#PASSAwesomeness
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Performance & Tuning, Presentations, Syndication
Allen Kinsel on Twitter (@sqlinsaneo) recently started a new Twitter tag, #PASSAwesomeness, about all of the cool things about PASS Summit. I really like the tag, so I’m going to blatantly steal borrow it for this post. 
First, and long overdue, I want to give a brief recap of the East Iowa SQL Saturday. On October 17th, our local PASS chapter, 380PASS, sponsored our first ever SQL Saturday at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. By all accounts, the event was a great success! We had 90 attendees, 11 speakers, and 21 sessions. We received numerous compliments on the quality of the speakers, the niceness of the facilities, and the abundance of food. Not too shabby for our first time hosting the event, if I do say so myself.
I’d like to thank all of our wonderful speakers, especially those who traveled from out of town and out of state, for making this event such a success. I’d also like to thank our amazing volunteers for helping put this all together. Lastly, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank our generous sponsors, without whom this event would not be possible. Because this event went so smoothly and was so well received in the community, we’ve already started planning our next big SQL event! In the meantime, don’t forget to check out our monthly 380PASS meetings to tide you over.
I’d also like to take a moment to discuss the PASS Summit. Unless you’re a DBA who’s been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the PASS Summit. If you *have* been living under a rock — and hey, I’m not poking fun, I used to live under a rock, too! — then what you need to know is that the Summit is the largest SQL Server conference in the world. It’s a gathering of Microsoft developers and SQL Server gurus; the rest of us show up to try to absorb as much from them as possible. Since I’ve recently moved to the Business Intelligence team, I’m extremely excited to delve into the amazing amount of BI content offered.
I’m also deeply honored to be presenting at the Summit this year on some of the performance tuning techniques I’ve used with great success in my production environments. The session is titled, Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look At Performance Tuning for VLDB’s. If you’re interested in performance tuning or VLDB (very large database) topics, consider stopping by to catch my session. From what I can tell, I’ll be presenting on Tuesday from 10:15am – 11:30am in room(s?) 602-604.
If you read my blog, or if we’ve ever interacted in any way on the internet — Twitter, LinkedIn, e-mails, blog comments, etc. — please stop by and say “hi”! Aside from all of the awesome SQL Server content, I’m really looking forward to meeting as many new folks as possible.
And on that note…
Getting to meet all of the amazing SQL Server professionals out there who have inspired and encouraged me in so many ways #PASSAwesomeness
Why I’m Blogging Less
Filed under: Business Intelligence, Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
I’ve received a few questions asking why I’ve been blogging less frequently, and even one inquiry after my health. Rest assured, I’m completely fine. But there are 2 perfectly good reasons why I’ve been blogging less these days.
East Iowa SQL Saturday:
I’m the event organizer for East Iowa SQL Saturday, which is eating up a lot of my free time. If you haven’t yet heard about our SQL Saturday event, let me give you a brief overview. It’s a FREE, one-day training event geared toward SQL Server professionals and anyone who wants to learn more about SQL Server. We have 22 sessions planned covering a variety of topics, from Business Intelligence to Disaster Recovery to SQL Server 2008 topics. And if you’re a .NET developer, we also have some .NET-related presentations, including PowerShell and MVC.
We’re very fortunate to have snagged an excellent set of speakers. Jessica Moss, Louis Davidson, Timothy Ford, Jason Strate, and Alex Kuznetsov are just a few of the great speakers we have lined up.
There’s only a handful of spots left, so if you’re interested in attending, you should register soon. To find out more details about the speakers and sessions, or to register, be sure to check out our website at http://sqlsaturday.380pass.org.
The Other Reason:
Yes, that’s right, I’m with child. Expecting. Eating for two. Bun in the oven. In the family way. You get the idea.
So when I’m not at work, planning SQL Saturday, or playing Civilization Revolution, I’m sleeping. For those who remotely care, I’m due around Super Bowl time in February 2010.
2010: The Year I Make Contact
Rest assured, this blog isn’t going away. And hopefully once I get through SQL Saturday and then PASS Summit, I’ll have more free time again.
East Iowa SQL Saturday – Call For Speakers, Open Registration
A few announcements regarding the East Iowa SQL Saturday:
- The date has changed to October 17th due to scheduling conflicts. Please update your calendars.
- We’re still looking for speakers! We currently have 10 submissions, but we’d like to have double that. If you’re even thinking about submitting a session, please do! Who knows, Iowa City may be closer than you think.
- Registration is open! If you’re planning to attend the East Iowa SQL Saturday, please make sure to register by clicking on the “Register” link and completing the short questionnaire. Seating is limited, so make sure to register soon.
- Chicago – 3.5 hours
- Omaha – 3.5 hours
- Milwaukee – 4 hours
- Kansas City – 4.5 hours
- Minneapolis – 5 hours
- St. Louis – 5 hours
- Indianapolis – 6 hours
- Columbus, OH – 9 hours (hint, hint, Jeremiah!)
- SQL Server for the .NET Developer Slide Deck
- Index Defrag Script
- Error Handling Example
- Missing Indexes Process
Also, if you’re in the area and would be interested in volunteering, please send me an e-mail at michelle at sqlfool dot com.
PASS Summit 2009
Filed under: PASS, Performance & Tuning, Presentations, Syndication
My abstract for PASS Summit 2009 was accepted! Woot! You may not be able to see it from where you’re sitting, but I’m doing the happy dance.
In case you missed my original post on my abstract submission, here’s what I’ll be presenting on:
Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look at Performance Tuning for VLDB’s
Few DBA’s have the opportunity to experience a real-life load test in their production environment. Michelle Ufford works for GoDaddy.com, a company that has experienced phenomenal success with its Super Bowl ads. These ads are designed to drive traffic to the company’s websites, which puts the database servers under high load. In her presentation, Michelle will explore the performance tuning techniques that have resulted in an 80% reduction in server response times and allowed her VLDB’s to reach rates of 27k transactions per second. Topics will include vertical and horizontal partitioning, bulk operations, table design, and indexing.
Do you read my blog? Do I read yours? Do we exchange weird messages on Twitter? Do you have free cookies? If you’re going to to the PASS Summit and answered “yes” to any of these questions, then I want to meet you! Make sure to say “hi” to me in Seattle.
East Iowa SQL Saturday – Call for Speakers!
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
The Call for Speakers is now open for the East Iowa SQL Saturday! This is our first time hosting a SQL Saturday, and there’s a lot of excitement and interest from our local SQL Server folks. There’s some interest from local speakers, but we’ll probably also need to pull in speakers from outside of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to support the number of tracks and attendees we plan to have.
The event will be held on October 10th, 2009 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Special thanks to Russ Allen for his help with securing a location for us!
For those who are not in the immediate area but would be willing to travel, here’s some general travel times from major cities in the area:
So if you’re in the general area, please, PLEASE consider speaking at our SQL Saturday. Pretty please with sugar on top.
You can find out a little more information and submit sessions at our SQL Saturday website.
sp_WhoIsActive
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Presentations, Syndication, T-SQL Scripts
For those who attended the webcast I did with Brent Ozar today, “Getting Started With SQL Server Management Studio,” here’s the link to Adam Machanic’s excellent sp_WhoIsActive stored proc:
Thanks for attending!
Webcast Tomorrow!
Filed under: PASS, Presentations, SQL 2008, SQL Tips, Syndication
I’m excited to be doing a webcast tomorrow with the infamous illustrious Brent Ozar for Quest’s Pain-of-the-Week. The title is “Getting Started with SQL Server Management Studio,” and as you’ve probably gathered, it’s pretty entry-level stuff. If you read my blog, then chances are you don’t need to watch this webcast. But if you know anyone who’s trying to learn SQL Server or is trying to make the upgrade from 2000 to 2005/2008, this may be a good webcast for them.
I’ve also got a few other speaking engagements coming up:
June 2nd: Cedar Valley .NET User Group
I’ll be reprising my Iowa Code Camp presentation on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer” for CVINETA. This presentation focuses on what you need to know about good table design, indexing strategies, and fragmentation… you know, what you wish every .NET developer knew about SQL Server.
June 11th: PoTW: Time-Saving SQL Server Management Studio Tips & Tricks
I’ll also be doing this webcast with @BrentO as a follow-up to our webcast tomorrow. It will focus on how to save time and improve your sanity by using some neat little tricks in SSMS 2008.
Iowa Code Camp Resources
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Presentations, Syndication
Thanks to everyone who attended my session on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer” at yesterday’s Iowa Code Camp! I hope you found the session informative. Here’s the materials from the presentation:
Special thanks to @underwhelmed and @peschkaj for traveling to attend the Iowa Code Camp!
Open Giving
During the Iowa Code Camp, I had a chance to get involved with the Open Giving project. From the CodePlex, here’s a brief overview:
An effort to create a complete registration system to create events and for volunteers to register for those events. Helps make it easier for organizations to enable people to give back to their communities.
Basically, it’s an open source software project to create a *free* event management system for volunteer organizations. This is a really great cause and I’m glad I’ve had a chance to help. If you’re interested in helping, please leave me a message and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate folks.
Iowa Code Camp – Tomorrow!
Just a reminder that the Iowa Code Camp is tomorrow! The camp is being held at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and starts at 8am. There’s a lot of great sessions, and attendance is free! You can find more details on their website at http://iowacodecamp.com.
I’ll be presenting on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer.” I’ll be covering the basics of SQL Server, such as good table design, indexing strategies, and efficient queries.
The esteemed Jeremiah Peschka (@peschkaj) will be giving his presentation on “A Dynamic World Demands Dynamic SQL.” If you missed his AppDev SIG presentation, here’s your chance (and mine!) to see what you missed.
If you come to the Code Camp, make sure to stop by and say hi to me!
380PASS – Another Successful Meeting!
Our 2nd 380PASS meeting was another success, by all accounts. We had 31 attendees! This is twice what registered and remains on par with our first meeting. The meeting was held in one of the very nice, state-of-the-art conference rooms at the University of Iowa. We began the meeting with a new feature, quick and easy SQL tips. I gave the first tip, which was how SSMS 2008 will display missing indexes. Afterwards, Zakir Durumeric from the Research Information Systems (RIS) team at the University spoke on database mirroring. Zakir gave an excellent overview of high availability options, the pros and cons of various methods, and some of the obstacles and solutions he’s faced in his environment. The materials for last night’s meeting will be uploaded to http://380pass.org later today.
Following Zakir’s presentation, Russ Allen shared some powerful and time-saving tips on how to use Central Management Servers to manage multi-server environments. The meeting ended with an interesting and informative discussion on Red Gate’s software. The conversation primarily revolved around SQL Compare, SQL Data Compare, and SQL Prompt, and the positive impact those applications have had on our lives.
We’re pleased to announce SQL Server MVP Hilary Cotter as the guest speaker for our May meeting. Hilary will be presenting remotely on performance tuning topics. More details to follow as we finalize them.
Thank you for all who attended and have helped make our new chapter such a success!
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