Category Archives: SQL Saturday
Taking Atlanta to a New Level… #SQLSatATLBI
Having moved from Tampa a couple of years ago, I always wondered why Atlanta only had one SQL Saturday per year. While Tampa has two SQL Saturdays, one regular event and one specifically for Business Intelligence (BI). Atlanta, however, is the big daddy of SQL Saturdays (ok, ok, technically we are the second biggest SQL Saturday in the world but only by a few people and only because our venue will not physically hold anymore people thanks to that darned Fire Marshall and his silly rules about people cramming into a room). Thus, it seemed only natural that Atlanta would also have a BI event with such a vibrant BI user community here.
In my consulting role at Innovative Architects, I’ve been doing quite a bit of BI projects and I absolutely love having irons in both fires. In addition, there were a lot of people here that were interested in helping with an additional SQL Saturday. We just needed a push to get it off of the ground. Enter my co-worker Damu Venkatesan (t) who said “OK, let’s do this now!” A few months later and we have moved to the wait list for registrations, we have almost sold out our sponsorship slots, and we have an amazing line-up of speakers. Maybe I am biased, but I’ve been to at least thirty SQL Saturdays in my career and I think this is as good of a schedule as I’ve ever seen. After the schedule was announced, the registrations filled up at a frantic pace.
We also had a few big names in the community submit pre-conference training abstracts for Friday, January 8th. We ultimately decided on having two sessions for our first year even though we had several great submissions. We finally decided upon SSIS Design Patterns and BIML: A Day of Intelligent Data Integration by Andy Leonard (b|t) for our first session. Our second session, Microsoft BI In a Day, is being presented by Microsoft employees Patrick Leblanc (b|t) and Adam Saxton (t) who is also known in the community as Guy In A Cube (yt|t).
Below are some PowerBI visualizations, because this is a BI SQL Saturday! Enjoy!
#SQLSatATLBI Speakers From Across the Country
#SQLSatATLBI Track Level Distribution
Pre-Con: Performance Tuning Training in Spartanburg, SC for #SQLSat431
On Friday, September 25th, 2015, Mike Lawell (b|t) and I will be giving our “Getting the New DBA Up to Speed with Performance Tuning” pre-con training for the inaugural SQL Saturday Spartanburg. We are extremely excited to be presenting this training again this year after the tremendous feedback we received earlier in Nashville. We have a passion for the SQL community and helping DBAs and developers to do their job better. We want to help you too! If you’ve never taken a pre-con before a SQL Saturday, it is a great way to get some high quality training at a low price and in your local area. Register here today!
In this session, we will take an in-depth look at performance tuning for the beginning DBA as well as the “Accidental DBA” in order to help prepare you for beginning to intermediate skills in tuning your real world queries. We will show you how to get started when you get the production support call stating that the database is slow. We will cover the basics of reading query execution plans as well as using dynamic management views in order to diagnose poor performance. We will also cover performance analysis tools and performance troubleshooting as well as some great demos to get you up and running tuning queries.
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of T-SQL and the SQL Server relational engine
Sections:
- An overview of server configuration best practices will be discussed along with key tools that can be used to identify performance problems.
- Several DMVs will be covered that can be used for performance data collection and diagnosis of performance issues. Third party free tools that use these DMVs will be demonstrated for the data collection.
- Common performance issues will be discussed along with the methods that can be used to identify the issues and resolve.
- The final section will look at the graphical Execution Plan basics and how to identify potential performance issues.
We are planning on a day filled with fun and adventure! Let us help you become a better DBA! Not a DBA? No problem! This is also an excellent training for developers who are writing queries in T-SQL!
Register here!
If you cannot make it to the pre-con, then make sure you check out our regular sessions on Saturday. Register here! Enjoy!
Branching Out in Louisville
This weekend I will be branching out and presenting a business intelligence (BI) session at SQL Saturday Louisville. By profession, I was a programmer turned DBA turned SQL Server consultant. As a consultant, I have done a lot of BI learning and a lot more SQL Server development than previously as a database administrator. In essence, I have broadened my skill set taking advantage of my previous skill set. Therefore, it is only natural that I present a learning session on BI, or in this case Introduction to SQL Server Integration Services. 
This session is great for the beginner to SSIS. I have presented this at a user group in Atlanta earlier this year, but this will be my first BI session at a SQL Saturday. Come on out to Louisville and learn about some SSIS with me! Register here.
First Pre-Con is in the Books! What a Blast!
On Thursday, January 15, 2015, my good friend Mike Lawell (b|t) and I embarked upon our first pre-conference training for SQL Saturday Nashville. The event was a smashing success with a fabulous turnout. In addition, the crowd was engaged and responsive, as a teacher it does not get any better than that. 
For those that attended our session, here are the files that we promised you. We’ve included all of the links and the code contains a wealth of information as well as see the rest of the slides that we were unable to get to. Please use them and feel free to ask us any questions that you may have. In addition, we are more than happy to help you at the beginning of your DBA journey. Welcome to the #SQLFamily!
For those of you who did not attend, the session was entitled “Getting the New DBA Up to Speed with Performance Tuning.” The session was aimed at new and ‘accidental’ DBAs as they embark upon a journey learning the art of performance tuning. If you are a SQL Saturday organizer, we would love to offer this session at your event. Please feel free to contact us if you would like us to provide this session for you. Enjoy!
Presenting in Orlando for SQL Saturday #318!!! Extra #SQLHugs for ALL!
I am humbled and genuinely excited to be returning to Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, September 27th, 2014. This was the first ever SQL Saturday that I attended as well as a year later it was where I gave my first full session, so it has a special place in my heart. Being from Florida, it will be nice to go back and see so many of my friends that I have not seen since moving to Atlanta. Needless to say that there will be extra long #SQLHugs with the #SQLFamily so be prepared.
I have taken my previously new, “So you have a performance issue. What now?” and transformed it into a two-part session with Mike Lawell (t) covering the full gamut of performance tuning for the beginning DBA or accidental DBA. This is a great series that will dive into how to get started in performance tuning. In other words, how do you find the query that is bad from all of the other queries running in your system and where do you go from there? I hope to see you there!
Have you registered to attend yet? If not please do so immediately and get a free #SQLHug from me!
Presenting in Birmingham for SQL Saturday #328!!!
I am humbled and genuinely excited to be selected to speak for the first time in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday, August 23rd, 2014. Since moving to Atlanta, I am trying to spread my speaking engagements out across the country to meet knew people and spread the gospel of SQL Server through the love of #SQLLearning, #SQLHugs, #SQLKaraoke, and #SQLFamily.
I have taken my previously new, “So you have a performance issue. What now?” and transformed it into a two-part session with Mike Lawell (t) covering the full gamut of performance tuning for the beginning DBA or accidental DBA. This is a great series that will dive into how to get started in performance tuning. In other words, how do you find the query that is bad from all of the other queries running in your system and where do you go from there? I hope to see you there!
Have you registered to attend yet? If not please do so immediately and get a free #SQLHug from me!
SQL Saturday Birmingham
Presenting in Louisville for SQL Saturday #286!!!
Wow, I cannot believe that I have not blogged since the beginning of the year. I will follow-up next week with an article about what I have been doing the first half of the year. However, today I wanted to let everyone know that I am humbled to be selected to speak in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, June 21st, 2014. Since moving to Atlanta, I am trying to spread my speaking engagements out across the country to meet knew people and spread the gospel of SQL Server through the love of #SQLLearning, #SQLHugs, #SQLKaraoke, and #SQLFamily.
I will be presenting my newest presentation, “So you have a performance issue. What now?” This is a great beginning session that goes into how you get started in performance tuning. In other words, how do you find the query that is bad from all of the other queries running in your system? I hope to see you there!
Have you registered to attend yet? If not please do so immediately and get a free #SQLHug from me!
Louisville, Kentucky
Presenting for SQL Saturday Nashville
Recently, I was humbled to be selected to speak at SQL Saturday Nashville over the Martin Luther King, Jr weekend. I will be presenting “Backup Strategies Are For Losers” at 10:30AM. This will be my first presentation in Nashville, and I am excited to expand my geographic range. In addition, I was excited to see some of the big names coming into town. Don’t believe me? Check out the schedule for yourself.
Do not forget that there are some excellent pre-cons that start on Friday, January 17th by Denny Cherry, who is presenting “SQL Server Performance Tuning and Optimization” and David Klee is presenting “Virtualization for SQL Server DBAs.” Please check those out as soon as you can while space is still available.
If you haven’t registered yet, please do so now! See you there!
Presenting for SQL Saturday Orlando
This Saturday, I will be presenting “Backup Strategies Are For Losers” at 7:30AM in Orlando. It should be noted that my first ever SQL Saturday that I attended was in Orlando, so I have a special place in my heart for this event. In addition, I have never presented a session this early in the morning so hopefully there is a Starbucks close by to the campus of Seminole State College. Do not forget that there are some excellent pre-cons that start on Wednesday (tomorrow) so please check those out as soon as you can while space is still available.
If you haven’t registered yet, please do so now! See you there!
A Month, Really?
Wow, I just realized this morning that an entire month has passed since I last blogged. Surprisingly, much has happened yet I could barely find time to blog. That isn’t necessarily true, but it sounds better than I’ve been lazy for the last 30 days.
So let’s do a rundown real quick of the last month. I spoke at the very first SQL Saturday in beautiful Cocoa Beach, Florida and had an amazing time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. I completed my dizzying full-time college schedule with resounding success in my first semester back to the glorious University of Florida in pursuit of a Business Administration degree. Last but not least, Rob Volk (b | t) and I were selected to present our Lightning Talk for the PASS Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. That is an extremely humbling and terribly exciting feeling. Our session, titled “DBAs in Toyland: Here’s Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Me Into!” is going to be a lot of fun to present as Rob and I are thoroughly enjoying the process of putting it together. Enjoy!
SQL Swampland 