Sql-Server

SQL Server 2008 Systems Views Poster

Another project that Ron Talmage and several other of my colleagues have been working on is a new system views poster for SQL Server 2008. I’m told that it’s going to go out with the December issue of SQL Server Magazine.

I got a copy of this at the PASS summit and it’s excellent. In fact, stocks ran out before the conference even really got started.

Congratulations to all involved.

2008-11-28

SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference

I’ve been working on the SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference with a number of my colleagues (Ron Talmage, Aaron Johal, Steven Abraham, Allan Hirt, Herbert Albert, Antonio Soto, Joe Webb, Craig Utley, Dejan Sarka, Larry Barnes, Pablo Ahumada, Kathy Blomstrom) and a bunch of great folk from Microsoft (Arvind Rao, George Huey, Richard Waymire, Siva Harinath, Edward Melomed, Deepika Mistry, Fernando Caro, Goldie Chaudhuri, Max Verun, Vijay Tandra Sistla, Tom Michaels, Justin Erickson, Devendra Tiwari, Jingwei Lu, Fernando Azpeitia Lopez, Ketan Duvedi, Lukasz Pawlowski, David Noor, Matt Masson, Karandeep Anand, Jen Witsoe, Suzanne Bonney, Megan Bradley, Tresy Kilbourne, Bronwyn McNutt).

2008-11-28

Outstanding new book: T-SQL Fundamentals (Itzik Ben-Gan)

I’m so glad to see that my colleague Itzik Ben-Gan has his T-SQL Fundamentals book now available. This book has been needed for some time. It’s been updated for SQL Server 2008 and I’m sure it’ll fast become one of the standard SQL Server 2008 references.

Details are here: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft%C2%AE-Server%C2%AE-T-SQL-Fundamentals-PRO-Developer/dp/0735626014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225597357&sr=8-1

The companion web site for the book is here: http://www.insidetsql.com/tsqlfund2008/

2008-11-02

Great news on Datadude licensing

When I’ve been doing sessions around the world on DataDude (Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals), the main feedback I’ve had is “great product but pity we’ll never get to use it because of the licensing”.

Sanity has finally prevailed. In today’s PressPass announcement, while there’s interesting news on product naming (Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0), there’s great news that the developer and database professional editions will merge and in the meantime, people licensing the developer edition will now get DataDude as well. (and vice versa). This is a big step forward for the product.

2008-09-30

SQL Server 2008 eBook from MSPress (and free)

Hi Folks,

I recently wrote a chapter in the new eBook “Introducing SQL Server 2008” at MSPress. Peter DeBetta was the main author and Mark Whitehorn also wrote. It’s now available.

And it’s free !

Enjoy.

(PS: I’ve had a few people ask how you read it. It downloads with a cfm file extension for some bizarre reason. It is a pdf. Just rename it to be one and you should be fine).

2008-09-17

TechEd Australia and New Zealand done and dusted

Well, TechEd in Australia and New Zealand have come and gone again already this year. Congrats to the content owners Andrew Coates and Darryl Burling for their efforts again this year and for organising good shows.

I had a really busy week as I was teaching a SQL 2k8 for developers precon on Monday and Tuesday, then had to travel to New Zealand on Tuesday night, just for the day. I got into the hotel about 1am, woke up and did my session at 10:45, another one at 2:20pm and then raced out of the venue into a cab and back to the airport to go back to Sydney. I did my session at TechEd Australia on Thursday.

2008-09-14

2 Sessions at the PASS Summit: Hope to see you there

Hi Folks,

The summit program committee have confirmed I’ll be doing two sessions at the PASS Summit in Seattle in November. I’ve got upgraded versions of both “Avoiding Stored Proc Recompiles” and “A SQL Server DBA’s Guide To CLR Integration” to cover SQL 2k8 changes. The first session also has a little more time allocated as a spotlight session.

I’m really looking forward to the summit this year and hope to see you all there. Summit details are at the summit site.

2008-09-10

Need to run SQL Server VPCs faster? -> Fast flash drives do help

Fellow RD and colleague Ken Spencer posted a little while back that he was having good success loading VPC images off flash drives. I thought it was time to try it myself.

The first concept is that not all flash drives are created equal. I went and found fast ones. I ended up with Corsair Flash Voyager GT drives in 16G, which was just big enough to hold the VPC images I was working with. These are extra fast drives that have matched controllers and memory and are rated up to 34 MB/sec. In Australia, they are $119 AUD but I’ve seen them on US sites for about $63 USD recently.

2008-08-30

PDCnoggin: The PDC Brain Relay

You’ve seen the Olympic torch relay. Well PDC has a brain relay with the PDCnoggin. The Regional Directors are an awesome bunch of people that I’m really honoured to be part of. Many get together for the PDC each time it’s held. Our RD lead Kevin Schuler sent me the PDCnoggin to start the relay, probably because I’m about as far away as it can start.

And now it’s on it’s way to the next RD before it makes its way to the PDC in October in LA.

2008-08-29