I attended and presented at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta yesterday, where I had a very nice time. Julie Yack did a great job of organizing the free event, which had nearly 700 registrations. There were a lot of sponsors, so there was plenty of food (including breakfast, lunch and… Read more

At the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta this past weekend in Denver, I presented a talk on “Beginning SQL Server”, a high level look at the product for non-technical people: managers, analysts, project managers, even very new technical people. I’ve heard this requested a few times at SQL Saturday events in… Read more

Since I like to measure and monitor things (maybe that is why I am a DBA), and I care about the environment, I installed a TED 5000 and connected it to Google PowerMeter about six weeks ago. Every week, Google sends out an email that summarizes your power usage… Read more

There are some new database roles in the MSDB database in SQL Server 2005 that allow you to grant more granular permission to  non-sa users in the SQL Server agent.

If you work in an environment similar to the one i support, application and database code will pass through several… Read more

Many times when going from demo to development to client demo, we are always starting and stopping our SQL Server services on the laptop very often. This can be a pain when you have to constantly go through the configuration manager. I have taken some common code and put into…

This is day one of my SQL Server blog so I’m not looking to write anything deep or insightful or even useful to the community at large.  I just want to get my feet wet, make sure I know the basic mechanics of how this works, and leave wow’ing people… Read more

It was a good day down in downtown Denver at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta 2.0. I presented a session and moderated another, both of which went well. I have some changes and additions to my “Beginning SQL Server”, but I think it’s close to a great session for non-technical… Read more

Dealing with delimited lists (Usually separated by a comma) in SQL is a problem easily handled by a simple function and a Tally Table.  (Tally tables are also often referred to as Numbers tables or spt_values tables.  If you still don't know what that is, please see this excellent article Read more

For the past several weeks, I have been running a poll on www.bradmcgehee.com, asking visitors if they thought that DBAs should be paid for off-hours work? With 259 votes, its very clear (see the graph below) that most DBAs think they should be paid overtime. Unfortunately, this is usually… Read more

Here is the script that has the diagnostic queries that I will be using during my presentation at the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta on February 27.

-- SQL Server 2008 and R2 Diagnostic Information Queries
-- Glenn Berry 
-- February 26, 2010
-- http://glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/
-- Twitter: GlennAlanBerry

-- Instance level…

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If you’re not reading Buck Woody’s blog, why not? Today he posted a helpful hint for getting performance counters directly out of PowerShell v2. I’ll add a little bit to the hint, don’t try running this on your XP boxes. It doesn’t hurt anything, but you get a helpful… Read more

Article on I/O tips appearing on SQLMag.com

If you've followed my blog, you know I've written on various topics, including I/O stats.  I've expanded and put these tips together, and the editors at SQL Server Magazine were kind enough to carry it.  If you're interested in analyzing and gathering I/O statistics,… Read more

This is an interesting piece, talking about some of the software issues with Toyota and how that might come to be a big problem in the future with cars. As we include more software in cars, we will have more issues, and I am worried.

I recently had an issue… Read more

At the MVP Summit last week, I was talking with fellow Dallas-area tweep Sean McCown about our local SQL Server user group membership.  I think our group is unique because of its sheer size; we typically have between 70 and 90 people at our monthly meetings, with a mailing list… Read more

Just finished re-reading Orbit ($15 or less at Amazon) after picking it up for a $1 at Books a Million on a trip, had read it just after it was first released. The main character is Kip Dawson who wins a free trip into Orbit, and winds up alone and… Read more

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I got some more feedback from my Connect item on allowing snapshot backups. They took notice, but I heard the “this is hard and it takes away from cool items in the next version” message.

That makes sense, and I understand there needs to be some level of progress.… Read more

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If you are near Cambridge, England, I will be speaking at the Cambridge SQL Server Users Group on Wednesday, March 24, 2010.

The meeting will be held fro 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and I will be spending about 45 minutes discussing “How to Use the SQL Server 2008 Performance… Read more

The upcoming SQLBits 6, to be held Friday, April 16, 2010, will be held at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, London, England. This full day, free event will be themed around SQL Server performance and scalability.

Currently, the call for speakers is open, and if you would like… Read more