DevLINK, August 5-7, 2010

• How and When to Use Indexed Views
• Identifying SQL Server Performance Problems Using SQL Trace
• Essential DBA Skills: Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans

St. Louis SQL Server Users Group, August 11, 2010

• Identifying SQL Server Performance Problems Using SQL Trace
• Essential DBA Skills: Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans

Baton Rouge SQL Saturday, August 14, 2010

• Best Practices Every SQL Server DBA Must Know
• Database Maintenance Essentials

If you are attending, be sure to stop me and say hello.

SQL Saturday #22 was held on Saturday, June 5, 2010, with about 224 attendees participating in this free event. It was held at the Pensacola Junior College in Pensacola, FL.

Forty-three different sessions in six different tracks were offered (mostly SQL Server, but with a few .NET and miscellaneous sessions thrown in for good measure), offering attendees a wide choice of sessions to attend.

Many well-known speakers attended, including Steve Jones (see photo), Brad McGehee, Joe Webb, Joe Healy, Rushabh Mehta, Robert Cain, Kevin Boles, Patrick LeBlanc, Tim Mitchell, Rodney Landrum, Kevin Kline, and many more.

The event was hosted by Karla and Rodney Landrum, and of course they were helped my many behind-the-scenes volunteers to make this a successful event.

Below are a few photos from the event.

Rodney Landrum teaches a session on “DBA Repository Update 2010 Using SSIS and SSRS”, where he describes the SQL Server management system he developed for his company, and has shared with the SQL Server community.

Karla Landrum giving out prizes at the end of the event.

Annabel Bradford (left), in charge of the Friends of Red Gate Program, gives away a prize to the audience, with Rodney Landrum (right) helping out.

Jesse Liberty,a Developer Community Program Manager for Microsoft, starts off IndyTechFest 2010 with the keynote presentation.

On Saturday, May 22, 2010, over 400 SQL Server, .NET, SharePoint, Silverlight, and Windows Phone professionals gathered together and spent a free day of training at IndyTechFest, sharpening their technical and career skills, choosing from 37 different presentations in seven different tracks.

IndyTechFest, which was held at the Marriott East Conference Center in Indianapolis, IN, is the third time this event has been held, and was organized and managed by over two dozen volunteers from the IndyNDA and IndyPASS user groups. The event’s main organizers included Bradley L. Jones, David R. Leininger, John Magnabosco, and Mark McClellan.

There were two SQL Server tracks, which included speakers such as Kevin Kline, Kathi Kellenberger, Jessica Moss, Tom Pizzato, Jimmy May, Hope Foley, Craig Utley and Derek Comingore. I gave a presentation on “Database Maintenance Essentials”.

One of the highlights of the event for me was attending the speaker’s dinner, held after the event. I got the opportunity to spend time getting to better know many of the other SQL Server speakers. This is the third time I have spoken at IndyTechFest, and I hope to be able to attend next year.

On Thursday, May 20, 2010, I had the opportunity to speak at the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, which is held on the third Thursday of every month at the Microsoft offices in Irving, TX (near Dallas).

The user group is headed up by Sri Sridharan, with help from Tim Mitchell and Sean McCown (see Sean in the accompanying photo).

Unlike most SQL Server User Group meetings, with only a single presenter, Sean McCown (Sean and his wife Jennifer are known as the MidnightDBAs, and offer free online SQL Server training videos), started out the meeting with part four of his multi-part series called “Ground Zero—SSIS”. This educational series is designed to help bring DBAs up to speed on SSIS. I really find this type of on-going training at a user group meeting to be very innovative, and I think it would be a great idea for other SQL Server user groups to emulate. Such an educational series allows attendees to gain a more in-depth knowledge of a topic, unlike the single presentations that are generally offered.

Once Sean gave his presentation, I followed up with my presentation on “How to Analyze Performance Monitor Data Using PAL.”

This was a busy week for the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, as on the following Saturday they hosted SQL Saturday #35, which ended up with 410 attendees, a great turnout for their first SQL Saturday event. While I was unable to attend this event (I was attending IndyTechFest instead), I hope to be able to attend next year.

Currently, attendance has reached the 500 capacity limit, so no new registrations are possible, unless you want to be waitlisted. Also, if you have registered to attend, but can’t make it, be sure to notify IndyTechFest so that your place can be given to someone on the waitlist.

I will be making one presentation at the event on “Database Maintenance Essentials”, which is described below.

Many DBAs take routine database maintenance for granted. What they don’t understand is that the cumulative effect of poor database maintenance can significantly hurt performance and reduce uptime. In this session, you will learn the key things all DBAs need to know in order to help them maintain their databases at peak performance. As such, this session is targeted towards those who have less than one year’s experience as a SQL Server DBA. In this session you will learn about: Physical File Fragmentation; Database and Log File Management; tempdb Maintenance, msdb Maintenance; Index Maintenance; Statistics Maintenance; Data Corruption Detection, Database and Log File Protection and Database Maintenance Monitoring.

I have spoken at all previous IndyTechFests, and I find it to be one of the best run, free events of its kind. If you are attending, please be sure to say hello.

My session, the only professional development topic at the event, is called “Manage Your DBA Career, Don’t Let It Manage You,” is session 13, which will be held at 00:00 GMT on May 20. My session focuses on specific steps you can take to help take control of your career. Of course, if you are in control of your career, then you don’t need to attend. 

I will be traveling that week, and will be making my presentation from a hotel room in Dallas.

AlantaMDF SQL Server Users Group. Photo courtesy of www.sqlvariant.com.

I have just finished up a three event speaking tour that, which unfortunately, should have been a four event tour, but my flight to Germany (via London) was cancelled, and I was unable to attend European PASS as I had hoped.

I started out on Monday, speaking at the AtlantaMDF SQL Server Users Group, which is lead by SQL Server MVP Geoff Hiten. I spoke on “How to Become an Exceptional DBA,” which is a presentation based on my book of the same name (download the free eBook version here). Apparently, the meeting has its highest attendance ever, with 93 attendees, about one third of which were first time attendees.

Next, I flew to Chicago to speak to the downtown Chicago SQL Server Users Group, where I spoke Thursday night on “How to Optimize tempdb Performance.” The group is lead by Bill Lescher, who was a most gracious host. We met at the Chicago Microsoft Technology Center, and I got a brief tour of the facility from Ross LoForte, a SQL Server technology architect with Microsoft (and SQL Server book author).

Chicago SQL Server Users Group. Photo by Bill Lescher.

Then on Saturday, I made two presentations at the Chicago SQLSaturday event. I presented on “How and When to Use Indexed View” and “Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans. The event, which was coordinated by Wendy Pastrick, Ted Krueger, and Aaron Lowe, had about 20 speakers, over 30 sessions, and over 300 attendees.

Photo courtesy of www.michaelkappel.com.

Chicago SQL Saturday wraps up with Q&A and prize drawings.

After the Chicago SQL Saturday, I was supposed to fly to Neuss, Germany for European PASS, but my flight was cancelled due to the Iceland volcano ash, so I ended up going back home to Hawaii. My next trip is in May, where I will speak at IndyTechFest in Indianapolis, IN and the North Texas SQL Server Users Group.

Registration for the 24 Hours of PASS is now open. This free, online training event will be held starting 12:00 GMT on May 19, and include 24 live presentations on a wide variety of topics, with a special emphasis on SQL Server 2008 R2.

Speakers include Adam Machanic, Andy Leonard, Brad McGehee, Brent Ozar, Brian Knight, Chuck Heinzelman, Dean Richards, Don Kiely, Don Vilen, Donald Farmer, Glenn Berry, Greg Low, Jacob Sebastian, Jessica Moss, Kevin Cox, Kevin Kline, Louis Davidson, Maciej Pilecki, Peter Myers, Peter Ward, Rushabh Mehta, Sean McCown, Simon Sabin, Thomas Grosher.

This year, I will be presenting on “Manage Your DBA  Career, Don’t Let It Manage You.” The session is targeted at DBAs who are tired of letting their career just happen and want to take control of it. It is session number 13, to be held at 00:00 GMT on May 20 (7:00PM Central Daylight Time, May 19).