Brad,

Today I got MCITP in BI and I finished the check list in your article: http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/brads-sure-dba-checklist/.

Well, in the next month I want to start my first book, writing about replication. Do you have some tips on how to become a great writer like you?

Thanks for all,

Rodrigo Crespi
MCP-MCDBA-MCAD-MCSD-MCTS-MCITP
www.crespi.pro.br
www.blog.crespidb.com.br

Originally published in the Database Weekly newsletter.

I used to work at a large organization ($8 billion in revenues) as a SQL Server DBA. My immediate manager, who was a DB2 mainframe DBA, had worked for the organization for over 20 years, and he became a great mentor whom I grew to respect over the many years I worked with him.

While I learned a lot from him, one thing in particular that he taught me that has really stuck in my mind is that a DBA should be the “protector of the organization’s data”. By this, he meant that one of the most important roles a DBA should take on in an organization is to actively seek out the organization’s mission critical data, wherever it was located, and take on the responsibility of managing it.

For example, if he heard about a user who was using an Excel spreadsheet or an Access database to store mission critical data, he would then contact the right people in the organization to ensure that this mission critical data was moved and properly stored in a database, so that it could be protected with proper security and backups. He didn’t do this because he wanted “power”, but because he really cared about the organization. As you might imagine, he ruffled a few feathers when he did this, but I really admired his devotion to the organization and the protection of its data.

So what do you think? Should DBAs take on the responsibility of actively seeking out an organization’s mission critical data in order to protect it, or should they leave that responsibility to someone else in the organization, such as the IT Director or the CEO? In other words, whose job it is to protect the organization’s data, and where does the DBA’s responsibilities begin and end?

This past month I ran a poll asking this question: “Does your company have a formal, tested, disaster recovery plan for your SQL Servers.” While this was not a scientific poll, nor do I purport that it is representative of the real world, the results are still scary.

As you can see, only about 9% of responders said they have in place a complete, up-to-date, and tested DR plan. And another 9% said that they didn’t even know what a DR plan was.

About 45% said they “sort of” have a DR plan, but it is not complete and/or up-to-date, nor is it regularly tested. And then about 27% said that they wanted to put a DR plan in place, but that they just didn’t have time to complete one. The 9% who answered “other” were consultants, and the question didn’t really apply to them.

It’s disconcerting to think that only about 9% of companies have a valid DR plan, 45% have a “sort-of” plan, and another 36% have no plan at all.

I wonder if the owners of the companies that have “sort of” or no DR plan know about this. If they don’t, then it’s the responsibility of the DBA to inform them. If the owners do know, and have chosen not to invest in the resources to put a DR plan in place, I wonder if they understand the potential consequences of their choice. In any event, I am really dismayed by these results.

For those DBAs who don’t have a complete, up-to-date, and tested DR plan, you might want to consider checking out some of the following resources.

Disaster Recovery for SQL Server Databases

SQL Server Disaster Recovery

How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan

So, You Want to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Sample Disaster Recovery Planning Guide Provided by Michigan State University

Description of Disaster Recovery Options for Microsoft SQL Server

If you have any more links you would like to suggest, please do so below.

I’ll start off describing what I bring along with me on my trips. Then I’ll finish off the post with specific travel tips I find handy while I am on the road.

What I Bring

Last year I was away from home 125 days, which was just a little bit too much traveling for my tastes. This year I hope to keep it just under 100 days, which is still a lot, but its just part of the job. As you might imagine, I have gotten my packing list, and packing skills, down to a science. In fact, I can pack in less than 30 minutes because I know exactly what I am going to bring on each trip, which includes:

1) My most important piece of travel gear is my Red Oxx Air Boss carry-on travel bag. I have tried out many different kinds of luggage over the years, and this bag is the best. While expensive, it is ruggedly built, and after nearly four years of traveling with it, it still shows no signs of wear. In fact, it looks brand new. Unlike most luggage, this bag is made of fabric, is designed to be carried over the shoulder, is only 21”  x 8”  x 13”  (2,184 cu. in.) in size and weighs just under 4 pounds. The bag’s size is designed for international travel and will fit in virtually any airplane without needing to be checked. If you have ever compared other carry-on luggage sizes, you will find this one much smaller than typical, but its small size is why it’s so great. It is lightweight and I can carry it anywhere.

Now, you may be saying that this sounds like a great carry-on bag for carrying a few things you might need on the plane, but this is the only luggage I carry (other than my backpack which holds my electronics, which I will talk about next). In other words, this small bag holds everything I need to travel, including all my clothing, toiletries, and other miscellaneous items. In fact, I have used this bag for trips that have lasted 30 days, and I have found that everything I need can be carried in it, often with room to spare. I follow the packing philosophy of travel expert Doug Dyment, who runs the www.onebag.com website, which means that I pack very light. Since the topic of packing light is well-covered on his website, there is no need for me to repeat it hear. Check out the website for more information.

2) My second most important piece of travel gear is my MountainSmith Explore backpack, which I use to carry my electronics. While the exact model I own is no longer made, the current model is very similar. The bag is also tough, although it is beginning to show some wear, but that is to be expected after using it for 5 years. This small 18” x 13” x 8” (1,586 cu. in.) bag weighs just under 3 pounds and carries all of my electronics, which includes a laptop and a netbook computer (more on my electronics later). The backpack has many different sections and pouches that makes it easy to hold everything I need to bring along, and to keep it well organized.

3) I carry two computers, my primary and my backup. My primary laptop is a Dell 15” Studio XPS with dual-cores, 6GB RAM, and 256 GB SSD drives. It is relatively lightweight and powerful. My backup computer is a Toshiba NB-205 netbook. While the netbook is slow, it is lightweight and allows me to make my presentations should my primary laptop fail. I protect both computers using protective sleeves, and even with the sleeves on, they both fit comfortably in my MountainSmith backpack, along with my other gear.

In order to keep my two computers synchronized, just in case my primary fails and I need to use my secondary, I use the www.dropbox.com software. This free software (there is also a paid version), will automatically synchronize files between both laptops, in addition to making these same files available via the web. So in the worst case, and I somehow I lose both of my computers, I can still go to the web and download my presentations.

4) While I am not much of a cell phone user, I bring along my BlackBerry Bold 9000, which I mainly use for e-mail, Twitter, and for reading the news when I get bored at airports. I also use it’s built-in GPS and Google Maps to help me find my way about when I am walking. It comes with a leather case to protect it while it rides in my backpack, which is where is normally stays. I hate carrying a cell phone on my belt, unless I have no other choice.

5) Given that I have a GPS in my phone, it might seem redundant that I also carry a Garmin Nuvi 775T GPS that includes both U.S. and European maps. I use this when I am traveling by rental car, as the GPS in my phone is not really designed to be used when driving. I also subscribe to the Garmin map update service so I get updated maps every 3 months. The GPS is protected by a leather case, and the car mount and cable I carry in a plastic bag so they don’t get lost or entangled.

6) To help pass the time in airports and airplanes, and to help mask the incessant noise that pervades both, I bring along a Zune MP3 player; and my Shure SE210 Sound Isolating Earphones, which are much, much better than the standard earphones that come with MP3 players. These earphones are pricey, but worth every dollar.

7) One very important accessory I carry, that is not a common travel item, is my SureFire U2 Ultra variable-output LED flashlight (2-100 lumens). It lasts up to 175 hours in low mode (which is the mode I use most), and I use it all the time to see in the dark, such as when picking up a rental car at night and I want to check the outside of the car for damage and to check the inside to see where all the controls are. It is very small, so it takes up very little space. It also comes in very handy when a building or hotel loses power. I highly recommend every traveler to carry a good flashlight.

8 ) To record my journeys, I bring along a Canon G11 digital camera. It is very small and creates great photographs, especially low-light photos, which I commonly take at events. It is protected by a case, just as it all my electronic gear.

9) Since I never know if it will rain or not, I carry an REI Travel Umbrella, which fits handily inside my backpack, so it is always with me in case of unexpected downpours.

10) While most hotels now have wireless Internet access, a surprising amount still don’t. Because of this, I carry a portable Linksys wireless router. The model I have is no longer made, but it work allows me to work with my computer in bed at a hotel instead of being tethered to a desk when wireless Internet access is not available. In some cases, I still use the portable router, even if wireless Internet is available because using it allows me to use both my computers if I want, all for the same cost. If you use a hotel’s wireless Internet access for two different computers, you have to pay two fees (unless you have free Internet access), one daily fee for each computer. But if you use the portable router, the hotel thinks you only have one computer, and you can connect as many computers to your wireless network as you want. Of course, I encrypt my connection so another person in a different room can’t use my bandwidth.

11) Some of you may be wondering how I can get away with carrying such a small bag for my clothing. This is because I only bring along four different sets of clothing, one of which I wear, which means I only need to pack three sets of clothing. I select clothing that mixes and matches, and is easily washable and wrinkle-resistant. Because virtually all of my trips are longer than four days, I wash my clothes when traveling, which is much easier than trying to bring along clean clothing for every day of travel. I generally use the hotel’s laundry room, or sometimes I wash my clothing in the sink of my hotel bathroom using special pre-packaged laundry soap. All the clothing I bring is lightweight and air dries quickly.

To help keep my clothes from wrinkling while in my Oxx Air Boss travel bag, I also carry along two 18” Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders, one for pants and one for shirts, which fit well within the travel bag’s two outer dividers. Depending on the clothing, I still might have to iron some clothing after unpacking it.

One piece of clothing I always bring along, no matter what the weather is expected to be where I am traveling, is a Patagonia R1 Full-Zip Jacket. This lightweight, non-bulky, warm jacket is more like a sweater than a jacket, and I use it when traveling on planes (most are too cold for me), during cool days, and in cold rooms when attending conferences. When I am traveling in cold weather, I also bring along an Arcteryx Gamma Softshell Jacket. This is a wind and water resistant jacket that I can wear alone, or with my Patagonia jacket if it really cold. Also, when traveling in cold weather, I bring along lightweight gloves and ear protectors, which I store in the pockets of the Arcteryx jacket.

Depending on where I am traveling, or at which event I am speaking at, I may bring one or two pair of shoes. Most of the time, I wear a pair of New Balance walking shoes, but I also sometimes carry along hiking shoes or dress shoes.

12) In my backpack a have a smaller bag that I use to carry small miscellaneous electronic gear, such as cables, USB sticks, batteries, a Kensington Notebook Lock, a Logitech VX Nano Laser Notebook Mouse,  a Logitech Professional Presenter, and electrical adapters if I am traveling internationally.

13) Because accidents happen when traveling (I cut my finger and got a terrible infection while in Australia), I carry an Adventure Smart Travel Medical Kit that I have modified slightly to carry a few more items than what comes standard with the kit.

14) Because I spend a lot of time sleeping on airplanes, I also carry eye covers and ear plugs to help block out the world while I am trying to sleep.

The above list covers most everything that I carry when traveling, although I have left out a few things that would be boring, such as my reading glasses, glass cleaners, toiletries, and so on. In the next section, I will offer some specific travel tips.

Other Travel Tips

1) I only bring along hand-carry luggage, the Red Oxx Air Boss bag and MountainSmith backpack, as I described above. I do my absolute best to not check in luggage. Both bags meeting airline size requirements, which means I rarely (New Zealand Airlines would only allow one carry-on) have to check in my luggage. Checking in luggage is time-consuming (both when checking in at the airport and when leaving the airport after arrival), and is prone to getting lost, especially if my flight connections are tight because of delayed flights. I much prefer carrying these two bags than dragging along luggage with wheels, because there are a lot of places where luggage with wheels doesn’t work well, such as on escalators, curbs, rough sidewalks, or no sidewalks, and getting in and out of taxies, and so on. Because the luggage is so light, and I keep my gear to a minimum, the weight is not bad. In fact, I have a bad back and I have had virtually no problems carrying these bags everywhere I go.

2) When I go through security at the airport, I am fully prepared before I even get to the security checkpoint. I take all metal out of my pockets and put it in my backpack, my liquid toiletries are in a 1 quart plastic bag, and both computers (which are in protective sleeve) are ready to come out in seconds. You can leave the protective sleeves on your laptops when they go through the screen machine, which helps protect them. About one out of three times I am asked to have one or both of my pieces of luggage to be hand inspected as all the electronics I carry might look a little suspicious. I am used to this and it has never been a problem.

3) I make all my own travel plans over the Internet. I have worked at companies in the past the had their own travel department which made all the reservations. I hated that as they always made mistakes. As I book my own travel, these mistakes don’t happen.

4) After traveling many different airlines over the years, I have chosen American Airlines as my main carrier. They have a very good frequent flyer program and treat their best customers (like me who travel 100,000+ miles a year, very well). I almost always get upgraded to business or first class, which is very advantageous for long trips. I avoid, as much as possible, mixing airlines in the same trip, as if you have a problem with your ticket, you often have to deal with both airlines to resolve it. It is much easier to deal with only one airline. I also book my flights so that I have at least two hours between connecting flights. This often makes my day longer, but helps to avoid missed connections. To help minimize the discomfort at waiting at airports, I joined American Airlines Admiral’s Club, which makes waiting much more tolerable. Membership is relatively expensive, but I get a discount for being a frequent traveler, and it is money well spent. I tend to book my flights as far ahead as possible in order to get the best choice of seat. I am very picky about which seat I am on the plane, and use www.seatguru.com to help me select the best available seat, assuming I am not already familiar with the plane I will be flying in.

5) My biggest travel expense are hotels, even more than airplane tickets. I generally stay at Marriott-brand or Starwood-brand (Sheraton, Weston, etc.) hotels. I always select a hotel that is closet to the venue I am attending to minimize the need for taking taxis or renting cars. I prefer to walk to the venue if I can. In most cases, I arrive a day earlier than I need to in order to recover from overnight flights and time zone changes. I also, if affordable, try to get a room with a separate room for the bedroom, which helps to avoid the noise that so often comes from the hallways. I also request a room on the highest floor, away from elevators, ice machines, and busy streets. This helps to minimize noise, which I find distracting when I am trying to work in the hotel room.

6) I try to avoid renting cars, but often I have no choice. I only rent cars from Hertz, and I joined their #1 Club Gold so that my rental car is already ready to go when I arrive at the airport. This way, I don’t have to stay in line waiting to pick up my car. I always reserve the least expensive car available, but in most cases, Hertz will upgrade me to a bigger car.

7) As those who have traveled with me know, I don’t like to spend a lot of time eating at fancy restaurants. To save time and money, I usually eat fast food, or buy groceries at a store and bring them back to the hotel. I also avoid room service (or eating at the hotel’s restaurant), unless I am checking into a new hotel at night, and I have yet to locate any fast food places within easy walking distance, and I am too tired to leave the hotel or room.

8 ) I am a member of the AAA, which helps me to get many discounts at hotels and for rental cars, or can help out if I run out of gas or lock myself outside of a rental car (although this had not happened yet). The discounts save my company a lot of money each year, although I pay for the AAA membership myself, as I also use their services for my own cars at home when not traveling.

While many people envy all my travels, it is actually quite stressful for me. It takes a lot out of you, especially when traveling overseas or when having to take redeye flights. If the travel wasn’t part of the job, I would prefer to stay home and work out of my home office.

I hope you find some of this information useful, and if you have any travel advice you would like to offer, please do so.

It has been about five years since I took my last certification test, which was for SQL Server 2005. Unlike back in 2005, when both Prometric and VUE offered Microsoft Certification Testing, now Prometric has the monopoly on testing. So I went to the Prometric website to register for the exam.

My first problem was that the website was partially down, and it would not allow me to log in to my old account, nor would it allow me to register for a test. I called to complain, but I could only get an answering system, as Prometric has very limited office hours (apparently they think all of their customers, worldwide, only live in their time zone.)

The next day the website was still partially down, as I still could not log on to my account. Every time I tried, I would get an error message telling me to try again later. On the other hand, I was able to begin the process of registering for the test (which seems a little odd).

Any way, as I begin to register for the test, I entered my country and state, so that all of the Prometric testing centers would be listed, allowing me to pick which testing center to take the test at, except for one minor problem. Although the state of Hawaii has a population of about 1.3 million people, Prometric only offers three testing centers in the entire state, and all of them are located on the island of Oahu, which is where Honolulu is located. I live on the Big Island, the second largest populated island in Hawaii, with about 180,000 people, and I can’t take any test locally because Prometric doesn’t offer a testing center where I live.

For those living on the Big Island, or on any island but Oahu, their only choice to take a Microsoft Certification Test is to spend about $160-250 for a round-trip airline ticket to Oahu, plus cab fare to and from the airport to the testing center, which is a very expensive option, and this doesn’t even include the entire day that would be wasted traveling back and forth just to take a 1-2 hour test.

Of course, I travel a lot, and visit many cities on the mainland, and can always schedule a test when I am there, but that is inconvenient, and I won’t be doing any traveling to the mainland before the 50% off certification voucher expires. Unfortunately, there are a lot of other IT professionals who live in Hawaii who don’t travel as much as I do and don’t have this option.

Given that Prometric has a monopoly on Microsoft Certification Testing, I think it needs to offer more than just three testing centers in a state of 1.3 million people. As a comparison, the state of Alaska, which has a population of nearly 700,000 people, Prometric offers seven different testing centers. So how come Prometric discriminates against IT professionals in Hawaii? This is a rhetorical question, as the obvious answer has to do with potential revenue, costs, and profitability. Prometric apparently doesn’t consider the state of Hawaii, even with its 1.3 million population, to be a profitable market. On the other hand, if Microsoft wants to encourage Microsoft certification in Hawaii, it should strong arm Prometric into offering testing on more Hawaiian islands than just Oahu.

I accidently ended up in another Microsoft-oriented marketing session again today. I wish there was a good way to know which sessions are more marketing than technical, but it is tough to tell if a Microsoft employee is leading the session. On the other hand, if a SQL Server MVP is leading the session, then it is a sure bet the content will be more useful.

My two favorite sessions of the day were by SQL Server MVPs Adam Machanic and Maciej Pileck. Both offered useful, high-level technical information that I found useful.

On another note, in one of the Microsoft sessions I attended, which was presented by a member of the SQLCat team, there was a reference on one slide that made a specific best practice recommendation about small verses large databases. One of the attendees asked the speaker what they considered to be a small and a large database, and the answer caused me to chuckle out loud. The speaker said a small database was in the 1-2 terabyte range, and that a large database was in the 100+ terabyte range. It is interesting that Microsoft (at least the SQLCat team) considers a database small if it is 1-2 terabytes in size. Times have really seemed to have changed over the past few years in regard to what defines the size of small and large database.

While I have been critical of many of the TechEd sessions I attended this year, and found the quality of the sessions to be a little uneven, overall it was a good experience, and I am glad I attended.

On the other hand, if a DBA were to ask me if they only had one week of training they could attend next year, should they attend TechEd, I would say no. If you only have a single week of training a year, and you want to attend a conference, I would recommend attending the PASS Summit or SQL Server Connections instead. I would only recommend DBAs to attend TechEd if they were in the enviable position of being able to attend at least two or three conferences a year. Both PASS and SQL Server Connections not only offer more DBA content, but the content is generally better than what TechEd offers.

TechEd 2011 will be held in Atlanta, GA, May 16-19, 2011, so mark your calendar if you think you might want to attend. I will be fortunate enough to attend, and hopefully next year’s will be better than this year’s event (from the DBA perspective).

While I am familiar with both topics, I still learned new things. For example, I finally understood the difference between the read committed isolation and snapshot isolation levels that were introduced in SQL Server 2008. Sunil’s examples made it much easier for me to understand how they worked and when to use them.

In Sunil’s data compression session, I learned that SQL Server 2008 R2 now supports row compression on Unicode data types, which was not the case with the original SQL Server 2008. This new engine feature can really improve data compression in any database that uses Unicode. While row and page compression can benefit many companies, it is only available in the Enterprise and Data Center editions of SQL Server 2008 R2.

During lunch I had in interesting conversation with an attendee whose main job was desktop support. We talked a little about his work, and I finally got around to telling him that I was a DBA. Then he chimed in, telling me that he was the “DBA” of several SQL Server instances in his organization. While desktop support was his main task, he fell into the category of the “accidental DBA,” which seems to becoming more and more common among IT staff, especially within smaller organizations.

I was a little curious about how he maintained his servers as he didn’t appear to have a lot of SQL Server experience, so I asked him several basic questions about how he handled his DBA duties. Essentially, he didn’t do anything with the SQL Servers, except take daily backups, which were stored locally on the SQL Server hardware itself. He performed no other maintenance, didn’t store the backups offsite, or really had any knowledge of what it meant to be a SQL Server DBA. I treaded carefully, not wanting to hurt his feelings, but I briefly mentioned that he might want to consider taking a more active role as the DBA, but he wasn’t really interested in learning more. He said that it was no big deal if the SQL Server instances went down or if any data was lost. He was also making the assumption that if a database became corrupt that he could perform a restore. He neglected to consider the possibility that the hardware might crash and his backups disappear. In addition, I doubt if he had the knowledge of even how to properly restore a backup.

Up to this point, he has been lucky and has never experienced any data loss, which I think make him feel overconfident. He has yet to learn the lesson that there are only two kinds of DBAs: those that have lost data, and those who will eventually lose data.

I felt a little sorry for the guy, as he has been forced into being a DBA without any training or direction. What I wonder is if the organization he works for realizes the predicament they are in? While he says the SQL Server’s data isn’t all that important, is this his own personal opinion, or the opinion of the organization he works for? I would imagine that if an organization invests in software and hardware that needs SQL Server, that the data may be more important than he thinks it is. I didn’t want to say much more, other than mentioning that he might want to consider looking into learning more about SQL Server, as I didn’t think it was my place to tell him how to do his job.

This got me thinking some more, and I wonder many thousands, if not tens of thousands, of SQL Server instances are being maintained (actually, not being maintained) in this same way, and what the significance this is to these organizations. I imagine (at least hope) that if the owners or managers of these organizations better understood the implications of poor SQL Server management, that most of them would take the necessary action to ensure that their SQL Server instances were better maintained or protected. The problem is how do we, as professional DBAs, educate organizations of the importance of taking proper care of their data. I don’t have a good answer, but perhaps you might have some suggestions that you can add to the comments section below.

TechEd is designed to showcase Microsoft technologies, and is mostly a marketing effort put on by Microsoft, with a little training thrown in the mix to try and balance the content. Each TechEd seems to have a major theme, and this year it was all about the “cloud”. According to the keynote presentation today, the “cloud” is the future of computing and Microsoft. I’m not personally convinced this is true, but time will tell.

In past years, I have found TechEd to be well organized and fun to attend, but the first day of this year’s TechEd (at least from my personal perspective), has been disappointing. Below are some random thoughts about today.

1) Before the keynote presentation, TechEd started with a live Zydeco band on stage, which was a great start.

2) Unfortunately, the keynote presentation was uninspired and boring, not up to Microsoft’s usual great standards for keynote presentations. I would have much preferred to have seen a dynamic Steve Ballmer presentation than the less than exciting collection of presenters we had today.

3) While TechEd was the main event, the Microsoft BI Conference was being held concurrently, apparently another cost savings tactic. For example, attendees could sign up for the full TechEd conference, or just sign up for the BI Conference (for less money). Supposedly, full TechEd attendees could attend all sessions, while BI Conference only attendees could only attend BI sessions. I say supposedly because designated BI sessions didn’t allow regular attendees to attend as you would expect. Full TechEd attendees couldn’t take a seat in these designated BI sessions until five minutes before the session started, and then only if there were any seats left, which was not the case for the BI session I wanted to attend. This policy of giving preference to BI Conference attendees over full TechEd attendees was not publicly announced, and full TechEd attendees only found out at the door when they tried to enter a session, and they were told, sometimes impolitely by attendees at the door, they could  not enter the room until just before the session started. Large crowds of full TechEd attendees had to stand outside of these sessions, blocking the hallways and generally creating a lot of havoc, and doing a lot of arguing with the door attendants (although the door attendants were not at fault, as they were just doing what they were told to do).

4) Talking about havoc, crowd control at TechEd was very poor. I don’t know if it is the design of the convention center, or just poor planning, but sometimes the hallways on the second floor of the convention center became human traffic jams, with easily 500 or more people stuck going opposite directions down the only hallway, bring movement to a virtual standstill. A similar thing happened when the vendor party started at 5:45 PM. Several thousand people were waiting to enter the event, and after a few minutes past the advertised entrance time, only four doors were opened to allow the thousands of people to enter.

5) As a DBA, I prefer to attend SQL Server-related sessions. Unfortunately, there are very few SQL Server sessions to choose from, and most of them were marketing related, not hardcore information. I overhead one Microsoft employee say that the typical SQL Saturday offers better SQL Server training than does TechEd. I tend to agree.

6) When I was unable to attend the BI session I wanted to attend, I decided to attend a SQL Server 2008 R2 session that was supposed to describe all the new features of the release. Unfortunately, the speaker was from marketing, and was not a DBA, and knew very little about the product. In addition, there was a lot of technical problems, and there was dead time as they were worked on resolving the technical problems. Eventually, two short demos were done, but very little of the new R2 features were covered.

7) Internet access died for several hours on Monday, preventing both attendees and presenters from accessing the Internet. Supposedly this was the fault of the ISP who was providing the service.

8 ) In the past, I have considered the continental breakfast and lunches provided at TechEd to be above average in quality. This year, at least on Monday, both the breakfast and lunch was disappointing. Again, it looks like Microsoft was cutting corners to save some costs.

9) While not TechEd’s fault, ATT’s cell phone and 3G service was horrible, often not allowing me to make calls, or not allowing me to connect to the Internet, making it hard for me to keep up with my e-mail and Twittering.

10) While I know I sound like I am whining (which I am), the best part of attending TechEd is meeting up with all my DBA friends. I had many good conversations with many people I rarely get to see. I also met up with a former co-worker who I had not seen in years.

I’m hoping that the rest of TechEd will go better than today. At least I am crossing my fingers.