want to miss Argenis.
Meet the SQL Professionals – This networking event is open to anyone, whether you attend SQLRally or not. The speakers will be here so this is your chance to build a personal relationship with the best speakers and professionals in the industry. The North Texas SQL Server User Group is hosting the event in conjunction with their annual sponsors, InSource Group and Idera. Don’t miss out on this great time and it’s walkable from the Dallas Convention Center. Here are the details.
Wednesday, May 9 – 5:00pm – 10:00pm
Aloft Dallas Downtown
1033 Young Street
Dallas, TX 75202
Click here to RSVP
Evening Event and SQLKaraoke – If you have never attended a SQLKaraoke event then you are in for a treat. Don’t worry if you’re not a singer, you can just hang out. The North Texas SQL Server User Group is hosting the event in conjunction with their annual sponsors, InSource Group and Idera. Here are the details, but let’s talk about how easy it is to get there. NTSSUG has chartered a private bus that will have continual shuttle service between the convention center and the venue! I’m biased, but this is the coolest user group ever!!!
Thursday, May 10 – 7:00pm – 11:55pm
Uptown Bar and Grill
2523 McKinney Ave.
Dallas, TX 75201
Click here to RSVP
This week I had an application team report the error “SQL Connection Lost”. Fortunately they also reported the exact times of occurrence, which made it much easier to hunt down. I did some digging through the SQL logs and DMVs, but did not find anything that indicated SQL was dropping the connection. I also did some digging in the application logs, but I didn’t find anything more specific than the generic error the application team reported. My next stop was to start combing the system logs to see what I could find. The one and only thing that coincided with the times of the issue was a full AV scan.
IO is generally the biggest bottle neck for SQL and there is nothing that can generate some serious additional IO than a virus scan. This application does a large nightly import of data, so we just changed the import time. We could have also changed the AV scanning time, but that is managed by another group and would take way too long to get changed. That fixed the issue, but changing the import time is not the long term solution we want. We’ve got the AV team working on changing the scan time, so we can change the import time back to where we had it. So how should we configure our AV software on our SQL servers? Here are some tips.
I just found out that I will be speaking at SQLRally Dallas in May. I submitted 3 sessions. As an event organizer, all 3 automatically went to community vote. I am very excited that my Mirroring session was voted in. Thank you to everyone who voted for me!
Mirroring can be an integral part of your high availability and disaster recovery planning. We’ll cover what mirroring is from start to finish, how it can fit into an HA/DR plan, the rules surrounding its use, configuration via the GUI and T-SQL, as well as how to monitor mirroring. This presentation is designed to not only give you an overview of mirroring, but to also walk you through a basic implementation. At the end you will have learned what mirroring is, how it can fit into your environment, what business requirements it solves, and how to configure it.
I will be speaking for the PASS DBA Virtual Chapter on February 22nd, 2012. I will be delivering my presentation on Mirroring.
If you have not checked out the virtual chapters that PASS has, then you need to Go Check Them Out. These chapters are designed to fill the gap for areas of the country that do not have a local user group chapter. Even if you have a local chapter in your area you need to check these out. Why? Most speakers have to pay for travel out of their own pocket and can’t visit every chapter in the country. The virtual chapters provide a platform where you can watch the presentations via Live Meeting. This means you get access to great speakers you might not otherwise get to hear, and best of all you get to do it from the comfort of your desk.
Don’t cheat yourself of amazing free training, and go check out the chapter(s) that interest you. There are quite a few so if you are looking for a personal suggestion my favorites are the Performance Virtual Chapter and the DBA Virtual Chapter.
You can register for my session HERE and you will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card… and here is the session abstract:
Mirroring can be an integral part of your high availability and disaster recovery planning. We’ll cover what mirroring is from start to finish, how it can fit into an HA/DR plan, the rules surrounding its use, configuration via the GUI and T-SQL, as well as how to monitor mirroring. This presentation is designed to not only give you an overview of mirroring, but to also walk you through a basic implementation. At the end you will have learned what mirroring is, how it can fit into your environment, what business requirements it solves, and how to configure it.
Move over Poseidon. I’m hitting the sea with my own trident (assuming I can get it through the TSA). My trident is made from the culmination of my favorite three things. My wife, SQL Server, and cruising. Let me explain.
Back in October of last year, Idera ran a contest called the “Get a life contest”. In order to enter the contest you had to describe how using Idera’s SQL Diagnostic Manager helped you “Get a life” by freeing up your time from hunting down production issues. The grand prize winner would receive a trip for two on SQLCruise! This contest had my name written all over it for two reasons.
The first is Idera. In addition to their great SQL Server products, Idera has become a huge advocate for the SQL Community. If you have been to any SQL community events then I guarantee you have seen them. I don’t mean the people standing behind their booth in orange shirts and sporting a rubber ducky. I mean the people checking you in at registration or handing you lunch. They are not wearing company shirts and appear to be local volunteers. Why do they do this? Easy. They love SQL Server and the SQL community just as much as we do. They may be Idera employees, but these people are DBAs and developers just like you and I. Idera supports and encourages these employees to be involved in the community and learn all they can. It’s this type of outreach and involvement that has ranked them high in my book.
The second reason is SQLCruise. I’ve been dying to go on SQLCruise since the very first one. SQLCruise means soaking up the sun while soaking up SQL knowledge from the brightest minds in the industry. We’re talking about classroom training capped at 15 people so you can actively participate and not just become another number. Unlike traditional training classes where you go home at the end of the day, you get to spend one on one time with the instructors. Have you ever been to one of those classes where a concept was introduced and you wanted to know how it would work in your specific environment? When you asked the instructor, did he say to catch him after class so he would have enough time to finish all the material for the other students? Well that is understandable so everyone else gets what they expected from the course as well, but it’s disappointing when the instructor bolts at the end of the day and leaves you hanging. On SQLCruise, they can only run so far before it’s all ocean! This kind of custom tailored training is impossible to find anywhere else.
Well I can no longer be one of those people that say I never win anything, because I was the second SQLCruise winner in the random drawing. That’s right; I won the Holy Grail of prizes! My wife and I leave for Miami tomorrow and could not be more grateful to Idera and SQLCruise for the amazing gift. We have had about 6 date nights since our 2 year old was born so it’s a gift of knowledge and a gift of time. We plan to actually finish a conversation without interruption!
The PASS Performance Virtual chapter is getting a reboot. We all know that responsibilities and schedules change, and that meant this chapter needed some additional hands on deck. Erin Stellato (Blog|Twitter) valiantly volunteered to take the helm and she put out an SOS for volunteers. The response was great with some wonderful people volunteering to help. I won’t rehash everything, but you can read her post on it HERE. This team has already made some great accomplishments.
I volunteered to help out and I will give you fair warning that the word she uses in her post for my area of responsibility is in the loosest meaning of the word. The short and more accurate term would just be marketing. I’m very excited to be involved with this team and see what we can accomplish. We have some awesome things planned that are a little outside of the box, so make sure you follow us closely.
Our first meeting for the year will be this Thursday January 26th, 4EST. Jason Strate (Blog|Twitter) will be presenting on “Discovering the Plan Cache”. Make sure to visit our site to check out the details. The site has a handy calendar icon to automatically add a reminder to your calendar.
