I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all those who submitted abstracts to SQL Cruise for our 2013 Season. I expect our fourth year to be the best yet in terms of content, mission, and success. Sessions will be selected shortly and Technical Leads notified. Once that process is completed we will be announcing our schedule for 2013. Please register for our SQL Cruise Insider’s Feed to learn of content decisions before everyone else and stay up-to-date on the latest information from SQL Cruise. -Tim Ford, SQL Cruise
If you are interested in joining us on one of our 2013 SQL Cruises, registration will be opening on 7/2/2012.
Below are a listing of all abstracts submitted. We are actively selecting which individuals will join our Featured Speakers in our 2013 Season as Technical Leads and which sessions will be presented.
Ryan Adams, Verizon
Ryan has worked for a Fortune 100 company for 14 years. He is the sole SQL Server DBA for his group. His primary focus is database design and performance, but also works with SSRS and SSIS. He enjoys being involved in the SQL community and serves on the Board of Directors for the North Texas SQL Server User Group and the PASS Performance Virtual Chapter. He also serves as a Regional Mentor for PASS.
Credentials
MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP
Links
Session Title: Manage Your Shop with CMS and Policy Based Management
In this presentation we talk about Central Management Server and how it can help you manage a disperse environment. We will also cover what Policy Based Management is and how you can leverage its power to better manage your environment. With PBM we’ll see what it can and cannot do to help you enforce standards in your enterprise. We will cover and demonstrate PBM for the beginner from creating and evaluating policies to receiving alerts on policy violations.
Session Title: How Active Directory Affects SQL Server
There are many things that can go wrong with SQL server, and a lot of times they come from outside influencers. Active Directory is one of the largest influencers that can have many interesting and unexpected issues that are not apparent. We’ll discuss how the location of your server in AD is important, how security can be compromised, AD DNS configuration, and of course Kerberos. By the end of the session you’ll have a check list of things to discuss with your domain administrator when you return to work. This includes the biggest perpetrator, Group Policy Objects.
Session Title: SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Quickstart
In this presentation I’ll explain what the new SQL 2012 AlwaysOn high availability and disaster recovery solution is all about. I’ll talk about the different levels of protection it provides through Windows Clustering, SQL Clustering, and Availability Groups. We’ll discuss how these three things come together to protect your databases. We’ll finish with a dive into availability group configuration and the new capabilities it gives us.
Session Title: SQL 2012 AlwaysOn Deep Dive
This session is intended for those already familiar with the AlwaysOn feature set. You should already be familiar with implementing and supporting AlwaysOn. We’ll start by discussing AlwaysOn Failover Clustering and its support of Multi-subnet clustering. We’ll talk in depth about quorum, the new method of node failure detection, and support for TempDB on local storage. Next we dive into AlwaysOn Availability Groups where I’ll cover things like the Session Timeout Property, Failure Condition Level, DMV troubleshooting, and system diagnostics.
Aaron Bertrand, SQL Sentry
I thoroughly enjoy my position as Senior Consultant for SQL Sentry, makers of Performance Advisor, Event Manager and the free Plan Explorer – all tools geared to helping customers get the most out of SQL Server.
I have been working with SQL Server for 15 years, and do my best to share my knowledge and experience with the community via sqlblog.com, speaking at dozens of community events, and answering questions in online forums and through the twitter hashtag #sqlhelp.
I have twice been a presenter on prior SQLCruises. I love the different and unique atmosphere, the camaraderie it inherently promotes, and the fact that you are quickly not “at a training session” but rather “learning about SQL Server with, and from, a bunch of new friends.”
Credentials
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Links
Session Title: T-SQL : Bad Habits and Best Practices
In this session we will go over several bad habits that are quite pervasive in the SQL Server community, and show with demos and samples why these habits can be bad.
We’ll also illustrate some good habits that are less common and why they should be adopted.
The goal is to have every user in the room walk away with immediately actionable knowledge to improve their existing stored procedures, raise their overall T-SQL skill, and change the way they think about writing code.
Session Title: Practical SQL Server 2012
In this session we will explore several of the new SQL Server 2012 features in depth, using demos and code rather than informational slides. The topics we will cover include Contained Databases, Sequences, Transact-SQL enhancements, SqlLocalDB, Windowing functions and Columnstore indexes. With a small audience I will cater to the majority for flexibility – we can deep dive on 3 or 4 topics, or medium dive on all of them.
Jason Brimhall, Ntirety
Jason Brimhall has 10+ yrs experience and has worked with SQL Server from 6.5 through SQL 2008 R2. He has experience in performance tuning, high transaction environments, as well as large environments. He is currently a DB Architect and an MCDBA. He is he VP of the Las Vegas User Group (SSSOLV).
Credentials
Links
Session Title: SQL 2012 Compression – Digging Deep
SQL Server 2008 has introduced Table compression to the DBA toolkit. We all know there are different kinds of compression available in SQL Server. What some may not know is the subtleties of compression. Such subtleties include that not all Page Compressed tables are entirely page compressed. This session will show you how to reach into the database and discover compression states at the page level. At the lower level, this session will also show how to determine compression settings of objects in the database. Participants will be able to use undocumented commands as well as commands such as PIVOT to derive some interesting information from the database engine.
Joshua Fennessy, BlueGranite, Inc.
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant, Josh Fennessy has been working with the Microsoft BI stack exclusively for the last 5 years. He has earned MCITP in both SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 versions of the tools. Numerous production implementations have been completed under his watch, including large healthcare providers, commercial real estate firms, and public libraries. When he’s not building BI solutions, he enjoys spending time with his 5 year old son, or hanging out at the skeet range.
Credentials
MCTS Sharepoint Installation/Configuration, MCITP BI Developer 2005/2008, MCTS PerformancePoint Implementation
Links
Session Title: Analyzing Business Insights with SSAS 2012 Tabular Mode and Microsoft Excel
Have you ever been asked to compare company metrics against outside factors? How does your interest yield fluctuate with changing stock market conditions? Are sales figures REALLY affected by weather?
Using Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) 2012 and the latest version of Microsoft Excel, this task can be easier than you think. After attending this class you will be able to: Describe how the Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) can enable users to analyze data without learning new tools; Learn how to create, test, and deploy SSAS 2012 Tabular Models; Create interactive, highly visual reports using Microsoft Excel 2010.
Session Title: Extending Tabular Models – A DAX Primer
Tabular Models — both PowerPivot and SSAS 2012 based — are touted as being an “easier” way to model analytic data for business analysts. Business logic, on the other hand, is still complex. This complex business logic is included in the model with a new expression language called DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions).
After attending this session you will be able to: understand and create new columns using basic DAX calculations; correctly use FILTER() context to create new run-time calculations; manage date calculations using DAX and reference tables.
Session Title: Data Consistency with SQL Server MDS and DQS
Are “The Shire” and “Shire, Middle Earth” the same place? Does your BI solution know that? Who is in charge of making sure duplicate records aren’t included in your data warehouse? Using tools like the new SQL Server 2012 Data Quality Services (DQS), and the revamped Master Data Services (MDS), a business analyst can ensure that data is clean, accurate, timely, and unique.
After attending this session you will be able to: Create, monitor, and analyze data rules and matches with DQS 2012; Create repositories and knowledge bases using MDS 2012 and the new Excel Add-In; Incorporate DQS and MDS into nightly ETL executions using SSIS 2012
Argenis Fernandez, Microsoft Corporation
Argenis Fernandez is a highly experienced database professional based in Redmond, WA. Currently working as a Senior Consultant for Microsoft, Argenis has over 15 years of experience and enjoys working with large SQL Server farms, high-end OLTP systems, managing Windows environments, and PowerShell scripting. Having been through development, system administration, and database administration at different stages of his career, Argenis brings a wealth of experience to his speaking engagements. His favorite topics include SQL Server internals, database and Windows security, high availability, performance tuning and automation.
Argenis is also a Microsoft Certified Master on SQL Server 2008, an avid Twitter user (you can follow him at @DBArgenis), and occasional blogger on SQL Server topics at http://www.sqlblog.com/blogs/argenis_fernandez/.
Credentials
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Certified Master (MCM)
Links
Session Title: SQLSERVR.exe Internals
This is an advanced level session on SQLSERVR.EXE. How it starts, the modules it loads, where it fetches its configuration data from, and how the entire process of starting SQL Server goes from the moment you start the service until the moment the server is ready to accept the first connection, and all databases are online.
Session Title: Troubleshooting SQL Server with SysInternals: Episode 2
In this session we will explore new scenarios where SysInternals tools come to the rescue. This is the continuation of the very successful talk delivered at multiple events, including the 2011 PASS Summit.
Session Title: How to Secure your SQL Server Instance and your Windows Server
In this session we will take a vanilla install of SQL and we will lock it down to the max. No aspect of a SQL Server environment will go untouched.
Here are some of the topics we will discuss:
- Encryption on the Network and at the SQL Level
- Securing the SQL instance by reducing the surface area
- Locking down the OS: Windows settings
- Active Directory settings and policies
- SAN considerations
- Firewalls
- Backups and off-site storage
- Audit and compliance (PCI, SOX, HIPAA)
There will be all sorts of scripts involved: some T-SQL, some Powershell, and a LOT of internals!.
Neil Hambly, SQLnextSteps
Neil Hambly – Database Architect, MDSL & CTO/Founder SQLnextSteps
Neil Hambly is an SQL professional with 14 years’ experience, having 1st worked with SQL Server in Version 6.5 those through to SQL 2012. Neil has held key database positions at major organizations (BBC, ABN AMRO, and Accenture) and a few smaller companies with roles in both DBA & Developer camps. He’s currently works as a Database Architect at MDSL, and is founder of a new SQL Consultancy “SQLnextSteps”. A regular speaker at SQL Conferences, also he is the SQL London PASS Chapter leader (UK), Neil can frequently be found at UK and international SQL events, he also share his SQL insight via his blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When not presenting or organizing UG events, Neil is often found nose deep in SQL Books or playing in his labs as he studies for the SQL Server 2008 MCM certification.
Credentials
MCITP DBA | DEV 2008 + SQL 2012 exams
Links
Session Title: Why Are We Waiting?
An in-depth session examining “Waits” occuring in your SQL Servers, utliizing the well-known “Waits & Queues” methodology, with a particular focus in the session on understanding and interpreting the information from the (DMV) sys.dm_os_wait_stats, discovering which “Waits “ have high counts or excessive wait times, whilst eliminate those “Waits” that can be safely ignored.
Discover the “performance hurdles” along with a strategy to overcome or remove them, improving the SQL Servers performance levels, this requires that you can correctly interpret the “Waits” information
This session will incorporate several demos based on real-world examples to illustrate how to perform an “Waits Analysis” – Can you afford not to know this information?
Session Title: Compression Session
The Enterprise-only Compression feature can make dramatic differences to your SQL Server storage requirements, while examining this feature in some detail, we investigate the Why’s and When’s of integrating this feature into your company’s SQL data strategies.
How to find just which objects you should apply this feature on, discover what the potential compression savings could be, review the index usage, fill-factors, and much more for achieving a balanced data-compression strategy.
This session will not only cover those important core principles of the SQL Server’s data compression feature, how it functions, what options you can control, and how it performs under differing workloads.
Finally we will also discuss challenges you might encounter, examining the all-important performance aspects and other configuration changes to consider along the way.
Don Kiley, Don Kiely Consulting LLC
Don Kiely, MVP, MCSD, is a technology consultant who develops secure desktop and Web applications using tools including SQL Server, VB, C#, AJAX, and ASP.NET. He writes regularly for many industry journals, including Visual Studio Magazine, MSDN Magazine, CoDe Magazine, and asp.netPRO. Don trains developers and speaks regularly at industry conferences, including TechEd, SQL PASS, DevConnections, DevTeach, and others, and is a member of the INETA and MSDN Canada speaker bureaus. He writes courseware and records videos for AppDev. In his other life he roams the Alaska wilderness by foot, dog sled, skis, and kayak. Contact him at donkiely@computer.org.
Credentials
MCSD, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Links
Session Title: New Kid in Town: SQL Express LocalDB
SQL Express has evolved over the years, starting life as MSDB oh so very long ago. The newest kid on the block is SQL Express LocalDB, a version of SQL Express targeted squarely at developers. It purports to be easy to install and provides all the features of full SQL Express, providing applications with essentially an embedded database that you program against just like a full version of SQL Server, all with no management required. It uses the same sqlservr.exe as other editions of SQL Server without using any Windows services, only processes used and owned by applications using an instance of the database. An application works directly with databases as files rather than server instances. Kind of sounds like SQL Server Compact, right? Indeed it does, but there are some significant differences. This session will explore this latest version of SQL Server and see how it can work in applications, to see if the new kid is a flash in the pan or an upstart that will change how you write (some) database applications, and see whether its limitations are overly onerous or not.
Session Title: The Evolution of Security in SQL Server 2012
Microsoft rebuilt SQL Security from the ground up in SQL Server 2005, and since then they’ve evolved database security in each new version. SQL Server 2012 continues that trend with some new features that can keep your data even more secure, such as new server-level role features, new hashing algorithms, and new permissions. It also adds contained databases, which let users connect to the database without authenticating at the server level. This is a great feature that solves problems when you move databases, but it sounds scary from a security perspective. During this session, we’ll explore all of the new security features in SQL Server 2012. At the end of the session you’ll have everything you need to decide for yourself whether your databases will be adequately protected in SQL Server 2012 or if security is getting way too onerous in SQL Server!
Session Title: Contained Databases: The Final Answer to Database Migration?
Contained databases is an interesting new part of SQL Server 2012. Contained databases solves the problem of moving databases from one server to another. In the past, you had to move the database itself, in addition to server-level objects such as logins and SQL Agent job information. Getting everything configured on the destination server was a royal pain, particularly since you had to recreate server logins and remap security IDs (SIDs). Contained databases attempts to solve most of these problems. One interesting issue with contained databases is that it requires a new authentication scheme. For it to work, you need to have the ability to create a SQL user in a database with a password, or create a user associated with a Windows user without requiring an associated login. Authentication takes place directly against the database, and a successful authentication results in a token that grants access to that database only. This serves to provide a tightly scoped and narrow security boundary around the database so that the authenticated user can only perform database-level operations. This greatly complicates the authentication process; is it worth it? This session will explore contained databases and their security features so you can understand whether it’s right for you and your environment.
Session Title: Code First Migrations in Entity Framework
Code-first database and application development was a great new feature in Entity Framework 4.1, but it lacked that certain something: a really good path for migrating database schema changes as you continued to evolve the application. That first version of code-first used a meat axe approach to migrating changes, just blowing away the database and rebuilding it. Sure, there was support for seeding the database with data, but that only softened the blow. But now, code-first migrations in Entity Framework 4.3 has a much better story for making incremental changes to a database as you iteratively develop the schema and application. During this session we’ll explore this new feature for use with SQL Server databases to try to discover whether this makes code-first a viable development strategy. And if it does, just how far into the application lifecycle should you go down with it?
Doug Lane, University Physicians, Inc.
Doug Lane is an MCITP, MCTS, and old-school MCSE with Bachelor’s degrees in Media Production and Economics. He has 10+ years’ experience with Microsoft web and database products, dating back to ASP and SQL Server 7.0. Doug is currently a Business Intelligence developer at University Physicians, Inc., specializing in the SQL Server BI stack. Before joining UPI, he designed and implemented web and database applications in the agriculture, insurance, and taxonomy industries. He blogs about SQL Server with an emphasis on BI and holds the philosophy that BI should be fun. Doug regularly delivers presentations at SQL Server user group meetings and SQLSaturdays, and serves as VP of Membership for the Denver SQL Server User Group.
Credentials
MCITP (BI, 2008), MCTS (Dev, 2008), MSCE (Windows)
Links
Session Title: The Powerful Potential of the ReportServer Database
The ReportServer database contains a wealth of information that can help DBAs and developers alike solve problems. We’ll first examine the content of the more salient tables and views of the database. After that, we’ll look at how this information can be used to our advantage. We will see how to use the ReportServer data to:
* Find reports sent to a specific user/e-mail/file share
* List reports that depend on a specific table/view/stored proc
* Find performance bottlenecks for slow reports
Attendees will receive copies of ready-to-deploy reports that leverage this data.
Session Title: Developers are from Mars, Report Servers are from Venus
This session would deal with the most common frustrations that arise once the honeymoon phase of Reporting Services has ended. We’ll discuss best practices for report design, effective methods of troubleshooting, and powerful properties that maximize the developer’s ability to create eye-popping visuals. The goal of this session is to move developers beyond their frustrations and into creating fast and compelling reports.
Jen McCown, MidnightDBA
Jen McCown is a SQL Server developer and DBA of over 10 years. Jen is co-designer and administrator of ITBookworm.com and MidnightDBA.com, where she writes book and product reviews, and makes training videos, articles, and blogs.
Credentials
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Links
Session Title: Street Smart Career Counseling for Data Professionals
In this interactive session we’ll focus on the DBA career. We will discuss everything from studying, to resumes and job hunting, to shaping your contract or permanent position. You’ll learn real-life work-life balance (65 hours per week is no way for an FTE to go through life), coworker management, time strategies, and much more.
Session Title: Detangling T-SQL Code
Well-written T-SQL code is elegant, simple, effective, and efficient. Most T-SQL code, though, isn’t necessarily well written. Because of the pressure of a project rush, or the well-meaning efforts of an application programmer, the database you inherit is very likely to be full of chaotic, inconsistent, slow, and undocumented code. In this session, you’ll learn several methods for understanding and breaking down complicated code. We’ll work through many real-life examples of common code conundrums and how to solve them.
Sean McCown, Baylor Healthcare
Sean McCown is a Microsoft Certified Master in SQL Server 2008. He is also a SQL Server MVP with over 15yrs experience in databases. Sean is also founder and co-owner of the renowned website MidnightDBA.com where he records free SQL Server training videos and co-hosts the popular webshow, DBAs@Midnight.
Credentials
Microsoft SQL Server MVP, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Certified Master (MCM)
Links
Session Title: Become an Enterprise DBA
There’s a real and quantifiable difference between a regular DBA and the leader of an enterprise. Guiding the database effort of a huge enterprise takes business acumen, experience, problem solving, street-smarts, and above all… vision. And quite often regular DBAs are thrown into big enterprises without knowing what it takes to get the job done. In fact, most DBAs get thrown into this situation without even a hint that there’s a difference. And while they do the best they can, they tend to do more harm than good which is why many companies have such a hard time managing their data. What you need is to change your tactic when dealing with large numbers of servers.
The biggest piece of missing training in databases is enterprise training. DBAs are often taught syntax and usage of features, but they’re never taught how to actually use them to plan an enterprise, run an enterprise, or cope with changing requirements, manage difficult users or groups, manage growth, manage vendors, etc. There are so many more requirements to running an enterprise than just knowing how the individual features work. There are disk and backup requirements, auditing requests, end-user reporting, paranoid VPs, and much more. And there’s no way to gain this type of business sense on your own. You have to learn from seasoned pros who have been there many times over.
If you manage an enterprise or would like to then you can’t afford to miss this session. No other training exists to take you from being a regular DBA to running and leading an enterprise database effort. And don’t fool yourself; There is a real difference. Get ready to take your skills and your career to the next level.
Session Title: Mouth Wide Shut: Coherent Interviewing
Landing a new job has one major hurdle: passing the interview process. In this comprehensive session, you’ll learn how to navigate those waters, avoid pitfalls, and ensure that you say – or don’t say – the right things to land the job of your dreams.
“Interviews are so easy,” says absolutely nobody. In fact, interviewing for your next DBA or SQL developer job is a very tricky process, with many common pitfalls. In this fun and interactive session, we’ll give you all the best advice you’ve never heard about pre-interview preparation, typical traps, and the new professionalism. You will start to refine the way you present yourself, tailor your answers appropriately, and learn about our revolutionary negotiating tactics. Most importantly, we’ll quantify the most difficult aspect of interviews: knowing when to keep silent.
Stacia Misner, Data Inspirations
Stacia Misner has over 25 years of experience with improving business practices through technology and has been providing consulting and education services for Microsoft’s business intelligence technologies since 2000. She founded Data Inspirations in 2006. Stacia is a SQL Server MVP, MCITP, MCTS, and a frequent speaker at technical conferences, including Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) and SQL Server Magazine’s Connections. She has over 12 years of experience in business intelligence architecture and implementation, data warehousing, OLAP, ETL, and reporting and analysis. During that time, Stacia has authored or co-authored multiple books about Microsoft business intelligence technologies.
Credentials
MCITP, MCTS, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Links
Session Title: So How Does the BI Workload Impact the Database Engine?
In this session, we review how normal day to day BI workloads impact the database engine, from ETL and cube processing to queries and report server management. During this session, we’ll discuss what happens to the OLTP database during ETL as well as what happens to the data warehouse as data is being loaded. We’ll talk about what you can do to speed up data warehouse loads and, most importantly, why these changes speed up the data warehouse loads. Then we’ll review how cube processing affects the data warehouse database and describe how you can tune the data warehouse database for optimal cube processing. Also during this session, we’ll compare performance differences between queries running against the OLTP application, the data warehouse, and the OLAP cube. We’ll also assess the impact on the database engine when the reporting services databases are housed on servers which are hosting other databases.
Session Title: Dimensional Modeling Demystified
Do you have a business intelligence project in your future, but are confused by the following terms: star schema, facts and factless facts, surrogate keys, fast or slowly changing dimensions, junk dimensions, and degenerate dimensions? If you’ve spent your career designing data models for OLTP systems, it can be confusing to take a completely different approach to support business intelligence projects. Whether you need to design models for Analysis Services in multidimensional or tabular mode, for PowerPivot, or even for a traditional data warehouse, a solid understanding of multidimensional techniques is essential to produce a model that helps users to effectively analyze data. In this session, we’ll start with the basics of dimensional modeling, and then show to apply these concepts to specific situations that you are likely to encounter.
Session Title: Collaborative BI: Putting the Pieces Together
As individual products, SQL Server 2008 R2 or 2012, SharePoint 2010, and Excel 2010 expand your options for enabling BI in your organization, but collectively they create a solid platform for collaborative BI. Getting the configuration just right and knowing which tool to use for which job can be tricky. Come to this session to learn how to create a collaborative BI solution that provides a central location for administrators to organize and manage information assets and for users to locate, analyze, and personalize information available from SSAS, SSRS, PerformancePoint, PowerPivot, and other sources. In this workshop, we’ll review the technical architecture required to support collaborative BI and walk through the construction of a collaborative BI solution.
Session Title: Introduction to Business Intelligence
Many people with years of experience with SQL Server have never installed or explored the business intelligence components that are included with their SQL Server license. Just because you haven’t been asked to work on a BI project yet doesn’t mean you won’t get asked in the future! It’s time to get a jumpstart on your SQL Server BI skills. In this session, you’ll learn important guidelines for installing Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. You’ll also learn about the role that each of these components plays in the overall architecture of a BI solution, and become familiar with key terms and concepts relevant to the development of a BI solution. You’ll also see working examples of each component in action so that you can understand how data stored in a SQL Server database gets transformed into information that’s useful for decision-makers.
Benjamin Nevarez
Benjamin Nevarez is a database professional based in Los Angeles, California and author of “Inside the SQL Server Query Optimizer”, published by Red Gate books. He has more than 15 years of experience with relational databases, and has been working with SQL Server since version 6.5. Benjamin has also been the technical editor of the two latest books by Kalen Delaney including “SQL Server 2008 Internals”. He holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and has been a speaker at several technology conferences, including the PASS Summit and SQL Server Connections.
Credentials
MCDBA, MCITP
Links
Session Title: Top 10 Query Optimizer Topics for Better Performance
This session, updated for SQL Server 2012, will show you how a better understanding of how the Query Optimizer works can help you to improve the performance of your queries. I will show you the top 10 Query Optimizer topics that can give you the most benefit by focusing both on concepts and practical solutions. Several areas of the query processor will be covered, everything from troubleshooting query performance problems and identifying what information the Query Optimizer needs to do a better job to the extreme cases where, because of the its limitations, the Query Optimizer may not give you a good plan and you may need to take a different approach.
Session Title: Inside the SQL Server Query Optimizer
The SQL Server Query Optimizer is a cost-based optimizer: it analyzes a number of candidate execution plans for a given query, estimates the cost of each of these plans, and selects the plan with the lowest cost. In this session I will go into the internals of the Query Optimizer and will show you the steps that it performs in the background covering everything from the time a query is submitted to SQL Server until an execution plan is generated. Why query optimization is an inherently complex problem and why challenges in some of its most fundamental areas are still being addressed today will be covered as well.
Session Title: Improving the Performance of your Data Warehouse Queries with Columnstore Indexes
Columnstore indexes are one of the most exciting new features available in the next release of SQL Server 2012. Combined with new query processing algorithms, columnstore indexes are designed to improve the performance of data warehouses queries by several orders of magnitude providing more business value by allowing users to interactively explore the data. This session explains how columnstore indexes improve the performance of data warehouse queries—focusing on the query processing and optimization aspect of the technology—and identifies limitations of the current product release.
Session Title: Parameter Sniffing: the Query Optimizer vs. the Plan Cache
Parameter sniffing is a good thing: it is used by the Query Optimizer to produce an execution plan tailored to the current parameters of a query. However, due to the way that the plan cache stores these plans in memory, sometimes can also be a performance problem. This session will show you how parameter sniffing works and in which cases could be a problem. How to diagnose and troubleshoot parameter sniffing problems and their solutions will be discussed as well. The session will also include details on how the Query Optimizer uses the histogram and density components of the statistics object and some other advanced topics.
Christopher Price, Pragmatic Works
Chris Price is a Business Intelligence Consultant with Pragmatic Works. He has his M.B.A from the University of South Florida and has worked as a software developer and architect since 1999. For the past couple of years his attention has been focused primarily on the world of Business Intelligence with a specialty in ETL and Data Integration. His interest spans the Microsoft BI stack from SSIS and SSAS to SSRS and Performance Point.
Credentials
MCITP
Links
Session Title: Integrating DQS, MDS and Your Data Warehouse
With SQL Server 2012 it has never been easier to empower your data stewards and give them greater control over the data management process. Dive in as we integrate both Master Data Services and Data Quality Services into a data warehouse. We will explore how Master Data Services and the new plugins available in 2012 can facilitate the management of your organization’s master data. A look at Data Quality Services will highlight how it can be leveraged to provide value to the data management process through its cleansing and matching capabilities. Finally, we evaluate the options available to integrate back into the data warehouse.
Session Title: SSIS Moving Beyond the Script Task & Script Component
Move beyond the script task and script component and you’ll find one of the often overlooked aspects of Integration Services is the extensibility options that are available. We will dive into a world of .Net code and discover your options for extending your SSIS Packages with custom objects. We will explore both custom task and data flow components as we develop from the ground up a set of reusable SSIS components using managed code.
Rob Sullivan
Rob is a bona fide Alpha Nerd, SQL Server DBA by day and code slinger by night. He is the SQL Dude for Tekpub, open source contributor to .NET Micro ORMS, speaker and can occasionally be found on This Developers Life. In his free time, he frequents various user groups in Oklahoma City or pretty much anywhere that has pizza.
Credentials
Certified DB-RADministrator
Links
Session Title: Making Frenemies with Entity Framework
We’ve all seen marketing friendly talks/examples of Microsoft’s “The” Entity Framework and this will not be that type of session. From the suggested “Destroy all Databases” permission to “I thought they smelled bad on the outside” execution plans, we are going to dive into the guts of what Entity Framework does, why AppDevs like it, and what it means to you… our hero… the DBA. When this session ends, you should walk away not being afraid of Entity Framework (or other ORMs) and knowing how to mitigate issues in the workplace with it so DBAs and Devs can live App-ily ever after.
Session Title: SQL Server in the Cloud
With Microsoft going “All in” on the cloud and marketing teams being relentless in their promotion, it seems like the cloud isn’t going to just be a fad. What does cloud even mean and why should people in the trenches like us care? We will answer those questions and more as we leave the confines of locahost and look at various cloud implementations including Microsofts own cloud service : SQL Azure.
Allen White, UpSearch Technology Services
Allen is a Practice Manager for Upsearch Technology Services in Northeast Ohio. He’s spent over 35 years in IT and has been using SQL Server since 1992 and is certified MCITP in SQL Server and MCT. Allen has been awarded Microsoft’s MVP Award for the last five years. He’s President of the Ohio North SQL Server User’s Group and maintains a blog at http://sqlblog.com/blogs/allen_white/default.aspx.
Credentials
MCITP:DBA, MCITP:DBD (SQL 2005), MCT, Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Links
Session Title: PowerShell 101 for the SQL Server DBA
The more you have to manage, the more likely you’ll want to automate your processes. PowerShell is the scripting language that will make you truly effective at managing lots of servers. But it’s more than just a scripting language. It’s an interactive shell that stores data for you and allows you to implement ad-hoc solutions quickly and easily. Within the PowerShell environment you can easily manage both SQL Server instances and the Windows servers themselves, giving you a ‘best of both worlds’ environment that puts you in control. This session will introduce you to PowerShell and show you how to use it to manage SQL Server across many instances.
Session Title: Maintain SQL Server System and Performance Data with PowerShell
Maintaining a solid set of information about our servers and their performance is critical when issues arise, and often help us see a problem before it occurs. Building a baseline of performance metrics allows us to know when something is wrong and help us to track it down and fix the problem. This session will walk you through a series of PowerShell scripts you can schedule which will capture the most important data and a set of reports to show you how to use that data to keep your server running smoothly.
Eddie Wuerch, ExactTarget
Eddie Wuerch is a DBA, developer, and trainer specializing in SQL Server for over ten of the twenty years he has spent in IT. Eddie is currently the tech lead of the DBA team at ExactTarget, a leading SaaS ESP located in Indianapolis. Eddie and his team design and manage the many multi-terabyte 24×7 SQL Server database clusters that form the foundation of the ExactTarget application. He holds MCITP certifications in SQL Server 2005 and 2008 development and administration, and is an MCT.
Credentials
MCT, MCITP, MCDBA, MCSD
Links
Session Title: Stop Wasting Cache! Memory Management in SQL Server
Despite modern systems’ expanding capability to handle ever-increasing amounts of memory, rarely will you find a system that wouldn’t improve performance by adding a pile of memory to it. It’s almost as rare to find a situation where that’s even an option.
Memory is the grease in SQL Server’s wheels. Managing that memory well requires insight into how SQL Server uses memory, and how to track the various caches. This goes way beyond watching PLE. After covering various memory concepts, this session will dig into different query patterns that burn through memory, how to detect when they cause problems, and demonstrate different tuning and configuration techniques for solving memory problems.
Session Goals:
- Describe memory consumption and allocation in SQL Server, and the effects of I/O performance on them
- Determine memory usage by various components and caches
- Detect memory-use issues and tune queries to solve them
The session includes a collection of monitoring scripts to use when analyzing and solving memory issues.
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