Database Mirroring is a popular high availability solution and low-cost alternative to clustering, especially for smaller shops who can't afford the costs associated with SANs and Windows Server Enterprise or for smaller installations where clustering is simply overkill.

I recently set up mirroring for servers in a Windows workgroup and… Read more

I had my telephone interview for the PASS Board of Directors this afternoon and I'm cautiously optimistic that I did well enough to make it on the final slate. We had an hour booked but ended up only taking 30 minutes - I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or… Read more

If you read this week's onnector email you may have noticed that I'm one of the six candidates who have applied for the PASS Board of Directors this year. Campaigning hasn't officially started yet - the Nomination Committee is still in the review process - but I'd like to at… Read more

The 2011 PASS Summit is in the rear view mirror (has it really been almost three weeks now?)...and as always what an incredible week it was! Here were some of the highlights of the week for me:

The People

The number of old friends and new people I see at… Read more

Since announcing #SQLGive earlier this week I'm happy to report that two additional vendors have agreed to host dropoff boxes at their booths - Idera and Quest Software. Here's the full list of where can drop off your donations:

• Perpetual Technologies - Booth #516
• SQLSentry - Booth #512
• Idera -…

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The annual PASS Summit is upon us once again! Here's where I'll be next week:

Monday

• Arriving in Seattle mid-afternoon
• Monday Night Networking Dinner @ Lowell's - 6-9 PM

Tuesday

• Breakfast w\ Andy Warren at Top Pot Doughnuts on 5th Ave. - 6-8 AM
• SQLSaturday Round Table - 10:15 AM …

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After last year's PASS Summit I put my money where my mouth was and said I will do something this year to help the hurting and homeless in Seattle when I return. With less than a week to go until the start of the 2011 Summit it's time to make… Read more

Tomorrow marks the 4th annual SQLSaturday Orlando, held at Seminole State College in Sanford. We've got 46 sessions by 40+ speakers covering Business Intelligence, Database Administration, SSIS, Performance, and more. In addition, we'll have fantastic sponsors onsite to demo their products and what I hope ends up being one… Read more

In recent years solid state drives (SSD for short) have dropped in price enough to be an affordable option in most mid-to-high end laptops & desktops. However, despite their insanely fast IO speeds their limited capacity compared to traditional spindle based storage (HDD) remains one of the biggest drawbacks. This… Read more

I've recently been talking to people looking for DBAs and one of the questions that always gets asked early on in the conversation is "Are you willing to relocate?". It's an easy question to ask but not always easy to answer.  I suspect most people would easily give a yes… Read more

I've done it; I've violated one of the rules I give to people who are interested in blogging: I went dark. It was unintentional, of course, but I'm still guilty nonetheless. The reason? Life's been really busy - both personally and professionally - and I let blogging fall to the… Read more

The 2011 version of SQLSaturday Orlando (officially SQLSaturday #85), a joint effort between Orlando's PASS chapters OPASS and MagicPASS, is taking place on September 24 at Seminole State College. The call for speakers is open through July 24 and there are still spots available. We've got two ways… Read more

Tonight, June 22, at 6:30 PM EDT I'm presenting Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room for the South Florida SQL Server User Group. This is one of my sessions selected for the 2011 PASS Summit in Seattle so by watching you'll get a preview of what… Read more

The official notices went out to speakers last week and I am privileged to have the opportunity to present two sessions at this year's PASS Summit in Seattle (Oct. 11-14). This year there were hundreds of abstracts submitted (I read "over 600" here) for ~70 available regular session spots;… Read more

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some… Read more

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some… Read more

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some… Read more

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some… Read more

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some… Read more

Tom LaRock's (Blog | @SQLRockstar) latest Meme Monday challenge asks: "how many things can go wrong with a database server that are NOT related to a disk drive?" and invites SQL bloggers to list 9 problems in an attempt to come up with 99 total. Here… Read more