New Whitepaper: Performance Evaluation of Hosting TempDB on FusionIO

A colleague I work with on the PQO^* Operations SQL V-Team, Jonathan Foster, has authored and published a whitepaper on using FusionIO SSD drives for tempDB performance in SQL Server. I served as technical reviewer and Jimmy May (blog Read more

SQLServerCentral.com, along with Red Gate Software, are glad to announce that nominations for the fourth annual Exceptional DBA Awards are now open. Four years ago, the award was established to help bring about more awareness regarding the importance of the DBA role among the IT community. So far,… Read more

If you have been in the IT field for any length of time, I’m sure you have heard the phrase “Always Be Learning”.  If you want to be successful and make the big bucks, you are going to have to devote a certain amount of hours each week to learning.… Read more

Once again we’re running a contest to find the Exceptional DBA around the globe. I’ve been a judge the last three years, and it’s been a hard choice trying to pick from some great applications. This year the judges are Brad McGehee, Brent Ozar, Rodney Landrum and me.

Nominations are… Read more

Earlier this year, I had started off with a bang. I think I had 51 posts in January with a huge dip now as we approach the end of May. You may be wondering if I burned out or dropped off the face of the earth. Or maybe not.

Long… Read more

It’s been almost two weeks since we wrapped up our first SQLRally, and in some ways it hasn’t quite sunk in that it’s done, and done successfully. It was a long project, one that started with the PASS Board of Directors wanting to do more to serve our members, especially… Read more

Did you ever accidentally close SQL Server Management Studio? And, in closing SSMS, did you get the prompt that says “Save changes to the following items?” And did you, completely unthinkingly, with a query you had just been working on, hit Cancel? Yeah, me neither. What kind of idiot does… Read more

SQL Treeo is free add-in to SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) which enables user to create own folder structures within standard SQL Server nodes. With SQL Treeo you can logically separate your databases, stored procedures, tables, views and user-defined functions directly in standard Object Explorer within SSMS. And finally stop… Read more

I bloog about mysql to sql server migration lastly here Today found very good migration tool Free Downloads: 1. SSMA for Access v5.0 2. SSMA for MySQL v5.0 3. SSMA for Oracle v5.0 4. SSMA for Sybase v5.0 Ref: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2011/04/28/sql-server-migration-assistant-v5-0-is-now-available.aspx

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Hi, All.  Just some thoughts on a passing scene.  Didn't expect to blog today.  Many projects in the queue, but stopped and paused anyway to take a moment to reflect on the ties that bind us. 

Keeping my eyes peeled for worthy news stories and events, I've gotten into a ritual to… Read more

Over time it's easy to lose track of the things you set up to get work done. As a consultant, I have to discover what's set up on a client system. In either case, it's important to know what security settings are in place to know if they're appropriate and… Read more

A discussion of how joins significantly outperform subqueries and how this is more evident when OR conditions are involved.

SQL queries can be written in a number of ways and be functionally equivalent but significantly different speed-wise. A great example of this is the use of cross joins instead of… Read more

I’m working my whole professional work life (around 11 years) with SQL Server, and have see so many pitfalls in configuration options, deployments, and database designs. From all this know-how I’ve done in the past a lot of consulting engagements and have spoken at the various SQL Server conferences across… Read more

I needed an image of a “great idea”, and decided to use a light bulb. I started looking through Flickr and then realized I could just as easily do my own picture. So I enlisted Kendall for this series of shots.

 

We had fun, with Kendall holding some of… Read more

Well not THE Bible, but rather the SQL Server Bible! I’m incredibly excited and proud to say I’ll be one of the primary authors on the 2011 edition (aka “Denali”). Who are the rest of the folks involved on this venture? Check out this great list… Read more

It should come as no surprise that the first topic I am covering this week is communication because the first thing I think anyone should do is communicate that they are troubleshooting an issue. This post will cover why we should communicate then dig into how to put together an… Read more

Wednesday I will be presenting for the PASS BI/DW group a session on Data Mining in Excel.  This is a fun topic that shows how business users can perform data mining on their own inside of Excel.  As usual this is a free event to attend so be sure to… Read more

 Another great event coming to NYC this Thursday, May 26, 2011 @ 6PM!  The NYC SQL Server User Group presents a unique twist on SSRS with SQL Server MVP Edwin Sarmiento.  All the way from Ottawa, Canada, Edwin will be gracing us with his excellent presentation on SSRS. 

So,… Read more

One thing I noticed with SSMS is there is no report on database & log file sizes. I think it’s imperative to be able to tell how your files are using disk space. The first report we are going to create should answer this issue. It will also serve as… Read more

Where do you see yourself in the future? Are you working at the same company, are you working in a similar role, does your current role even exist?

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi

Change has always been a close… Read more