Strate SQL » PASSMN

SQL Saturday on a Friday?!?

jstrate — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:05:00 +0000

That’s right! PASSMN is breaking the mold and heading onto new ground. We are making our second annual Friday full-day event a SQL Saturday.

The event will be on October 29th from 8 AM to 5 PM. It will be happening at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, MN.

I’m sure we’ll be confusing everyone up until the day after the event happens, but the upside in this is that it’ll stick in your mind. If you plan to be in Minnesota during the event – we’d love to have you submit as a speaker or join us as an attendee.

What does training cost?

If you aren’t familiar with SQL Saturday events, then here’s the deal. This is a free event that is put on by volunteers in the SQL Server community. As an attendee you get to experience a full day of sessions on SQL Server and it’s functionality – where you can come out and learn from your peers.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. That’s true. This event will be brought to the community by a number of sponsors.

Would you like to know who these sponsors are? So, would we. Right now we are actively seeking sponsors to pay for some of the costs for the event. If your company would be interested in assisting in sponsoring this event, please have them visit our sponsor page.

Let’s Get It On

We are hoping for a great event and would love to hear what people are looking for. Feel free to comment here for an requests or information on the event. I’ll be working with the PASSMN board to get the event put together.

August PASSMN Meeting This Week

jstrate — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

It’s that time of the month and that time of the years. Time for another PASSMN meeting. Also, time for the 3rd annual PASSMN Ask the Experts panel.

This meeting differs from regular meeting in that the the meeting won’t be focused on a single presentation. Instead our Experts panel will start the meeting each with a 5-10 minute discussion around something they think will be of interest to the community. After that the meeting will focus on virtually any topic that the audience chooses.

SQL Server Ask the Experts Panel

This year’s panel has a couple of the same people from last year and a couple new people to it this year. For returning panel members we will have:

Lara Rubbelke
Jason Strate ~~(yeah, that’s me)~~

Our new panel members are:

Eric Strom
Tim Plas

It should be a good panel. If you are reading this and have questions to submit, feel free to leave them here as comments. You can also e-mail the questions to support@mnssug.org.

Meet Details

Date/Time: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 3:00-5:00 PM

Location: 8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437

Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=HCC36W&role=present&pw=W%3E%2Bx%3C9%2B%21B
Meeting ID: HCC36W
Entry Code: mwD{j|\4B

PASSMN July Meeting Today

jstrate — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Don’t forget the July PASSMN meeting is today. We have Itzik Ben-Gan (blog) coming in to talk about some query tuning tips.

Here are the meeting details…

Date and Time:

July 20, 2010, 5:00 PM CST

Location:

8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437 (map)

Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=7DGRT6&role=attend&pw=h*ZR%248%25%2Fd

Meeting ID: 7DGRT6

Entry Code: h*ZR$8%/d

Agenda:

5:00 –5:15 : Announcements
5:15 –5:25 : Sponsor
5:25 –6:45 : Query Tuning Tips (Itzik)
6:45 –7:00 : Survey Collection and Giveaways

Presentation:

Query Tuning Tips

Given a SQL Server querying problem there’s much that you can do to enable a good performing solution. Tuning involves arranging an optimal physical environment, e.g., by creating supporting indexes, as well as writing the query in a way that it would get an optimal execution plan. Many factors can affect the efficiency of the solution including the availability of indexes, data distribution and density, and others. In different scenarios, a different solution could be the most efficient for the same querying problem. Query tuning could be considered an art. This session will provide various tips to do efficient query tuning and demonstrate those through specific tuning examples.

Itzik Ben-Gan is a Mentor and Co-Founder of Solid Quality Mentors. A SQL Server Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) since 1999, Itzik has delivered numerous training events around the world focused on T-SQL Querying, Query Tuning and Programming. Itzik is the author of several books including Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Fundamentals, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Querying and Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Programming. He has written many articles for SQL Server Magazine as well as articles and whitepapers for MSDN. Itzik’s speaking activities include TechEd, DevWeek, SQLPASS, SQL Server Magazine Connections, various user groups around the world, and Solid Quality Mentors’ events to name a few. Itzik is the author of Solid Quality Mentors’ Advanced T-SQL Querying, Programming and Tuning and T-SQL Fundamentals courses along with being a primary resource within the company for their T-SQL related activities

PASSMN July Meeting Next Week

jstrate — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The July PASSMN meeting is is coming up next week. If you’ve not registered now’s a great time to get your RSVP in. We have Itzik Ben-Gan (blog) coming in to talk about some query tuning tips.

Here are the meeting details…

Date and Time:

July 20, 2010, 5:00 PM CST

Location:

8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437 (map)

Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=7DGRT6&role=attend&pw=h*ZR%248%25%2Fd

Meeting ID: 7DGRT6

Entry Code: h*ZR$8%/d

Agenda:

5:00 –5:15 : Announcements
5:15 –5:25 : Sponsor
5:25 –6:45 : Query Tuning Tips (Itzik)
6:45 –7:00 : Survey Collection and Giveaways

Presentation:

Query Tuning Tips

Given a SQL Server querying problem there’s much that you can do to enable a good performing solution. Tuning involves arranging an optimal physical environment, e.g., by creating supporting indexes, as well as writing the query in a way that it would get an optimal execution plan. Many factors can affect the efficiency of the solution including the availability of indexes, data distribution and density, and others. In different scenarios, a different solution could be the most efficient for the same querying problem. Query tuning could be considered an art. This session will provide various tips to do efficient query tuning and demonstrate those through specific tuning examples.

Itzik Ben-Gan is a Mentor and Co-Founder of Solid Quality Mentors. A SQL Server Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) since 1999, Itzik has delivered numerous training events around the world focused on T-SQL Querying, Query Tuning and Programming. Itzik is the author of several books including Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Fundamentals, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Querying and Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008: T-SQL Programming. He has written many articles for SQL Server Magazine as well as articles and whitepapers for MSDN. Itzik’s speaking activities include TechEd, DevWeek, SQLPASS, SQL Server Magazine Connections, various user groups around the world, and Solid Quality Mentors’ events to name a few. Itzik is the author of Solid Quality Mentors’ Advanced T-SQL Querying, Programming and Tuning and T-SQL Fundamentals courses along with being a primary resource within the company for their T-SQL related activities

Please RSVP here if you will be attending in person, this helps us understand how many people to tell the sponsor to get food for.

July PASSMN Meeting Announced

jstrate — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Sometimes when we are putting together the user group meetings things change. Opportunities arise and we get a chance to take a cool meeting and turn it into a great meeting. That happened with this months meeting and it’s going to be great.

A couple things are different for this month… time and topic. This month instead of meeting at 3:00 PM we are meeting at 5:00 PM. And the reason for the change is that we have Itzik Ben-Gan (blog) stopping by for a presentation.

The Presentation

This month he’ll be teaching a course at Benchmark Learning. His course is Advanced T-SQL Querying, Programming and Tuning for SQL Server 2005 & 2008. If you want more than what you suspect will be at the meeting, then this class is for you.

What can you suspect will be at the meeting this month? Well, how about this?

Query Tuning Tips

Given a SQL Server querying problem there’s much that you can do to enable a good performing solution. Tuning involves arranging an optimal physical environment, e.g., by creating supporting indexes, as well as writing the query in a way that it would get an optimal execution plan. Many factors can affect the efficiency of the solution including the availability of indexes, data distribution and density, and others. In different scenarios, a different solution could be the most efficient for the same querying problem. Query tuning could be considered an art. This session will provide various tips to do efficient query tuning and demonstrate those through specific tuning examples.

Pretty cool stuff, eh?

And the Rest of the Details…

This month’s meeting sponsor is Digineer. They’ll be providing the food and beverages. Digineer happens to be my employer and if you’re local and looking for a company with talent and skill this is a good place to look.

Date: July 20, 2010
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Location: 8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437
Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=7DGRT6&role=attend&pw=h*ZR%248%25%2Fd

Meeting ID: 7DGRT6

Entry Code: h*ZR$8%/d

The all important RSVP link – please do RSVP so that we’ll have enough food for the event.

PASSMN June Meeting Today

jstrate — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Don’t forget, PASSMN June Meeting is today. We have Lara Rubbelke (twitter | blog) coming in to talk about some of the new SSRS features in SQL Server 2008 R2.

More details can be found here.

PASSMN June Meeting This Week

jstrate — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

The month has been flying along and I thought I’d remind people that the PASSMN meeting is this week. If you’ve not registered now’s a great time to get your RSVP in. We have Lara Rubbelke (twitter | blog) coming in to talk about some of the new SSRS features in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Here are the meeting details…

Date and Time:

June 15, 2010
3:00 PM CST

Location:

8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437 (map)

Please RSVP here if you will be attending in person, this helps us understand how many people to tell the sponsor to get food for.

Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=TGJT8N&role=attend&pw=H%3A%7C%3Ds%5C77f

Meeting ID: TGJT8N

Entry Code: H:|=s\77f

Agenda:

3:00 –3:15 : Announcements
3:15 –3:25 : Sponsor
3:25 –4:45 : SSRS 2008 R2 (Lara)
4:45 –5:00 : Survey Collection and Giveaways
5:00 –5:30 : Networking

Presentation:

What’s New in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
Lara Rubbelke
Microsoft, Inc.
Amp up your Reporting Services with the many great enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2. Lara will take you on a tour of all that is new in R2 including collaboration features, new visualizations, rendering enhancements, and new data sources. After this session you will wonder why they call R2 an "interim" release!

PASSMN June Meeting Announced

jstrate — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

It’s time to look at the June meeting for the Minnesota SQL Server User Group. This month we have Lara Rubbelke (twitter | blog) coming in to talk about some of the new SSRS features in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Here are the meeting details…

Date and Time:

June 15, 2010
3:00 PM CST

Location:

8300 Norman Center Drive, 9th Floor, Bloomington, MN 55437 (map)

Please RSVP here if you will be attending in person, this helps us understand how many people to tell the sponsor to get food for.

Live Meeting

URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=TGJT8N&role=attend&pw=H%3A%7C%3Ds%5C77f

Meeting ID: TGJT8N

Entry Code: H:|=s\77f

Agenda:

3:00 –3:15 : Announcements
3:15 –3:25 : Sponsor
3:25 –4:45 : SSRS 2008 R2 (Lara)
4:45 –5:00 : Survey Collection and Giveaways
5:00 –5:30 : Networking

Presentation:

What’s New in SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
Lara Rubbelke
Microsoft, Inc.
Amp up your Reporting Services with the many great enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2. Lara will take you on a tour of all that is new in R2 including collaboration features, new visualizations, rendering enhancements, and new data sources. After this session you will wonder why they call R2 an "interim" release!

Road Trip – Chicago or BUST #sqlsat31

jstrate — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:00:00 +0000

Almost time to hit the road… and I’m heading to SQL Saturday 31 in Chicago. Rumor has it that this weekend will provide an awesome experience. From the presentations being provided to the karaoke after party – I’m expecting a great time.

If you will be at SQL Saturday 31, please stop by and introduce yourself. And if it suits your fancy, sit down and listen in on my topics. I am scheduled for the following topics:

Using XML to Query Execution Plans

SQL Server stores its execution plans as XML in dynamic management views. The execution plans are a gold mine of information. From the whether or not the execution plan will rely on parallelism to what columns are requiring a key lookup after a non-clustered index seek. Through a the use of XML this information can be available at your finger tips to help determine the value and impact of an index and guide you in improving the performance of your SQL Server databases.

Goals:

Discuss information available in an execution plan

Demonstrate use of XQuery to query execution cache

Demonstrate methods to performance tune

Extended Events – Work Smarter, Not Harder

There are many ways to performance monitor your SQL Server environment. In this session we’ll review Extended Events, which is one of the newer SQL Server monitoring platforms. Learn the ins and outs of how to get detailed information on the errors and events that occur within SQL Server and how to dig into the information. With a few T-SQL statements, issues that could take weeks to research can be investigated in minutes.

Goals:

Define the architecture for Extended Events

Identify scenarios where Extended Event can be used to troubleshoot performance

Demonstrate solutions to real-world performance scenarios

I’ll be staying an extra day in Chicago after the conference, so if anyone has ideas on what I should do please leave a comment. I haven’t been in Chicago since I was 10 or 11 years old so it’s probably changed a bit. So far I have been told to get a hot dog from a street vendor and check out the piers. Any other ideas are very welcome.

PASSMN Meeting Next Tuesday

The Minnesota SQL Server User Group (twitter | website) is meeting next week on Tuesday (4/20/2010). The meeting should be smoking and I’m not meaning the 4-20 kind. The meeting will start with a Visual Studio 2010 for the SQL Developers. Next, Fusion IO (twitter | website) will be on of the presenters on SSD and they have an awesome giveaway – A DRIVE VALUED AT $7,000. If you plan to attend, please, please, please RSVP so that we can order enough food. We were a little too close last month and too little is always awkward.

March PASSMN Meeting Tonight (03/16/2010)

jstrate — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0000

It’s come down to a decision… do you want to learn about SQL Server and network with your peers or don’t you. Then again, the question could also be do you want some swag and pizza with some work buddies. Hopefully, you’ll be stopping in for the first item.

Out meeting is today starting at 2:30 PM for networking with announcements an presentations beginning at 3:00 PM.

This month we have Louis Davidson joining us for:

Database Design Fundamentals

In this session I will give an overview of how to design a database, including the common normal forms and why they should matter to you if you are creating or modifying SQL Server databases. Data should be easy to work with in SQL Server if the database has been organized as close as possible to the standards of normalization that have proven for many years. Many common T-SQL programming “difficulties” are the result of struggling against the way data should be structured and can be avoided by applying the basic normalization techniques and are obvious things that you find yourself struggling with time and again (i.e. using the SUBSTRING function in a WHERE clause meaning you can’t use an index efficiently).

And before that, I’ll be presenting:

ABCs of CTEs

Common Table Expressions (CTE) aren’t as common as their name implies. CTEs are often seen as a secret part of the dark art of recursion. This session will explore CTEs to show how they can be extremely useful in improving performance and legibility of T-SQL code. And, of course, we will look at their use in returning recursive data.

Hope to see you there. If you have any questions, you can reach me on twitter.