DBASchool – Practical, Real-World Class for the Rest of Us
I’ll be teaching a class here in our offices for a maximum of 15 people in January. If you’re looking for real-world talk and demonstration of what really matters for SQL Server, this is the class. The class is focused on things that you apply immediately to your work with SQL Server, from versions 2000 to 2005 and 2008, we’ll be looking at performance, security, planning and setup, best practices and so much more. I’ve built labs to work with what I’ll be showing and have ample opportunity to talk about your specific challenges and make sure you can apply what we cover.
If you’d like to join us – please head to the site for details and get registered ASAP. We have special rates at the hotels, we’ve kept the price very reasonable and the course gets RAVE reviews from past students. I hope to see you there, but you do need to register ASAP. You can check out the outline on the site and if you are attending and want to see something specific, please do drop me an email and I’ll do my best to make sure it’s covered – it’s YOUR class.
Here’s the link to the registration site.
Featured Article(s)
Managing external SQL data in SharePoint 2010
Accessing and managing external data in SharePoint was a hot topic for a while. One of the available tools – Business Data Catalog (BDC) was one of the ways to get around the requirement. SharePoint 2010 takes the concept of BDC to the next level. In here, we’ll configure a pretty feature-full SQL data access in about 15 min.
Featured White Paper(s)
The High-Performance DBA
The database administrator’s job continues to grow more challenging as they are called upon to confront new platforms, increa… (read more)
SURVEY IS LIVE!
Our community survey is live and we need your help! Please take a look – while there are a lot of questions, we’ll have the following prizes, and a limited time to respond:
[Take the Survey]
– 5 1-year memberships to SSWUG
– 1 5-year membership to SSWUG.ORG
– 5 Virtual Workshop passes to SSWUG.ORG
– 5 Virtual Conference passes to SSWUG.ORG’s Spring Event
Webcast Tomorrow
7 SQL Server development practices more evil than cursors
Cursors do indeed cause performance issues, but cursors are easy to correct. This session addresses the problem of cursors and then uncovers 7 common practices that are more costly than cursors Based on several years of consulting specializing in optimizing third-party ISV databases, the list of worst practices range from critical database design blunders to indexing errors to T -SQL mistakes. Avoiding the blunders on this list will be the difference between a successful database project and a failure. Not to leave you in the dark, this session will contrast every evil practice with a best practice to solve the problem.
Presented by: Paul Nielsen
> Register Now
> Live date: 12/9/2009 at 12:00 Pacific
SQL Server Versions
Just in case you feel like you’re the only one out there using older versions of SQL Server, fear not. With survey results coming in actively, and lots and lots of people already responding, it’s very clear that SQL Server versions are all over the board in terms of what people are using and supporting. As of this writing, take a look at the versions in use:
SQL Server 4.2 0%
SQL Server 6.5 4%
SQL Server 7 11%
SQL Server 2000 73%
SQL Server 2005 93%
SQL Server 2008 63%
These are the numbers of people using or supporting these versions of SQL Server (can select multiple platforms, so doesn’t add up to 100%). It’s quite the assortment – and I was surprised at the hangers-on in the versions including 7, 6.5 and yes, even a 4.2. I’m hoping/assuming that some of these older versions are mixed versions at a company and not a core system, but I also know from some email feedback I’ve had that people aren’t able to upgrade some applications off these older platforms because the applications still haven’t been certified for the upgrade process and/or the newer releases of SQL Server. Still, it’s probably time to consider upgrading, even if to compatibility-level-supported releases.
If this is your situation (the older releases) – is application certification/porting the biggest thing holding you back? Are there other reasons you aren’t moving forward? How do you handle security updates and patches?
Send me a quick email – let me know…
Featured Script
CheckAllTables – dbcc on all tables
Runs DBCC against all tables in the database. … (read more)