The Bit Bucket

The query performance tuning class has been a popular class but we’ve only been running it in local cities. We’re now running it in a fully-interactive instructor-led online class, complete with hosted hands-on labs. Later this year it will also be available amongst our upcoming on-demand training offerings.

If you’re keen to spend some time in a query performance tuning class, let us know.

For the online offering, we’ve spread it over 4 x 1/2 days to make it easier to attend. We’ve got the same hands-on-labs and course content as the in-person class. The labs are hosted so you don’t need to provide equipment but we have a lower cost attendance option if you don’t need the hosted labs.

2012-08-13

One of the things I’ve always wanted in DBCC CHECKDB is the option to omit particular tables from the check. The situation that I often see is that companies with large databases often have only one or two very large tables. They want to run a DBCC CHECKDB on the database to check everything except those couple of tables due to time constraints.

I posted a request on the Connect site about time some time ago:

2012-07-02

Great to see the advice from Gail Erickson about the release of a number of SQL Server related eBooks on the new Microsoft eBook Gallery site. It’s good to see this sort of content moving over to eBook formats.

The e-books that are currently available include:

• SQL Server 2012 Transact-SQL DML Reference
• Master Data Services Capacity Guidelines
• Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Solutions Guide for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
• QuickStart: Learn DAX Basics in 30 Minutes
• Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Multidimensional Performance and Operations Guide

2012-06-14

Well it’s been a few months but I’m back on a roll creating some SQL Down Under podcasts. The first out the door is an interview with Gadi Peleg from the SQL Server team, introducing Data Quality Services.

Gadi came to Microsoft when Zoomix was acquired.

Details of this podcast (and other available podcasts) are here: https://sqldownunder.com/Resources/Podcast.aspx

Hope you enjoy it even though there are some telling signs that I recorded it at 3AM :-)

2012-06-14

There are lots of reports of data quality services (DQS) not working after installing CU1 for SQL Server 2012. One symptom is that when trying to connect from the DQS client, you receive the following error: “System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): An error occurred in the Microsoft .NET Framework while trying to load assembly id 65581”

After applying CU1, you need to execute:

dqsinstaller.exe -upgrade

This is typically from the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn (but depends upon your installation path)

2012-04-27

Great to see our buddy Ola Hallengren has created an updated version of his database maintenance scripts. Many people use these in place of the database maintenance plans that ship with SQL Server.

Here’s the updated info from Ola and the best part is that they continue to be free:

New Version Available

A new version of the SQL Server Maintenance Solution is now available. The new version supports SQL Server 2012.

2012-04-22

Hi Folks,

For a while, I’ve been wanting to get some great SQL mugs printed for SQL Down Under but I need further inspiration so here’s your chance to get a collectors set of 5 SQL mugs:

Send me (greg @ sqldownunder . com) a great line to go onto the mugs, along with your country and a delivery address. I’ll pick the best 5 and get mugs printed with those sayings. If you’re one of the 5, I’ll send you a collectors set with one of each of the 5.

2012-04-14

I’ve been working on a team with Roger Doherty building parts of what’s now become the SQL Server 2012 Early Adoption Cook Book.

So, if you work on the bleeding edge of SQL Server and are keen to get your head around what’s coming, this is a seriously good resource.

Time to go and get it.

The material is constructed as a large number of bite-sized pieces. Each presentation is about 15 minutes in length, and each demo is about 5 minutes. And there are lots of them.

2012-02-02

Temp tables are visible within the scope where they are declared but also in sub-scopes. This means that you can declare a temp table in one stored procedure but access it in another stored procedure that is executed from within the first stored procedure.

There are two reasons that people do this. One reason is basically sloppy code, a bit like having all your variables global in a high level programming language. But the more appropriate reason is to avoid the overhead of moving large amounts of data around, and because we only have READONLY table valued parameters.

2012-01-05

We have a very common customer scenario where the customer decides to upgrade to a new version (in this case let’s say SQL Server 2012). They run upgrade advisor and note that there are a whole lot of problems. They think “Hey that’s way too much to deal with right now. I don’t have time”.

So they don’t deal with them. They upgrade the server to 2012 but leave their db_compat level at a lower level with the intention of dealing with the problems later.

2011-12-24