Dec-2013 ~ SSIS Design Patterns for Better Performance ~ Matt Batalon

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Presenter: Matt Batalon

Topic: SSIS Design Patterns for Better Performance

These days ETL developers face two common problems:
1: They are managing more and more ETL processes that have to complete in a shorter time window, and
2: their data is continuously growing. Today, more and more data has to be extracted from multiple sources, transformed, and loaded into its intended destination faster than ever before. SQL Server Integration Services is a robust product with lots of different options to choose when building an ETL package. Of course speedy hardware helps when it comes to performance, but have you ever wondered how the decisions you make when developing a package can affect the package’s performance? Come to this session to explore how SSIS handles memory, and have a better understanding of how certain tasks and transformations can affect your package’s performance.


Biography:

Matt has 15 years of experience in the Information Technology field with a focus on software development and database administration. For the past ten years, he has worked extensively with Microsoft SQL Server and the .NET framework.
He has a Bachelors Degree from Bryant University with a concentration in Computer Information Systems, and also holds the Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) Certification in Database Administration.

Nov-2013 ~ How isolated are your sessions? ~ John Miner

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Presenter: John Miner

Topic: How isolated are your sessions?
Downloads: Available on CraftyDBA.com

 

Have you ever executed a TSQL program that crashed due to an integrity error?
Upon inspecting the job history, the error code states you have duplicate key values.
However; re-running the job does not reproduce the error. You probably had an transaction isolation level issue without knowing it.

I will be covering the following topics in this presentation:

  • Maintaining the ACID quality of transactions
  • How SQL Server implements transaction durability?
  • System versus User transactions
  • Transaction basics
  • Exploring the various transaction modes
  • Exclusive versus Shared locks
  • Blocking versus Deadlocks
  • How to detect them with my free code
  • How Isolation levels affect transaction behavior
  • What is a dirty read versus a phantom read?

At the end of the presentation, you will know how to fix the above scenario by changing the isolation level.

Biography:

John has over twenty years of IT experience including a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island with concentrations
in database technologies and programming languages. He also has Microsoft Certificates for Database Administration (MCDBA) and System Administration (MCSA).

John is currently a Senior SQL Server Developer / Administrator in charge of best practices by the IT team at Sensata Technologies. He is the PASS chapter
leader for Southern New England SQL Server Users Group.

Sep-2013 ~ Stacia Misner ~ Taking BI to the Next Level: Collaboration

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Presenter: Stacia Misner
Topic: Taking BI to the Next Level: Collaboration

Self-service BI is usually an independent activity. But when individuals discover interesting information that they want to share, they need a centralized location to do that. When people work together, new insights are possible, and that’s what collaboration is all about. As more people see the benefits of the solution, they become more likely to use it. As individual products, SQL Server 2008 R2, SharePoint 2010, and Excel 2010 expand your options for enabling BI in your organization, but collectively they create a solid platform for collaborative BI. Knowing which tool to use for which job can be tricky. Come to this session to learn how to use these tools to foster collaboration.

Aug-2013 ~ Query Optimization – Specific Techniques to Make Queries Faster ~ Andy Novick

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Presenter: Andy Novick
Topic: Query Optimization – Specific Techniques to Make Queries Faster

Executing individual queries is the heart of what SQL Server does for us and many a hour is spent trying to optimize the performance of a single query.  This presentation show that by examining query plans,  specific techniques can be applied that transform slow queries into speedy ones.  Using a series of examples Andy will demonstrate these techniques and show how the query plan and other tools point the way to a better solution.

Some of the techniques are:

  • Optimize for specific conditions
  • Managing parameter sniffing, auto parameterization and when to use the hints RECOMPILE, OPTIMIZE FOR or switch to dynamic SQL.
  • Using a table of numbers
  • Creating parallelism with CROSS APPLY
  • Rewrite Functions for order of magnitude speedup
  • Introduce a #temp table to get statistics and a better plan
  • Adding redundant predicates
  • Suppressing unnecessary statistics creation

Biography:

Andy Novick is a SQL Server Developer in the Boston area with 25 years of database and application development experience. His consulting practice focuses on building applications, including software products that use SQL Server’s capabilities to the maximum. He has developed both OLTP and data warehouse databases with multi-terabytes scale. He has particular expertise in automating data management for such large databases. Other recent projects have included ETL, Security and SQL Injection prevention. Andy is the originator of the popular “SQL Server Load-fest” event conduced in Waltham, MA.

FREE! Query Optimizer eBook and SQL Prompt trial

This free ebook from Red Gate Software will take you from the fundamentals of Statistics, Cost Estimation, Index Selection, and the Execution Engine, and guide you through the inner workings of the Query Optimization process, and throws in a pragmatic look at Parameterization and Hints along the way. Download it now

Jul-2013 ~ What are you waiting for? ~ Jason Strate

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Presenter: Jason Strate
Topic: What are you waiting for?
Presentation Materials

Abstract:

You’ve spent the afternoon sweating over your T-SQL query. You’ve wrung out all of the wrinkles. It’s deployed, it’s running… now its waiting. In SQL Server the most performant query can become a problem query if there aren’t any resources in the SQL Server for it to use. In this session, we’ll look at wait statistics and what they are. We’ll look into how they are accumulated and how they can be monitored. By the end of the session, you’ll be equipped with the tools needed to determine if there are resource issues in your environment and methods to start mitigating them.

Biography:

Jason Strate is database architect with Pragmatic Works. He has been working with SQL Server for more fifteen years. His technical focuses includes administration and development of OLTP environments. Jason is a recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for SQL Server since July, 2009. His experience includes design and implementation of both OLTP and OLAP solutions as well as assessment and implementation of SQL Server environments for best practices, performance, and high availability solutions. Jason is a SQL Server MCITP and participated in the development of Microsoft Certification exams for SQL Server 2008 and 2012.

Jason enjoys helping others in the SQL Server community and does this by presenting at technical conferences and user group meetings. Most recently, Jason has presented at the SSWUG Virtual Conferences, TechFuse, numerous SQL Saturdays, and at PASSMN user group meetings. Jason is an active blogger with a focus on SQL Server and related technologies.

Jun-2013 ~ Using File Partitioning And Data Compression For An Effective Data Warehouse Solution ~ John Miner

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Presenter: John Miner
Topic: Using File Partitioning And Data Compression For An Effective Data Warehouse Solution
Downloads: Available on CraftyDBA.com

 

Biography:

John has over twenty years of IT experience including a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island with concentrations in database technologies and programming languages. He also has Microsoft Certificates for Database Administration (MCDBA) and System Administration (MCSA).

John is currently a Senior SQL Server Developer / Administrator in charge of best practices by the IT team at Sensata Technologies. He is the PASS chapter leader for Southern New England SQL Server Users Group.

May-2013 ~ SQL Server Development and Administration Tips and Tricks ~ Roman Rehak

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Presenter: Roman Rehak
Topic: SQL Server Development and Administration Tips and Tricks
Downloads: Presentation Materials (.zip)

This presentation will cover many common issues, challenges and problems encountered when developing for, or administering SQL Server as well as examining best ways to modify, script and copy database objects from development to production environment. Session materials for the attendees will include custom utility tools and stored procedures written by the speaker for simplifying SQL Server development and database update deployment.

Biography:

Roman is principal database architect at MyWebGrocer in Colchester, Vt. He specializes in SQL Server development, database performance tuning, ADO.NET and writing database tools. He regularly contributes SQL Server articles to Visual Studio Magazine, SQL Server Magazine and other technical publications and presents at user groups and conferences in the U.S. and Canada.