Monthly Archives: April 2012

Let’s Meetup [Updated]!

Posted on April 17, 2012 by | 2 comments

I have a confession to make. I like to meet people who also work with SQL Server. There are so many different ways to use SQL Server. I love to hear how people are using it differently than me.  One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to connect with people and start a conversation at SQLSaturday’s, User Group Meetings and PASS events like SQL Rally coming up in Dallas in May. Once upon a time, I would attend similar training events and was so shy I didn’t connect with anyone. Why didn’t I connect with anyone? Mainly, because I was afraid. If this is you, you are not alone I was in the same place as you. In fact, let’s meetup at one of the events listed below.

NOTE: The following schedule has been updated on May, 17th 2012

SQL Saturday #107 (Houston, TX) on April 21st

I will be presenting my Evaluating your Daily Checklist with PBM and CMS presentation. I always look forward to SQL Saturday’s in Houston as this gives me the opportunity to visit my family and my #sqlfamily in the same trip. If your in Houston its not too late to sign up.

WVPASS (Wheeling, WV) May 24th

I will be presenting “DBA’s use RML Utilities to help get your next raise!” If your in Pittsburgh or Morgantown area make the drive out. Anyone, can still signup for this free event. Not only will you learn how to prove that your new indexes or application upgrade will improve performance but you will get free pizza. As a bonus, you will also get to meet some cool DBA’s in Wheeling, WV.

SQL Satuday #117 IN COLUMBUS, OH ON June 2nd

I am looking forward to my first SQL Saturday in Columbus, OH. I will be giving my Performance Tuning for Pirates presentation. Columbus is only a two hour drive and I hope to bring #babybeluga and the wife out with me. I think they would have a blast at the Columbus Zoo.

SQL Saturday #121 in Philadelphia, PA on June 9th

Do we really need to say more?  I cannot wait for SQL Saturday in the city of brotherly love.  The schedule hasn’t  has been posted and I will be giving my Performance Tuning for Pirates presentation. I look forward to learning, connecting and sharing.

Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group (Pittsburgh, PA) on June 26th

I will be presenting, “Performance Tuning for Pirates!” in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has a great SQL Server User Group and it’s always an honor to present for this group.

Performance Virtual Chapter – June 28th

I will be presenting, “Performance Tuning for Pirates!” Being that this is a virtual chapter I will not be presenting in person. This doesn’t mean that we cannot connect and chat.  We always have twitter so send me shout out before or after the session.

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#tsql2day – Contained Databases are sexy and they know it!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | 2 comments

This month Nigel Sammy (blog | twitter) is hosting this months T-SQL Tuesday and the chosen topic is  What do you think is a useful feature of SQL Server 2012? Therefore, I am going to write about a topic that isn’t getting much pub in the streets like AlwaysOn Available Groups or Columnstore. But that’s okay because Contained Databases are sexy and they know it!

Contained Databases

A contained database is a database that is isolated from other databases and from the instance that hosts SQL Server. Why could this be helpful? Well lets think about logins. What happens when you migrate a database from one instance to another? You have to copy over the logins and unorphan the logins if they are orphaned.  Wouldn’t it be nice to keep the logins contained in a database so they weren’t depended on logins created on the instance? I think so, especially for some third party applications that think they need sysadmin access.  Now why would I be worried about databases moving between instances? This is where Always Avaiable groups come in. I know what your thinking, he just lied and is talking about Always Available groups. Yep, your right but here is my point.  If the users are contained users for a database belonging to an Always Available group, during a failover, people would be able to connect to the secondary without creating logins on the instance hosting the secondary. This was a cool lesson learned quickly while building my virtual sandbox to test Always Available Groups.

Before you consider using contained databases you have see if your user databases are able to be a contained databases. If you are using replication, change data capture, or change tracking then contained databases may not be for you. As always, review Books Online for more details and make sure you test this out in development before using it in production.

Bonus – Get your Learn On!

Are you interested in learning more about SQL 2012? Do you wonder where you can find free resources? If so, the links I am using are included in this paragraph to help you brush up on the good stuff. You can download a free book, get your hands dirty with several virtual labs, view several videos and demos, Watch recorded sessions from #24HOP and attend the Microsoft Virtual Academy SQL 2012 training sessions.

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