Date: July 21, 2012

Session: So I started this blog…now what?

Abstract:

Ever thought about trying your hand at blogging? Or maybe you’ve started a blog but struggle with what to write about. We’ll take a beginner’s look at blogging and examine what makes a great blog, finding topics, finding… Read more

SQL Audit was introduced in SQL 2008, and for the first time auditing was treated as a “first-class” object in SQL Server, meaning it could be managed by DDL statements.  It was built on the extended events framework and what made it really neat was that the event was recorded… Read more

In my organization, one of my jobs is auditing our database environment.  I’ve been tasked with this responsibility for several years now, and it hasn’t always been easy.  In fact, I used to despise the entire process.  Why?  Because I wasn’t using the right tool for the job.  I didn’t… Read more

Just about a year ago, I talked about the importance of setting goals for yourself, both personally and professionally, making sure they’re lofty enough to challenge you, and making them public in order to hold yourself accountable.  It’s hard to believe a year has passed already, but here we are,… Read more

I think it’s only fitting to follow up a post about performance reviews and self-evaluations with a post about slacking off, don’t you?  All work and no play makes Colleen a very grumpy DBA, and no one wants that.  So today I’m sharing with you some ways to stretch the… Read more

My annual performance review at work is coming up shortly, and this year they’ve decided to do things a bit differently.  For the first time in my career, I’ve been asked to perform a self-evaluation.  There’s no form to fill out.  Overall, it’s very unstructured; we’re simply being asked to… Read more

All this talk of testing backups and data integrity and checksums has me thinking that maybe now would be a good time to discuss page verification options in SQL Server.  Sometimes bad things happen to good SANs and data pages aren’t quite the same when we read them as when… Read more

If you haven’t already heard, Cleveland is hosting SQLSaturday #164 on August 18.  That date is coming up fast and right now we need you (yes you!).  The call for speakers is open for 2 more weeks, so if you’re interested in presenting, submit an abstract.

Cleveland’s last SQLSaturday Read more

Is it just me, or does there seem to be a lot of discussion these days about testing backups and having a good restore plan in place, before you need it.  You don’t want to be “testing” your backups at 3am during a critical restore operation.

Verify Backup Integrity (aka…

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Last time I went through my script to gather server information for my inventory. Today I’m going to go through my script to collect SQL Server instance data. So, I think I made it clear last time that I’m not a Powershell guru, and there are probably countless ways in… Read more

Ok folks, you asked for it. Well, a few of you did, anyway. So today I’m going to share with you my script for gathering server-level information as part of my SQL Server inventory. Now, I want to make one thing perfectly clear before we begin, and I can’t… Read more

As I write this, I’m enjoying a margherita pizza and a Miller High Life in my room.  The SQLSaturday #119 afterparty is probably underway, and I’ll head down in a while, but for now I need some time to decompress, recharge my battery.

I’m whooped.  All-day SQL events or training… Read more

One week from today I’ll be boarding a plane for my very first visit to Chicago* (airports not included).

One week from tonight, I’ll be attending my first speaker dinner.

One week from tomorrow, I’ll be presenting at my first SQLSaturday event.  My presentation,  “So I started this blog… now… Read more

As a blogger, you have several options available to you when it comes to writing posts.  You can write them online, directly inside whatever platform you’re using, be it WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, etc.  If you prefer to write posts offline, you can use a text editor like Word or WordPad… Read more

Lately I’ve taken to watching TED talks in the evening.  They’re thought-provoking, usually entertaining, and, best of all when watching late at night, short.  I have to control myself though, I could spend hours jumping from one great topic to another.  Really, I should probably watch something less thought-provoking right… Read more

Pop quiz!

1. It’s time to true-up with Microsoft, what are your current license counts?
2. Operations needs to schedule maintenance on ServerY, what applications will be impacted?
3. A developer wants to change the password for a certain login, what linked servers will be affected?
4. Are there any databases that haven’t been…

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Last time, I talked about how clients communicate with SQL Server through TDS endpoints and how to disable endpoints to prevent user access. Today we’ll see how we can configure SQL Server to listen on multiple ports through the use of user-defined endpoints.

Create a new TDS endpoint

There can… Read more

In the land of Oracle, if you want to prevent user access to your database, you stop the listener. Without that agent running, you can still connect to the database locally, via shared memory, but all TCP/IP connectivity is disabled. As a DBA, this is pretty handy if you need… Read more

Date: May 19, 2012

Location: SQLSaturday #119, Chicago

Abstract:

Ever thought about trying your hand at blogging? Or maybe you’ve started a blog but struggle with what to write about. We’ll take a beginner’s look at blogging and examine what makes a great blog, finding topics, finding your voice, building… Read more