Jun-2012 ~ Full Text Indexing Basics ~ John Miner

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Presenter: John Miner
Topic: Full Text Indexing Basics
Downloads: Slides

 

Today’s large data fields (LDF) are full of unstructured information stored in varchar, text, varbinary or xml data types. How do you write an application to search the column for patterns? Traditional SQL techniques using a column INDEX and LIKE operator result in a query plan that contains a full table scan.

I will be introducing the Brother’s Grimm database that has the full text of each fairy tale. I will create a full text catalog / index, select a change tracking strategy, define optional stop list / thesaurus file, and then populate the index. I will use CONTAINS and FREETEXT operators in SELECT queries to leverage the FTI. This resulting query plan performs better with an index seek.

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.

Apr-2012 ~ Aviation Disasters & IT Lessons From Them ~ Mike Walsh

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Presenter: Mike Walsh
Topic: Aviation Disasters & IT Lessons From Them
Downloads: Slides

 

What does a plane crash have to do with technical skills? You might be surprised. There are many lessons to be learned from disasters. Most accidents are caused not by one factor, but by a series of seemingly-small missteps; even if a freak accident occurs, training and preparation can make all the difference – it’s the same for us!

In this session we’ll have a group discussion through a few actual aviation disasters and see what skills, attitudes and thought processes led to them. We’ll look at some success stories and see what was different. We’ll see how these attitudes and decisions impact us at work and talk about how to identify them in ourselves and our teams. Then we’ll figure out how to prevent them in our day jobs.

Biography:

Mike is an experienced SQL Server professional and has worked with SQL Server for over 12 years. He has performed the duties of DBA, Developer, Architect and Performance Lead but always leans on his DBA experience. Mike is a partner in the exciting SQL Community focused venture called Linchpin People – He is also an independent consultant through his Straight Path Solutions consultancy. He was recognized as an MVP by Microsoft in April of 2011 for his SQL Server community involvement. He blogs at http://www.straightpathsql.com

Mar-2012 ~ T-SQL Deployment and Continuous Integration ~ Grant Fritchey

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Presenter: Grant Fritchey
Topic: T-SQL Deployment and Continuous Integration
Downloads: Slides

 

While most T-SQL developers focus on writing quality T-SQL code and efficient queries, what they often forget is how it should best be deployed. This includes deployment of new applications, as well as upgrades and bug fixes. In this session, you will learn many best practices involving the principles of continuous integration, such as maintaining a code repository, automating builds, self-testing, auditing, automated deployment, and much more. This session is designed for both DBA administrators and developers who want to optimize their T-SQL deployment process.

Biography:

Grant Fritchey is a SQL Server MVP with over 20 years of experience in IT, including time spent in support and development. He has worked with SQL Server since 6.0, back in 1995. He has developed in VB, VB.NET, C# and Java. Grant volunteers at PASS and is past president of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group (SNESSUG). He has authored books for Apress and Simple-Talk and joined Red Gate Software as a Product Evangelist in January 2011. He blogs at www.scarydba.com.

Feb-2012 ~ Policy based management ~ Scott Abrants

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Presenter: Scott Abrants
Topic: Policy based management with SQL Server 2008 R2
Downloads: Slides

 

Policy Based Management – A tool to manage consistency across an environment Have you found yourself tasked with managing settings and environment definitions across a large pool of SQL Server 2008 servers and felt overwhelmed with where to start? Do changes in your environment go unnoticed and have a ripple effect within your application stack? Do you find developers and others not following standards time and time again even with the best process definitions and promises in place?

Then you will benefit from understanding a powerful feature tucked neatly within SQL Server 2008; Policy Based Management. Scott Abrants will provide a clean overview of this management tool along with some demonstrations that help explain its usage in action. If you are tasked with managing one or several hundred servers you owe it to yourself to know this tool is a viable option to server based management.

Biography:

I have worked in the IT field for over 20 years. Most of that time has been spent immersed in the database technologies discipline. After graduating from Bryant University with a degree in MIS, I began by seriously cutting my teeth with Microsoft’s SQL Server 6.5 and have never looked back. I am currently employed by a SaaS provider that takes in point-of-sales data, scrubs it, cubes that data, and presents it to the end user; the Microsoft stack is heavily relied upon as part of that solution. I have written several SQL Server related articels and maintain an active presence within the SQL Server user communities. I am one of the founding officers of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group as well as a past president. I very much enjoy presenting at those meetings whenever I can. My passion is what drives me. I have a knack for understanding not only the technical details surrounding data but also how that data impacts the business decisions that drive a company. I enjoy being involved in the whole picture, from end user business requirements discussions to determining the overall architecture. My biggest drive is knowing that I make a difference.

I am the proud father of two smart and beautiful daughters. I enjoy spending time with them and learning to see the world through their eyes. My wife Brenda has been my rock and my biggest advocate and for that I am forever grateful. In my spare time I also enjoy remote control car racing, MMO gaming, and hockey.

Jan-2012 ~ Operational mistakes to avoid ~ Mike Hillwig

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Presenter: Mike Hillwig
Topic: Operational mistakes to avoid
Downloads: Slides

How often do you launch a remote desktop session to your SQL Server? And how often do you ALTER a TABLE during peak hours? These can cause performance problems. Mike Hillwig has a top ten (and growing!) list of operational mistakes to avoid and will help you understand why you should avoid them. And in many cases, he will show you how to work around them.

Biography:

Mike Hillwig is a 15-year IT veteran, having spent the last ten in the world of databases. He works as a contract DBA for a Boston-based provider of software and cloud-based solutions for the financial industry where he manages customer database environments. He specializes in making these environments grow and scale, where he believes that consistency and sanity are very closely linked.

Outside of work, he is an avid blogger, a passionate cook, and dad to two Rescue Pugs, Reggie and Ruby.

Dec-2011 ~ Virtualization and SAN Basics for Database Administrators ~ Brent Ozar

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Presenter: Brent Ozar – SQL Server MVP
Topic: Virtualization and SAN Basics for Database Administrators

 

These two technologies can make a very big – and very bad – difference in how your SQL Server performs.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get the real, honest lowdown from a virtualization administrator, a SAN administrator, and a DBA? Wouldn’t it be even better if one person had done all three, and could give you the pros and cons of each point of view? That person is Brent Ozar, a Microsoft Certified Master who’s been there and done that.

Biography:

Brent Ozar helps companies like StackOverflow and AllRecipes go fast. He really enjoy helping developers push SQL Server to its limits, and then figure out how to make it go even faster. Doing that requires coordination between programmers, sysadmins, SAN administrators, and project managers. It takes one guy who speaks all of those languages, and does it with tact and diplomacy to avoid throwing people under the bus.

That’s what Brent does. Brent has walked in your shoes. He know what it’s like to see a bunch of people pointing fingers at the database, the SAN, the hardware, the code, and nobody really having good proof. He has over a decade of experience with these niche technologies. With a solid track record of finding the real underlying problem, explaining it in fun, easy-to-understand ways, and bringing the entire team together to deliver the solution. Brent know you don’t have weeks to play politics, and Brent helps you get it done in a matter of hours.

Nov-2011 ~ Partitioning Techniques ~ Andy Novick

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Presenter: Andy Novick of Novick Software
Topic: Partitioning Techniques

 

Partitioning techniques in SQL Server help the developer and DBA manage large quantities of data and improve query performance in a variety of situations. This presentation demonstrates the techniques used for

Partitioned Tables
Partitioned Views
Partition aligned Indexed Views

Reasons for partitioning in both OLTP and data warehouse applications will be disused along with these topics:

Partitioning Basics
Hash Partitioning
Aligned vs. unaligned indexes
Index Views Basic
Index placement in Aligned and unaligned partitioning

The topics include features from SQL Server 2000, 2005 and new features from 2008. Come learn about these powerful schema design techniques.

Biography:

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.

Sep-2011 ~ How to audit and prevent unwanted user actions ~ John Miner

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Presenter: John Miner of Sensata Technologies
Topic: How to audit and prevent unwanted user actions

 

Many corporations are composed of small divisions located in countries throughout the world. While you might be the lead DBA for your corporation, there are several other employees who have the keys to the kingdom. How do you prevent and audit unwanted user actions to key data?

This presentation will review techniques on how to prevent and/or audit data and schema changes.

The following topics will be presented with examples.

1. Granting correct user access is vital
2. Using DML triggers to keep an DATA audit trail.
3. Using DDL triggers to keep an SCHEMA audit trail.
4. Preventing unwanted DATA modifications
5. Preventing unwanted SCHEMA changes
6. Preventing table TRUNCATIONS
7. New Feature in 2008 – change data capture

Biography:

John Miner (www.craftydba.com) has twenty years of data processing and proven project management experience, specializing in the banking, health care, and government areas. His architecture expertise encompasses all phases of the project life cycle, including design, development, implementation, and maintenance. His credentials include a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island with concentrations in database technologies and programming languages. He has Microsoft Certificates for Database Administration (MCDBA) and System Administration (MCSA).

Aug-2011 ~ Double Feature ~ John Miner & Grant Fritchey

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Presenter: John Miner of Sensata Technologies
Topic: Working with bit patterns

 

In today’s manufacturing environment, production lines are automated with robotics and sensors. Many of these low end microprocessors and/or integrated circuits are designed for specific tasks such as temperature and pressure control.

This presentation will review how to store the memory buffer in a table and use a view to interpret the results.

The following topics will be presented with examples.

1. Using the VARBINARY data type to store the bit pattern.
2. Storing a version number just in-case the decode changes.
3. Breaking the pattern into registers and nibbles.
4. Left shifting of the bits.
5. Right shifting of the bits.
6. Combining bits from two registers.
7. Putting it all together with a view.

Managing your data well can lead to savings in disk space as much as 75%.

Biography:

John Miner (www.craftydba.com) has twenty years of data processing and proven project management experience, specializing in the banking, health care, and government areas. His architecture expertise encompasses all phases of the project life cycle, including design, development, implementation, and maintenance. His credentials include a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Rhode Island with concentrations in database technologies and programming languages. He has Microsoft Certificates for Database Administration (MCDBA) and System Administration (MCSA).

 

Presenter: Grant Fritchey of Red Gate
Topic: Seven Different Solutions for Bad Parameter Sniffing

 

Parameter sniffing is a misunderstood issue on SQL Server. Most of the time parameter sniffing is helping performance on your servers. But sometimes, circumstances change and what was helping you is now hurting you, bad.

In this session we’ll gain an understanding of what exactly parameter sniffing is and why it’s usually so helpful. Then, we’ll explore how parameter sniffing can go wrong and I’ll show you seven different ways you can deal with it when it does.

You’ll bring back a wealth of knowledge so that you can identify and resolve bad parameter sniffing in your own environment. Everyone has heard about twitter, facebook and linkedin but how or why does one get started?

Biography:

Grant Fritchey has twenty+ years experience in IT. That time was spent in technical support, development and database administration. He works for Red Gate Software as a Product Evangelist and writes articles for publication at SQL Server Central, Simple-Talk, PASS Book Reviews and SQL Server Standard. He has published two books, “Understanding SQL Server Execution Plans” and “SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled.” He is one of the founding officers of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group and its current president and works on part-time, short-term, off-site consulting contracts.