Strate SQL

February #Meme15 Assignment

jstrate — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:35:00 +0000

It’s been a couple months now since a number of us got together to share how we use social networks to enhance our careers and professional development. These blog posts will be called #meme15. For more on what people talked about talked about in December and January round-up posts.

Before we get to the assignment for this month, let’s go over a few guidelines for this:

Answer the question(s) with as much or as little detail as you wish. Try to stay true to the heart of the question, but answering where it connects to you.
Watch for the new assignment about 8th, or the Monday after the 8th if it falls on a weekend.
Post your answer on the 15th, or the Monday after the 15th if it falls on a weekend.
Include the #meme15 logo your post (courtesy of Matt Velic (Blog | @mvelic))
Comment on the assignment blog post, which seems more reliable, or trackback to it.

#Meme15 Assignment #3

The third writing assignment for #meme15 will be on Linkedin. The post should answer the following:

Why and how you use LinkedIn?

You’ve got a week, happy writing.

Other SQL Community Memes

If you aren’t already participating, there are already a few going on in the community #TSQLTuesday, #MemeMonday, and Un-SQL Friday. Watch for those for opportunities to blog without having to come up with your own topic. Beyond having a easy topic choice, they also provide a window for more people to see what you have to say.

February 2012 – Monthly SQL Server Checklist

jstrate — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

It’s the first Monday of February, mostly, it’s a short month, but there’s no reason to skirt on checking out your SQL Servers.

If you made a resolution to check up on your servers for new years, are you keeping up? Did you find the time in January? If not, make the time today and find out the state of the state for your environment.

As has been said before, the premise of these posts is to help DBAs maintain their environments by getting together a monthly checklist for their environments. Followed by going through and evaluating the SQL Server environment. There aren’t many any changes to this month’s list, there haven’t been any CUs or SPs since last year.

Monthly Checklist

Backup Validation: Check everything involved in the backup process. Are your backups executing as desired? Are the monitoring jobs properly alerting to failures? Have their been any unexpected failures? Have backup duration times changed?
Recovery Validation: Is everything for your recovery collected and being backed up? Have you practiced restoring at least one of your SQL Server databases from production in the last month?
SQL Server Updates: Is your SQL Server environment up-to-date? Check each of your instances and review the most recent releases of SQL Server. Make a plan to determine when the most recent updates will be applied. Also, be aware that support for SQL Server releases do end at some point. Support for the version of SQL Server that you are currently using may no longer be supported.
- SQL Server 2012 RC0
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP 1 CU3
- SQL Server 2008 R2 SP 1
- SQL Server 2008 R2 CU 10 – Support ends 7/10/2012
- SQL Server 2008 SP 3 CU 2
- SQL Server 2008 SP 3
- SQL Server 2008 SP 2 CU 7- Support ends 10/9/2012
- SQL Server 2008 SP 2 – Support ends 10/9/2012
- SQL Server 2008 SP 1 CU 16 – Support ends 10/11/2011
- SQL Server 2008 SP 1 – Support ends 10/11/2011
- SQL Server 2008 CU 10 – Support ended 4/13/2010
- SQL Server 2005 SP 4 CU 3 – Mainstream support ended 4/12/2011
- SQL Server 2005 SP 4 – Mainstream support ended 4/12/2011
Server Health: Check the performance statistics for your server(s). Were there any unexpected items in your event log? How does everything compare to the last baseline?
Database Health:Check the performance statistics for your database(s). Were there any unexpected items in your SQL Server logs?
1. Check wait stats.
2. Analyze your indexes (via IndexAnalysis)
Check Baselines: Are there any variances on the performance counters off of the baseline? Is the baseline still valid?
Validate Capacity Plan: If you have a capacity plan in place for your environment, check to see that what you had planned for June matches the actuals. Any threshold violations that may require adding capacity?
Status Report: What do you need to get done before next month? What did you get done this month? After the other tasks, write this all down and send it to your manager.

Something Missing?

Is there something missing in this list that you think should be included? Leave a comment and I’ll add it in for next month. I’ll follow-up next month on the first Monday of the month and we’ll see how everyone that reads this is doing.

Re-blog – January 27 – February 2

jstrate — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:26 +0000

Welcome to the Friday Re-Blog summary post. The aim of these posts is to bring some old posts that newer readers may not have had a chance to see. Also a chance to bring back to the forefront posts that some may have seen but forgot about.

If you have some free time or interest, check out the links below from years past to see what you may have missed. The posts to check out this week are:

31 Days of SSIS – Adding Some Delta Force (27/31) (1/27/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Jim Croce and the Foreach (File) Loop Container (28/31) (1/28/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Importing Execution Plans (30/31) (1/30/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Exporting Execution Plans (29/31) (1/30/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – SSIS Naming Conventions (31/31) (1/31/2011)

Enjoy.

January #Meme15 Round-Up

jstrate — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0000

The second round of #meme15 finished up last week and it’s time to see who participated. In total, there were fifteen people that participated in the event. If I’ve missed anyone, just leave a comment here and I’ll update this post.

As a refresher, #meme15 is dedicated to discussing and sharing tips and tricks for blogging and using social media. This can be from a personal or professional standpoint. The intent is that through these posts by myself and others will provide some insight into how to succeed in these areas. This month’s writing assignment was:

Why should average Jane or Joe professional consider using twitter?
What benefit have you seen in your career because of twitter?

Here we go with all of the posts, in pretty much the order I read them:

#MEME15 – WHY THE TWITTER? - Thomas LaRock (Blog | @SQLRockstar) – Thomas starts out by explaining how you don’t just get him, but you get his network.
#meme15 – Use. Twitter. Why? - Sam Vanga (Blog | @SamuelVanga) – Sam discusses how twitter helps him connect his blog to a larger community and to interact with professionals that he admires.
January #Meme15 Assignment – Twitter, the Blog, taking over the universe – Ted Krueger (Blog | @Onpnt) – Ted talks about how his career is centered around twitter, even as a DBA and a consultant.
Connect The Tweeps – Tracy McKibben (Blog | @realsqlguy) – Tracy starts by discussing how he avoided twitter and how joining has provided him with some initiative and brought new found energy and excitement into his career.
Why Twitter? My Top 5 Reasons to Join In #Meme15 - Stacia Misner (Blog | @StaciaMisner) – From friends to networking to laughing, Stacia goes over the five things she gets out of twitter.
#Meme15 Assignment 2: All A’Twitter – SoftArtisans (Blog | @SoftArtisans) – Inspired by Stacia, Claire from SoftArtisans posted on the three main reason why everyone should join twitter.
The Twitters – Matt Velic (Blog | @mvelic) – For Matt, twitter is about the conversations that it opens up.
Twitter and You - John Samson (Blog | @JohnSansom) – John talks about the value and twitter and what he finds in it.
Twitter is My Sarcasm Spit Valve - Tim Ford’s (Blog | @sqlagentman) – Tim manages to discuss twitter and it’s value with a great reference to Lindsay Lohan.
Twitter, John, Building a Blog and #MEME15 – Gethyn Ellis (Blog | @sqlgre) – In this post, Gethyn talks about some how some of the tips for ProBlogger can be tied into twitter.
Twitter and Your Career - Jason Brimhall (Blog | @sqlrnnr) – Jason digs into how twitter can help you out when you have a problem.
Twitter – #Meme15 - Gareth Swanepoel (Blog | @GarethSwan) – For Gareth twitter is a place to get together with his like-minded peers.
The Value of Twitter #meme15 – We’ll wrap up the round up with my post. Likely if you’ve read this post, you’ve read mine already so I’ll skip the summary.

Take some time and read through what the bloggers here have had to say about twitter. If you aren’t on it yet, it’s definitely time to get in on the fun and start growing your career. If you are, take a look to see if there are other ways you can leverage twitter in your career.

Re-blog – January 20 – January 26

jstrate — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:01 +0000

If you have some free time or interest, check out the links below from years past to see what you may have missed. The posts to check out this week are:

31 Days of SSIS – No More Procedures (20/31) (1/20/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Controlling Your Flow In The Control Flow (21/31) (1/21/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Data Flow Expressions (22/31) (1/22/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Generating Row Numbers (23/31) (1/23/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – One Package, Unlimited Databases (24/31) (1/24/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – One Package, Unlimited Tables (25/31) (1/25/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Small Package, Big Win (26/31) (1/26/2011)

Enjoy.

Nooner Viewing Summary

jstrate — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 18:30:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching SQL Server videos and webcasts. My primary motivator in doing this is to help myself prepare for re-taking the SQL Server MCM Lab exam.

After watching a few presentations, I thought it would be good to take some time to share the ones that I find most useful and interesting. Instead of cramming my blog with a hundred webcast reviews, I’ll be posting the nooner webcast at noon every day and summarizing them here on Fridays.

Hope you enjoy this information.

Investigating parallelism and the CXPACKET wait type

This session, from SQL Bits 8, is presented by Christian Bolton (Blog | @christianbolton). In it, he breaks down parallelism and explains how it all fits together within execution plans. My primary take away from this session was how different coding choices can affect whether or not parallelism will be utilized, such as inserting into a table variable.

Consolidating data collection with SQLDIAG and analysing it all with SQLNexus

Another session by Christian Bolton and also from SQL Bits, this time though it is SQL Bits 7. In this session, Christian goes through the SQLDIAG and SQLNexus tools and explain how and where they fit in with troubleshooting and performance monitoring. I’ve wondered about these tools for a while and after this session, I’m definitely raising the priority to start using them.

Inside SQL Server Latches

At the 2010 PASS Summit, Bob Ward (Blog | @bobwardms) presented an amazing session on latching within SQL Server. There isn’t enough information out in the world about how latching works and what it is. This session fills that gap by leaps and bounds. After watching it twice now, I know I need to watch it again. Really deep and amazing information.

Understanding XQuery

Another presentation from the 2010 PASS Summit, this time it is from Dejan Sarka (Blog | @DejanSarka). In this session, Dejan goes through the basics of XQuery and XML and walks through some simple example of querying and using FLWOR. If you are a DBA that isn’t familiar with using XQuery, its time to learn and this session will provide a good start.

Locking

The last session for this week is Paul Randal’s (Blog | @PaulRandal) Locking session from the MCM Readiness Videos. I’ve watched this webcast more than a few times. It walks through how locking works within SQL Server and the block and deadlocking that can occur because of it. The information in this session may seem fairly basic, but it’s fundamental to how SQL Server works and worth looking at again and again.

Re-blog – January 13 – January 19

jstrate — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:00:49 +0000

If you have some free time or interest, check out the links below from years past to see what you may have missed. The posts to check out this week are:

31 Days of SSIS – Create XML Document (13/31) (1/13/2011)
Find Duplicate Foreign Keys (1/13/2009)
31 Days of SSIS – Instant Excel Spreadsheet (14/31) (1/14/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Every Which Way Outputs (15/31) (1/15/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – 10 Things About Expressions (16/31) (1/16/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Environmental Variable(17/31) (1/17/2011)
XQuery for the Non-Expert – @Variable Use (1/17/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – SQL Server Configuration (18/31) (1/18/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – DTSConfig Configuration (19/31) (1/19/2011)

Enjoy.

The Value of Twitter #meme15

jstrate — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Last week, I posted this month’s question for #meme15. As was mentioned in that post, the aim of these posts by myself and, hopefully, others will provide some insight into how to succeed in social networking areas.

The questions for this month are:

Why should average Jane or Joe professional consider using twitter?
What benefit have you seen in your career because of twitter?

Value to the Average Jane/Joe

Twitter is an interesting beast. To the outsider, it’s 140-character messages about the food we are eating, what we are wearing, and the latest Barbie fashions. But when you peel back the and look under the surface, twitter is much, much more than that.

When you understand twitter in a professional light, you find that you are transported to a strange universe where stalking your peers is a good thing. With twitter, you can follow anyone that is already using it. Making people such as Denny Cherry (Blog | @MrDenny), Thomas LaRock (Blog | @SQLRockstar), Brent Ozar (Blog | @BrentO), or, even, Paul Randal (Blog | @PaulRandal) your pseudo-coworkers.

Let’s be clear, this doesn’t mean that they’ll show up at your desk and do your work for you. But they are “virtually” hanging out at the twitter “water-cooler” sharing their days and will, at times, lend a hand to solving problems you may be facing. Even more, many people in the SQL Server community use the #sqlhelp (more info) hash tag to ask questions and offer assistance to each other.

The number of people in the SQL Server community that use twitter is extremely vibrant. And these connections are easy to make. There are no judgments about who you are, what you do, or what you look like. The community is about the conversations that we have.

This bring us to the last point on value that the average Jane/Joe can find through twitter. With twitter, we are never “going it alone”. You may work in an environment where you are the only DBA or developer, but with twitter there is always someone to turn to. Or if you there are other DBAs and developers, you may have the minority view point in a discussion. Twitter provides that outlet necessary to find others to relate to or to validate your position. And while you may not find what your view points are correct, we are there to help you out.

Career Benefits

As I’ve thought about career benefits that I’ve had through twitter, I realized that it could easily fill pages and pages to highlight the places where twitter provided me value. Instead, I’m going to highlight a few places that have stuck out to me:

It helped me connect with the Program Committee for the 2009 PASS Summit. By getting to know the members of the committee, it helped them know who the person submitting the sessions was. Which I believe helped me speak at the summit for the first time.
I was recognized, at the summit, by some community members that I look up to. Even getting recognized and told that I didn’t look like my profile picture. But I was recognized. The benefit here was really that I was making an impact through my use of twitter and reaching people.
Since I started using twitter, the number of readers for my blog has grown tremendously. From a dozen or so views a day a few years back to the record breaking 3,000 views I had last week.
The network of professionals that I can tap into has grown from just the few people that I work with between my customers to a global network. Some of the people from this growing network were even invited to my wedding last summer.

In many ways, twitter has impacted my career and it can impact yours as well. Take it for a spin and put some effort into it, the investment in your time my be a big payoff in your career and maybe a position that matches all of your dreams.

Re-blog – January 6 – January 12

jstrate — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:00:41 +0000

If you have some free time or interest, check out the links below from years past to see what you may have missed. The posts to check out this week are:

31 Days of SSIS – Recursive SSIS Package (6/31) (1/6/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – What The Sorts?! (7/31) (1/7/2011)
OPTIMIZE FOR UNKNOWN (1/7/2009)
31 Days of SSIS – Merge Join Is My Friend (8/31) (1/8/2011)
Scripting Object Level Permissions (1/8/2009)
31 Days of SSIS – Override Variables (9/31) (1/9/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – Pivot Transformation (10/31) (1/10/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – UnPivot Transformation (11/31) (1/11/2011)
31 Days of SSIS – UnPivot Alternative (12/31) (1/12/2011)

Enjoy.

January #Meme15 Assignment

jstrate — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:00:12 +0000

Last month, a number of us got together to share how we use social networks to enhance our careers and professional development. For lack of a better name, these blog posts will be called #meme15. The last assignment looked at blogging and why people started and why they continue. For an idea of what people talked about last month, check out the round-up for the assignment.

Before we get to the assignment for this month, let’s go over a few guidelines for this:

Answer the question(s) with as much or as little detail as you wish. Try to stay true to the heart of the question, but answering where it connects to you.
Watch for the new assignment about 8th, or the Monday after the 8th if it falls on a weekend.
Post your answer on the 15th, or the Monday after the 15th if it falls on a weekend.
Include the #meme15 logo your post (courtesy of Matt Velic (Blog | @mvelic))
Comment on the assignment blog post or trackback to it

#Meme15 Assignment #2

The second writing assignment for #meme15 will be to talk about twitter. The post should answer one of the following or both:

Why should average Jane or Joe professional consider using twitter?
What benefit have you seen in your career because of twitter?

You’ve got a week, happy writing.