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Bradley Ball is a MCITP SQL 2005 & MCTS 2008 DBA with over 10 years of IT experience. Bradley spent 8 years working as a Defense contractor for clients such as the U.S. Army and The Executive Office of the President of the United States. He is currently a Sr. Consultant for Pragmatic Works. He has presented at SQL Saturdays 62, 74, 79, 85, 86, 131, for the MAGICPASS & OPASS SSUG’s, SQL Rally 2011 & 2012, SQL Dev Connections 2012, the PASS Summit in 2011, and is scheduled for the PASS Summit 2012 and SQL Live 360 later this year. He recently finished Chapter 14 of Expert SQL Server Practices on Page & Row Compression and can be found blogging on http://www.sqlballs.com.
SQL Saturday 232 Orlando Call for Speakers!
Hello Dear Reader! We are at that time of the year again. SQL Saturdays are popping up all over the country, spring is beginning to give way to summer, and the planning for SQL Saturday Orlando 2013, aka #SQLSAT232, is gearing up.
This year our team of unbelievable SQL Server…
1 comments, 139 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 3 May 2013
SQL Saturday 215 Deck and Demos Live
Hello Dear Reader! I'm up in Jacksonville for SQL Saturday 215. Today I'm presenting SQL Internals, Backups, and Recovery Models! OH MY!
I'm also going to be the MC for the SQL Iron Chef BI presentation today. Before the festivities being I wanted to upload my deck and Demo, a…
I'm also going to be the MC for the SQL Iron Chef BI presentation today. Before the festivities being I wanted to upload my deck and Demo, a…
0 comments, 135 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 27 April 2013
The 200 Billion Dollar Tweet
Hello Dear Reader! Ever try to convince someone that they should be paying attention to Twitter? A co-worker, Vice President of something or other, CMO, CEO, or CIO?
I’ve had conversations over the years with many people as to why Twitter is important to their business. If they don’t have…
0 comments, 203 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 24 April 2013
DBA Question of The Day: What is SAVE TRANSACTION?
Hello Dear Reader! I was teaching a class in Chicago last week and I got a lot of really great questions.
We only had two days so time was short. I got an email reminder today. So this is the first blog that will answer some questions that I…
0 comments, 23 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 12 April 2013
T-SQL Tuesday #41 Becoming a SQL Server “Presenter” GET INVOLVED!
0 comments, 463 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 9 April 2013
SQL Saturday 203 Boston, Deck and Demos Live!
Hello Dear Reader!
A quick note I'm presenting today at 1:30 pm for SQL Saturday Boston #203.
I'll be giving my presentation on the 4th Floor! The topic today is SQL Internals, Backups, and Recovery Models! OH MY!
Here's a quick link to the deck and the demo's, all…
A quick note I'm presenting today at 1:30 pm for SQL Saturday Boston #203.
I'll be giving my presentation on the 4th Floor! The topic today is SQL Internals, Backups, and Recovery Models! OH MY!
Here's a quick link to the deck and the demo's, all…
0 comments, 118 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 6 April 2013
SQL in Chicago
Hello Dear Reader! I've got some very exciting news! Pragmatic Works is holding a Two Day Performance Tuning Workshop in Chicago Illinois on Wednesday April 3rd and Thursday April 4th. Headlining this act will be the wonderful Kimberly Hathaway(Linked-In), and lil old me!
I was born and lived…
I was born and lived…
0 comments, 189 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 21 March 2013
Windows 2012 for the DBA Setting Your Server to High Performance
Hello Dear Reader! I’ve been doing a lot of work with Windows Server 2012 lately. The interface is wildly different from what we’ve gotten used to in the past.
If you’ve worked with Windows 8 or Windows Phone at all, then the UI will come as less of a shock…
2 comments, 1,656 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 20 February 2013
I'm an Administrator Why Can't I Copy Files
Hello Dear Reader! I've been working on setting up a virtual environment for quite some time. When last I wrote about it, I described issues I was having due to cloning the same server that I had set up as my Domain Controller, Dude Where Did my AD Account Go?…
0 comments, 1,542 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 24 January 2013
Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices Chapter 18 Review Tuning for Peak Load
Hello Dear Reader, early last year I was asked if I would like to contribute to a book. The concept was get a lot of really great SQL People together and let them write a chapter on a subject that they were passionate about. Eighteen different…
0 comments, 216 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 22 January 2013
How Do You Query Maintenance Plan Package Metadata?
Hello Dear Reader! Since I’ve joined Pragmatic Works I’ve learned a lot, seen a lot, and assisted in interviewing a lot. One of the things I’m often asked in the interviewing process is, “What is the best thing about working for Pragmatic Works?” My answer is always the same,…
2 comments, 1,353 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 21 January 2013
Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices
Hello Dear Reader. Every now and then professionally you get to be a part of something really cool. Back in the spring of 2012 Jonathan Gennick of Apress contacted me about participating in a book. His idea? Get together a lot of really amazing SQL Server Professionals in order to…
0 comments, 234 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 15 January 2013
Dude Where Did my AD Account Go? Troubleshooting Duplicate SID's.
Hello Dear Reader! I've been working on Setting up a Virtual Lab in using Virtual Box on my work laptop. I originally thought of blogging through all of this but I've had a few issues. I stepped away from this project at one point in time and was using a…
0 comments, 474 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 21 December 2012
SQL Live 360 Kicks off Today!
Hello Dear Reader! Today in beautiful Orlando FL at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort the Live 360 Conferencekicks off. Live 360 combines 4 different conferences into one. Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL Server, and Cloud & Virtualization all have their own conferences. I’m helping to kick off the SQL Live…
0 comments, 295 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 11 December 2012
PASS Summit Page & Row Compression Deep Dive
Hello Dear Reader! Today is the Big day for me here at the PASS Summit 2012. I'll be presenting the Page & Row Compression Deep Dive today at 9:45 am until 11:00 am in room 305-TCC.
The last day of the Summit is upon us and with it almost over…
The last day of the Summit is upon us and with it almost over…
0 comments, 302 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 9 November 2012
SQL PASS Summit 2012 Keynote Day 1
Hello Dear Reader! I'm sitting in the Keynote now writting up a summary of the event. More to come!
0 comments, 249 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 7 November 2012
DBA Question of the Day: Statistic
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/_barney/5177975707/ |
Hello Dear Reader, yesterday I posed the question to you what are Statistics? We could get down and dirty of how the internals of SQL Server use Statistics (and we will), but first let’s talk about the concept because it is at heart a very simple one.
In America…
0 comments, 266 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 26 October 2012
DBA Question of the Day
When I used to work in an office I had a stack of flash cards and occasionally I'd grab a few, see if I still knew them and the answers and I'd walk around and discuss them with some of the other DBA's.
At Pragmatic Works I do this on…
1 comments, 278 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 25 October 2012
PASS DBA Virtual Chapter Deck and Demo's Live
Hello Dear Reader, I wanted to say a quick Thank You to the PASS DBA Virtual Chapter for having me today. My Deck and Demo's are up on the Resource Page. Thank You to the 150 people who took the time to attend as well! We couldn't do this…
1 comments, 231 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 25 October 2012
PASS DBA Virtual Chapter Trimming Indexes, Getting Your Database in Shape
Hello Dear Reader! Tomorrow at 12 noon eastern I’ll be presenting for the PASS DBA Virtual chapter, click here to sign up for the meeting.
If you aren’t a member of/or familiar with PASS it is the ProfessionalAssociation for SQL Server. PASS put’s together great things for us…
4 comments, 259 reads
Posted in SQLBalls on 23 October 2012