#SQLCruise2010

The sponsors for SQLCruise have really gone off the deep end.  I can’t thank them enough for not just helping get more SQL Server people trained, but giving out tons of cool stuff, too.

SQLCruise Netbooks

Each day is sponsored by a different vendor, and during their dinner or lunch, we’ll be giving away an official SQLCruise netbook!

And yes, I’ve already taken the time to preload SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer Edition and sample databases for you, so as soon as you win it, you can jump right into testing out your new-found knowledge.  I’ve also bought a copy of Jimmy Buffet’s classic Songs You Know By Heart for each netbook and preloaded that too, so if you’d rather veg out with a margarita while you listen to Margaritaville, hey, that works too.  Or you could do all of the above.

Of course, the cruisers also get Amazon gift certificates for books, signed copies of my book, t-shirts, Hawaiian shirts, SQLCruise towels, a beach bag, and much more – all courtesy of our sponsors:

• SQLSentry – who not only sponsored the cruise, but gave away four free cruises too!
• Quest Software
• MSSQLTips.com
• Red Gate Software

Want to thank ’em for giving so much to the community?  Copy/paste this into a tweet:

Thanks @SQL_Sentry @Quest_Software @MSSQLTips @RedGate for sponsoring #SQLCruise!

Or of course, if you’d rather edit that tweet, fire away.  See you in less than two weeks!

In preparation for SQLCruise 2010, I’ve put together a recommended reading list.  Reading the blogs, articles, and scripts in this list will help you get the most out of your time on board.

Gather Queries From Your Procedure Cache – this script from SQLServerPedia will fetch queries and their execution plans out of your SQL Server’s memory.  This can be useful to identify queries that are causing performance problems.  To find the worst queries, use “SELECT TOP 20” instead of all records, and add an ORDER BY statement with one of these:

• ORDER BY total_elapsed_time DESC will find the longest-running queries in total (not the average runtime per query)
• ORDER BY by total_worker_time DESC will find the highest CPU users
• ORDER BY execution_count will find the ones running most frequently

Try clicking on the execution plans to view them.  You can export them to XML by right-clicking anywhere in the white space of the execution plan, and click Save As.  You can save these as .sqlplan files, and bring them with you on the cruise.  In the “Tuning T-SQL Step by Step” session, we’ll walk through execution plans, how to read them, and how to make queries go faster based on what you see in the plan.

Download ClearTrace – this free utility from Bill Graziano helps make sense of trace files.  It’s like a slice-and-dice reporting engine for your Profiler results.  If you’re bringing a laptop on board, try running a trace on your challenging servers at the office.  Take the trace files, put them on your laptop, and during “Tuning T-SQL Step by Step” session, we’ll show you how to use it effectively to find the easiest-to-tune queries.

Alton Brown’s Margarita Recipe and AllRecipe’s Simple Summer Smoothie Recipe – Alton Brown hates unitaskers: things that only serve one purpose in the kitchen. His margarita recipe calls for agave nectar, something that might sound at first like a unitasker, but it serves as an excellent replacement for the honey in smoothie recipes. Agave nectar: it’s not just for margaritas anymore.

8 Steps to Better Transaction Log Throughput – Kimberly Tripp explains how to configure your log files to make your database run faster.  In our “Trouble with a Capital T: Terabyte Databases” session, we’ll talk about why this is important to master long before your database hits terabyte scale, and why it usually pops up whenever you take over a big database for the first time.  If you need help sizing your logs, check out Paul Randal’s article on transaction log sizes.

CruiseCritic – this active site boasts all kinds of tips and reviews for ships, ports, and excursions.  Take the posts with a grain of salt – some folks can’t even be happy on a cruise ship – but you can find some gems of information in here.

Rock Stars, Normal People, and You – also known as the fall and rise of Brent’s career, this story helps set the background of why Brent’s such a passionate believer in building your own brand and promoting it.  This sets the stage for our opening session, “Why We’re Here.”

How to Start a Technical Blog – in the session “What I Wish I Would Have Known When I Started,” we’ll talk about what we’ve learned along the way, building our blogs and our businesses.  When we’ve got you fired up about writing regularly, this post will help you get the infrastructure in place.

How to Make Cuban Coffee – on Sunday before the ship departs, cruisers are welcome to join me as I tour through my old neighborhood, South Beach.  We’ll do breakfast at the Van Dyk Cafe, then pick up some Cuban coffee from David’s Cafe before a morning of shopping, strolling, and sightseeing.  Before you partake, you might want to know what you’re drinking – it’s good stuff, but you certainly don’t want too much of it:

Just three working Fridays left – you’re not working on 7/31 right before SQLSaturday, are you?

Carnival has dropped the prices for our cruise!  Rooms are now going for just $369 per person.

It doesn’t get much cheaper than this, folks.  Now is the perfect time to book one of the four remaining spots on SQLCruise.  You can take advantage of cheap airfare discounts because the cruise is still more than 2 weeks away, yet you get last-minute pricing for the cruise.  If you’ve been on the fence about whether you should book, go for it.  You won’t get another chance!

Check out the training schedule, your fellow cruisers, the trainers, and when you’re ready, take the plunge!  Book your room on Carnival and then register with us.  You don’t even have to pay for it all immediately – Carnival accepts a deposit to hold your room.  Make an investment in your skills, and on the cruise, we’ll show you what you need to know to take your career to the next level.

Update – US citizens don’t need a passport. Carnival’s cruise documentation page says you can use a passport, an original (or certified) birth certificate, an Enhanced Driver’s License, or other forms of documentation.  When cruising, you don’t have to present a passport to get on & off the boat.  You’ll be given an ID card when you check into the cruise, and that card acts as your room key, charge card (on the boat), and your ID to get on & off the boat.  You can leave your passport or birth certificate in the room safe.  Passports can take weeks to get, so this makes last-minute cruises much easier to handle.

Update 7/1 – We’re down to just two spots left! Crystal Manson and Kendra Little signed up, taking 2 of the 4 remaining spots.  Time’s running out…

Update 7/2 – Just one spot left! Wayne Starnes of BT-Integrators.com signed up.  Will you be the last person to board?

Update 7/2 – SOLD OUT!

Tim Ford wrote about why we’re doing SQLCruise in his latest tip at MSSQLTips.  Here’s a quote:

Both Brent and I are believers that you learn just as much, if not more, from those who you spend time with during conferences as you do in the conferences themselves.  We felt the camaraderie between attendees could be enhanced by locating the training sessions on a cruise ship or a resort where you would find yourself spending more time with your fellow students.  We also felt that it was important to keep class size low and expand the session length to allow for personalization in the presentations and to allow for plenty of questions!  Furthermore we’ll be hanging out at the pool and in the bar with the students and the Q&A will be able to follow us to those non-standard training venues as well.

You can read the full post here.