Just a Day Left for Current Early Bird Rates
The SSWUG.ORG Virtual Conference – all 74+ sessions of it! – rates will be going up in the next day or two. We’re holding them off just a bit for last minute registrations at the current rates. Make sure you register today – and here’s a VIP link that you can use to save additional money off the early bird rate:
>> http://www.vconferenceonline.com/autovip.asp?vip=VIPNL09031
Featured Article(s)
New Features in Silverlight 4 – Part 1
Silverlight (formerly known as Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere) is a browser plug-in that can be used to enhance the look and feel of web based applications designed on top of the managed environment of the CLR. Silverlight 4.0 is a new version of Silverlight that runs on top of .NET Framework 4.0 and adds lot of new and exciting features to the earlier versions of Silverlight. This is a first part in the series of two articles that takes a quick glance at the new and exciting features in Silverlight 4.
Featured White Paper(s)
Developing Something for Nothing with SQL Server: A Closer Look at SQL Server Express and How it Can Work for You
In this new Quest Software technical brief, learn about SQL Server Express – Microsoft’s free version of SQL Server – and how… (read more)
Can Your Database Handle the Stress?
Stress testing is one of the last things we tend to implement when developing a database. There are lots of reasons I can think of without really trying:
- It’s hard to stress test when you don’t have a lot of data already in the database.
- It’s difficult to predict what kinds of loads will really occur.
- It’s difficult and/or expensive to build a hardware and software environment providing expected results from your production systems.
- It takes time/resources/$ to develop stress tests.
- It’s just not fun and feels like the time isn’t worth the risk.
The cost of not stress testing came home to me recently when a client added the proverbial straw, breaking the camel’s back. They were using a view that was on the cusp of not working. It had many tables, a few scalar functions, and a lot (I mean a LOT) of case statements with multiple branches. The view was already on our radar to be re-factored.
Before we could get to it, another requirement came that was implemented with one additional case statement. We made the change and unit tested with great success. So, the change was pushed into production, where things quickly choked and died.
Query performance times went from sub second to a minute or more; just adding that one last case statement.
Many of us have experienced this kind of scenario. So, I’m looking for experiences and solutions from you. Vendors that have tools to help with this kind of problem are invited to reply as well. All comers are welcome. Send your responses to btaylor@sswug.org and I’ll be glad to post them in future newsletters. Feel free to send input for other reasons you have not been able to implement stress testing as well.
Cheers,
Ben
SSWUG.org Free Expo Event Friday, September 24, 2010 9:00 a.m. PT
This free expo will focus on SQL Server Performance Monitoring, Tuning & Troubleshooting. Working with SQL Server to provide for excellent performance means understanding your options. This expo will focus on items you’ll want to know for monitoring your SQL Servers, then what you can do with that information to have systems that work well.
Register here.