Featured Article(s)
One of the common problems, mostly misunderstood!
(Vadivel Mohanakrishnan) This article explains the power of ‘EXECUTE’ keyword in SQL Server. I would explain a common issue which to my knowledge is mostly misunderstood by most of the folks (At least whom i have met so far :)). The target audience for this article are: Basic to Intermediate level user / developers.
SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS)
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From DevConnections/SQL Connections – Final Thoughts
First, about the tools and my thoughts yesterday about the whole debate of having tools in different locations based on roles. I had a number of people write to say that they hoped this wasn’t the final word on how and where tools would be located. The idea of needing VS to work with the database tools was the most often mentioned item. Without exception, those that have written in with comments had similar thoughts to what I mentioned, that it would be the ultimate solution to have those tools BOTH in VS and Management Studio. Maybe in SQL Server 2011?
Spoke with Kim Tripp and Paul Randall today. As is often the case with these uber-SQL Server Experts, the conversation covered a LOT of different things with SQL Server. With 2008, they’re really excited about some of the policy features and a bunch of other things. The thing that I really thought was intriguing was part of the interview where we discussed Kim’s suggestion that, for SQL Server, you have to be a "Jack of all trades, master of a few" – speaking to component and functional parts of SQL Server.
One thing they’ve seen as they work with clients is that when testing, some customers will forget to test across the full, real business cycle. We’ve talked about this relative to SQL Profiler, that you need to make sure you’re profiling a real cross-section of your activity. To only grab usage information for times between 2 and 3 AM, for example, wouldn’t necessarily provide the best, most realistic look at your usage. But this has to extend to functional pieces of SQL Server too. You cannot just test your XML-oriented code, ignoring the mirroring or log-shipping or… well, you get the idea. You have to do full business cycle testing to make sure you know the impact of each of your functional items on the others.
This takes many forms – and needs to be well thought-out. What I mean by this is that your "Business Cycle" can include everything from audit requirements to reporting requirements. Think about how information is used until it’s ultimately discarded or archived. All of those takes on the data, from OLTP to replication or other things, must be included in your testing.
If you don’t, you’ll end up tweaking one thing possibly to the detriment of other things.
Back to the whole "master of a few" thing, know what you don’t know. If you have moving parts in your process that you’re less familiar with, or have less experience testing, be sure you get the right people involved to help make sure you’re taking things through the paces correctly.
Webcast: SQL Server Crystal Ball: Knowing What to Watch As Your SQL Server System Grows
We’ll look into pulling baseline information, things you can do to chart and forecast growth on your system and the basic options you have to grow you system out and up. Find out how to use Performance Monitor tools and learn about what different scaling techniques can bring to the table.
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> Live date: 11/13/2007
Webcast: Creating, Managing and Reviewing Jobs with SQL Server 2005
We’ll show how to create a job, work through the different options,including notifications, variable job steps, scheduling and more. The goal of this session is to have you up and running, understanding how the options work for setting up and managing jobs in your system.
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> Live date: 11/14/2007
Webcast: Troubleshooting and Maintaining SQL Server 2005
Find out about how to dig into your system and pull information you need to know to understand what’s happening. We’ll look into performance monitor counters to keep track of, where logs are that you should be aware of and more. The goal of this session is to have you feeling comfortable with performance profiling and investigation approaches for your system.
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> Live date: 11/20/2007
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