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  • Win a place at a SQL Server Masterclass with Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal

    - by Testas
    The top things YOU need to know about managing SQL Server - in one place, on one day - presented by two of the best SQL Server industry trainers!And you could be there courtesy of UK SQL Server User Group and SQL Server Magazine! This week the UK SQL Server User Group will provide you with details of how to win a place at this must see seminar   You can also register for the seminar yourself at:www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql More information about the seminar   Where: Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, London When: Thursday 17th June 2010 This one-day MasterClass will focus on many of the top issues companies face when implementing and maintaining a SQL Server-based solution. In the case where a company has no dedicated DBA, IT managers sometimes struggle to keep the data tier performing well and the data available. This can be especially troublesome when the development team is unfamiliar with the affect application design choices have on database performance. The Microsoft SQL Server MasterClass 2010 is presented by Paul S. Randal and Kimberly L. Tripp, two of the most experienced and respected people in the SQL Server world. Together they have over 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server in the field, and on the SQL Server product team itself. This is a unique opportunity to hear them present at a UK event which will:·         Debunk many of the ingrained misconceptions around SQL Server's behaviour   ·         Show you disaster recovery techniques critical to preserving your company's life-blood - the data   ·         Explain how a common application design pattern can wreak havoc in the database ·         Walk through the top-10 points to follow around operations and maintenance for a well-performing and available data tier! Please Note: Agenda may be subject to changeSessions AbstractsKEYNOTE: Bridging the Gap Between Development and Production  Applications are commonly developed with little regard for how design choices will affect performance in production. This is often because developers don't realize the implications of their design on how SQL Server will be able to handle a high workload (e.g. blocking, fragmentation) and/or because there's no full-time trained DBA that can recognize production problems and help educate developers. The keynote sets the stage for the rest of the day. Discussing some of the issues that can arise, explaining how some can be avoided and highlighting some of the features in SQL 2008 that can help developers and DBAs make better use of SQL Server, and troubleshoot when things go wrong.  SESSION ONE: SQL Server MythbustersIt's amazing how many myths and misconceptions have sprung up and persisted over the years about SQL Server - after many years helping people out on forums, newsgroups, and customer engagements, Paul and Kimberly have heard it all. Are there really non-logged operations? Can interrupting shrinks or rebuilds cause corruption? Can you override the server's MAXDOP setting? Will the server always do a table-scan to get a row count? Many myths lead to poor design choices and inappropriate maintenance practices so these are just a few of many, many myths that Paul and Kimberly will debunk in this fast-paced session on how SQL Server operates and should be managed and maintained. SESSION TWO: Database Recovery Techniques Demo-Fest Even if a company has a disaster recovery strategy in place, they need to practice to make sure that the plan will work when a disaster does strike. In this fast-paced demo session Paul and Kimberly will repeatedly do nasty things to databases and then show how they are recovered - demonstrating many techniques that can be used in production for disaster recovery. Not for the faint-hearted! SESSION THREE: GUIDs: Use, Abuse, and How To Move Forward Since the addition of the GUID (Microsoft’s implementation of the UUID), my life as a consultant and "tuner" has been busy. I’ve seen databases designed with GUID keys run fairly well with small workloads but completely fall over and fail because they just cannot scale. And, I know why GUIDs are chosen - it simplifies the handling of parent/child rows in your batches so you can reduce round-trips or avoid dealing with identity values. And, yes, sometimes it's even for distributed databases and/or security that GUIDs are chosen. I'm not entirely against ever using a GUID but overusing and abusing GUIDs just has to be stopped! Please, please, please let me give you better solutions and explanations on how to deal with your parent/child rows, round-trips and clustering keys! SESSION 4: Essential Database MaintenanceIn this session, Paul and Kimberly will run you through their top-ten database maintenance recommendations, with a lot of tips and tricks along the way. These are distilled from almost 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server customers and are geared towards making your databases more performant, more available, and more easily managed (to save you time!). Everything in this session will be practical and applicable to a wide variety of databases. Topics covered include: backups, shrinks, fragmentation, statistics, and much more! Focus will be on 2005 but we'll explain some of the key differences for 2000 and 2008 as well.    Speaker Biographies     Paul S.Randal  Kimberley L. Tripp Paul and Kimberly are a husband-and-wife team who own and run SQLskills.com, a world-renowned SQL Server consulting and training company. They are both SQL Server MVPs and Microsoft Regional Directors, with over 30 years of combined experience on SQL Server. Paul worked on the SQL Server team for nine years in development and management roles, writing many of the DBCC commands, and ultimately with responsibility for core Storage Engine for SQL Server 2008. Paul writes extensively on his blog (SQLskills.com/blogs/Paul) and for TechNet Magazine, for which he is also a Contributing Editor. Kimberly worked on the SQL Server team in the early 1990s as a tester and writer before leaving to found SQLskills and embrace her passion for teaching and consulting. Kimberly has been a staple at worldwide conferences since she first presented at TechEd in 1996, and she blogs at SQLskills.com/blogs/Kimberly. They have written Microsoft whitepapers and books for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, and are regular, top-rated presenters worldwide on database maintenance, high availability, disaster recovery, performance tuning, and SQL Server internals. Together they teach the SQL MCM certification and throughout Microsoft.In their spare time, they like to find frogfish in remote corners of the world.  

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  • What is a good open source software to manage my Tripp-lite UPS (Uninterruptible power supply)

    - by Beatle
    I have a Tripp-Lite Smart150rmxl2ua UPS. The software from their website doesn't seem to work properly. I also tried "apcupsd" which is an open source software which i am supposed to be able to use to manage my UPS and I had no luck with that either since Windows 7 did not want to install and use the drivers since they are "incompatible". Is there another good working open source software out there? It sucks that Tripp-Lite doesn't supply its customers with working software.

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  • World Class Training For Them, an Amazon Gift Certificate For You

    - by Adam Machanic
    We have just two weeks to go before Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp touch down in the Boston area to deliver their famous SQL Server Immersions course . This is going to be a truly fantastic SQL Server learning experience and we're hoping a few more people will join in the fun. This is where you come in: we have a few vacant seats remaining and we need your help spreading the word. Simply tell your friends and colleagues about the course and e-mail me (adam [at] bostonsqltraining [dot] com) the names...(read more)

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  • Get your Master Immersion learning on!

    - by AaronBertrand
    Time is running out to register for the Master Immersion training events being held in Dallas, TX by SQLskills . These particular events will be instructed by Paul Randal ( blog | twitter ), Kimberly Tripp ( blog | twitter ), and Brent Ozar ( blog | twitter ) and reflect the new format for the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program. This means training in the low 4 figures instead of close to $20K, and that you can take at your own pace. We at SQL Sentry ( twitter ) are quite proud to be the exclusive...(read more)

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  • Get your Master Immersion learning on!

    - by AaronBertrand
    Time is running out to register for the Master Immersion training events being held in Dallas, TX by SQLskills . These particular events will be instructed by Paul Randal ( blog | twitter ), Kimberly Tripp ( blog | twitter ), and Brent Ozar ( blog | twitter ) and reflect the new format for the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program. This means training in the low 4 figures instead of close to $20K, and that you can take at your own pace. We at SQL Sentry ( twitter ) are quite proud to be the exclusive...(read more)

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  • SQL UserGroup Events & Service Broker

    - by NeilHambly
    I'm sure you are now aware of the SQL UserGroup events (both in London) on Wednesday 19th & Thrusday 20th evenings, If you have never been to one of the events before then I would highly reconmend attending one or both of them. Covering a wide range of subjects these meetings are an invaluable way to gain insights into various features from SQL experts (both presenters and attendees alike) frequently you will learn new insights and gain different perspectives on how to use those features...(read more)

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  • Is Tripp Lite a trusted brand for a UPS?

    - by David
    I am looking to buy a rack mounted UPS that can take in 208V power and serve up 120V power. A basic APC unit that can do this is $4k. I have found a Tripp Lite model that will work for $2.5k. Is the extra $1.5k for the APC just for the brand? Or will the Tripp Lite serve me just as well? Thanks!

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  • Win a place at a SQL Server Masterclass with Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal... 4 days left

    - by Testas
    Only 4 days left to win a chance to see Paul and Kimberly's  Send a email to [email protected] with Master class in the subject line for an opportunity to win a free ticket to this event   and if you do not win.....  You can also register for the seminar yourself at: www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql  More information about the seminar   Where: Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, London When: Thursday 17th June 2010

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  • Why should you document code?

    - by Edwin Tripp
    I am a graduate software developer for a financial company that uses an old COBOL-like language/flat-file record storage system. The code is completely undocumented, both code comments and overall system design and there is no help on the web (unused outside the industry). The current developers have been working on the system for between 10 and 30 years and are adamant that documentation is unnecessary as you can just read the code to work out what's going on and that you can't trust comments. Why should such a system be documented?

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  • SQLUG Events - London/Edinburgh/Cardiff/Reading - Masterclass, NoSQL, TSQL Gotcha's, Replication, BI

    - by tonyrogerson
    We have acquired two additional tickets to attend the SQL Server Master Class with Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp next Thurs (17th June), for a chance to win these coveted tickets email us ([email protected]) before 9pm this Sunday with the subject "MasterClass" - people previously entered need not worry - your still in with a chance. The winners will be announced Monday morning.As ever plenty going on physically, we've got dates for a stack of events in Manchester and Leeds, I'm looking at Birmingham if anybody has ideas? We are growing our online community with the Cuppa Corner section, to participate online remember to use the #sqlfaq twitter tag; for those wanting to get more involved in presenting and fancy trying it out we are always after people to do 1 - 5 minute SQL nuggets or Cuppa Corners (short presentations) at any of these User Group events - just email us [email protected] removing from this email list? Then just reply with remove please on the subject line.Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal Master Class - Thurs, 17th June - LondonREGISTER NOW AND GET A SECOND REGISTRATION FREE*The top things YOU need to know about managing SQL Server - in one place, on one day - presented by two of the best SQL Server industry trainers!This one-day MasterClass will focus on many of the top issues companies face when implementing and maintaining a SQL Server-based solution. In the case where a company has no dedicated DBA, IT managers sometimes struggle to keep the data tier performing well and the data available. This can be especially troublesome when the development team is unfamiliar with the affect application design choices have on database performance.The Microsoft SQL Server MasterClass 2010 is presented by Paul S. Randal and Kimberly L. Tripp, two of the most experienced and respected people in the SQL Server world. Together they have over 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server in the field, and on the SQL Server product team itself. This is a unique opportunity to hear them present at a UK event which will:>> Debunk many of the ingrained misconceptions around SQL Server's behaviour >> Show you disaster recovery techniques critical to preserving your company's life-blood - the data >> Explain how a common application design pattern can wreak havoc in the database >> Walk through the top-10 points to follow around operations and maintenance for a well-performing and available data tier! Where: Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, LondonWhen: Thursday 17th June 2010*REGISTER TODAY AT www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql on the registration form simply quote discount code: BOGOF for both yourself and your colleague and you will save 50% off each registration – that’s a 249 GBP saving! This offer is limited, book early to avoid disappointment.Wed, 23 JunREADINGEvening Meeting, More info and registerIntroduction to NoSQL (Not Only SQL) - Gavin Payne; T-SQL Gotcha's and how to avoid them - Ashwani Roy; Introduction to Recency Frequency - Tony Rogerson; Reporting Services - Tim LeungThu, 24 JunCARDIFFEvening Meeting, More info and registerAlex Whittles of Purple Frog Systems talks about Data warehouse design case studies, Other BI related session TBC Mon, 28 JunEDINBURGHEvening Meeting, More info and registerReplication (Components, Adminstration, Performance and Troubleshooting) - Neil Hambly Server Upgrades (Notes and Best practice from the field) - Satya Jayanty Wed, 14 JulLONDONEvening Meeting, More info and registerMeeting is being sponsored by DBSophic (http://www.dbsophic.com/download), database optimisation software. Physical Join Operators in SQL Server - Ami LevinWorkload Tuning - Ami LevinSQL Server and Disk IO (File Groups/Files, SSD's, Fusion-IO, In-RAM DB's, Fragmentation) - Tony RogersonComplex Event Processing - Allan MitchellMany thanks,Tony Rogerson, SQL Server MVPUK SQL Server User Grouphttp://sqlserverfaq.com"

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  • Learning about sparse columns and filtered indexes

    - by Christian
    I’ve been brushing up on sparse columns and filtered indexes recently and two resources stood out for me as indispensable so I’d thought I’d share them. Those of you studying for Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server will no doubt have found the Readiness Videos published on TechNet and Kimberley Tripp’s (Blog|Twitter) webcast in this series on Sparse columns provides an excellent resource showing different schema designs and specifically where sparse columns fit in. MCM Readiness Video on Sparse columns by Kimberly Tripp http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ff977043 The second resource is a session from this years PASS Summit (2010) by Don Vilen (Twitter) called Filtered Indexes, Sparse Columns: Together, Separately (AD203). I thought this session was great and in combination with Kimberly’s webcast provides the perfect background for anyone wanting to learn this topic, especially for those studying for the MCM knowledge exam. If you attended PASS you should have a login to stream Don’s session but if not you can buy the official DVD’s from http://www.sqlpass.org The DVDs are worthy investment considering how much material you get access to!   Regards, Christian Christian Bolton  - MCA, MCM, MVP Technical Director http://coeo.com - SQL Server Consulting & Managed Services twitter: @christianbolton

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  • The pros and cons of learning

    - by AaronBertrand
    This week I am at a training course put on by Paul Randal ( blog | twitter ) and Kimberly Tripp ( blog | twitter ) entitled " SQL Immersion ." It is essentially a 5-day deep dive into some of the more important bowels of the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals book they co-wrote with Kalen Delaney, Adam Machanic and Conor Cunningham - with a lot of extra information, insight, experience and interactivity thrown in. I am seeing a lot of benefits from this already. The additional insight around what's...(read more)

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  • Take your colleague to see Paul and Kimberly for free

    - by simonsabin
    I’ve been given details of another great off that you can’t miss out on for the Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp Masterclass next week.   REGISTER TODAY AT www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql on the registration form simply quote discount code: BOGOF and enter your colleague’s details and you will save 100% off a second registration – that’s a 199 GBP saving! This offer is limited, book early to avoid disappointment....(read more)

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  • An XEvent a Day (25 of 31) – The Twelve Days of Christmas

    - by Jonathan Kehayias
    In the spirit of today’s holiday, a couple of people have been posting SQL related renditions of holiday songs.  Tim Mitchell posted his 12 days of SQL Christmas , and Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp went as far as to record themselves sing SQL Carols on their blog post Our Christmas Gift To You: Paul and Kimberly Singing!   For today’s post on Extended Events I give you the 12 days of Christmas, Extended Events style (all of these are based on true facts about Extended Events in SQL Server)....(read more)

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  • Does the tempdb Log file get Zero Initialized at Startup?

    - by Jonathan Kehayias
    While working on a problem today I happened to think about what the impact to startup might be for a really large tempdb transaction log file.  Its fairly common knowledge that data files in SQL Server 2005+ on Windows Server 2003+ can be instant initialized, but the transaction log files can not.  If this is news to you see the following blog posts: Kimberly L. Tripp | Instant Initialization - What, Why and How? In Recovery... | Misconceptions around instant file initialization In Recovery…...(read more)

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  • London User Group Meetings this week (19th/20th May); 26th May-Agile Data Warehousing; 17th June-Kim

    - by tonyrogerson
    Got two user group meetings in London for you, we've also started the Cuppa Corner sessions - the first 3 are up on the site - A trip to First Normal Form, Lookup and Cache Transform in SSIS and Pipeline Limiter in SSIS - we are aiming for at least one per week. WhereScape are doing a breakfast meeting on Agile techniques to Data Warehousing and Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal are over in June for a 1 day master class. Finally a 3 day performance and monitoring workshop on 22- 24th June in London...(read more)

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  • ***Master Class competition extended***

    - by Testas
     We have acquired two additional tickets to attend the SQL Server Master Class with Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp  For a chance to win these coveted tickets In the subject line type MasterClass and email [email protected] before 9pm on Sunday night  The winners will be announced Monday Morning  Don’t worry if you have already purchased a ticket, should you be win, your ticket cost will be reimbursed  

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  • The pros and cons of learning

    - by AaronBertrand
    This week I am at a training course put on by Paul Randal ( blog | twitter ) and Kimberly Tripp ( blog | twitter ) entitled " SQL Immersion ." It is essentially a 5-day deep dive into some of the more important bowels of the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals book they co-wrote with Kalen Delaney, Adam Machanic and Conor Cunningham - with a lot of extra information, insight, experience and interactivity thrown in. I am seeing a lot of benefits from this already. The additional insight around what's...(read more)

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  • Avoid SQL Injection with Parameters

    - by simonsabin
    The best way to avoid SQL Injection is with parameters. With parameters you can’t get SQL Injection. You only get SQL Injection where you are building a SQL statement by concatenating your parameter values in with your SQL statement. Annoyingly many TSQL statements don’t take parameters, CREATE DATABASE for instance, or really annoyingly ALTER USER. In these situations you have to rely on using QUOTENAME or REPLACE to avoid SQL Injection. (Kimberly Tripp takes about this in her recent blog post Little...(read more)

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  • Paul and Kimberly are coming the UK

    - by simonsabin
    Are you working with SQL, if so then attending a Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp seminar is a must. The amount these guys know about SQL is just scary. Their life is so SQL that the last time I was having dinner at theirs they were arguing the severity levels of certain IO error codes. Talk about extreme. Paul and Kimberly are running a Master class on the 17th June at the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow. The normal price is a bargain at £249 + VAT. I’ve managed to negotiate a discount of £100 for my...(read more)

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  • SQL Server Master class winner

    - by Testas
     The winner of the SQL Server MasterClass competition courtesy of the UK SQL Server User Group and SQL Server Magazine!    Steve Hindmarsh     There is still time to register for the seminar yourself at:  www.regonline.co.uk/kimtrippsql     More information about the seminar     Where: Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel, London  When: Thursday 17th June 2010  This one-day MasterClass will focus on many of the top issues companies face when implementing and maintaining a SQL Server-based solution. In the case where a company has no dedicated DBA, IT managers sometimes struggle to keep the data tier performing well and the data available. This can be especially troublesome when the development team is unfamiliar with the affect application design choices have on database performance. The Microsoft SQL Server MasterClass 2010 is presented by Paul S. Randal and Kimberly L. Tripp, two of the most experienced and respected people in the SQL Server world. Together they have over 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server in the field, and on the SQL Server product team itself. This is a unique opportunity to hear them present at a UK event which will: Debunk many of the ingrained misconceptions around SQL Server's behaviour    Show you disaster recovery techniques critical to preserving your company's life-blood - the data    Explain how a common application design pattern can wreak havoc in the database Walk through the top-10 points to follow around operations and maintenance for a well-performing and available data tier! Please Note: Agenda may be subject to change  Sessions Abstracts  KEYNOTE: Bridging the Gap Between Development and Production    Applications are commonly developed with little regard for how design choices will affect performance in production. This is often because developers don't realize the implications of their design on how SQL Server will be able to handle a high workload (e.g. blocking, fragmentation) and/or because there's no full-time trained DBA that can recognize production problems and help educate developers. The keynote sets the stage for the rest of the day. Discussing some of the issues that can arise, explaining how some can be avoided and highlighting some of the features in SQL 2008 that can help developers and DBAs make better use of SQL Server, and troubleshoot when things go wrong.   SESSION ONE: SQL Server Mythbusters  It's amazing how many myths and misconceptions have sprung up and persisted over the years about SQL Server - after many years helping people out on forums, newsgroups, and customer engagements, Paul and Kimberly have heard it all. Are there really non-logged operations? Can interrupting shrinks or rebuilds cause corruption? Can you override the server's MAXDOP setting? Will the server always do a table-scan to get a row count? Many myths lead to poor design choices and inappropriate maintenance practices so these are just a few of many, many myths that Paul and Kimberly will debunk in this fast-paced session on how SQL Server operates and should be managed and maintained.   SESSION TWO: Database Recovery Techniques Demo-Fest  Even if a company has a disaster recovery strategy in place, they need to practice to make sure that the plan will work when a disaster does strike. In this fast-paced demo session Paul and Kimberly will repeatedly do nasty things to databases and then show how they are recovered - demonstrating many techniques that can be used in production for disaster recovery. Not for the faint-hearted!   SESSION THREE: GUIDs: Use, Abuse, and How To Move Forward   Since the addition of the GUID (Microsoft’s implementation of the UUID), my life as a consultant and "tuner" has been busy. I’ve seen databases designed with GUID keys run fairly well with small workloads but completely fall over and fail because they just cannot scale. And, I know why GUIDs are chosen - it simplifies the handling of parent/child rows in your batches so you can reduce round-trips or avoid dealing with identity values. And, yes, sometimes it's even for distributed databases and/or security that GUIDs are chosen. I'm not entirely against ever using a GUID but overusing and abusing GUIDs just has to be stopped! Please, please, please let me give you better solutions and explanations on how to deal with your parent/child rows, round-trips and clustering keys!   SESSION 4: Essential Database Maintenance  In this session, Paul and Kimberly will run you through their top-ten database maintenance recommendations, with a lot of tips and tricks along the way. These are distilled from almost 30 years combined experience working with SQL Server customers and are geared towards making your databases more performant, more available, and more easily managed (to save you time!). Everything in this session will be practical and applicable to a wide variety of databases. Topics covered include: backups, shrinks, fragmentation, statistics, and much more! Focus will be on 2005 but we'll explain some of the key differences for 2000 and 2008 as well. Speaker Biographies     Kimberley L. Tripp Paul and Kimberly are a husband-and-wife team who own and run SQLskills.com, a world-renowned SQL Server consulting and training company. They are both SQL Server MVPs and Microsoft Regional Directors, with over 30 years of combined experience on SQL Server. Paul worked on the SQL Server team for nine years in development and management roles, writing many of the DBCC commands, and ultimately with responsibility for core Storage Engine for SQL Server 2008. Paul writes extensively on his blog (SQLskills.com/blogs/Paul) and for TechNet Magazine, for which he is also a Contributing Editor. Kimberly worked on the SQL Server team in the early 1990s as a tester and writer before leaving to found SQLskills and embrace her passion for teaching and consulting. Kimberly has been a staple at worldwide conferences since she first presented at TechEd in 1996, and she blogs at SQLskills.com/blogs/Kimberly. They have written Microsoft whitepapers and books for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, and are regular, top-rated presenters worldwide on database maintenance, high availability, disaster recovery, performance tuning, and SQL Server internals. Together they teach the SQL MCM certification and throughout Microsoft.In their spare time, they like to find frogfish in remote corners of the world.   Speaker Testimonials  "To call them good trainers is an epic understatement. They know how to deliver technical material in ways that illustrate it well. I had to stop Paul at one point and ask him how long it took to build a particular slide because the animations were so good at conveying a hard-to-describe process." "These are not beginner presenters, and they put an extreme amount of preparation and attention to detail into everything that they do. Completely, utterly professional." "When it comes to the instructors themselves, Kimberly and Paul simply have no equal. Not only are they both ultimate authorities, but they have endless enthusiasm about the material, and spot on delivery. If either ever got tired they never showed it, even after going all day and all week. We witnessed countless demos over the course of the week, some extremely involved, multi-step processes, and I can’t recall one that didn’t go the way it was supposed to." "You might think that with this extreme level of skill comes extreme levels of egotism and lack of patience. Nothing could be further from the truth. ... They simply know how to teach, and are approachable, humble, and patient." "The experience Paul and Kimberly have had with real live customers yields a lot more information and things to watch out for than you'd ever get from documentation alone." “Kimberly, I just wanted to send you an email to let you know how awesome you are! I have applied some of your indexing strategies to our website’s homegrown CMS and we are experiencing a significant performance increase. WOW....amazing tips delivered in an exciting way!  Thanks again” 

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  • Fragmented Log files could be slowing down your database

    - by Fatherjack
    Something that is sometimes forgotten by a lot of DBAs is the fact that database log files get fragmented in the same way that you get fragmentation in a data file. The cause is very different but the effect is the same – too much effort reading and writing data. Data files get fragmented as data is changed through normal system activity, INSERTs, UPDATEs and DELETEs cause fragmentation and most experienced DBAs are monitoring their indexes for fragmentation and dealing with it accordingly. However, you don’t hear about so many working on their log files. How can a log file get fragmented? I’m glad you asked. When you create a database there are at least two files created on the disk storage; an mdf for the data and an ldf for the log file (you can also have ndf files for extra data storage but that’s off topic for now). It is wholly possible to have more than one log file but in most cases there is little point in creating more than one as the log file is written to in a ‘wrap-around’ method (more on that later). When a log file is created at the time that a database is created the file is actually sub divided into a number of virtual log files (VLFs). The number and size of these VLFs depends on the size chosen for the log file. VLFs are also created in the space added to a log file when a log file growth event takes place. Do you have your log files set to auto grow? Then you have potentially been introducing many VLFs into your log file. Let’s get to see how many VLFs we have in a brand new database. USE master GO CREATE DATABASE VLF_Test ON ( NAME = VLF_Test, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test.mdf', SIZE = 100, MAXSIZE = 500, FILEGROWTH = 50 ) LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5MB, MAXSIZE = 250MB, FILEGROWTH = 5MB ); go USE VLF_Test go DBCC LOGINFO; The results of this are firstly a new database is created with specified files sizes and the the DBCC LOGINFO results are returned to the script editor. The DBCC LOGINFO results have plenty of interesting information in them but lets first note there are 4 rows of information, this relates to the fact that 4 VLFs have been created in the log file. The values in the FileSize column are the sizes of each VLF in bytes, you will see that the last one to be created is slightly larger than the others. So, a 5MB log file has 4 VLFs of roughly 1.25 MB. Lets alter the CREATE DATABASE script to create a log file that’s a bit bigger and see what happens. Alter the code above so that the log file details are replaced by LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 1GB, MAXSIZE = 25GB, FILEGROWTH = 1GB ); With a bigger log file specified we get more VLFs What if we make it bigger again? LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5GB, MAXSIZE = 250GB, FILEGROWTH = 5GB ); This time we see more VLFs are created within our log file. We now have our 5GB log file comprised of 16 files of 320MB each. In fact these sizes fall into all the ranges that control the VLF creation criteria – what a coincidence! The rules that are followed when a log file is created or has it’s size increased are pretty basic. If the file growth is lower than 64MB then 4 VLFs are created If the growth is between 64MB and 1GB then 8 VLFs are created If the growth is greater than 1GB then 16 VLFs are created. Now the potential for chaos comes if the default values and settings for log file growth are used. By default a database log file gets a 1MB log file with unlimited growth in steps of 10%. The database we just created is 6 MB, let’s add some data and see what happens. USE vlf_test go -- we need somewhere to put the data so, a table is in order IF OBJECT_ID('A_Table') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE A_Table go CREATE TABLE A_Table ( Col_A int IDENTITY, Col_B CHAR(8000) ) GO -- Let's check the state of the log file -- 4 VLFs found EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- We can go ahead and insert some data and then check the state of the log file again INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 500 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO -- insert 500 rows and we get 22 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- Let's insert more rows INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 2000 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO 10 -- insert 2000 rows, in 10 batches and we suddenly have 107 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); Well, that escalated quickly! Our log file is split, internally, into 107 fragments after a few thousand inserts. The same happens with any logged transactions, I just chose to illustrate this with INSERTs. Having too many VLFs can cause performance degradation at times of database start up, log backup and log restore operations so it’s well worth keeping a check on this property. How do we prevent excessive VLF creation? Creating the database with larger files and also with larger growth steps and actively choosing to grow your databases rather than leaving it to the Auto Grow event can make sure that the growths are made with a size that is optimal. How do we resolve a situation of a database with too many VLFs? This process needs to be done when the database is under little or no stress so that you don’t affect system users. The steps are: BACKUP LOG YourDBName TO YourBackupDestinationOfChoice Shrink the log file to its smallest possible size DBCC SHRINKFILE(FileNameOfTLogHere, TRUNCATEONLY) * Re-size the log file to the size you want it to, taking in to account your expected needs for the coming months or year. ALTER DATABASE YourDBName MODIFY FILE ( NAME = FileNameOfTLogHere, SIZE = TheSizeYouWantItToBeIn_MB) * – If you don’t know the file name of your log file then run sp_helpfile while you are connected to the database that you want to work on and you will get the details you need. The resize step can take quite a while This is already detailed far better than I can explain it by Kimberley Tripp in her blog 8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx. The result of this will be a log file with a VLF count according to the bullet list above. Knowing when VLFs are being created By complete coincidence while I have been writing this blog (it’s been quite some time from it’s inception to going live) Jonathan Kehayias from SQLSkills.com has written a great article on how to track database file growth using Event Notifications and Service Broker. I strongly recommend taking a look at it as this is going to catch any sneaky auto grows that take place and let you know about them right away. Hassle free monitoring of VLFs If you are lucky or wise enough to be using SQL Monitor or another monitoring tool that let’s you write your own custom metrics then you can keep an eye on this very easily. There is a custom metric for VLFs (written by Stuart Ainsworth) already on the site and there are some others there are very useful so take a moment or two to look around while you are there. Resources MSDN – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179355(v=sql.105).aspx Kimberly Tripp from SQLSkills.com – http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx Thomas LaRock at Simple-Talk.com – http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/monitoring-sql-server-virtual-log-file-fragmentation/ Disclosure I am a Friend of Red Gate. This means that I am more than likely to say good things about Red Gate DBA and Developer tools. No matter how awesome I make them sound, take the time to compare them with other products before you contact the Red Gate sales team to make your order.

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  • Speaking at UK DevConnections in www.DevConnections.com/uk and discount codes

    - by Testas
     HiI will be speaking at the UK DevConnections on Analysis Services at the ExCeL conference centre in London on 13th-15th June 2011. Join top SQL Server names such as Paul Randall, Kimberley Tripp, Simon Sabin and Allan Mitchell ( to name a few), at the IT & DevConnections powered by Microsoft UK  in London on 13th-15th June 2011. With UK DevConnections you can combine SQL Sessions with other Microsoft technology stacks. Microsoft and leading independent industry presenters will deliver in-depth presentations and cutting edge sessions on  SharePoint Windows Exchange and Unified Communications SQL Server Silverlight ASP.Net Virtualisation Cloud and Azure As a speaker I have a discount code that entitles give 20% off the cost to register for IT&DEvConnections in June.  The code is sql-bits, if people register before the 31st March when the Super Early Bird offer ends you will only pay £639.20 +vat (normal price £999)Furthermore, there are preferential hotel rates for this event at: https://logicalvenues.vbookings.co.uk/b/pentonlondon0611/  So if you want to attend a conference with a wide spectrum of technologies, then DevConnections may be up your street Thanks  Chris

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