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Training Event

Atlanta MDF Presents Three Awesome Pre-Cons in Atlanta April 13, 2012

Atlanta MDF presents:

SQL Saturday #111 Pre-Conference Sessions

imageSQL Saturday is coming back to Atlanta on April 14, and once again, we’ve managed to schedule 3 awesome pre-con sessions for the Friday before (April 13). They will cover a broad spectrum of topics: Performance Tuning, SSIS, and SSRS. Registration is limited, so go take a look and see if you or someone from your company can benefit from this great training opportunity.

Also don’t forget that we will have an absolutely amazing lineup of presenters for Saturday! We’ll be announcing the final schedule for SQL Saturday #111 by Monday, February 13th. Registration is open, and we’re already halfway to capacity, so head out to SQLSaturday.com to reserve your seat.

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Andy Leonard and Matt Masson– A Day of SSIS – http://dayofssis.eventbrite.com/

A Day of SSIS was developed by Andy Leonard to train technology professionals in the fine art of using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to build data integration and Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) solutions. The training is focused around lectures and emphasizes a practical approach. The target audience for this training is database professionals, application developers, and business intelligence practitioners interested in acquiring or expanding their existing SSIS skill set. No experience with SQL Server or SQL Server Integration Services is required before attending this training. It is helpful (but not required) that students possess some knowledge of and experience with relational databases. SQL Server knowledge / experience will be more helpful than experience and knowledge with other technologies.

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Adam Machanic – No More Guessing! An Enlightened Approach to Performance Troubleshooting – http://nomoreguessing.eventbrite.com/

Scratching your head, you stare at the screen. Should you rebuild an index? Create a new one? Reboot the server? Why is this query so slow?!? Figuring out performance problems can sometimes feel like fumbling your way through a dark room. Maybe you’ll get lucky and find the right solution―or maybe you’ll stub your toe. Either way, it’s a slow, potentially painful process. Yet finding the root cause of most performance issues is a simple exercise, once you understand where to look and when. In this full day seminar, you will learn a proven methodology that can be used to approach virtually any performance problem. Created and refined by Adam Machanic over several years, this strategy leverages core SQL Server performance tools (including dynamic management views, Extended Events, and WMI counters), applying them to various performance troubleshooting techniques (such as waits and queues analysis, baselining, and real-time activity monitoring). Each of these tools and techniques has a unique role, and you will learn to use them cooperatively to quickly and adaptively find the actual cause of performance issues. All of this will be illustrated through complete demonstrations that will teach you how to drill from high-level problem detection all the way to specific spot in a query plan or deeper―pinpointing the exact problem and helping you to quickly solve it. Attend this seminar to take full control of your databases—and never again stumble blindly through the dimly lit world of performance troubleshooting.

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Jessica Moss – Learn SSRS in a Day – http://ssrsinaday.eventbrite.com/

SQL Server MVP, Jessica M. Moss, presents an exciting, introductory, full day training session on SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2. In the three-part class, Jessica will teach you how to build reports from the ground up. In Part 1, learn the basics of report development, including picking a report development tool and creating your first report. Part 2 delves into visualizations, groupings, and drill-down functionality. Finally, Part 3 highlights core administration tasks in Reporting Services. In addition, Jessica will point out industry-wide best practices for report development and show numerous live demos using a variety of data sources.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Georgia State University – Alpharetta
3775 Brookside Pkwy
Alpharetta, GA

Map picture

 

Register for pre-conference sessions by March 15 for $99!
($109 after March 15)

For registration to the Saturday Event and more information visit http://www.sqlsaturday.com/111/eventhome.aspx.

PowerShell Presentation at SQLskills open-mic night

Kimberly Tripp ( blog | twitter ) and Paul Randal ( blog | twitter ) SQLsklls are here in Atlanta this week.  Last night they held an ‘open mic’ night and allowed anyone who wanted to present a topic 15 minutes to show something to the rest of the class.  Surprise, surprise I decided to talk about PowerShell.

I received multiple requests to post the scripts I used before I even had a chance to sit down so here they are.

If you were in the class and would like to use these and don’t even know where to start with PowerShell have a look at my “Resources for my SQL Server PowerShell Extensions webcast” post.

If you ever get a chance to attend one of their classes and present in front of Paul and Kim TAKE IT! :-)   Even if it’s just about your SSMS tips or how to work around a problem you encountered.  The feedback you get is *more* than worth it!

PowerShell takes the Pole at SQLRally!

PowerShell takes the Pole at SQLRally!

PowerShell has taken the Pole for the DBA division at SQLRally!  Come see why the organizers have chosen this session to lead the pack to the Green Flag.

We will be covering new ground, not rehashing last year’s PASS Summit presentation.  I have developed several new examples for leveraging PowerShell in your everyday DBA role since then.  I am promising 6 new scripts for everyone but if I get on a role that number might be closer to 10 when they drop the green flag on this year’s event.  :-)

If you’ve never used PowerShell before don’t worry. We will spend a few minutes on a ‘get up to speed lap’ so everyone is going at the same pace when we step on the gas with all this new material.  All scripts will be made available for you to download during the session and access later on from pit-row.

After my session here’s what I’ll be checking out:

 

What sessions I'll be checking out during SQLRally

What sessions I'll be checking out during SQLRally

Presenting for the PowerShell Virtual Chapter of PASS

pass_logo_thumbSorry for the late notice folks but I will be Presenting for the PowerShell Virtual Chapter of PASS today at Noon Eastern.  Today’s session is just going to be a bunch of cool things that I’ve been working on lately but haven’t gotten a chance to present or blog about yet.  I’m still working on one last script but I’ll post the code before the session if I can.  Hope to see you there!

PowerShell Grab Bag

Wednesday December 15, 2010, 12 Noon Eastern Time (GMT -5)
Speaker:  Me
Live Meeting Information Join the meeting

In this short grab bag session we’ll go over a bunch of new scripts that I’ve built over the last few weeks.  Things like:

  • checking free space on mount points,
  • checking SQL agent for failed jobs,
  • polling instances to make sure they’re available,
  • checking the status of log shipping across multiple targets,
  • emailing result sets and
  • scheduling all these with SQL Agent. 
  • Checking remote registries (including why on earth you would ever want to do that?!).
  • Zipping files, even better, we’ll go over how to not zip files that have already been zipped. 
  • The final grab from this session:  for all the Summit attendees out there, I’ll share with you my script to download all the session videos from the 2010 Summit

Early December 2010 Free Training From PASS VCs

  • pass_logoUnderstanding Join Operators
  • How to Use Dynamic Management Views to Monitor and Diagnose Performance Issues With High Volume OLTP Workloads
  • Using OLAP to Optimize and Maintain Predictive Analytics Models


Understanding Join Operators
December 7, 2010 12 PM noon Eastern Time (GMT -5)
Ami Levin

SQL Server implements three different physical operators to perform joins. In this session, we will examine how each of these operators works, including its advantages and challenges. Using real life examples, we will better understand the logic behind the optimizer’s decisions on which operator to use for various joins. Finally, we will learn how to avoid some common join related pitfalls and how to get better performance from our queries.

Ami Levin
Ami is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP, with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. For the past 12 years, he has been consulting, teaching and speaking on SQL Server worldwide. He manages the Israeli SQL Server user group, leads the local support forum, and is a regular speaker at Microsoft conferences. Ami is the CTO and co-founder of DBSophic, a company that develops workload tuning solutions for SQL Server applications.

How do I attend?  Live Meeting link


Dr. DMV: How to Use Dynamic Management Views to Monitor and Diagnose Performance Issues With High Volume OLTP Workloads
December 8, 2010 12 PM noon Mountain Time (GMT -7)
Glenn Berry

SQL Server 2005 introduced Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) that allow you to see exactly what is happening inside your SQL Server instances and databases with much more detail than ever before. SQL Server 2008 R2 adds even more capability in this area. You can discover your top wait types, most CPU intensive stored procedures, find missing indexes, and identify unused indexes, to name just a few examples. This session (which is applicable to both 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2), presents and explains over thirty DMV queries that you can quickly and easily use to detect and diagnose performance issues in your environment.

Glenn Berry

Glenn works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and he has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS, which proves that he likes to take tests. His expertise includes DMVs, high availability, full text search, and SQL Azure.

How do I attend?  Live Meeting link


Using OLAP to Optimize and Maintain Predictive Analytics Models
December 10, 2010 12 PM noon Eastern Time (GMT -5)
Eugene Asahara

In complex Predictive Analytics (PA) scenarios where it is being applied to a complex system or the players involved are actually trying to undermine the predictions (ex: credit card fraud), the sophistication of the PA must be taken up a notch or two. In this Webcast I will describe techniques for building sophisticated PA systems on the Microsoft BI Stack by using OLAP to:
• Analyze, validate, and optimize PA models.
• Manage and Monitor the performance of the PA models in a Performance Management style.
• Surface PA results to end users in a manner that allows them to work through the ambiguity that remains around predictions.

Eugene Asahara
Eugene specializes in high-end Analysis Services implementation and performance tuning, predictive analytics, and overall BI architecture. He has thirteen years of experience on the Microsoft BI stack; including one year on the SSAS product team and seven years as a Lead DB/BI Architect at Microsoft Consulting Services. Aside from consulting on BI engagements by day Eugene develops bleeding-edge BI software by night. Many of his thoughts around BI and that bleeding-edge space can be found at www.softcodedlogic.com.

How do I attend?  Live Meeting link

Standing. Room. Only.

PoShQuestionsI wasn’t smart enough to take a picture of the over 400 people that crowded into the room I was speaking in but thankfully Scott Gleason ( blog | twitter ) managed to snag a shot of just a few of the many people that came up to ask questions after my session. I mentioned at the beginning of my session that it was my first time presenting at the PASS Summit and I was humbled by the shouts of “Congrats” and applause from crowd. I hope I did a good job for them.

Resources:
I mentioned during the session that my code and slides were available in yesterday’s blog post.
I also pointed out the posts that Chad Miller, myself, and Sean McCown put together last week on the Hey Scripting Guy blog. Here are a list all 5 of those posts and also the link to the SQLPSX project.
Oh, and please take a look at the PowerShell Virtual Chapter of PASS.

Use PowerShell to Collect Server Data and Write to SQL
Posted Mon, Nov 1 2010
Use PowerShell to obtain SQL Server database sizes
Posted Tue, Nov 2 2010
Use PowerShell to Change SQL Server Service Accounts
Posted Wed, Nov 3 2010
Use PowerShell to Script SQL Database Objects
Posted Thu, Nov 4 2010
Using PowerShell to Add a Group of Users to a SQL Database
Posted Fri, Nov 5 2010

Please Vote if You are Going to SQLRally

SQLRally LogoA few weeks back quite a few people asked me if I was going to be submitting a pre-con session on PowerShell for SQLRally.  I hadn’t planned on submitting one but so many people asked me about it that I decided to go ahead and come up with one.  My session is a half-day session and has been paired with another PowerShell session by PowerShell MVP Max Trinidad ( blog | twitter ).

You can read about the options here and if you’d like to go the the sessions that Max and I are putting together please vote for them here.  Please only cast your vote for which ones you’d be willing to pay up to $199 to attend.  Voting is open until 8 AM PST November 2, 2011. The winning sessions will be announced at the 2010 PASS Summit in two weeks.

The details about my session are in the link but in short I plan to take Data Professionals from knowing nothing about PowerShell to being able to use it to simplify their lives in just 4 hours.  I will go over a few techniques that I use and then I will be showing a lot of different code examples.  If you’ve never worked with PowerShell before I’m sure you’ll be blown away by how little code is needed to build most of these practical everyday examples.

End of October Free Training from PASS Virtual Chapters

pass_logo

Applied MDX
Refactoring SQL Applications
Implementing SQL Server in a utility model
WIT Monthly Conference-Call
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Applied MDX
Monday October 25th 12 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Kevin Geoff

Learning the basics of MDX is one thing – learning how to incorporate MDX into custom OLAP applications is another.  In this presentation, I’ll show several examples of MDX inside SSRS reports, PerformancePoint Services dashboards, and even inside of Excel.   We’ll also look at using MDX inside of OLAP calculated members and data-driven KPIs.  The attendee will come away with different perspectives on how MDX is necessary to create flexible OLAP reporting.

Kevin Geoff
Kevin is a 2010 SQL Server MVP ,2005-2008 .NET/C# MVP ,SQL Server/Business Intelligence senior instructor and courseware author – SetFocus, LLC ,Columnist for CoDe Magazine (Baker’s Dozen Productivity Series), and a Developer/consultant in the industry since 1987

How do I attend? Live Meeting link

_____________________________________________________________Refactoring Refactoring SQL Applications
Tuesday October 26th 12 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Jeremiah Peschka

Refactoring SQL is not like refactoring application code. This talk will demonstrate proven SQL refactoring techniques that will help you identify where performance gains can be made, apply quick fixes, improve readability, and help you quickly locate places to make sweeping performance improvements. Jeremiah Peschka has years of hands on experience tuning SQL applications for performance, throughput, and concurrency.

Jeremiah Peschka
Jeremiah is an Emerging Technology Expert with Quest Software. Jeremiah works with different software to identify new techniques and trends in the world of data storage. Over the course of his career, Jeremiah has worked as a system administrator, developer, and DBA. Previously, Jeremiah spent 2 years at Cass Information Systems, a utility billing provider.

Jeremiah is involved in the Professional Association for SQL Server. When he is not volunteering with the development community, Jeremiah can be found blogging about data storage, relational databases, and software development at http://facility9.com. He can also be found on Twitter as @peschkaj.

How do I attend? Live Meeting link

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Implementing SQL Server in a utility model
Wednesday October 27th 12 pm EDT (GMT-4)
Jason Massie

A SQL Server as a Service(SQLaaS) in a utility computing model can be a robust platform providing self service provisioning, better utilization of hardware and power, lower administrative overhead and chargeback capabilities. It can allow your internal and external customers to forget about the database and focus on developing and deploying apps that add value to your core business. In this session, we will cover key benefits of offering the DB in a utility computing model which could be part of your larger SOA strategy. Next, we will look at some key considerations from the DBA and IT decision maker’s perspective that will drive the infrastructure design. Several different architectures will be discussed along with their business driven considerations. We will look at SQL Server 2008 r2 features that are well suited for a utility model as well as SQL Server vNext and 3rd party tools. Lastly, we will look at areas that may require custom development to meet your specific needs.

Jason Massie
Jason has 10 years experience as a DBA and currently manages the Oracle and SQL Server DBA teams for Terremark. He is a SQL Server MVP. Jason has spoken at the Professional Association of SQL Server Conference, the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, SQL Connections and TechED. You can read more about him at http://jasonmassie.com and contact him at jmassie at terremark.com

How do I attend? Live Meeting link

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Women In Technology Conference Call
Wednesday October 27th 3pm CDT/1pm PDT (GMT-5/GMT-7)

Please email Wendy Pastrick ( email | twitter ) for dial in information

  • This will be our final call before the PASS Summit.
  • Final planning for our PASS presence: Welcome Reception,  WIT Luncheon, Chapter Lunch
  • Discussion about roles in the chapter
  • At the end of the meeting, we offer Open Mic time for people to share news or ask open ended questions