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Late April Free Training from PASS VCs

Apr 15th, 2011
by Aaron Nelson.
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www.sqlpass.orgPowerShell provisioning of Hyper-V Servers
Designing Cubes for Performance
Database Standards SOP
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PowerShell provisioning of Hyper-V Servers
April 20, 2011, 12 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Marco Shaw

Marco provides an overview of using sysprep for Windows Server 2008R2, and SQL Server 2008R2, which also now supports this feature. This is especially useful when wanting to get up a new (lab or even production environment) quickly. He will be doing this using only Microsoft Hyper-V & Windows PowerShell without any other external tools.

Marco Shaw
Marco ( blog | twitter ) is a consultant with CGI and has over 12 years of IT experience. He has been awarded a Microsoft MVP award for the last 4 years in the Windows PowerShell category.

LiveMeeting: Registration Link
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Designing Cubes for Performance
April 20, 2011, 12 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Stacia Misner

Building a cube is simple. After all, you have a lot of wizards at your disposal to do the development work. But building a cube that delivers data quickly requires you to make additional changes to the database design. In this session, you’ll learn what steps you need to take in the development process to ensure the cube is designed for optimal performance, whether you’re using Analysis Services 2005 or Analysis Services 2008. You learn not only how to properly design dimensions, aggregates, and partitions, but why these design principles improve performance.

Bio:
Stacia Misner is a consultant, educator, mentor, and author specializing in Business Intelligence solutions since 1999. With more than 25 years of experience in IT, she is the author or co-author of ten books about BI. Her most recent books include Business Intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Building Integrated Business Intelligence Solutions with SQL Server 2008 R2 and Office 2010. Stacia provides consulting and custom education services through Data Inspirations, writes about her experiences with BI at blog.datainspirations.com, and tweets as @StaciaMisner.

LiveMeeting: Link
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Database Standards SOP
April 21, 2011, 1 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Thomas LeBlanc

Join Normalization nut Thomas LeBlanc for a review of a standard operating procedure used among DBAs at an employer. See the changes he made after joining the BI group at this employer. The session will go through naming conventions, check list for creating a table, formatting in stored procedures, and more. A brief preview of the SQLRally talk 3rd Normal Form: That’s Crazy Talk!!! Will be given about Lookup tables. This discussion comes from 21+ years of developing databases for application developers. The use of identity columns for primary keys, and the need for a unique constraint on transaction tables that do resort to ID columns will be covered.

Thomas LeBlanc
Thomas is a semi-retired Senior DBA turned ETL Lead Architect @ Amedisys in Baton Rouge, LA. Worked in the IT field for 21 years experience w/ COBOL dBase, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, VB 3 thru 6 and .Net(C#). Designing and developing Normalized & Dimensional database has become his passion. Full-time DBA work started about 9 years ago. he has been blessed with speaking at SQLRally this year. Free time is spent helping other & improving his relationship with family & God.

LiveMeeting: Link

End of September Free Training from PASS VCs

Sep 27th, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
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pass_logoNext-Level SQLCLR: Parallel Processing and Bulk Load
SSRS R2: The New Stuff
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Next-Level SQLCLR: Parallel Processing and Bulk Load
September 28nd 12:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Adam Machanic

The power of SQLCLR as a performance tool has been well-documented at this point; certain queries, when re-written the right way using SQLCLR components, can run an order of magnitude more quickly. If you’re already using SQLCLR, or need that extra push, attend this session to discover how to take things one step further using advanced techniques and a custom SQLCLR component that will help you leverage the power of parallelism to burn through your rows more quickly than you ever thought possible. This session includes some of the material that will be covered in Adam Machanic’s full-day PASS Summit post-conference seminar, “A Day of Doing Many Things at Once: Multitasking, Parallelism, and Process Distribution.” More information on the seminar is available here: http://sqlpass.eventpoint.com/topic/details/AD311P

Adam Machanic

Adam is a Boston-based independent database consultant, writer, and speaker. He has been involved in dozens of SQL Server implementations for both high-availability OLTP and large-scale data warehouse applications, and has optimized data access layer performance for several data-intensive applications. Adam has written for numerous web sites and magazines, including SQLblog, Simple Talk, Search SQL Server, SQL Server Professional, CoDe, and VSJ. He has also contributed to several books on SQL Server, including “SQL Server 2008 Internals” (Microsoft Press, 2009) and “Expert SQL Server 2005 Development” (Apress, 2007). Adam regularly speaks at user groups, community events, and conferences on a variety of SQL Server and .NET-related topics. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for SQL Server, Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), and a member of the INETA North American Speakers Bureau.

How do I attend?
Attendee URL: LiveMeeting Link
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SSRS R2: The New Stuff
September 29th 12:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Mike Davis

In this session Mike shows you the new features in Reporting Services 2008 R2. You will learn how to use the Map control, Sparkline, Indicator, and Data Bars. See the new report builder 3.0. Learn about shared Data sets and report parts. Learn how to drill down from the US level to the state level using the map controls.

Mike Davis

Mike is a MCTS, MCITP, Senior BI consultant, and Trainer at Pragmatic Works.  He is an author of two Business intelligence books.  Mike is an experienced speaker and has presented at many events such as several SQL Server User Groups, Code Camps, SQL Server Launches, and SQL Saturday events. Mike is an active member at his local user group (JSSUG) in Jacksonville, FL.

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=H2JWQQ&role=attend&pw=tS3%24Gtj%60z

Mid September Free Training from PASS VCs

Sep 9th, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
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pass_logoThere’s going to be over 30 hours of free online SQL Server training next week and you’re not going to want to miss out!
Indexes and Other Free Performance Boosts
Building your 1st Performance Point Dashboard in SharePoint 2010
24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview
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Indexes and Other Free Performance Boosts
September 14th 12:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Jeremiah Peschka

The database is often viewed as a major performance bottleneck. There are a number of quick, easy, painless techniques that can increase the performance of an application not just by a small amount, but by orders of magnitude. These techniques include simple indexing techniques, T-SQL techniques, and general database application design patterns that give great gains in performance. In this session, you will learn how to look at a database to identify these problem areas and how to resolve common issues that you will encounter.

Jeremiah Peschka

Jeremiah (blog|twitter) is a Database Expert with Quest Software. He is a SQL Server MVP, user group leader, and PASS Director at Large. Jeremiah has a passion for spreading knowledge and writing about himself in the third person. When not using a computer, Jeremiah can be found playing guitar, reading, writing, wandering around central Ohio, or speaking at various SQL Server events.

Live Meeting Link: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=DJ8WK2&role=attend
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Building your 1st Performance Point Dashboard in SharePoint 2010
September 14th 12:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Adam Jorgensen

Many of you have seen the coolness that is PerformancePoint in SharePoint 2010. Come get hands on with Adam as we go through the ins and outs of creating your first dashboard.  See some of the cool visualizations you can use and how they work together to create a cool user experience.

Adam Jorgensen

Adam, MBA, MCDBA, MCITP: BI has over a decade of experience leading organizations around the world in developing and implementing enterprise solutions. His passion is finding new and innovative avenues for clients and the community to embrace business intelligence and lower barriers to implementation. Adam is also very involved in the community as a featured author on SQLServerCentral, SQLShare, as well as a regular contributor to the SQLPASS Virtual User Groups for Business Intelligence and other organizations. He regularly speaks at industry group events, major conferences, Code Camps, and SQLSaturday events on strategic and technical topics.

Live Meeting Link: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=K5S9BK&role=attend&pw=B%3B4%2F%7D38%3Br
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One more quick note.  There’s this little online event going on the following day called the 24 Hours of PASS and this time it’s been rearranged to be timed better for the massive amount of Data Professionals in the Eastern half of the US [and Canada, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Virgin Islands, Netherland Antilles, & Brazil, etc… yeah them places too]

24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview

Join an exceptional lineup of SQL Server and BI experts from around the world as they present a sneak peek of PASS Summit 2010 in 24 free live webcasts September 15-16.

This installment of 24 Hours of PASS delivers the hottest SQL Server and BI content directly to your computer – with a twist. Instead of running continuously for 24 hours, the September event divides the webcasts across 2 days, with each day beginning at 12:00 GMT (UTC). Check out what time it starts in your neck of the woods.

Dig into data warehousing, MDX, KPIs, and DTS-to-SSIS migration. Learn best practices for sizing database hardware and performance tuning. Get an in-depth look at PowerShell, storage for the DBA, and the latest T-SQL enhancements. And see how to manage teams, make your presentations rock, prepare for your next job, and more.

Tune in to hear your favorite MVPs and PASS Summit speakers, including Kalen Delaney, Andy Leonard, Kevin Kline, Brad McGehee, Allen White, and many more.

Register today for your top picks – or plan to attend them all!

Think the 24 Hours of PASS lineup is impressive? You won’t want to miss PASS Summit 2010 in Seattle, WA, Nov 8-11. The 24 Hours of PASS program gives you a glimpse at the unmatched technical content PASS Summit has to offer across more than 160 technical sessions, 14 pre/post-conference seminars, and invaluable networking opportunities.

Late June 2010 PASS VC Presentations

Jun 21st, 2010
by Aaron Nelson.
Comments are off for this post

 pass_logo
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ETL with PowerShell
June 22nd 9:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Chad Miller

In this session we will look at performing common data loading tasks with PowerShell. A basic understanding of PowerShell is helpful, but not necessary. Specific topics covered include importing structured files, XML, WMI objects and ADO.NET data sources.

Chad Miller
Chad Miller is a Senior Manager of Database Administration at Raymond James Financial. Chad has worked with Microsoft SQL Server since 1999 and has been automating administration tasks using Windows PowerShell since 2007. In his spare time he is the Project Coordinator/Developer of PowerShell-based Codeplex project SQL Server PowerShell Extensions (SQLPSX). Chad leads the Tampa PowerShell User Group and is also a frequent speaker at SQL Server users groups, SQL Saturdays and Code Camps.

How do I view the presentation?
Attendee URL:  Live Meeting link
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How SQL Server Indexes Work
June 23rd 12:00 PM EDT (GMT -4)
Presenter: Sharon F. Dooley

There are many useful presentations about indexes. Most of these concentrate on tricks and techniques. This presentation will provide the background knowledge of index architectures so that you can understand why techniques work and select the appropriate indexing strategies for your databases. Topics covered include page splits/fragmentation, disk accesses required for different index types, covering indexes and optimization.

Speaker Bio:

Sharon Dooley (MCP, former SQL Server MVP) has worked with SQL Server since its first release. Her major areas of specialization are database design and performance tuning, though she also does a lot of administration. She has a consulting practice and teaches and writes courses for Learning Tree International, where she is SQL Server Curriculum Manager. Ms. Dooley is the author of SQL Server 7.0 Essential Reference (New Riders), the lead author of Professional SQL Server 6.5 Administration (Wrox). Sharon is an active member of PASS (The Professional Organization for SQL Server) and has presented at numerous conferences. She was named a Microsoft MVP in 2001 and was an MVP for SQL Server until 2004. In her spare time, she enjoys being bossed around by her cats.

Attendee URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/8000181573/join?id=7DJZ27&role=attend

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Reporting Services for the DBA
June 23rd 12:00 PM CDT (GMT -5)
Presenter: Ef Romero

Reporting Services for the DBA: Using Reporting Services to monitor and affect changes to SQL Server.

Ef Romero:
Ef Romero is a Senior Consultant at Hitachi Consulting where he specializes in business intelligence development with SQL Server. His work with SQL Server is concentrated in ETL, data warehouse development, database optimization, and reporting. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, both in pure mathematics, from UTEP and has worked as a mathematician and BI developer for the past four years. He is a collaborator on the recently published book SQL Server Reporting Services Recipes: for Designing Expert Reports.

Attendee URL: Join the meeting

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