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PASS Summit 2019 thoughts and wrapup

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Holy smokes my brain hurts!  And at the same time it is feeling the joy of learning things I can actually use!

If you are a Dallas DBAs client…you will soon very likely be reaping the benefits of my trip to Seattle for the 2019 PASS Summit.

Its rare, but when I’m really excited I pop for the in-flight WiFi, which is where I sit now typing this up. If you look to my right you can see…clouds.

Stream of consciousness in near chronological order, accompanied by notes where possible:

Day 1

What’s new in SQL Server Tools – Vicky Harp (t) and Udeesha Gautam

Most of this was Azure Data Studio (watch me embarrass myself here), which was clear in the abstract. Very cool tool mostly for devs, but the Notebooks aspect has lots of ways I can send something useful to my clients to review, in one format.  Has a little One Note with code and results feel to it.  Great demo. SSMS is not going away!

Improving Availability with Accelerated Data recovery and Resumable Operations – Pam Lahoud (b|t)

Ever tried to roll back a runaway query that took 4 hours to notice? Reboot the server trying to kill it and that didn’t help?

This is the fix to that nonsense! Off by default, rewrite of the SQL Server Recovery process.  Bang…instant recovery.  Of course there’s some overhead. SQL 2019 and Azure only feature.

Also, “Resumable Index Operations” are now a thing. A cool thing.

After the KeyNote and these 2 sessions, I managed to score a massive headache so no more sessions.

Game night! – sponsored by PASS (Thanks Joe!)

Day 2

DBA Tools – Jack Corbett (b|t)

I’ve already thanked Jack in person twice and online at least that much for this class. If I can only tell you one thing from 3 days of classes its this: “YOU DONT NEED TO KNOW POWERSHELL TO USE THE DBATOOLS COMMAND!!!”  I paid extra for the caps and 2 bonus exclamation points, just for you. That sentence alone has never sunk in to my head.  A whole lot of goodness will flow from that to you.  Thanks Jack!

If you are a junior DBA, you still need to learn the concepts and how to do things in the SSMS GUI/T-SQL, but these tools are a great step for some of the more complex tasks.  Best session of the week for me.

SQL Server in Containers – Grant Fritchey (b|t) – Red Gate vendor session

Awesome – Grant told us early and often that the 1st 2/3 of the session would be vendor agnostic, then move to RG tools.  Many thanks for that clarity!

I tried out Docker 2 years ago in test/dev and had no use case for it. Now I do and saw that some things have gotten easier. I spin up Azure VMs to play with stuff all the time. Now I can accomplish the tasks locally and faster and cheaper! I also learned the difference between images, layers, containers and VMs,  Greatness in a confusing tech stack.

Azure DR strategy – John Morehouse (b|t), with Denny Cherry in the back for additional flavor when needed.

I’ve known conceptually about much of what John presented for a while…but now I have a lot more clarity and insight from a true pro. Plus, some of what I learned at a DeepPockets™ client 2 years ago is out of date or enhanced in Azure

Exhibitor Hall and Beanbag sessions. I got to meet one of my freelancers for lunch so that was cool. Thanks Brendan.

HA/DR – Too many choices – Mike Walsh (b|t)

I go to sessions I know nothing about and sessions I do…this one I knew, and I still learned stuff. Sometimes I go just to see friends speak.  This was that as well as learning. Mike is a great guy running a great company. If you need SQL help, call me first.  If Dallas DBAs isn’t the right fit, Straight Path is.

Game night again!

Day 3 – Friday

Batch Execution Mode on Rowstore – Niko Neugebauer (b|t)

Learned a ton, saw great demos, super fun slides and WOW! Niko is a brilliant and highly entertaining presenter. If you present, go find something he’s done and watch his style.  Its crazy fun.  And the technical content is very solid.

Best Practices for Branching Database Code in Git – Kendra Little and the Corgi Crew (b|t)

I don’t do much in the Git/OSS world and was hoping this would help me pick some of that up along the way, even though this was not a “learn Git” presentation.  It did, and I now feel good about bringing some DallasDBAs internal scripts into a Git/GitHub type repository so the whole team can contribute to them. Maybe then I’ll start contributing to other open source projects.

Great lunch with a good friend I only see at conferences. We solved a few world problems.  Again.

More bean bag time.

Upgrading SQL Server – Mike Walsh again!

I’ve done more than a few upgrades, but I knew Mike and team at StraightPath have a more formal and streamlined process, so I wanted to steal info from a competitor. Is it stealing if he’s up front giving it away and I’m hiding in the front row?

Tap house for dinner, then back to the Sheraton to pack and chill.

I’m over Colorado now✈ .  If this was readable and no spelling errors, that happened at my desk in Dallas.

Look out clients…your stuff is going to get better.  And YES, YOU NEED TO MOVE TO AZURE OR SQL SERVER 2019. There, I said it.  “Mr. Wait and See” is pushing a product 6 days into formal release!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

The Value of Training- Summit 2019

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I sit here writing this on a Sunday morning with coffee nearby, eagerly anticipating this week’s annual PASS Summit. This is my 5th Summit, and 4th in a row. And yes, I pay my own way happily to this conference every year, to the tune about $4000. That’s for everything – conference fee, travel, lodging, food, airport parking. And yes, I bump for better seats on the plane, to avoid being cramped and miserable for 4 hours each way.

But why do I do this? As a self-employed DBA, that’s a lot of money!

Because training.

I’m 50+ (just added the “+” last month) years old. Things in the SQL world are changing faster than ever. In 1999 with SQL 7 there was no cloud. There was a 5 year gap between SQL 2000 and 2005 releases. And to be quite honest, I never had a mentor guiding me. My entire workday was reactive to whatever ticket came along and Yahoo (before Google) or Books Online to figure things out.

That all changed when I got laid off from Verizon Managed Hosting (Now IBM) in 2015. I re-entered the job market with 15 years of DBA history, but severely lacking current skills, and under developed in other areas. RDX confirmed this by not hiring me after some interview rounds.

I had a conversation with myself and decided I needed to get a LOT more structured, develop a plan to get back on track and be as current as I can. I had been on Twitter, MSDN Forums, and other sites long enough to know who some of the more accomplished folks on the DBA side of the world are – specifically I chose to look at what Brent Ozar (b|t), Paul Randal (b|t) and Pinal Dave (b|t) were doing. I had already met (very briefly) the first two and now call Pinal a friend.

I had always shied away from the deeper performance tuning issues, aside from throwing indexes at things and maybe running sp_updatestats (which worked more often than not). Slow performance is one of the most common problems SQL Server customers have. And Availability Groups. I knew nothing about them at the time. So I took a position as a team lead with a small project team in a deep pockets type company and started learning. I read a lot of things. I watched a few webinars. I went to a performance tuning class from Brent that changed everything (I do best in-person, no distractions) for me.

All of this created a new habit in me – seeking out new knowledge and going deeper than the surface level “just get it back online and close the ticket” work I had been doing for years.

Training is critical!

If the folks you report to aren’t allowing you to get training on the job, I submit that either they are desperately starved for cash, or they just really don’t care about your future nearly as much as they should. So, its up to you to train yourself. Read blogs. Help out on forums. Set up a test box in Azure so you can break things and fix them. If you have a local user group go to it, regardless of the topic. Attend a SQL Saturday. Become a member (for free) of PASS to take advantage of webinars and tons of free video content! If you have a few dollars a month, get a Pluralsight subscription. Take charge of your training and your career!

So here I sit. Looking forward to Summit and possibly my last visit to Seattle (next year is in Houston).

While retirement is still 10+ years off I owe it myself, my employees, and my clients to be as knowledgeable as I can be. 3 days of full immersion in Database Administration, Azure and SQL 2019 features. 3 days of getting my steps in by noon and scanning the Community Zone for an empty bean bag. 3 days of seeing friends I only see once a year. 3 days of networking, talking to vendors (Come sponsor SQL Saturday Dallas, yo!), and having a good time. 3 days of #SQLFamily.

Worth. Every. Penny.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Free SQL Server DBA training – Dallas 2019

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Save the Date!

September 18, 2019 – Dallas, TX

8am – 5pm, lunch provided (probably pizza or Jason’s Deli)

Thanks to the awesome folks at Matrix Resources for donating their training room, we are able to offer a one-day DBA Fundamentals training class at NO charge!

This class is designed to be an overview of SQL Server for non-DBAs.  System Admins, developers, Oracle DBAs, Managers and anyone else that wants or needs to know more about how SQL Server works, We have presented this day of training at multiple SQL Saturday events as a pre-conference session.

Previous attendees said:

  • “Very Good excitement & interest in topic”
  • “Very engaging, knowledgeable, friendly.  Good session”
  • “Very informative and gave real life experiences.”
  • “I enjoyed the broad explanations helpful to beginners as well as those who are already DBA’s.”
  • “Kevin/Instructor was very knowledgeable and the information shared in the presentation was clear; presented well. I like the fact that it included to bases for those that were new to SQL”
  • “Perfectly fits the entry level need for understanding SQL Server.”
  • “Easy to understand.”
  • “First 7 or 8 hour presentation that I have ever been to where I did not drift off from the presentation mentally. This presentation kept me 100% engaged every minute.”

Check out this promo video to get an idea of what we will be learning:

Or, the non-video version:

I will teach you SQL Server fundamentals so that you will have confidence in:

• What makes up a SQL Server

• How a database is structured

• How to install and what to look out for

• Finding what you need in Management Studio

• SQL Security Basics

• How to create and manage backups

• How to create a database

• Picking a Disaster Recovery option for your environment

* topics may change on the fly depending on what the class wants

These are taught from a foundational standpoint, in simple to understand terms so that you can build on them with confidence. My teaching is heavy on interaction, with examples from years of experience/mistakes. There will be a mix of slides and demos. I’ll skip many advanced features that are out of scope of a beginner class, as I don’t want your head to explode! Join me for the day and you will walk out with a strong grasp of SQL Admin basics!

A word of caution – if you are already a SQL Server DBA with even a year of experience, you may be very bored in this class…

A special thank you to Pam Gates for helping reserve this training room at no charge to Dallas DBAs, so that we can offer this class for free!

Sign up here! There are only 24 spots available, due to the size of the TV I will be projecting onto.  I might open up more once I go in person and see if the farthest seats can see the screen clearly.

Thanks, and we look forward to meeting you!

Kevin3NF and the Dallas DBAs team

 

 

 

 

SQL Saturday Austin 2019

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Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

 

Come to SQL Saturday in Austin, TX on July 13 for a full day of FREE SQL Server/Data Platform training!

I will be delivering one of my favorite sessions: “Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed” currently scheduled for 1:15PM.

Nope…I’m not at all worried that you might go to Joe Celko’s session instead 🙂

I will also be at the Dallas DBAs GOLD sponsor booth/table all day to talk to you about your SQL Server DBA needs.  Or family.  Maybe sportsball…you decide.  We’re kind of chill around here…

There will be a SQL Server Saturday Super Summer Special Savings offer…make sure to ask! Spoiler: its a discount on our Pocket DBA™ service.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

SQL Saturday Dallas 2019 aftermath…

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The 2019 event was held June 1 on the amazing UT-Dallas campus in the Naveen Jindal School of Management building, which was a nice upgrade from last years event on the same campus but in a different building.

This is not going to be an exhaustive post of all the great sessions, conversations, etc.  Mostly because I was there as a sponsor again this year so I didn’t get to any sessions.  But, I DID get to talk to a massive number of people that stopped by the table.

First off…a shout out to the North Texas SQL Server User Group board and all of the volunteers that dedicated many, many hours of time and sweat (and homes!) to make this thing happen.  The Dallas event is one of the biggest in the world.  The very unofficial count of attendees I *think* I heard was just over 700, from 1100+ registrations.

A second shout out to our sponsors that made this event possible.  Their dollars made it easy to do all we wanted to for the speakers, volunteers and attendees.  From high quality speaker gifts to cool attendee bags, to a great fajita lunch.  And cookies.  And lots of coffee all day long!

There were 4 fantastic pre-conferences to choose from.  As a full-time DBA I decided to learn something new and went to Adam Saxton‘s Power BI class.

Adam, aka ‘Guy In A Cube’

The other 3 pre-cons were from Brent Ozar (sold out twice), Andy Leonard (b|t) and Chris Hyde (t)…all fantastic teachers and overall nice humans.

After the pre-cons, NTSSUG board member Fernando hosted the traditional Speaker Dinner at his home in North Dallas.  Fernando is a brave, brave man.  The only pic I got was of the Tres Leches cake, already partly demolished:

I love the speaker dinners, as it gives me a chance to hang out with people in a low-key environment.  A stark contrast to trying to catch up at something like PASS Summit, which takes SQL geek craziness to a whole ‘nother level.

Saturday

As a Gold sponsor of this event, I got good placement of my booth, and was close enough to the NTSSUG booth to be able to help out there as well.  Brent was kind enough to come by for some pics between sessions:

Brand new DBA (Day 1 on staff) Jeff Miller (t) and Brent

Brent and the entire Dallas DBAs staff

Another benefit for Gold sponsors is the Lunch Session.  I was able to give my “Your SQL Servers are Mi$ConFiguReDed” session to 35-40 people.  I didn’t do a formal count, and this pic is not wide enough to catch those on the far left and right of this room:

This was a great session, as there was some fantastic audience participation…from multiple people!

Something that is a great way to encourage attendees to stay all day is the end of day sponsor raffle.  Sponsor agree to bring something worth $100 or more…must be present to win.  We had 13 sponsors plus PASS and Microsoft, as well as 8 signed copies of Bob Ward’s book, Pro SQL Server on Linux to give away.  There were TONS of people that stuck around for the raffle:

The Grand prize (provided by Microsoft) was a Surface Go!  All the buckets in the pic are the raffle tickets for the sponsors.  Half of them are not showing.

Once again…this was an amazing event.  Last year was great, this was better.  I can’t wait to see how we up our game for next year!

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF

Pluralsight: Getting Started With Your First SQL Server Instance

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Almost a full year after I first thought I might have something relevant to contribute, my first Pluralsight course has been published!

Its called “Getting Started With Your First SQL Server Instance” and is targeted to non-DBAs that want to know more about SQL Server Administration, or just want to understand SQL Server beyond the random Google Search when something breaks.

I’m hoping this is just the first of many “Getting Started…” courses that take SQL Server all the way down to entry-level training so people can learn, then test, then do as they go.

The trailer for the course:

I want to thank Chris and Derek at Pluralsight for their guidance along the way…and a huge shoutout to Eugene Meidinger (b|t) for his valuable input before, during and after the course creation.

Thanks for reading!

Kevin3NF