Working at an ISV like NewsGator Technologies, I get to work on products like Social Sites for SharePoint 2010, that use SQL Server 2008 or greater (along with SharePoint 2010). We don’t require SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, but we try to seamlessly take advantage of it if… Read more

During the PASS Summit I have again been given the opportunity to keep my laptop plugged in… as long as I blog about the Key Notes. So, I’m going to do it, power is hard to come by in that place. Once again I can regale you, near real time,… Read more

Solid state storage has come on strong in the last year. With that explosion of new products it can be hard to look at all the vendor information and decide which device is best for you. Between the different manufacturers using different methods to benchmark their products showing two different… Read more

Solid state storage has come on strong in the last year. With that explosion of new products it can be hard to look at all the vendor information and decide which device is best for you. Between the different manufacturers using different methods to benchmark their products showing two different… Read more

As a busy SQL Server DBA you face an increasing number of daily challenges:
- Managing fast growing data volumes and database environments
- Diagnosing and resolving performance issues
- Effective backup and recovery
- Monitoring and tracking database changes
- Balancing current resources against future capacity needs

Inefficiencies in… Read more

Are you looking for opportunities to show off your elite writing skills and consumate SQL Server knowledge? Want a chance to build up the resume a bit? Are you like me and you have a hard time thinking of ideas to write about? I’ve got a solution for you. There’s… Read more

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we are looking for nominations for the 2011 PASSMN Board of Directors.  PASSMN is the Minnesota Chapter for the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) – otherwise know as a SQL Server User Group.

The call for nominations will officially end on Saturday,… Read more

SQLSaturday #59 Speaker Interview #13 – with Mark Kromer

Today, coming in from Philadelphia, PA, we are talking with Mark Kromer, who is Product Manager, Consultant and Technology Specialist at Microsoft.  Mark is an internationally recognized leader in the business intelligence and database communities, having authored articles and… Read more

I get the call, you get the call, everyone gets the call. “Hey, my app/procedure/query/report is running slow.” Now what do you do? You go to my full day session at SQL Rally, that’s what. Assuming you vote for it.

I didn’t post the abstract I submitted for the SQL… Read more

In order to be able to execute bulk operations you need to certain level of privilege both on the database (table) you are performing the operation against and the instance you are performing the operation on.
If you don't have the necessary permissions you will get an error similar to…

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If you read this blog you probably already know about the PASS SQLRally and that we are doing things a little bit differently for this event.  The first thing that we have done is let YOU decide what we offer for the 4 pre-conference (pre-con) seminars.  We had a… Read more

It’s been a bit hectic this year. In fact, it feels crazy most weeks as I try to manage work, home life, and free time. More and more I have been having a night or two a week where I just want to lay in bed and watch some TV…

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I spent a good portion of last weekend restoring databases from backup due to a large release. Nothing went wrong, luckily, but I was practicing in case something did. It goes without saying that I spent a ton of that time sitting in front of my PC wondering when the… Read more

 

Today we sat through a pizza ‘n pop lunch while listening to a MySQL Offering and Licensing for the company I have been working for as a permanent for about a year now. Since the take-over by Oracle, the joke was that speculators were thinking that the new version… Read more

Earlier this week I posted Bloggers, Quit Worrying About Spam, discussing what I felt was an over-focus on preventing spam in blog comments. I stand by that, but since that post the rate of spam being posted to my blog is up by a factor of 10 or more.… Read more

Quest Software, Inc.  (QSFT 26.15, +0.68, +2.65%) today added Apache Cassandra, an open-source NoSQL database, to its list of supported NoSQL platforms with the second beta release of Toad(R) for Cloud Databases. Toad now supports data access and management for Apache Cassandra, Amazon SimpleDB, Microsoft Azure Table Services,…

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IN SQL Server 2000, we didn’t have the fancy-schmancy Management Studio…we had Enterprise Manager and Query Analyzer, and we liked em, by gum.  You know, give or take.

I am very fond of SSMS, but there’s one small thing I miss about QA and the olden days: You could open… Read more

Do you know a real-life Pointy Haired Boss? Maybe you don’t work for him, but I bet you’ve met one.

In my consulting practice I’ve met a lot of them. They were once good technical people. So good in fact, they got promoted; it’s the natural progression in business. But… Read more

I’ll be presenting a practice run at one of my PASS Summit presentations, Identifying Common Performance Problems using Execution Plans, for Pragmatic Works tomorrow, October 28th. If you can’t make the Summit, please stop by.

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 SQLSaturday #59 - Speaker Interview Series # 12 - with Ayad Shammout

Today, we bring you the immaculate interview.  If his sessions are as efficient and regimented as his answers, then indeed we can look forward to some well-organized and thoughtful presentations from certified expert, Ayad Shammout. Read more