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• A little on speaking and evaluations...

  - by AaronBertrand

  Buck Woody ( blog | twitter ) just published a great post on session evaluations , and a lot of his points hit home for me. The premise is that the evaluations are not really meant for the attendee or the event organizers, but so that the speaker can get better and make the next session better. In light of this, at least in my opinion, the existing evaluation forms (and the way attendees tend to fill them out) do not achieve this at all. It may be a little more work for events to generate a more...(read more)

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• Mission Critical: SQL Server 2008 General Maintenance

  There is nothing that beats a simple checklist for ensuring that things don't get forgotten in the Database Maintenance process. Once again, Buck Woody imagines how the US military would have tackled DBA checklists for 'mission-critical' databases.

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• Did You Know? I gave two presentations last week

  - by Kalen Delaney

  Even though I didn't make it to TechEd this year, it didn't mean I was quiet last week. On Wednesday, I was in Colorado, giving a talk for the new Colorado PASS User Group, which is a joint venture between 3 different existing groups from Colorado Springs, Denver and Boulder. On Saturday, I spoke at SQL Saturday #43, in Redmond on the Microsoft campus. My presence there has already been mentioned on two other blogs here at SQLBlog: Merrill Aldrich and the infamous Buck Woody . As Merrill mentioned,...(read more)

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• Mission Critical: SQL Server General Configuration

  You know how to set up a SQL Server instance, but it is great to have a list of all the necessary checks and procedures: even better is to have the link to in-depth explanations for every stage by the renowned SQL Server Expert Buck Woody.

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• Practically Cloudy: SQL Server Disaster Recovery to Microsoft Azure - Backups

  In the first in a series on the practicalities of using the Microsoft Azure Platform for the SQL Server professional, Buck Woody shows that, whatever your version of SQL Server, there is a way of storing offsite backups in the cloud. Can 41,000 DBAs really be wrong? Join 41,000 other DBAs who are following the new series from the DBA Team: the 5 Worst Days in a DBA’s Life. Part 3, As Corrupt As It Gets, is out now – read it here.

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• SMO ConnectionContext.StatementTimeout setting is ignored

  - by Woody

  I am successfully using Powershell with SMO to backup most databases. However, I have several large databases in which I receive a "timeout" error "System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired". The timout consistently occurs at 10 minutes. I have tried setting ConnectionContext.StatementTimeout to 0, 6000, and to [System.Int32]::MaxValue. The setting made no difference. I have found a number of Google references which indicate setting it to 0 makes it unlimited. No matter what I try, the timeouts consistently occur at 10 minutes. I even set Remote Query Timeout on the server to 0 (via Studio Manager) to no avail. Below is my SMO connection where I set the time out and the actual backup function. Further below is the output from my script. UPDATE Interestingly enough, I wrote the backup function in C# using VS 2008 and the timeout override does work within that environment. I am in the process of incorporating that C# process into my Powershell Script until I can find out why the timeout override does not work with just Powershell. This is extremely annoying! function New-SMOconnection { Param ($server, $ApplicationName= "PowerShell SMO", [int]$StatementTimeout = 0 ) # Write-Debug "Function: New-SMOconnection $server $connectionname $commandtimeout" if (test-path variable:\conn) { $conn.connectioncontext.disconnect() } else { $conn = New-Object('Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Server') $server } $conn.connectioncontext.applicationName = $applicationName $conn.ConnectionContext.StatementTimeout = $StatementTimeout $conn.connectioncontext.Connect() $conn } $smo = New-SMOConnection -server $server if ($smo.connectioncontext.isopen -eq $false) { Throw "Could not connect to server $($server)." } Function Backup-Database { Param([string]$dbname) $db = $smo.Databases.get_Item($dbname) if (!$db) {"Database $dbname was not found"; Return} $sqldir = $smo.Settings.BackupDirectory + "\$($smo.name -replace ("\\", "$"))" $s = ($server.Split('\'))[0] $basedir = "\\$s\" + $($sqldir -replace (":", "$")) $dt = get-date -format yyyyMMdd-HHmmss $dbbk = new-object ('Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Backup') $dbbk.Action = 'Database' $dbbk.BackupSetDescription = "Full backup of " + $dbname $dbbk.BackupSetName = $dbname + " Backup" $dbbk.Database = $dbname $dbbk.MediaDescription = "Disk" $target = "$basedir\$dbname\FULL" if (-not(Test-Path $target)) { New-Item $target -ItemType directory | Out-Null} $device = "$sqldir\$dbname\FULL\" + $($server -replace("\\", "$")) + "_" + $dbname + "_FULL_" + $dt + ".bak" $dbbk.Devices.AddDevice($device, 'File') $dbbk.Initialize = $True $dbbk.Incremental = $false $dbbk.LogTruncation = [Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.BackupTruncateLogType]::Truncate If (!$copyonly) { If ($kill) {$smo.KillAllProcesses($dbname)} $dbbk.SqlBackupAsync($server) } $dbbk } Started SQL backups for server LCFSQLxxx\SQLxxx at 05/06/2010 15:33:16 Statement TimeOut value set to 0. DatabaseName : OperationsManagerDW StartBackupTime : 5/6/2010 3:33:16 PM EndBackupTime : 5/6/2010 3:43:17 PM StartCopyTime : 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM EndCopyTime : 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM CopiedFiles : Status : Failed ErrorMessage : System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding. The backup or restore was aborted. 10 percent processed. 20 percent processed. 30 percent processed. 40 percent processed. 50 percent processed. 60 percent processed. 70 percent processed. at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteNonQueryTds(String methodName, Boolean async) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe) at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common.ServerConnection.ExecuteNonQuery(String sqlCommand, ExecutionTypes executionType) Ended backups at 05/06/2010 15:43:23

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• Can I select 0 columns in SQL Server?

  - by Woody Zenfell III

  I am hoping this question fares a little better than the similar Create a table without columns. Yes, I am asking about something that will strike most as pointlessly academic. It is easy to produce a SELECT result with 0 rows (but with columns), e.g. SELECT a = 1 WHERE 1 = 0. Is it possible to produce a SELECT result with 0 columns (but with rows)? e.g. something like SELECT NO COLUMNS FROM Foo. (This is not valid T-SQL.) I came across this because I wanted to insert several rows without specifying any column data for any of them. e.g. (SQL Server 2005) CREATE TABLE Bar (id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY) INSERT INTO Bar SELECT NO COLUMNS FROM Foo -- Invalid column name 'NO'. -- An explicit value for the identity column in table 'Bar' can only be specified when a column list is used and IDENTITY_INSERT is ON. One can insert a single row without specifying any column data, e.g. INSERT INTO Foo DEFAULT VALUES. One can query for a count of rows (without retrieving actual column data from the table), e.g. SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Foo. (But that result set, of course, has a column.) I tried things like INSERT INTO Bar () SELECT * FROM Foo -- Parameters supplied for object 'Bar' which is not a function. -- If the parameters are intended as a table hint, a WITH keyword is required. and INSERT INTO Bar DEFAULT VALUES SELECT * FROM Foo -- which is a standalone INSERT statement followed by a standalone SELECT statement. I can do what I need to do a different way, but the apparent lack of consistency in support for degenerate cases surprises me. I read through the relevant sections of BOL and didn't see anything. I was surprised to come up with nothing via Google either.

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• Odd background image resizing on animating UIView

  - by Woody

  I have a UIView in the middle of a view that I am using as a game playing area (in a 2d cocoa view). This image has a background image of the same size as the view. Resizing the view I use animation to make it look smooth (and that works fine). However, when the animation starts, the background image immediately changes size, tiling or being clipped to a size that when the animation finishes, the background image is physically the same size. I don't want this, I want the image to always fit the view, regardless of the view size. UIImage *bgImage = [UIImage imageNamed:@"head.png"]; ... // resize the image returning another image self.view.backgroundColor = [[UIColor alloc] initWithPatternImage:resizedImage]; [UIView beginAnimations:@"resizeView" context:nil]; [UIView setAnimationDuration:.5]; int localViewSize = ... // work out view sizes self.view.frame = CGRectMake(... ,localViewSize,localViewSize); [UIView commitAnimations]; It looks very odd as it jumps to a different size, then animates to the original size. I am guessing that maybe I would have to make a separate view underneath my main view but is that the only way?

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• Why does headless PDE Build omit directories I've specified in build.properties's bin.includes?

  - by Woody Zenfell III

  One of my Eclipse plug-ins (OSGi bundles) is supposed to contain a directory (Database Elements) of .sql files. My build.properties shows: bin.includes = META-INF/,\ .,\ Database Elements/ (...which looks right to me.) When I build and run from within my interactive Eclipse IDE, everything works fine: calls to Bundle.getEntry(String) and Bundle.findEntries(String, String, bool) return valid URL objects; my tests are happy; my code is happy. When I build via headless ant script (using PDE Build), those same calls end up returning null. My tests break; my code breaks. I find that Database Elements is quietly but simply missing from my plug-in's JAR package. (META-INF and the built classes still make it in there fine.) I scoured the build log (even eventually invoking ant -verbose on the relevant portion of the build script) but saw no mention of anything helpful. What gives?

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• Editing a BrowserField's History

  - by Woody

  I have a BrowserField in my app, which works great. It intercept NavigationRequests to links on my website which go to external sites, and brings up a new windows to display those in the regular Browser, which also works great. The problem I have is that if a user clicks a link to say "www.google.com", my app opens that up in a new browser, but also logs it into the BrowserHistory. So if they click back, away from google, they arrive back at my app, but then if they hit back again, the BrowserHistory would land them on the same page they were on (Because going back from Google doesn't move back in the history) I've tried to find a way to edit the BrowserField's BrowserHistory, but this doesn't seem possible. Short of creating my own class for logging the browsing history, is there anything I can do? If I didn't do a good job explaining the problem, don't hesitate for clarification. Thanks

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• Why does resolveBinding() return null even though I setResolveBindings(true) on my ASTParser?

  - by Woody Zenfell III

  I am writing an Eclipse plug-in that uses JDT AST's ASTParser to parse a method. I am looking within that method for the creation of a particular type of object. When I find a ClassInstanceCreation, I call getType() on it to see what type is being instantiated. I want to be sure that the fully-resolved type being dealt with there is the one I think it is, so I tell the resultant Type object to resolveBinding(). I get null back even though there are no compilation errors and even though I called setResolveBindings(true) on my ASTParser. I gave my ASTParser (via setSource()) the ICompilationUnit that contains my method, so the parser has access to the entire workspace context. final IMethod method = ...; final ASTParser parser = ASTParser.newParser(AST.JLS3); parser.setResolveBindings(true); parser.setSource(method.getCompilationUnit()); parser.setSourceRange(method.getSourceRange().getOffset(), method.getSourceRange().getLength()); parser.setKind(ASTParser.K_CLASS_BODY_DECLARATIONS); final TypeDeclaration astRoot = (TypeDeclaration) parser.createAST(null); final ClassInstanceCreation classInstanceCreation = walkAstAndFindMyExpression(astRoot); final Type instantiatedType = classInstanceCreation.getType(); System.out.println("BINDING: " + instantiatedType.resolveBinding()); Why does resolveBinding() return null? How can I get the binding information?

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• SQL Saturday 43 in Redmond

  - by AjarnMark

  I attended my first SQLSaturday a couple of days ago, SQLSaturday #43 in Redmond (at Microsoft).  I got there really early, primarily because I forgot how fast I can get there from my home when nobody else is on the road.  On a weekday in rush hour traffic, that would have taken two hours to get there.  I gave myself 90 minutes, and actually got there in about 45.  Crazy! I made the mistake of going to the main Microsoft campus, but that’s not where the event was being held.  Instead it was in a big Microsoft conference center on the other side of the highway.  Fortunately, I had the address with me and quickly realized my mistake.  When I got back on track, I noticed that there were bright yellow signs out on the street corner that looked like they said they were for SOL Saturday, which actually was appropriate since it was the sunniest day around here in a long time. Since I was there so early, the registration was just getting setup, so I found Greg Larsen who was coordinating things and offered to help.  He put me to work with a group of people organizing the pre-printed raffle tickets and stuffing swag bags. I had never been to a SQLSaturday before this one, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect even though I have read about a few on some blogs.  It makes sense that each one will be a little bit different since they are almost completely volunteer driven, and the whole concept is still in its early stages.  I have been to the PASS Summit for the last several years, and was hoping for a smaller version of that.  Now, it’s not really fair to compare one free day of training run entirely by volunteers with a multi-day, $1,000+ event put on under the direction of a professional event management company.  But there are some parallels. At this SQLSaturday, there was no opening general session, just coffee and pastries in the common area / expo hallway and straight into the first group of sessions.  I don’t know if that was because there was no single room large enough to hold everyone, or for other reasons.  This worked out okay, but the organization guy in me would have preferred to have even a 15 minute welcome message from the organizers with a little overview of the day.  Even something as simple as, “Thanks to persons X, Y, and Z for helping put this together…Sessions will start in 20 minutes and are all in rooms down this hallway…the bathrooms are on the other side of the conference center…lunch today is pizza and we would like to thank sponsor Q for providing it.”  It doesn’t need to be much, certainly not a full-blown Keynote like at the PASS Summit, but something to use as a rallying point to pull everyone together and get the day off to an official start would be nice.  Again, there may have been logistical reasons why that was not feasible here.  I’m just putting out my thoughts for other SQLSaturday coordinators to consider. The event overall was great.  I believe that there were over 300 in attendance, and everything seemed to run smoothly.  At least from an attendee’s point of view where there was plenty of muffins in the morning and pizza in the afternoon, with plenty of pop to drink.  And hey, if you’ve got the food and drink covered, a lot of other stuff could go wrong and people will be very forgiving.  But as I said, everything appeared to run pretty smoothly, at least until Buck Woody showed up in his Oracle shirt.  Other than that, the volunteers did a great job! I was a little surprised by how few people in my own backyard that I know.  It makes sense if you really think about it, given how many companies must be using SQL Server around here.  I guess I just got spoiled coming into the PASS Summit with a few contacts that I already knew would be there.  Perhaps I have been spending too much time with too few people at the Summits and I need to step out and meet more folks.  Of course, it also is different since the Summit is the big national event and a number of the folks I know are spread out across the country, so the Summit is the only time we’re all in the same place at the same time.  I did make a few new contacts at SQLSaturday, and bumped into a couple of people that I knew (and a couple others that I only knew from Twitter, and didn’t even realize that they were here in the area). Other than the sheer entertainment value of Buck Woody’s session, the one that was probably the greatest value for me was a quick introduction to PowerShell.  I have not done anything with it yet, but I think it will be a good tool to use to implement my plans for automated database recovery testing.  I saw just enough at the session to take away some of the intimidation factor, and I am getting ready to jump in and see what I can put together in the next few weeks.  And that right there made the investment worthwhile.  So I encourage you, if you have the opportunity to go to a SQLSaturday event near you, go for it!

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• 80% off for SQL Azure!

  - by Hugo Kornelis

  I have spent the last three days at SQLBits X in London – a truly great experience! There were lots of quality sessions, but I also enjoyed meeting new people and catching up with old friends. One of these friends (and I hope he’s still a friend after I post this) is Buck Woody . Not only a great and humorous speaker, but also a very nice fellow – for those who don’t mind being teased every now and then. When we were chatting, he told me that he was planning to announce a special access code to allow...(read more)

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• Backup a Single Table in SQL Server using SSMS

  - by Greg Low

  Our buddy Buck Woody made an interesting post about a common question: "How do I back up a single table in SQL Server?" That got me thinking about what a backup of a table really is. BCP is often used to get the data but you want the schema as well. For reasonable-sized tables, the easiest way to do this now is to create a script using SQL Server Management Studio. To do this, you: 1. Right-click the database (note not the table) 2. Choose Tasks > Generate Scripts 3. In the Choose Objects pane,...(read more)

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• SQL Saturday #310 - Dublin, Ireland

  SQL Saturday is coming to Dublin on September 20, 2014. Come for a free day of SQL Server training and networking. This year's conference features a mix of levels, topics, and speakers like Buck Woody (Big Data), Jen Stirrup (PowerBI), Denny Cherry (Storage), Red Gate's Tom Austin (Continuous integration), and more. Register while space is available. Need to compare and sync database schemas?Let SQL Compare do the hard work. ”With the productivity I'll get out of this tool, it's like buying time.” Robert Sondles. Download a free trial.

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• How do I install a CentOS 5.5 in Xenserver?

  - by deweller

  When I try to install CentOS 5.5 in a new VM, I get an error that the installer is unable to retrieve stage2.img. I have verified the URL and I am able to download this file from a web browser. I suspect it is a networking/routing issue, but I can't figure out what is wrong. This is a new install of XenServer 5.6 on a new server. This server is remote, so I don't have physical access to the box - only ssh access. Can anyone give me some tips on what might be wrong here? Do I need to do something special to get a net install to work? For what its worth, I see the same error trying to install Debian Woody using a similar process. Thanks.

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• Minimum size of a boot partition on debian

  - by zebonaut

  I'm setting up an old box with Debian. First etch (4.0), because this is the last version that still had boot floppies, then the box is to be upgraded to lenny (5.0) and squeeze (6.0). Therefore, I will end up having a a couple of different kernel versions in the boot partition. If I don't want to be wasteful and if I end up needing a separate boot partition, how large should it be? I've used 10 MB long ago, but that was woody, and only one kernel in the boot partition, and this seems to be too small for what I want to do now.

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• SQL Cruise Alaska 2011

  - by Grant Fritchey

  I had the extreme good fortune to get sent on the last SQL Cruise to Alaska. I love my job. In case you don't what this is, SQL Cruise is a trip on a cruise ship during which you get to attend classes while on the boat, learning all about SQL Server and related topics as well as network with the instructors and the other Cruisers. Frankly, it's amazing. Classes ran from Monday, 5/30, to Saturday, 6/4. The networking was constant, between classes, at night on cruise ship, out on excursions in Alaskan rainforests and while snorkeling in ocean waters. Here's a run down of the experience from my point of view. Because I couldn't travel out 2 days early, I missed the BBQ that occurred the day before the cruise when many of the Cruisers received their swag bags. Some of that swag came from Red Gate. I researched what was useful on a cruise like this and purchased small flashlights and binoculars for all the Cruisers. The flashlights were because, depending on your cabin, ships can be very dark. The binoculars were so that the cruisers could watch all the beautiful landscape as it flowed by. I would have liked to have been there when the bags were opened, but I heard from several people that they appreciated the gifts. Cruisers "In" the hot tub. Pictured: Marjory Woody, Michele Grondin, Kyle Brandt, Grant Fritchey, John Halunen Sunday I went to board the ship with my wife. We had a bit of an adventure because I messed up our documents. It all worked out and we got on board to meet up at the back of the boat at one of the outdoor bars with the other Cruisers, thanks to tweets letting everyone know where to go. That was the end of electronic coordination on the trip (connectivity in Alaska was horrible for everyone except AT&T). The Cruisers were a great bunch of people and it was a real honor to meet them and get to spend time with them. After everyone settled into their cabins, our very first activity was a contest, sponsored by Red Gate. The Cruisers, in an effort to get to know each other and the ship, were required to go all over taking various photographs, some of them hilarious. The winning team of three would all win prizes. Some of the significant others helped out and I tagged along with a team that tied for first but lost the coin toss. The winning team consisted of Christina Leo (blog|twitter), Ryan Malcom (twitter), Neil Hambly (blog|twitter). They then had to do math and identify the cabin with the lowest prime number, oh, and get a picture of it and be the first to get back up to the bar where we were waiting. Christina came in first and very happily carried home an Ipad2. Ryan won a 1TB portable hard drive and Neil won a wireless mouse (picture below, note my special SQL Server Central Friday Shirt. Thanks Steve (blog|twitter)). Winners: Christina Leo, Neil Hambly, Ryan Malcolm. Just Lucky: Grant Fritchey Monday morning classes started. Buck Woody (blog|twitter) was a special guest speaker on this cruise. His theme was "Three C's on the High Seas: Career, Communication and Cloud." The first session was all on Career. I'm not going to type out all my notes from the session, but let's just say, if you get the chance to hear Buck talk about how to manage your career, I suggest you attend. I have a ton of blog posts that I'll be putting together over the next several months (yes, months) both here and over on ScaryDBA. I also have a bunch of work I'm going to be doing to get my career performance bumped up a notch or two (and let's face it, that won't be easy). Later on Monday, Tim Ford (blog|twitter) did a session on DMOs. Specifically the session was on Tim's Period Table of DMOs that he has put together, and how to use some of the more interesting DMOs in your day to day job. It was a great session, packed with good information. Next, Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) did a session on how to monitor and guide SAN configuration for the DBA that doesn't have access to the SAN. That was some seriously useful information. Tuesday morning we only had a single class. Kendra Little (blog|twitter) taught us all about "No Lock for Yes Fun".  It was all about the different transaction isolation levels and how they work. There is so often confusion in this area and Kendra does a great job in clarifying the information. Also, she tosses in her excellent drawings to liven up the presentation. Then it was excursion time in Juneau. My wife and I, along with several other Cruisers, took a hike up around the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely beautiful weather and walking through the Alaskan rain forest was a treat. Our guide, Jason, was a great guy and it was a good day of hiking. Wednesday was an all day excursion in Skagway. My wife and I took the "Ghost and Good Time Girls" walking tour that ended up at a bar that used to be a brothel, the Red Onion. It was a great history of the town. We went back out and hit a few museums and exhibits. We also hiked up the side of the mountain to see the Dewey Lake and some great views of the town. Finally we hiked out to the far side of town to see the Gold Rush cemetery. Hiking done we went back to the boat and had a quiet dinner on our own. Thursday we cruised through Glacier Bay and saw at least four different glaciers including sitting next to the Marjory Glacier for  about an hour. It was amazing. Then it got better. We went into class with Buck again, this time to talk about Communication. Again, I've got pages of notes that I'm going to be referring back to for some time to come. This was an excellent opportunity to learn. Snorkelers: Nicole Bertrand, Aaron Bertrand, Grant Fritchey, Neil Hambly, Christina Leo, John Robel, Yanni Robel, Tim Ford Friday we pulled into Ketchikan. A bunch of us went snorkeling. Yes, snorkeling. Yes, in Alaska. Yes, snorkeling in the ocean in Alaska. It was fantastic. They had us put on 7mm thick wet suits (an adventure all by itself) so it was basically warm the entire time we were in the water (except for the occasional squirt of cold water down my back). Before we got in the water a bald eagle flew up and landed about 15 feet in front of us, which was just an incredible event. Then our guide pointed out about 14 other eagles in the area, hanging out in the trees. Wow! The water was pretty clear and there was a ton of things to see. That was absolutely a blast. Back on the boat I presented a session called Execution Plans: The Deep Dive (note the nautical theme). It seemed to go over well and I had several good questions come out of the session that will lead to new blog posts. After I presented, it was Aaron Bertrand's (blog|twitter) turn. He did a session on "What's New in Denali" that provided a lot of great information. He was able to incorporate new things straight out of Tech-Ed, so this was expanded beyond his usual presentation. The man really knows what he's talking about and communicates it well. Saturday we were travelling so there was time for a bunch of classes. Jeremiah Peschka (blog|twitter) did a great overview of some of the NoSQL databases and what they should be used for. The session was called "The Database is Dead" but it was really about how there are specific uses for these databases that SQL Server doesn't fill, but also that these databases can't replace SQL Server in other areas. Again, good material. Brent Ozar presented again with a session on Defensive Indexing. It was an overview of how indexes work and a deep dive into how to apply them appropriately in your databases to better support access. A good session, as you would expect. Then we pulled into Victoria, BC, in Canada and had a nice dinner with several of the Cruisers, including Denny Cherry (blog|twitter). After that it was back to Seattle on Sunday. By the way, the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle isn't a Science Fiction Museum any more. I was very disappointed to discover this. Overall, it was a great experience. I'm extremely appreciative of Red Gate for sending me and for Tim, Brent, Kendra and Jeremiah for having me. The other Cruisers were all amazing people and it was an honor & privilege to meet them and spend time with them. While this was a seriously fun time, it was also a very serious training opportunity with solid information coming from seasoned industry pros.

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• 48hrs in Cambridge.

  - by Fatherjack

  In just over 2 weeks something pretty big in the SQL Server Community in the UK is taking place. We are going to witness the first SQL Saturday on these shores. The event is running in Cambridge, the home of the SQL Cambs user group and the chapter leader there (Mark Broadbent) is the lead on the SQL Saturday event too. Mark and his team are making final preparations and looking forward to this event getting started with the Pre-Con day on Friday 7th Sept. They have 3 great sessions from Buck Woody, Jen Stirrup and Mark Rasmussen for those lucky enough to be able to attend on the Friday. There are over 30 speakers providing 4 tracks of sessions on the Saturday so there will be plenty to interest and inform anyone working with SQL Server, take a look at all the sessions on the schedule. In addition to all of this you will be able to spend some quality time talking to all the other attendees, sponsors and PASS representatives to make the most of your time there. If you haven’t registered yet then head over to http://sqlcambs.org.uk/ and get your name down to attend this milestone event.

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• Two Sessions All Humans Should Watch Right Now

  - by Geertjan

  At conferences, I definitely prefer technical sessions over any other kind of session. That's partly because I want to walk away from a conference with new libraries and APIs to play with, such as the AT&T ARO tool that I've been blogging about over the past few days thanks to being introduced to it in a great session by Doug Sillars at Oredev, in Malmo, Sweden. I only say the above to set the scene. And the scene is that I avoid sessions that deal with "agile topics" or whatever that means. I mean those sessions where you're meant to reflect on some way you're developing nothing in particular and then come away with new ways of doing that. I avoid those. Not because I don't necessarily like those or think I have nothing to learn, both of which I don't (or do, depending on how you read double negatives), but because there are so many sessions to attend that I focus on those that actually give me more technical knowledge that I can do something with immediately. Having said all that, here's two absolutely wonderful sessions (and probably many more but I really liked these two) presented at Oredev over the last few days, one by JB Rainsberger and the other by Woody Zuill, both very nice people who I met for the first time during the last few days, and who aren't paying me to promote them, and who're still struggling to figure out how to say my name. Whether you're a developer or manager or whatever you are, take this on trust, and simply watch these screencasts, hey, at most you're going to lose two hours of your life that you would've spent doing something else: Speaking for myself, I'm going to be watching both these presentations again several times in my life, that's for sure.

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• SQLAuthority News – SQLPASS Nov 8-11, 2010-Seattle – An Alternative Look at Experience

  - by pinaldave

  I recently attended most prestigious SQL Server event SQLPASS between Nov 8-11, 2010 at Seattle. I have only one expression for the event - Best Summit Ever This year the summit was at its best. Instead of writing about my usual routine or the event, I am going to write about the interesting things I did and how I felt about it! Best Summit Ever Trip to Seattle! This was my second trip to Seattle this year and the journey is always long. Here is the travel stats on how long it takes to get to Seattle: 24 hours official air time 36 hours total travel time (connection waits and airport commute) Every time I travel to USA I gain a day and when I travel back to home, I lose a day. However, the total traveling time is around 3 days. The journey is long and very exhausting. However, it is all worth it when you’re attending an event like SQLPASS. Here are few things I carry when I travel for a long journey: Dry Snack packs – I like to have some good Indian Dry Snacks along with me in my backpack so I can have my own snack when I want Amazon Kindle – Loaded with 80+ books A physical book – This is usually a very easy to read book I do not watch movies on the plane and usually spend my time reading something quick and easy. If I can go to sleep, I go for it. I prefer to not to spend time in conversation with the guy sitting next to me because usually I end up listening to their biography, which I cannot blog about. Sheraton Seattle SQLPASS In any case, I love to go to Seattle as the city is great and has everything a brilliant metropolis has to offer. The new Light Train is extremely convenient, and I can take it directly from the airport to the city center. My hotel, the Sheraton, was only few meters (in the USA people count in blocks – 3 blocks) away from the train station. This time I saved USD 40 each round trip due to the Light Train. Sessions I attended! Well, I really wanted to attend most of the sessions but there was great dilemma of which ones to choose. There were many, many sessions to be attended and at any given time there was more than one good session being presented. I had decided to attend sessions in area performance tuning and I attended quite a few sessions this year, compared to what I was able to do last year. Here are few names of the speakers whose sessions I attended (please note, following great speakers are not listed in any order. I loved them and I enjoyed their sessions): Conor Cunningham Rushabh Mehta Buck Woody Brent Ozar Jonathan Kehayias Chris Leonard Bob Ward Grant Fritchey I had great fun attending their sessions. The sessions were meaningful and enlightening. It is hard to rate any session but I have found that the insights learned in Conor Cunningham’s sessions are the highlight of the PASS Summit. Rushabh Mehta at Keynote SQLPASS   Bucky Woody and Brent Ozar I always like the sessions where the speaker is much closer to the audience and has real world experience. I think speakers who have worked in the real world deliver the best content and most useful information. Sessions I did not like! Indeed there were few sessions I did not like it and I am not going to name them here. However, there were strong reasons I did not like their sessions, and here is why: Sessions were all theory and had no real world connections. All technical questions ended with confusing answers (lots of “I will get back to you on it,” “it depends,” “let us take this offline” and many more…) “I am God” kind of attitude in the speakers For example, I attended a session of one very well known speaker who is a specialist for one particular area. I was bit late for the session and was surprised to see that in a room that could hold 350 people there were only 30 attendees. After sitting there for 15 minutes, I realized why lots of people left. Very soon I found I preferred to stare out the window instead of listening to that particular speaker. One on One Talk! Many times people ask me what I really like about PASS. I always say the experience of meeting SQL legends and spending time with them one on one and LEARNING! Here is the quick list of the people I met during this event and spent more than 30 minutes with each of them talking about various subjects: Pinal Dave and Brad Shulz Pinal Dave and Rushabh Mehta Michael Coles and Pinal Dave Rushabh Mehta – It is always pleasure to meet with him. He is a man with lots of energy and a passion for community. He recently told me that he really wanted to turn PASS into resource for learning for every SQL Server Developer and Administrator in the world. I had great in-depth discussion regarding how a single person can contribute to a community. Michael Coles – I consider him my best friend. It is always fun to meet him. He is funny and very knowledgeable. I think there are very few people who are as expert as he is in encryption and spatial databases. Worth meeting him every single time. Glenn Berry – A real friend of everybody. He is very a simple person and very true to his heart. I think there is not a single person in whole community who does not like him. He is a friends of all and everybody likes him very much. I once again had time to sit with him and learn so much from him. As he is known as Dr. DMV, I can be his nurse in the area of DMV. Brad Schulz – I always wanted to meet him but never got chance until today. I had great time meeting him in person and we have spent considerable amount of time together discussing various T-SQL tricks and tips. I do not know where he comes up with all the different ideas but I enjoy reading his blog and sharing his wisdom with me. Jonathan Kehayias – He is drill sergeant in US army. If you get the impression that he is a giant with very strong personality – you are wrong. He is very kind and soft spoken DBA with strong performance tuning skills. I asked him how he has kept his two jobs separate and I got very good answer – just work hard and have passion for what you do. I attended his sessions and his presentation style is very unique.  I feel like he is speaking in a language I understand. Louis Davidson – I had never had a chance to sit with him and talk about technology before. He has so much wisdom and he is very kind. During the dinner, I had talked with him for long time and without hesitation he started to draw a schema for me on the menu. It was a wonderful experience to learn from a master at the dinner table. He explained to me the real and practical differences between third normal form and forth normal form. Honestly I did not know earlier, but now I do. Erland Sommarskog – This man needs no introduction, he is very well known and very clear in conveying his ideas. I learned a lot from him during the course of year. Every time I meet him, I learn something new and this time was no exception. Joe Webb – Joey is all about community and people, we had interesting conversation about community, MVP and how one can be helpful to community without losing passion for long time. It is always pleasant to talk to him and of course, I had fun time. Ross Mistry – I call him my brother many times because he indeed looks like my cousin. He provided me lots of insight of how one can write book and how he keeps his books simple to appeal to all the readers. A wonderful person and great friend. Ola Hallgren - I did not know he was coming to the summit. I had great time meeting him and had a wonderful conversation with him regarding his scripts and future community activities. Blythe Morrow – She used to be integrated part of SQL Server Community and PASS HQ. It was wonderful to meet her again and re-connect. She is wonderful person and I had a great time talking to her. Solid Quality Mentors – It is difficult to decide who to mention here. Instead of writing all the names, I am going to include a photo of our meeting. I had great fun meeting various members of our global branches. This year I was sitting with my Spanish speaking friends and had great fun as Javier Loria from Solid Quality translated lots of things for me. Party, Party and Parties Every evening there were various parties. I did attend almost all of them. Every party had different theme but the goal of all the parties the same – networking. Here are the few parties where I had lots of fun: Dell Reception Party Exhibitor Party Solid Quality Fun Party Red Gate Friends Party MVP Dinner Microsoft Party MVP Dinner Quest Party Gameworks PASS Party Volunteer Party at Garage Solid Quality Mentors (10 Members out of 120) They were all great networking opportunities and lots of fun. I really had great time meeting people at the various parties. There were few people everywhere – well, I will say I am among them – who hopped parties. NDA – Not Decided Agenda During the event there were few meetings marked “NDA.” Someone asked me “why are these things NDA?”  My response was simple: because they are not sure themselves. NDA stands for Not Decided Agenda. Toys, Giveaways and Luggage I admit, I was like child in Gameworks and was playing to win soft toys. I was doing it for my daughter. I must thank all of the people who gave me their cards to try my luck. I won 4 soft-toys for my daughter and it was fun. Also, thanks to Angel who did a final toy swap with me to get the desired toy for my daughter. I also collected ducks from Idera, as my daughter really loves them. Solid Quality Booth Each of the exhibitors was giving away something and I got so much stuff that my luggage got quite a bit bigger when I returned. Best Exhibitor Idera had SQLDoctor (a real magician and fun guy) to promote their new tool SQLDoctor. I really had a great time participating in the magic myself. At one point, the magician made my watch disappear.  I have seen better magic before, but this time it caught me unexpectedly and I was taken by surprise. I won many ducks again. The Common Question I heard the following common questions: I have seen you somewhere – who are you? – I am Pinal Dave. I did not know that Pinal is your first name and Dave is your last name, how do you pronounce your last name again? – Da-way How old are you? – I am as old as I can be. Are you an Indian because you look like one? – I did not answer this one. Where are you from? This question was usually asked after looking at my badge which says India. So did you really fly from India? – Yes, because I have seasickness so I do not prefer the sea journey. How long was the journey? – 24/36/12 (air travel time/total travel time/time zone difference) Why do you write on SQLAuthority.com? – Because I want to. I remember your daughter looks like you. – Is this even a question? Of course, she is daddy’s little girl. There were so many other questions, I will have to write another blog post about it. SQLPASS Again, Best Summit Ever! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQLPASS

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – Facebook and Google+

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal on Facebook and Google+ Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you know that Facebook is the first and last word in social networking.  Everyone has a Facebook account – from your local store to the 10-year old school child.  Because of this ability to be completely connected to everyone in your entire life, keeping a Facebook page for a professional business can be tricky. For the most part, I use Facebook strictly for personal matters.  I am friends only with friends I know in the “real” world (as opposed to my “virtual” online friends) and with family, of course.  I chat with friends on Facebook and upload personal photos to share with family who are far away.  I hope this doesn’t make readers from my professional life feel left out.  You can follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SQLAuth, but you should know that Twitter is probably the better place to find updates about SQL Server and my blog (you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pinaldave). There are definitely businesses who keep in touch with their clients using Facebook, but I felt the need to keep my personal and professional life separate.  That’s why I was so excited to find out Google was coming out with their own social media site, Google+.  On Google+ I post some personal things as well, and there is a lot of overlap between what I put on Facebook and what I put on Google+.  But since Google+ has become so popular amongst the “techie” crowd, I have found that it’s a good place to follow some of the stars of the Microsoft world, like Scott Hanselman and Buck Woody. If you are also a member of Google+, I am looking to expand my circle there.  You can find me at https://plus.google.com/104990425207662620918/posts.  Google+ is the newest face in the social media world, and it still hasn’t found a good footing between personal and professional yet.  That’s why I felt it would be a good idea to jump on the site early and help them determine which way to go.  Maybe someday it will be a place where business and personal can mix. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Social Media

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• Before the Summit of 2012

  - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell

  Today, Monday, was the first day of the PASS Summit Preconference training events, but instead I spent the day at the free SQL in the City event put on by Red Gate. For me this was not a financial decision (pre-con sessions cost extra above the general Summit registration) but rather a matter of interest.  I had already included money for pre-cons in this year’s training budget, but none of them really stood out to me, so even if the Red-Gate event were not going on at the same time, I probably would not have gone to any pre-cons this year.  However, the topics being presented at the SQL in the City event were of great interest to me.  There promised to be good information on Continuous Integration and automated deployment of database changes, which lately has been a real hot topic at my work.  And indeed, Red-Gate announced the release of a new tool (still in Early Access Program…a.k.a. Beta) which is called the Deployment Manager.  Since we are in the middle of a TFS implementation project, it will be interesting to see how this plays out and compares to what we put together with the automated builds in TFS.  But, as I understand it, the primary focus of Deployment Manager is not to be the Build process (Red Gate uses JetBrains’ Team City for that in their shop) but rather to aid in the deployment of those build packages, as well as providing easy rollback and a good visualization of which versions of software are in which environments.  It looks promising and I’ve already downloaded the installer package to play with it later. Overall, I was quite impressed with the SQL in the City event.  Having heard many current and past members of the PASS Board of Directors describe the challenges of putting on a large conference, and the growing pains that the PASS Summit has gone through, I am even more impressed that the Red Gate event ran as smoothly as it did.  And it is quite impressive the amount of money that Red Gate must have spent given that this was a no-charge event to attend, they had a very nice hot lunch, and the after-event drinks celebration.  Well done, folks! Of course it was great to hear from a variety of speakers.  Today I listened to some folks from Red Gate like Grant Fritchey (blog | @GFritchey) and David Atkinson (Product Manager for SQL Source Control and now the Deployment Manager tool set); and also Brent Ozar (blog | @BrentO) and Buck Woody (blog | @BuckWoody).  By the way, if you have never seen either Brent or Buck speak, you really should.  Different styles, but both are very entertaining and educational at the same time.  I love Buck’s sense of humor (here’s a tip…don’t be late to Buck’s session or you’ll become part of the presentation) and I praise Brent’s slides.  Brent’s style very much reminds me of that espoused by Garr Reynolds on his Presentation Zen blog (and book) and I am impressed that he can make a technical presentation so engaging. It was a great day, a great way to kick off the week, and I am excited to get into the full Summit!

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• Create and Track Your Own License Keys with PowerShell

  - by BuckWoody

  SQL Server used to have  cool little tool that would let you track your licenses. Microsoft didn’t use it to limit your system or anything, it was just a place on the server where you could put that this system used this license key. I miss those days – we don’t track that any more, and I want to make sure I’m up to date on my licensing, so I made my own. Now, there are a LOT of ways you could do this. You could add an extended property in SQL Server, add a table to a tracking database, use a text file, track it somewhere else, whatever. This is just the route I chose; if you want to use some other method, feel free. Just sharing here. Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall the operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk. And this is REALLY important. I include a disclaimer at the end of my scripts, but in this case you’re modifying your registry, and that could be EXTREMELY dangerous – only do this on a test server – and I’m just showing you how I did mine. It isn’t an endorsement or anything like that, and this is a “Buck Woody” thing, NOT a Microsoft thing. See this link first, and then you can read on. OK, here’s my script: # Track your own licenses # Write a New Key to be the License Location mkdir HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck   # Write the variables - one sets the type, the other sets the number, and the last one holds the key New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseType" -value "Processor" # Notice the Dword value here - this one is a number so it needs that. Keep this on one line! New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseNumber" -propertytype DWord -value 4 New-ItemProperty HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Buck -name "SQLServerLicenseKey" -value "ABCD1234"   # Read them all $LicenseKey = Get-Item HKCU:\Software\Buck $Licenses = Get-ItemProperty $LicenseKey.PSPath foreach ($License in $LicenseKey.Property) { $License + "=" + $Licenses.$License }   Script Disclaimer, for people who need to be told this sort of thing: Never trust any script, including those that you find here, until you understand exactly what it does and how it will act on your systems. Always check the script on a test system or Virtual Machine, not a production system. Yes, there are always multiple ways to do things, and this script may not work in every situation, for everything. It’s just a script, people. All scripts on this site are performed by a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Offer good for a limited time only. Keep out of reach of small children. Do not operate heavy machinery while using this script. If you experience blurry vision, indigestion or diarrhea during the operation of this script, see a physician immediately. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Drag String data from My Cocoa App to Third-Party Cocoa App

  - by Woodster

  Hello, I want to drag a row from my tableview and drop it into any other NSTextField in Mac OS X 10.6, and have a string of text be dropped. Drag and drop already works within my app (between a NSTableView and an NSBrowser), but I have had no success putting any data on the pasteboard that can accepted by apps other than the source application. Here's the code I tried, which I thought would be enough to get hte word "hello" to be 'pasted' when I drop into some other NSTextField: -(BOOL) tableView:(NSTableView *)tableView writeRowsWithIndexes:(NSIndexSet *)rowIndexes toPasteboard:(NSPasteboard *)pboard { [pboard declareTypes:[NSArray arrayWithObject:NSStringPboardType] owner:self]; [pboard setString:@"hello" forType:NSStringPboardType]; return YES; } //-- I never get the cursor that shows me the drop will be accepted, and it just doesn't work. Things I've tried: Using the 10.5 version of the Pasteboard identifier, NSStringPBoardType Using the 10.6 version, NSPasteboardTypeString. Setting the owner = nil, since I'm not providing the data lazily. Using the keyed archiver: [pboard setData:[NSKeyedArchiver archivedRootObject:@"Hello!!"]] None of the above have worked. I think I have the concepts correct: "Encode data, tell the pasteboard what you've got, then give it the data", but since other apps don't recognize it, I suspect I'm not telling the pasteboard the correct datatype. Where am I going wrong? Thanks, Woody

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