StraightPath Solutions SQL Blog

Seacoast SQL Server Users?

Mike Walsh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:19:54 +0000

Live in NH, Maine or Northern Mass?

I have been toying with the idea in the back of my head to get a user group setup for SQL Server folks a little closer to home. I love the New England SQL Server users group (NESQL) that Adam Machanic (twitter,blog) runs. I have been to several meetings and the speaker list blows you away. The quality is great and one of the sponsors has recently become a vendor at my company because of their sponsorship (they have a product that fits and exact need at my full time job and they were sponsoring on a night when I was dealing with trouble with that area... had them come up to do a demo and we were hooked, working out great.. see sponsorship does work both ways... I am sure our account covered their pizza costs and them some.. but I digress, surprised?) and the availability of Microsoft folks is handy.

It's just a 1.5 hour drive from work and then a 1.75 hour drive home with no traffic. So, I have been thinking of trying to get something going to augment those meetings up this way. Perhaps alternate meetings between Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME each month.

Please comment below if you live in the Seacoast of NH, ME, northern MA (Peabody North on 95, northern end of 495.. Looking to meet in Portsmouth, NH) and you would be interested in attending, speaking or helping run a users group. I am putting this feeler out to see what kind of interest there is.

A few more thoughts to chew on:

Not Competition

There is NESQL in Waltham that meets regularly. There is the NH SQL Server Users group in Nashua that also meets regularly. I am not looking to compete with these events and will do whatever is in my power to not schedule conflicts. I will still likely go to a fair amount of the NESQL meetings and want you to have the ability to also.

If the community up this way between the Portsmouth, Concord, perhaps Manchester, Newburyport/Peabody/etc in MA is large enough to get meetings together, then I think doing this is a no-brainer. The drive from Portland to Waltham or Nashua is brutal on a Thursday night.

If it becomes too much or a competition point, I just don't want to do it. Why disrupt things at a great, active local user community?

Inspiration

I have been thinking of this for awhile but simply thinking of it. Never acting. Some talks with Andy Leonard (Twitter, Blog) had me thinking. Then seeing his presentation at the SQL PASS Conference on user groups and how he successfully setup and runs several user groups in his area (web) had me thinking, I can do this. I asked a question about distance in the class, my paranoia and fear is disrupting a great community and the consensus in the room seemed to indicate the location spread is far more than enough to think about another user group. Thanks, Andy, for the pep talk.

I'm not going to do this by myself

I know a few other active SQL Serverites in the area and I will be reaching out to them. I also know of a great consulting firm in the area I have done some side work for. I may reach out to them about some help/advice/sponsorship. I don't want to make this a "Mike Walsh Users Group", in fact I just bought a domain for "SeacoastSQL" (.com/.org).. I want this to be about a community of SQL Server users growing together, helping new users, nurturing new speakers (which I hope to become in 2010) and helping local companies by improving the quality of the SQL Server workforce.

As such, I don't want to formulate a group around me and on my own. I would like to look at setting up a business entity of some sort with a small board and have a passionate community help grow it. If it is grown by more than one person some event in my life or career won't kill the entire initiative.

Send a comment here, send me a note from the contact us page and let me know if you want to help out.

Balance Speakers

I want to get some good speakers come up here. That means we need to have a budget for it and I am prepared to reach out to sponsors once we form the right entity, or perhaps as we form the right entity. I want experienced folks who have spoken, wrote books, and know their stuff.

I also want to encourage folks who are thinking about speaking but too afraid to submit an abstract to get up and speak. The audiences at these user groups range in experience and even a guru should be watching a presentation to see what new approach or insight they can glean. I want you to speak. If you live in the area and have been doing something with SQL then you probably have a topic to talk about. Let me know.

When?

I am a busy guy. The when depends on who helps me, what kind of experience we have finding sponsors, becoming affiliated with a Microsoft and/or PASS type of organization and what sort of speaking schedule we can get. It also depends on what kind of feedback I get from friends, colleagues and their networks. I am hoping sometime in 2010, Q1/Q2.

That's it. Consider this your early warning and a request for a quick bit of feedback (can't do polls with this blogging setup, at least I haven't yet figured it out) in e-mail, comments or on twitter (mike_walsh). If the interest dies down, the group dies down. If there is enough interest (at least ~10/12 people to start talking) then this will get off the ground.

I hope to hear from you and in the meantime, if you want to carpool down to Waltham's meetings each month (second Thursday of each month) from Portsmouth or a park and ride between Portsmouth and Waltham. Let me know. I would love to help someone get down to a meeting that has never been. You get a LOT and it's free (even get pizza ;-) )

Christians at Pass Update (#passprayer)

Mike Walsh — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:54:19 +0000

Last week I posted about getting together with other Christians while at the PASS Summit this year. We have a good core group formed and we will be meeting throughout the conference.

I was originally planning on being there for Sunday evening but there was a death in my wife's side of the family (her grandfather). It was expected as he was in hospice care after a long battle with cancer and COPD. He knows the Lord so while we mourn his passing, I am excited for him at all the sights He is seeing now. The funeral is Monday morning, and I will still be going to PASS, I will just miss Monday's events. I will be arriving at the Sheraton sometime around midnight Monday. So no meetings with me on Sunday or Monday but I hope folks get together bonded by a common faith on those days still.

Two "Tracks"

There are two purposes to the Christian meetups at PASS. I wanted to talk about them both briefly

Track One: Prayer and Fellowship

One is the initiative I was talking about with some SQL Tweeps who I knew to be Christians. (I won't name names, I am sure they are alright being named but that is up to them to do in the comments ;-) ). This is what I highlighted in my other post.

This will be a time for Christians (I described a definition for this on the other post as well) to get together and share prayer needs. Lift up the summit and attendees in prayer. Open the Word of God and read some passages and have some informal ad-hoc (not the bad kind of ad hoc involving horrible queries run amock) discussions about what we read.

When?

Throughout the Summit. I am now not arriving until Monday night but starting each Tuesday morning I will be in the lobby at the Sheraton Seattle with my Bible and some Tea (I hear there is a coffee shop built in to the Sheraton, I'll try and stay near there). I will try and be there between 5:45-6:30 each morning (though Tuesday I may leave a bit early to register and not wait in lines).

There will also be informal meetups as we bump into each other but if you are around, want some fellowship, and to hang out with another one of us Bible believing types send a tweet out with the hashtag #passprayer. I will be looking at that link. Or add a comment here/shoot me an e-mail (mike at this blogs domain).

I believe I was invited to a few vendor get togethers and I will likely make an appearance at some of those but if you are looking for something to do, fellowship tops passing out my new moo cards, I'd rather spend time with you and the Lord.

I might even try and sneak over to Mars Hill church while there if I can find it and make it work.

Why

Why not? I love working with SQL Server and am incredibly excited to meet other SQL Server tweeps, SQL Server MVPS (at the BoF lunch will be a good spot for that) and mingle with industry experts. I am excited for the sessions, the chalk talks and spending time listening in on questions people have at the Ask The Expert areas.

Even still, my identity comes from who I am in Christ - a part of God's creation, uniquely formed in my mothers womb by a loving Creator. One who doesn't deserve the glory of Heaven but will receive it because God loved me first and proved by sending Christ to pay for my sins.

Just because I am away at a conference doesn't mean I can't hang out with other people who believe likewise. I'll have fun with all people from all walks of life and all faiths at the sessions, events and mingling in the halls. I'll really enjoy meeting you during #sqlbingo (I'm a square!) regardless of what you believe. That being said, I am excited to meet brothers and sisters in Christ in a few days.

Track Two: A Great Idea

Brian Moran reached out to me at the same time I was thinking of the first "track" above. His note explaining his idea is below. We will be stealing some space at the breakfast hall Tuesday morning and Lunch Hall Wednesday during lunch hour. This is not sanctioned or endorsed by PASS, we are just going to be talking about this at the tables we all sit at during the public meals.

I'll let Brian explain his own idea with notes from an e-mail thread about it with him:

<Brian Moran>

Concept:

"You're a subject matter expert, a community leader, an expert. You're a technical evangelist. You know how to save the lost and convert them to your chosen technology. You’re also a Believer. Jesus has an instant ROI, the best SLA’s in the business, and offers an infinite number of 9’s of availability. Can you use your existing evangelism skills to save a few souls for Christ?"

Why:

I was at a men's retreat with my church a month or so ago. The speaker served in the mission field; specifically in predominantly Muslim countries. The man was bold in his faith. I've been a Christian for 16 years and have never been bold in sharing my faith. Frankly, I've had little if any fruit in my life until recently. During the men’s retreat I felt convicted in my lack of evangelism. But it occurred to me that I’m actually very good at evangelism. I’ve been doing it in the SQL Server space for 15 years. I was persecuted and laughed at by my friends in the Unix space back in the old days so I’m even used to suffering from my evangelism efforts. :)

It occurred to me that if I had technical evangelism skills that could be used in better ways; perhaps other people did as well. My guess is that if we play a technical evangelist version of ‘7 degrees of Kevin Bacon’ that the top SQL Server TE’s in the world can probably touch the top TE’s in every major technology niche around the world. Could God use hundreds of influential technology and business leaders becoming more bold in their efforts to share their belief in Him? Probably

I spoke to a few people and there seemed to be some interested in exploring this concept further at PASS. I don’t anticipate this being any sort of formal ministry. We won’t need staff and donations. We don’t need radio shows, but let’s keep the door open on podcasts. We’re technologists after all. J

I really don’t know what this idea might lead to, or even if it’s an effort that God wants us to pursue. Please consider joining us for a time of prayer and discussion to explore how and if God wants to use this concept.

Where and when

We’ll be meeting during PASS. We’ll have two sessions. Breakfast on Tue. Lunch on Wed. You don’t need to attend both. Exact times TBD. We’ll meet in the PASS meal area. I’ll update the invites with specific time/location info as that is set. Please feel free to invite anyone else that you think may be interested. I’ll add them to the appointment if they contact me directly so that they can get updates to the appointment as they are made.

</Brian Moran>

Current times: (Tuesday AM 7-8 for Breakfast and Wednesday Lunch 12:15-1:15)

So I hope to bump into you at PASS for any reason. If you are interested in either (or both) of these tracks send me an e-mail and I'll get you added to the e-mail thread. Or simply comment here and I'll reach out to you. As always you can find me on twitter.

Christians at SQLPASS Summit

Mike Walsh — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:23:41 +0000

From time to time, I blog about my faith here. I am really moving those posts over to my site where I talk about my faith, thoughts on liberty and other personal topics, A Believing Patriot. From time to time I will cross post here and since this post has to do with my SQL life and my Christian life (really, everything has to do with the latter, or it should at least) it makes sense to post here. As always, read on if you like, I won't be offended if you choose not to and I hope you give me that same courtesy.

Away from home != Away from God

We jump on a plane, spend some time enjoying the company of some great people from the SQL Server community. We learn in sessions, learn through listening to chalk talks and questions in the pavilions and Ask The Experts lounge. We can even go to a vendor/community gathering or two and enjoy the company and networking with some great SQL Server resources.

But... As a Christian, I don't want to leave my faith behind this year. I don't want to let my witness lapse, let my time of fellowship lapse. I want to have the best time I've ever had at SQL PASS. That means I want to absorb as much knowledge, networking, socialization and fun as ever. But... In order to have the most fun as I've ever had, I long to spend some time with other Christians. With other people who are not only part of a SQL Server community but part of the body of believers, the family with Christ at the head.

So I will be going with my Bible (always travel for one: makes for good reading on the plane, good conversation starter at times and spending time with the Lord helps set the tone for each day), my knees (alright, a metaphor.. I pray standing,sitting and sometimes lying down.. never really kneeling) and a desire to hang out with other believers.

>= Bible & Prayer

(in number, not importance :-) )

As I was thinking about this, I was talking to some other people in the SQL community that I knew, or suspected, to be Christians. Why don't we try and get together at PASS was the conclusion we came to together. So we started looking for places to meet to organize a prayer breakfast or get together. A few ideas of where to meet were shot down and we started deciding to sort of wing our meeting location or at least kept putting off finding the official location. We are mostly all going to have our Bibles and we'll likely all be praying but now we will get to meet and worship together.

So having my Bible and Prayer is great but adding to it fellowship is even better. Glad the others agree.

Where Location IS NULL

So we don't have a location at this time. I am going to check with the hotel I am at (Sheraton), look for a church downtown or some other location. Worse case scenario has us just meeting in a hotel lobby, someone's hotel room, a corner (unofficially and not sponsored by PASS) of a lunch or breakfast room, etc.

Once we have a location I will either send out some tweets #passprayer, update this blog or send you an e-mail (add a comment below or send me an e-mail)

GROUP BY

We already have a handful of people interested and I believe that number will grow based on some comments from others. If you are interested in having some time of fellowship, a time to remember Christ while at a conference and a time to pray for those at the Summit then contact me and I will add you to our e-mail list.

CROSS JOIN

A really neat thing happened earlier this week. A praise-worthy event. As I was busy on other priorities, this kept falling lower on my radar. Well it was clearly high on God's radar still. I received an e-mail from someone I definitely knew from SQL Community (one of the gurus out there who really knows SQL and PASS). He was given my name by someone else in the community who knew I was a Christian. This guy was looking to find other Christians to get together with at PASS and beyond to focus on Christ together while at the conference and beyond. It was a great e-mail to read, it had a personal story and testimony from this person and I could see his heart was reaching out to do the Lord's work while staying strong in SQL.. Combining the two.. A Cartesian product of sorts :-)

I eagerly replied and am really looking forward to meeting him and those he was reaching out to. Not because they are geniuses in the SQL field (though some are :) ) but because they are people who are my brothers and perhaps sisters in Christ. They are people who I will get to spend all of eternity with, great to get to know some of them down here. They understand my work field as well which is great. We can discuss Scripture through SQL Server illustrations and work horror stories ;-) and combine our love for SQL Server and our love for Christ. Exciting indeed.

Execution Plan

We haven't built an official structure to our get togethers. I see them as times of prayer, Bible Study and devotion. There are no rules and this isn't some exclusive club. I can't speak for everyone that I have talked to but we seem to agree on some basics... Anyone is welcome to join us, we aren't looking to have a time of debating denominations, politics, etc. If you are a Christian or want to know more about what that means and meet some folks who are, you are welcome to join us.

I will say what I mean by Christian in a moment and I hope this helps set the tone and focus of these get togethers. I am one who believes in a Christ-Centered, Biblical Christianity, while anyone is welcome I hope to keep this focus in mind.

I have mentioned this in a few of my posts that are in the Bible category. I'll be brief here, I define Christian as meaning:

I have realized and admitted I am a sinner, that I fall far short of the glory of God and His perfect will. It means I admit that I deserve what the Bible says the wages of my sin is: death (hell, separation from God's love eternally). It means that I believe that Jesus Christ's death on the cross exemplified God's love to me (John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."). It means that I realize that I can't meet the standard of Heaven and fellowship with God (Perfection is the only standard a holy and just God could demand, anything else would make Him a liar and no longer perfect in his nature and attributes). It means I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, He went there on my behalf, in fact He went there on behalf of anyone who puts their trust in Him. Doesn't matter what sins you have committed, it doesn't matter how far you think you are from God. The relationship with Christ has nothing to do with your actions but everything to do with his action when we died for you. Finally, it means I have applied His sacrifice to my life and trust Him and Him alone for my salvation and my eternity.

There are many benefits, many answers to prayer and countless testimonies to share with you but that is what it means to me to be a Christian. To be a follower of Christ and one whose sins are "covered" by His blood. I can have daily fellowship and closeness to the creator of this world and I will spend the rest of forever in a close relationship with Him.

It means I have received the gift of one of the most beautiful words in the dictionary: grace (unmerited favor)

Interested in meeting, talking, praying and having fun with us? Shoot me a note, send me a tweet. I really look forward to meeting you and please know that we'll be praying for a great Summit this year for all attendees, regardless of faith or walk of life. I would love to be able to share my personal story with you and open a Bible with you. I am not going to push this on you, if you find me because of SQL Bingo, we'll talk SQL and fun Summit stuff. If you ask about my faith, I'll tell you. If you don't want to hear about it, well I can't promise it won't slip out but I'll respect your wishes and still have a great time getting to know you.

-mike

My Name is Mike, and I am a Square.

Mike Walsh — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:08:18 +0000

"Hi, Mike!"

That's right. The first step is admitting I am a have a problem. I'm a square. Someone tells a joke, the crowd is laughing hysterically.. I wait a few (too many) beats and add mine. They aren't...

oh wait! Not that kind of square.. (though the verdict is still out on the other kind... :) )

Bingo!

So this was a fun week for me in the way of SQL Server "props." I had two kind of neat things happen, First one of my SQLServerPedia articles on shrinking was apparently included in a "Best of SQLServerPedia" magazine like publication along with 7 other excellent articles. That was a total shock when I opened my mailbox the other day and had a few copies with a note saying "thanks for being a part of this publication".

Then I had my first "webcast" (it was a panel discussion with voice and powerpoint only) played as part of Quest Connect 2009 (I was a cohost to 3 excellent SQL gurus, learned a lot from hearing them speak!).

Then I replied to a tweet about SQL Bingo by Stuart Ainsworth (Blog/Twiitter) and next thing I know I am told space was available. Now everyone at PASS can go looking for me so they can win prizes and chat with me. PASS excitement is building for many reasons (hope to post one more blog entry on another exciting happening later this week or early next)

I will be posting my whereabouts with the official twitter hashtag #sqlbingo so I hope you look for me, get my pass phrase and then you can say, "I met that square guy Mike."

Hope to see you there!

Like I have said on my other PASS Summit related posts the past couple weeks, I really look forward to meeting you at the Summit this year. Whether you want to meet me to say hi and talk SQL, Christianity, Chicken Raising, firefighting (though I am no longer a volunteer, I still love to meet others who do and share war stories) or you just want to win extra swag from Quest via the SQLServerPedia Bingo game, that is fine. I still would love to chat with you, talk shop, talk about your family, talk about my faith, talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.

This Bingo game should be fun and there are some really cool SQL Server people (well, I should say tweeple?) on the card. Hope I can help someone make that days Bingo shape!

Stuart has the rules and information on the game at his blog here.

Visiting from the Quest Connect Presentation?

Mike Walsh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:02:01 +0000

Hello and welcome to Mike's blog. If you are here visiting from the Quest Connect Presentation, please be sure to check out my blog post that contains resources based on the topic, links to the twitter handles of all those on the round table as well as some links to a white paper on I/O best practices and some resources here on this blog that may be of interest, especially to a DBA just starting out.

"Free SQL Training Online - Wednesday 10/21/09"

PASS Summit Birds of a Feather Lunch - Topics!

Mike Walsh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:39:29 +0000

Update (10-21): Glenn Allen Berry just blogged about this and he mentioned something I forgot to tell you: at least one of the MVPs asked if they could give away a copy or two of their book. I don't know if any one else will but one more reason to show up and find out. Though even without the books this is really an awesome way to meet other SQL Server people. Put some faces to names and get some twitter handles and e-mail addresses! "UNITE"

Topics are Finalized

Last week, I introduced the concept of this lunch to you when posting, "Eat Lunch with the MVPs", well the back and forth with a handful of MVPs and the good (and patient!) folks at PASS HQ is just about done. We have our list of topics for tables!!

Recap

This is a lunch where the attendees can select a table of a topic that interests them. There will be an MVP (and I believe some tables will be staffed by a member of the SQL CAT team) at each table with 9 empty chairs. Pick a topic, get to lunch on time and get to your table. There will be conversation about the topic at the table, a chance to meet others with the same interest, exchange business cards, maybe play some twitter bingo and have a good time.

When I first went to PASS in 2006, the first lunch was a bit awkward at first. I didn't know anyone, sat a table with some guy named Ward Pond (Blog, Twitter) and had a fun conversation. Worked out well but I was nervous (yeah, I'll admit it) leading up to that conversation. This may help end some of those jitters and help build our great community at the same time.

This is not my idea. This is a GREAT idea and I applaud those who thought it up at PASS. I can't take the credit, wish I could. Some folks had replied to me from last weeks post and on the coordination e-mails thanking me for thinking this up or coordinating it. I just saw a call for volunteers put out by Blythe Morrow (Twitter) who works for PASS and answered the call saying, "put me anywhere." She asked me to help chase people down, go back and forth about topics and report back when done. That's all I did, the hard part is being done by the people at PASS who work so hard to put this all on. Thank them when you see them!

Remember pick your tables early! Tom LaRock asked me what we were doing for security if any tables got overcrowded. I feared rowdy fans or stampedes. I first thought maybe we could contact a Motorcycle Club to handle security, but then I remembered the stories I heard about Altamont... I think we can use the honor system.

Let's keep our table selection clean, eh?

Enough already.. What are the topics??

Oh.. Yeah. The topics. These may not be final with any last minute tweaks. That being said the topics we have for now (we are all filled up with topics, by the way, great response from the MVPs. There were some others who were unable to make it but are standing by in case we have transportation issues)

32Bit/64Bit - What's the difference?	Jonathan	Kehayias
Agile Development in BI	John	Welch
App Dev Smackdown	Adam	Machanic
Change Data Capture	Pinal	Dave
Chow down on corruption	Paul	Randal
Common T-SQL Programming Mistakes	Plamen	Ratchev
Data Mining	Dejan	Sarka
Data Warehousing Concepts	James	Rowland-Jones
Database Mirroring	Glenn	Berry
DBA Best Practices	Satya	Jayanty
DBA Dashboards	Greg	Larsen
DBA/Developer Team Development	Grant	Fritchey
Don't be afraid of XML!	Jacob	Sebastian
Dynamic Management Views	Jason	Strate
Erland on Error Handling and Dynamic SQL	Erland	Sommarskog
Full Text Search and File Stream	Robert	Cain
Gemini's impact on SSAS/Data Warehouse projects	Vidas	Matelis
Getting Started with T-SQL	Kathi	Kellenberger
Got Query Plan Reuse? Is it good?	Andrew	Kelly
Failover Clustering	Christian	Bolton
High Availability with Log Shipping	Edwin	Sarmiento
High Availability in Virtualized Environments	Allan	Hirt
High Availability in Virtualized Environments	Ross	Mistry
Is Business Intelligence an Oxymoron?	Jessica	Moss
IT Consulting - Notes from the field	Joe	Webb
Key Performance Indicators -Monitoring Your Business	Andrew	Karcher
Kimberly Tripp Covers Indexes (and lunch)	Kimberly	Tripp
Location Based BI With SQL Server 2008	Deepak	Puri
Moving from Technologist to Manager	Kevin	Kline
Multi Server Management	Chuck	Heinzelman
Multiply Yourself with Central Management Servers	Ken	Simmons
Performance Analysis/Tuning	Kevin	Boles
Performance Tuning Analysis Services	Chris	Webb
Policy-Based Management	Geoff	Hiten
Powershell in SQL Server	Sean	McCown
What Is Professional Development for a SQL Professional?	Arnie	Rowland
Relational Database Design	Louis	Davidson
Security	Kenneth	Kelley
Social Networking: Geek DBA to Butterfly	Jason	Massie
SQL Azure	Eduardo	Castro
SQL Server Compact - The little database that could	Erik	Jensen
SQL Server Consolidation	Peter	Ward
SQL Server Reporting Services	Andrea	Benedetti
SQL Server Reporting Services on Analysis Services	Grant	Paisley
SSAS Calculation Measure Groups at Different Grains	Greg	Galloway
SSIS Scripts & Custom Objects	Todd	McDermid
Starting up your own MicroISV business	Paul	Nielsen
Storage Best Practices	Denny	Cherry
Table Partitioning	Dan	Guzman
Thinking in MDX	Tomislav	Piasevoli
Troubleshooting SSIS (even the oddball issues)	Andy	Leonard
Understanding Execution Plans	Gail	Shaw
Virtualization (cohosted)	John Paul	Cook
Virtualization (cohosted)	Charley	Hanania
Visual Studio Database edition & TFS: How are you using them?	Rafael	Salas
Why and How to Participate in the SQL Server Community	Andy	Warren

See You There!

I look forward to seeing you at PASS. I will probably blog once more about a couple things I plan on doing there and I think I may have made it onto the Twitter Bingo card, so I hope you look for me and catch my "passphrase". Check out the scheduling tool setup for the Summit. Help plan your itinerary, I believe this lunch will be making it in there, if it hasn't already: http://www.softconference.com/pass/ScheduleBuilder.asp

How to use SP_CONFIGURE in SQL Server

Mike Walsh — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Seriously? A Blog post about SP_CONFIGURE?

I was in a Kalen Delaney's SQL Internals class (Blog) last week. It was a great class and I learned a lot of great stuff. One thing I learned was very simple yet it was really big to me... A tip about sp_configure that she didn't even teach as a tip, just used it and thought it was common knowledge (was to a lot of people in the room but not me).

That got me thinking about writing a post about SP_CONFIGURE. What it is, what it does and what that tip is. So... Read on if you wish.

What is SP_CONFIGURE?

Simply put - it's a tool to display and change SQL Server settings. It seems to me that a lot of reluctant and newer DBAs are well versed in the GUI based configuration options but not always changing them through a query (or even viewing them). Not all options are changed through a GUI, some are only changeable through sp_configure.

How do I use SP_CONFIGURE?

Well it depends on what you are trying to do....

View Settings

Take a look at your SQL Settings? Open a query window and just type and run sp_configure; you'll likely get a partial list of settings. To see them all you have to enable an option called 'Show Advanced Options'

Change Settings

Be careful.. Changing settings affects your instance, a lack of understanding of a result could dramatically affect your instance, performance, availability, etc. Look up a setting in books online and understand it first! This post is not about the settings, it is about the tool used to change the settings. Books Online is a great, free, resource when you have SQL Server installed, you can also get Books Online on the web (2005,2008). No excuses here about making a setting change without understanding it and testing it (Remember, I like to see empirical evidence before trying something)

Alright, now that my conscience is clear. You use sp_configure to change settings as well. You simply type sp_configure 'setting name' (*) followed by the value. Execute that and you either have to restart the instance (if the option is not dynamic - able to be changed on the fly while the instance is running) or execute the statement "RECONFIGURE" if the setting is dynamic.

For example - if you wanted to show advanced options you would have to type: sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1 GO reconfigure GO

Then when you run sp_configure again, you will see all of the available options.

* The Tip I learned from Kalen

You don't have to type the entire option text in! At least on in SQL Server 2005 and above. I never knew this. It's right there in books online but I never went there for sp_configure because I've been using it all this time. So maybe this isn't as exciting to you as it is me. I mean you can copy and paste the value. Perhaps you don't mix up your L's when typing Parallelism (see... I had to pause while typing it...) but I do. You just have to type in an unambiguous portion of the text.. Try it.. Don't make a change but run: sp_configure 'degree' and you will see the setting for max degree of parallelism. This is great! (Update: While spell checking my post, I realized that even though I typed parallelism slowly each time I spelled it, I got it wrong still... I'm a fool.)

What are the output columns of sp_configure?

Pretty self explanatory but:

name - The name of the value to be changed, again you can look up the definition for these values in books online.

minimum - The minimum value setting that is allowed

maximum - Yea, the maximum value that is allowed

config_value - What value is currently configured?

run_value - What value is currently running? Difference between this and above? You make a change but don't restart or run reconfigure: The config_value and run_value will be different until that reconfigure (if dynamic) or restart.

SYS.CONFIGURATIONS

The view only twin of sp_configure. You can select from this catalog view to see configuration options. No changing of settings necessary to see all options here since you can't change them, it is a way to view your options and you can filter with a where clause.

This catalog view has several columns, the ones that are an exact match to a column in sp_configure will be ignored but the rest:

configuration_id - Just an internal ID of the configuration setting. Good for trivia? I don't use it for anything...

value - same as config_value above

vale_in_use - (see that is why I said Seriously? A blog post on sp_configure?) obviously the twin of run_value above.

description - nice. A little less cryptic then the name column here or in sp_configure. I was going to say it might save you a trip to books online but if you didn't know what it meant before reading a couple more words, you should still visit books online and understand the setting.

is_dynamic - This very helpful tells you if a value is dynamic or not. Next time your manager asks you, "Does changing the max memory in SQL Server require a reboot?" you can rlook here and see the dynamic flag of 1 meaning, yes it's dynamic so "no boss, we can change it on the fly."

is_advanced - Like the above, ever wonder if you have to change the show advanced option to display a value? Well you can find out here. It's a flag, 1 is yes, 0 is no, like the is_dynamic flag.

But SP_CONFIGURE flushes the procedure cache!

No, it doesn't. At least not in SQL 2005 and above. I don't have access to SQL 2000 to verify that, but I believe it doesn't there either. Something some people still say that used to be true in 6.5 and below (maybe 7.0 also, and possibly 2000 but I am pretty sure not.. test and see.. test and see..)

There, I gave you a few other basic knowledge items around sp_configure all to justify my shock, awe and desire to tell everyone that you don't have to type the entire configuration name into sp_configure! Whoever said it's the simple things in life had me in mind...

Lesson learned: Visit books online on occassion. Even if you think you know it all and it is a simple feature. Always something new to learn.

Also Check Out

I have posted some other tips and tricks of items I wish I knew when starting out or earlier in my career. Some are technical how-to's, some are DBA career related.

Advice to beginning DBAs wondering, "Where do I start?!?!"
Shrinking - several posts on the topic.
Troubleshooting Methodology Woes (I also wrote an article for SQL Server Central on this topic)
Empirical Evidence
Documentation (or how I learned to stop procrastinating and love tolerate a chore necessary task)
A little Paranoia and Control Freak attitude can help a DBA
Checklists, Recipes and Algorithms - Learning about these great tools from other professions (Pilots, Chefs and Doctors)
How do I find all of my SQL Servers? - Maybe after listening to us you'll want to spend more time with the instances at your network. Check this link out to learn about a tool that I use to find all the SQL Servers in my network.
Questions to ask a software vendor - Working with a new vendor with their own database? Here are some questions I ask them.
Benchmarking... Who needs it? - The answer, I hope you will agree, is everyone. Here I talk about how easy it is to do with tools you already have and a tool you can download free from codeplex.

Free SQL Training Online - Wednesday 10/21/09

Mike Walsh — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:39:18 +0000

Where?

Quest Connect is an online series of webcasts on various topics. Some are pre-recorded (like the session that I did.. more on that later...). They have web casts on a variety of topics, not just SQL. You can look at the on demand topic listing here to see all the chats that will be available on demand. There will also be several live web casts with Q&A, etc. You can see those here.

What?

Live SQL Webcast Monday 10/@10:00AM EDT

There is one Live Webcast with Q&A on SQL Server ("A Sysadmins guide to SQL Server") at 10:00AM EDT. The hosts will be such experts as Brent Ozar (Blog/Twitter), Thomas LaRock (Blog/Twitter) and Tim Ford (Blog/Twitter). This will be great for those reluctant DBAs (you know, you're a server admin or windows admin, you help out on the SAN, you have to manage SQL.. you do it all but you are scared every second).

Pre-recorded sessions (including one with me)

These will be available from 4AM on 10/21 --> 4AM on 10/22 (times are in EDT)

You can see the full catalog of sessions for all subject areas here. The ones specific to SQL Server are:

"Top 10 SQL Server Administration Mistakes" - I'll talk in more depth about this one below.
"Understanding Execution Plans" - With Grant Frtichey (Blog/Twitter) They aren't that scary. Watch a scary DBA walk you through how easy they can be if you just know what to look for!
"The top 5 things you can do with Litespeed for SQL Server to be a backup and recovery hero" - A title after my own heart: it's long... Quest puts these things on for us for free so it's only natural to have some talks about how their products can help. Litespeed is a great tool (not paid to say it, don't use it currently but have in other environments). Learn about this great backup tool and I am sure that Brent will give some good backup/recovery advice at the same time. Brent Ozar and Jason Hall will present this one.

Why did they ask me to help?

I guess I've blogged about a few worst practices (Shrinking anyone?, Shoot From the hip much anyone?) so I was asked to help participate in the "Top 10 SQL Server Administration Mistakes" chat. This was a fun recording and is a great conversation with a few folks much smarter than me - Kevin Kline (Blog/Twitter), Colin Stasiuk (Blog/Twitter) and Jason Strate (Blog/Twitter) and myself about mistakes we have done, seen and had to help fix in our careers.

We'll walk through a PowerPoint of 10 mistakes that DBAs often make when working with SQL Server. They range from issues like considering disk options based on space needs only, shoddy troubleshooting, not embracing change control (maybe embrace is too strong a word :) ) to bad thinking with backup and recovery.

It was an informative talk, I learned a few things on the talk myself and you'll even hear an epiphany moment where three of us picked up a great tip around change control/rollback steps. A real "Why didn't I think of that..." moment.

I hope you register for Quest Connect and check out all of the videos and I hope you check out the conversation that Kevin, Colin, Jason and myself had around DBA "stuff", might help you out, might start a conversation.

Resources for the presentation I was a part of:

First of all: Comments. If you have any questions on the parts of the conversation I was in, you can hit me up on twitter but I don't get there much on most weekdays. Leave a comment on this post if it is a question that others might benefit from or add insight into. Send me an e-mail if you want to talk out of the comment thread instead.

I hope you check out the blogs of all of those who participated, I gave links above. You can also go to SQLServerPedia where all of our blogs are syndicated and search blogs and SQL wiki articles on a topic you want to know more on.

If I remember correctly, I mentioned the SQL Server 2000 I/O Best Practices document. It is not 100% applicable to 2005/2008 but the basic concepts largely remain true and this is a good resource.But instead of linking you there, check out this document from Microsoft which is more recent and it references that SQL 2000 document as a resource at the bottom.

I also suggest visiting the SQLCAT team website with their best practices, great resource. If you don't own the Inside SQL Server 2005 series, you should. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals is also a great resource. These books go into a lot more depth on a lot of the areas we talked about.

There are also some blog topics on my blog that are related to what we talked about:

Advice to beginning DBAs wondering, "Where do I start?!?!"
Shrinking - several posts on the topic.
Troubleshooting Methodology Woes (I also wrote an article for SQL Server Central on this topic)
Empirical Evidence
Documentation (or how I learned to stop procrastinating and love tolerate a chore necessary task)
A little Paranoia and Control Freak attitude can help a DBA
Checklists, Recipes and Algorithms - Learning about these great tools from other professions (Pilots, Chefs and Doctors)
How do I find all of my SQL Servers? - Maybe after listening to us you'll want to spend more time with the instances at your network. Check this link out to learn about a tool that I use to find all the SQL Servers in my network.
Questions to ask a software vendor - Working with a new vendor with their own database? Here are some questions I ask them.

Thanks for listening, thanks for stopping by to check out the blog. I hope you visit the other guy's sites also. Lots of information and like I said, SQLServerPedia is a great place to find info. There are a lot of great bloggers there. I also have a lot of bloggers I read in my blogroll.

Eat Lunch with the MVPs at PASS

Mike Walsh — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:44:54 +0000

Meet & Eat

In my post last week about where I have been (you know, the one where I promised I would be blogging more), I mentioned that I was helping PASS on a volunteer opportunity. It's a pretty neat chance for folks to network, learn and watch how different people eat.

Birds of a Feather

The last time I went to a PASS Summit was 2006 and I don't get to other conferences in general. I guess a new trend is "Birds of a Feather" sessions/lunches. The concept is good: give people a chance to coalesce around a common topic. Conversations will flow, business cards will fly, mouths will move (sometimes in between bites) and perhaps friendships and partnerships will form.

This year, I believe SQL PASS is organizing two Birds of a Feather lunches. One is for Chapter Leaders - each of the chapter leaders at PASS (worldwide, the SQL Server community is global after all) will sit at a table and people going to lunch can sit in an area they want to learn more about or are from.

MVP Lunch

The SQL Community that eats together works together?

The lunch I am helping with is the MVP Birds of a Feather (BOF) lunch.

Most of us already know that the SQL Server MVP community is huge and comprised of folks who really enjoy sharing their knowledge, helping others grow and lately folks who really enjoy Bacon. (note to self: suggest to PASS Operations team that Bacon be on the lunch menu for this one)

This MVP BOF lunch is going to be the first full day of the Summit (Tuesday). There will be several tables each with their own MVP "Host".

I have been reaching out to MVPs over the past couple weeks asking them if they are interested and what topics they may like to talk about (many more contacts going out this week, certain order to the madness...)

There will be 9 empty seats at each of these tables waiting for you and I to sit at.

The goals are two-fold:

Meet some people who have expertise in an area. The MVPs are picking topics they know about and will give a quick little 5-10 minute chat on the area. Want to learn about a new area? Want to hear some insight into pet peeves from the MVP at that table?
Meet other people with similar interest or learn about a new area. One table topic will be around location based BI in SQL Server 2008. I know nothing about that but I sure would like to know more. Find a topic you are interested in and have a seat, eat and learn about a new area. Exchange some business cards and make some new contacts to bump into later at the Summit.

I really hope to see you at the summit! There are still slots open to register for the summit and it is a great time of learning, networking and growing.

If you are planning on going, I really hope to see you at this lunch (I want to meet you but I also don't want you to go hungry for the rest of the day :-) ) It will be fun to meet other people and help put names to faces and increase contact lists for people with similar frustrations.

Disclaimers

I am not the one running the lunch or who thought of the concept .(in fact, I don't know who came up with the concept) I am just helping reach out to the MVPs to coordinate the topics and get the right lists to the right people at PASS. I asked how I could help and Blythe (Twitter) said, how about this???

If you are going, are an MVP and you haven't heard from me yet, sit tight until the early next week. If you still haven't heard from me, shoot me an e-mail from my contact us page.

I am happy to be helping on this though, it sounds like a great opportunity. Seems to be a lot of focus on networking this year at PASS. Need help breaking the ice? Check out this video of a great, short presentation. Hat Tip to Brent Ozar (Twitter, Blog)f or finding and sharing the video link awhile back on one of his weekly link roundups.

Where has Mike been?

Mike Walsh — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:21:10 +0000

I'll never make @SQLRockstar's list like this!

I have been quite busy lately. I haven't followed some of the great advice of Brent Ozar (Blog, Twitter) and his series on blogging tips (especially the part about writing when you have the time). My lack of posts is not because I want to deprive you, the poor lucky reader, of content. Au Contraire! I have a lot to say, I just need to make the time to do it. I will, and I am thinking I will set aside a block of free time to get some posts that are rattling around in my mind out here once I am done with some changes.

Changes? I don't like changes, what do you mean?

I am in the process of learning the ropes with Wordpress through a new site I am working on to get my personal, political and faith based posts on their own blog (A Believing Patriot). Once I am done getting the ropes there, I will be switching from Squarespace (They have been a great adventure in easy to set up sites,blogging but I like the plugins, ease of moving, ease of hosting and price of hosting with a simple Wordpress setup.) to WordPress. That means I need to make sure that all of my link love comes back to the WordPress version and hope that the DNS cutover to the new hosting is perfect and seamless. Look for me to pull the trigger here sometime this month hopefully.

Tell Us, Mike, What have you been doing?

Besides the normal (Church, Family, Work) I have been quite busy with a few pursuits. Unfortunately one of them is not keeping up with my ActiveAugust commitments, it was more of a StableSeptember... Going to the foot doctor next week for some issues I have been having.. Plantar Fasciitis perhaps, been bothering me, also allowed me to rationalize an excuse..

So for any curious minds that may be out there I will share (but only after asking why are you actually curious what I am doing?):

PASS Volunteer Opportunity - I am trying to coordinate and organize some of the behind the scenes stuff with Blythe (Twitter, PASS Website) for the Summit coming up in just ONE MONTH!!! I am playing a role of scheduler, contact person, co-coordinator for some of the events like the Birds of a Feather lunch and Chapter Leaders lunch. Also reaching out to the numerous great MVPs coming to PASS for free but giving their time in return. It is going to be a great year with some great help in the "Ask the Experts" area and some really interesting Birds of a Feather lunch topic suggestions from the MVPs. This is seeming to have a desire to increase the time needs over the coming weeks.
Politics - I have been an armchair quarterback, commentator, etc. in the political world until recently. I have become much more active this year with some groups that are liberty focused (I'll be posting about that journey on the Believing Patriot blog, linked above). I am also actively helping a great candidate in his run for Governor of my state. It is early, he is first to have announced an exploratory bid and I am spending a lot of time with the guts of that campaign. He is a regular guy who I agree with on most issues and he has impressed me thoroughly enough to drag me into politics as this active a participant. So far more hours have been spent helping this than any previous political activities and it's only a month into it.
Chickens, Trees, Here comes Winter - Our chickens are finally laying, change in food, cleaning/caring for the coop getting more involved as their "byproducts" get more pronounced. We are also fooling ourselves that we will be getting more agrarian in our lives. So breaking down the summer garden, prepping it, buying apple and peach trees, blueberries, blackberries and getting them in the ground will be my fun the coming weeks. Fruits of the work expected in the coming years :-)
Last but by no means least: Pease Greeters - Wow. I am blessed to live where I live for a few reasons. Autumn leaves, crisp autumn air, great county fairs, great neighbors, church body on fire for the Lord, close to in-laws who I love and also love the Lord, fun place to be for politics, quick drive to the mountains/fly fishing/ocean, yet still close to Boston. Well one more treat for me is a solemn one: I live in one of the few states that sees special stops for our soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen in Iraq/Afghanistan: For many we are their last stop on US soil before leaving for their theaters by way of Ireland or Germany, etc. For many others we are their first stop on US Soil when returning. An amazing group has been saying, "Welcome", "Goodbye", "Thank you so much", "You are loved", "You are being prayed for" to these troops at any hour of any day when flying through for their refueling/aircraft cleaning layovers. I went on my first greet two days ago. I will be blogging about this at BelievingPatriot.com soon but a quick taste: It was awe inspiring. Seeing the number of people out at any hour saying hi and cheering for them was great. Seeing the reaction of the surprised troops was inspiring. Listening to the pre-flight ceremony put on by the founders (mostly former Marine combat vets from many wars/conflicts) for the soldiers was breathtaking and singing the national anthem with these troops is impossible for me (After the first few lines, that choking feeling in the back of my throat while stopping any possible tears required the same muscles I use to sing...) Shaking hands, giving my e-mail address for prayer requests and sending troops off or welcoming them home was incredibly humbling to this person who counts one of his regrets in life as not serving his country. I will post more with pictures on the other blog soon but you can check out the greeters site: Pease Greeters. This is going to be taking a lot of my time, Pease is taking on a lot more and larger flights from another city in Maine. I am going to be doing all I can to make as many flights as I can to shake hands and offer prayers. I actually don't understand why but I feel moved to do this tiny, tiny, token for these men and women willing to give up so much for their nation. These flights happen all over the country for refueling/picking up more passengers. Even if your city is not the first/last stop on US soil, if you can make it out to say thanks, it seems to be an encouragement to some or many of the troops. Regardless of where you stand on the wars, this generation is doing it right: The individual troops are doing their job and willing to lay down their family time, their comfort and their life if needed wherever this country sends them. A pat on the shoulder is the least we can do for them. I have all of the flights on my schedule and will make each flight that does not impact my relationship with Christ, my employer or my family. In other words that takes priority above blogging.

Head Start on New Years

It's only October, Mike! This is for me more than anything. I want to write out my goals/priorities so I can understand what I am doing towards them and ask myself, "Does this 2 hour journey into a 15 browser tab Wikipedia-fest on Particle Physics seem right for right now?"

My Priorities

My relationship with Christ (Bible study, Prayer, Fellowship at church)
My relationship with my family (Being home but not just being home, being available. No laptop on the lap when they are awake unless I have good reason, engaging them in conversation/games/prayer and devotion time.. having fun and enjoying my kids while they are kids)
My relationship with my employer. As long as it doesn't interfere with the first two, a job is fine. The work-life balance needs to be as good as it can (which means I need to be as diligent in doing 100% effort 100% of the time while there)
Pease Greeters - This one seems weird to write here only having just discovered it but unless I find out that the troops actually hate it and the offer of prayer requests, someone to talk to while on the ground here is a completely and utter waste I am going to keep doing it.
Sharing my thoughts on my faith - I don't know what I am being called to do, I need to pray and understand God's will but in the meantime, I feel a tug to putting some thoughts to electrons and bits after prayerful consideration.
Governor Campaign/Liberty minded issues - I want to help get this man elected, I want to continue blogging about what I feel is a good direction for our nation. No, I don't want to bicker but I want to share my journey as I explore the concepts of liberty and this nation's history and founding.
Growth/Sharing of Technical Skills - Specifically SQL Server (Helping out PASS, answering more forum questions, writing more blog posts, etc.) This is almost equal with the one above.
Consulting Business - I know this isn't the kind of priority you put last on your own professional blog. It's true. I have a couple key customers right now, if more business is to be had it will need to fit in with my priorities or replace one of these customers. Taking on a lot of additional work won't serve me or the customers. This will be revisited next Spring/Summer based on full time work load and other priorities... Have something small that you want advice on? I'll give you some advice under growth/sharing of technical skills instead... If it's longer but not long enough to be a full time engagement, a few hours here or there of additional work won't be a problem. It's a long term, heavy hour gig I can't do right now.
Fun/Misc - Everything else :) Might even go as equal as the above.

Some Specific Goals - Not listing the general items like time with kids, more back rubs for my wife, more exercise, etc. Going to try and work on a plan to implement these and get them implemented by November if not this month.

Open and Close my day with Scripture and Prayer - The only true must. When I fall out of a schedule with fellowship/devotion/prayer (whatever you want to call it) time, everything else is affected.
Family Devotions/Prayer - We do pray around the meal table and when driving my daughter to preschool she and I do. Plus before bedtime. I want to have a more dedicated and focused time of prayer/study as a family.
Share my faith - Not online through impersonal blogs but reach out to others and share. Not force, annoy, etc. but tell others about what I believe. Let them make up their own mind but simply tell others of what Christ means to me.
Read a "fun" book - Can be fiction or non-fiction. Just have a book to read, no timelines but I would like to always be in a book in spare 5-10 minutes here and there, keep my mind and imagination active. I don't watch much, if any, TV until Lost comes out.
4 Technical posts/month here.
at least 30-45 minutes of forum/newsgroup time a week. My goal is to try and offer help to at least 5-10 people with questions.
At least 6-8 Believing Patriot posts/month.
Hit at least 8 of the Pease outbound flights a month. I like greeting the inbound troops as well but if I have to cut down on time (because of other priorities and with the increased frequency/bad scheduling of flights for work/daughter to preschool driving commitment) I want those flights I make to be outbound. Yes prayers and support needs don't end when you get home but I have it in my head that the outbound troops are in a different prayer need with a smaller support network available where they are heading. Either way, I want to hit at least 8 flights a month.