Category Archives: Professional Development

Recap: #24hop (24hrs of PASS) – Day One

Posted on September 16, 2010 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment

I am very happy that the committee behind #24HOP made two decisions.  One they decided to split the 24 hours into two days.  This is huge for people in the USA as we don’t have to pull all nighters.  Second, I am very glad day one fell on a Wednesday.  Why would I be exited it falls on a Wednesday?  I am excited because it is no pants Wednesday.  No pants Wednesday  means I don’t work on Wednesday’s so its very easy to attend sessions.

Day Two

If you didn’t catch it in the first paragraph there is a day two.  That’s right peeps you can still signup and attend some great sessions.  If you need some help picking a session or two I wish I could attend the ones listed below.

The following is a short review of the sessions I attended on September 15th 2010.

Gather SQL Server Performance Data with PowerShell

Allen White (Blog | @SQLRunr) showed a very slick way to automate the process of collecting WMI counters and save them in a database.  This alone was very slick but to add the icing on the cake he also showed the crowd how to build reports that work inside of SSMS.

My eyes were opened up wide when I saw how easy it was to do WMI and SQL calls with PowerShell.  I will defiantly check out http://powershell.com in the near future to get my learn on.

It looks like Allen has a great PreCon session for the SQL PASS Member Summit 2010 lined up that will get you well on your way with automating your DBA tasks.

Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance

Glen Berry (Blog | @GlenAllenBerry) ran through tons of statistics behind selecting CPU’s, Memory and Disk’s for your new database servers.  I have to be honest quite a bit of this was over my head but below are a few items that stuck.

  • Optimize your hardware purchases to take advantage of your SQL and Windows Server editions
  • Don’t go cheap on CPU’s. You rarely upgrade the CPU unlike RAM or disks.
  • Xeon X5680 and Xeon X7560 were recommended CPU’s
  • SSD (solid state drives) are good for random writes (user data files) not sequential writes (log files)
  • 10K drives = 100 IOPS
  • 15K drives = 150 IOPS
  • Make sure High Performance is enable in power settings on your servers

Identifying Costly Queries

Grant Fritchey (Blog | @GFritchey) showed us several different tools you can leverage to identify costly queries.  He showed us how to setup SQL Profiler using stored procedures to lessen the load on your production boxes.  Grant also showed me a new tool I haven’t used before. This was the SQL RML Utility tool that can be helpful show how long a query really took.  Grant also showed us server DMV’s that can be used to get real-time understanding costly queries.

For some samples and resources used in the demo check out his resources blog page.

How to Rock Your Presentations

Douglas McDowell (Web | @douglasmcdowell) delivered the most important session for me.  This year I started to focus more on giving back to the community through technical presentations.  I am always looking for some tips that will improve my presentations.  The following were a few tips I plan to implement on my current presentation schedule.

  • Treat presentations like a development project
  • Storyboard each topic
  • Build an outline
  • Make sure to add RM, WIIFM and KWUC to all presentations.

You can find more in his PowerPoint presentation at http://downloads.solidq.com/DMcDowell/RockPASS_DMcDowell.zip

Conclusion

This was another great day of #24HOP.  The best part is it continues today.  The sad part is I will miss out on the sessions.  If you catch them and have good notes.  Please add them as a comment or blog them so the unlucky ones can check out the info.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Posted on September 14, 2010 by johnsterrett| 3 Comments

With football season starting I thought I would share some travel dates.  If you are at any of the following events please don’t be shy and say hi.  I look forward to hitting the road and making some new friends as I continue to connect, share and learn.

Sept 18th : Reston, VA
Microsoft Regional Leadership Summit (Non speaking)

Oct 16th : Pittsburgh, PA
Pgh.NET Code Camp 2010.2 (SQL Server 2008 for Developers)

Oct 23rd : Dallas, TX
SQL Saturday #56 BI Edition (Submitted: SQL Server 2008 for Developers)

Nov 8th – 12th : Seattle, WA
SQL Server PASS Member Summit (Submitted Chalk Talk – SQL Server 2008 for Developers)

Nov 19th : Pipestown, WV
AITP Region 18 Fall Conference

Jan 29th : Houston, TX
SQL Saturday #57  (Submitted  SQL Server 2008 for Developers)

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DBA Survivor, Becoming a Rock Star DBA

Posted on May 13, 2010 by johnsterrett| 4 Comments

In today’s world many companies want and need their employees to do more with less resources.  You might find yourself in a position where you start to manage databases while doing many other tasks.  Thomas LaRock’s book may  save you countless hours.  If you are starting and your goal is to be a Rock Star DBA this book might be one of the best investment you can make to have a successful career as a Database Administrator.

During the first week of January I moved from .NET Developer and part-time accidental DBA to full time DBA and PeopleSoft Engineer.  While this book just came off the shelves I still found it very interesting six months after I landed the job as a Database Administrator.  I agree with Brent Ozar, this book is tailor made for someone moving into a DBA role.  I also still think that it has useful information for someone like myself, someone who wants to understand what a Database Administrator does, or someone who has thoughts of becoming a DBA.

Favorite Quote

Tom does a great job giving you great information but he also throws in entertaining stories and great quotes.  While many readers will like the “shards of broken glass comment” quote my favorite is what you (the DBA) have in common with the President.  I would paste the quote below but that would ruined the fun.  I will tell you this, it’s hilarious but also at the same time very true.

Checklist

Checklists are very important to help automate processes and to make your life easier.  Heck sometimes they are as important as life and death.  For example, when a pilot is about to fly a single engine jet plane they have a checklist to complete before they go in the air.  Tom’s checklist for your first 100 days on the job is essential to make sure you have safe travels and are out of harms way once you get in the air with your DBA career.

No One Knows Everything

If you have not learned this lesson yet I highly recommend you do it now before its too late.  Tom explains why it’s just not possible to know everything.  He also provides some examples on how you can find the answers to what you don’t know.

Connect, Share, Learn

Within my five year career in IT I have had the pleasure to work at a major consulting firm, a dot com, and a global law firm.  What is the constant with these three environments?   There are a lot of the people in IT who prefer to stay in their cubical and communicate the least amount as possible. Tom explains not only why you want to break this trend but also includes some benefits.

Where is the Buffet?

Surprisingly this was the most important chapter for me. The goal of this book is to make sure you have a long successful career as a DBA.  This is not possible if your life is cut short due to health issues.  When your profession demands that you sit in front of a computer screen it’s easy to make some bad decisions that can put your health in jeopardy.  This was a wake up call for me. I am pushing 300 lbs and am glad to get back on the right track so I can have a long successful career as a DBA.

So there you have it.  If you are new into the DBA game or know of someone who is seriously considering becoming a DBA get this book.  You can find it at amazon.

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PGH.NET Code Camp Review

Posted on April 23, 2010 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment

This past weekend I had the pleasure of helping out David Hoerster (bio, twitter) with the setup of PGH.NET Code Camp.  Why, would I want to get up before the crack of dawn to help?  Well for starters David is a die hard Pittsburgh Pirates fan like myself.  Okay the real answer, is that I wanted to help with the code camp before I ran my first SQLSaturday in West Virginia.   This was a great practice before the game starts on May 1st.

In short I learned that if you have good volunteers it’s actually not too hard to have a great event.  If the event is free there will be people who just don’t show.  I guess mowing their lawn is more important than free training?  People will also leave before the event is over.  I could be wrong but I thought about half of the crowd left before the last session ended.  Finally, if a speaker doesn’t show you could replace the session with speakers panel.  This was a great move and actually was my favorite session of the day. 

SQL Server 2008 for Developers

During the day I also did a presentation on SQL Server 2008 for Developers.  I presented right after lunch and expected the majority of the crowed to have a food coma from the free burritos but this was not the case.  It actually was a nice interactive session. The following are a few quick facts from the presentation. 

About 40 people attended this session and only five of them are currently using SQL 2008.  I know this is a small sample size but it makes me believe that there are a lot of people out there still on SQL 2005 or SQL 2000.

The majority of the people awake (yes,  a few experience the food coma) were really impressed with using the real-time debugger to debug stored procedures, using merge to replace truncate table insert into table and use TVP to pass a data table in as an input parameter.

Follow-up Answers

The following are answers to some questions that were asked after the session.  Thought I would answer them here so others could find them in the future.

Can I create an index to filter based on dates?

Yes, you can.  I believe this is a new feature added in SQL Server 2008.  The following script will execute.

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX FIBillOfMaterialsByStartDate
    ON Production.BillOfMaterials (ComponentID, StartDate, EndDate)
WHERE StartDate > '20000801' AND StartDate < '20010801';
GO

Checkout this MSDN link for more on Filtering Indexes. 

How can I make my database run faster? 

This is always a fun question and a hard one to answer without looking at the database and the server it resides on.   I recommended that this individual start with the free performance boosts.  This is also known as managing your indexes.   To do this checkout the following great links with video from SQLServerPedia.

Can I find the last time database objects were modified?

Yes, check out this link for a script that does the following task

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Book Review: “Confessions of a Public Speaker”

Posted on March 30, 2010 by johnsterrett| 75 Comments

This year I made a goal to read six new books and to share my experience with everyone via book reviews.  This is the first review of the year and I am excited to give feedback on a book I really enjoyed.  Normally self help books put me to sleep but this was an exception as it was informative and entertaining to read.  If you plan to do public speaking in the near future I highly recommend this book.

My motivation for reading “Confessions of a Public Speaker” by Scott Berkun is simple.  I find myself doing more presentations and I want to improve my craft.  This year I will be speaking at PGH.NET Code Camp in April and also at SQL Saturday #36 in Wheeling, WV. Public speaking is not easy for me.  I completely agree with Adam Machanic’s blog post.  It takes a lot of practice and some reading to see how others succeed. Therefore, I want to take any advantage I can to make my presentations better.   The lessons I learned in the first chapter alone made this book worth the $17 on Amazon.

The following are some very important lessons learned.  Most people at your presentation hope you do well but also hope your presentation ends soon.  It’s funny, after I read this I started laughing because it’s so true. I also learned to know your material but know you shouldn’t be perfect.  Normally, I try to be a perfectionist so this is something I had to know.  I cannot go back in time and correct my mistakes. Ummm… maybe I can I will have to add this to my todo list.   Finally, I learned it’s the mistakes you make before you present that matter the most.  I will dive into this with my confession below.

Being that the title of the book is “Confessions of a Public Speaker” it’s only fair to include a confession of my own.  With experience I learned that I must take control of what I can control.    Three years ago I did my first presentation at the Pittsburgh Code Camp and did a presentation on extending the Reporting Service API’s.  While no one booed or threw fruit at me the presentation was a hot mess.  I was modifying slides in the speakers room, I didn’t do a practice run of the demos, heck I didn’t go through the audience’s point of view when I built the presentation.  If I would have taken care of what I could control (my presentation) this could have been a killer presentation.  Regardless, it was a great learning opportunity which made my future presentations much better.

If you want to improve your public speaking I highly recommend Confessions of a Public Speaker. This book will stay on my bookshelf within an arms reach for quite some time.

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Goals for 2010!

Posted on January 30, 2010 by johnsterrett| 3 Comments

Yes, I know it is already 2010.  I am a little behind but still wanted to officially write down some goals for the new year.   Actually I should get partial credit as I started on the whiteboard in December.  Anyways, this will help hold me accountable for my goals, give me something to review quarterly through the year and also keep my friends on the internet aware of what I am trying to accomplish this year.

goals

  • Be a better Husband

    I have to admit there has been several times in my life where I put work, groups and other things ahead of family time.  My most important goal for the year is to change this.  I plan to have at least one night per week where I put the computer down and spend time with the family.  I also plan to make this the year I take Nina to Spain.  Yes, those who know me well know I didn’t complete Spanish a couple times in high school.  Hopefully, we will be able to learn the language of the land together in the next few months.

  • Make an impact to improve my community

    I am a young (28 year old)  Database Administrator, Programmer, Information Technology Professional who lives in Wheeling, WV (50 miles down this Ohio River from Pittsburgh, PA). This year I will serve my local community by becoming the President of the Greater Wheeling Chapter of the Association of  Information Technology Professionals and the Region 18 Vice President.  Our biggest initiative of the year will be implementing the first SQLSaturday in West Virginia.  We will provide free conference event that will bring Information Technology professionals to Wheeling to obtain free training on SQL Server,  .NET and professional development.  I am also highly involved with OVConnect the Ohio Valley’s Young Professionals group.  Through this group we will provided several events that connect young minded people together.

  • Continue to improve my communication skills

    I admit it I am guilty as charged.  While I read several blogs and technical books I don’t dive into non-technical books often.  This year I plan to read six non-technical books during the year and write reviews of them on this blog.

    Speaking of blogging if you are following this blog you know my blogging last year was not consistent.  Therefore, I am going to try to make sure I have at least one new post every two weeks.  I will also try to blog about different things going on locally, personally and with technology.

    Finally, I also plan to do more technical presentations this year.  I hope to do four presentations.  You will be able to catch me presenting at Pittsburgh .NET Code Camp and SQLSaturday in Wheeling.

  • Continue the certification path for MCITP SQL Server 2005

    In 2009 I completed the 70-431 exam which makes me a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist on SQL Server 2005.  This year I plan to take the next step and become a Microsoft Certified Technology Professional in SQL Server 2005.  You might be  wondering why would I or you want to do this?  There are a few reasons I will share.  First, a great friend of mine once told me its a great way to polish your skills.  Second, I believe that the certification process forces you to learn topics you wouldn’t learn unless you complete the process.  Third, the objectives of the exams line up with some project goals at work so I can kill two birds with one stone.

  • Improve my networking and social networking

    • In 2009 I  dove into social networking via blogging, twitter (johnsterrett) LinkedIn, and Facebook.  While I have lots of great connections through these networking portals its hard to keep track.  Therefore, I have a simple networking goal for 2010.  I want to build lasting relationships with 7 to 10 new individuals.

    Attend PASS 2010 Member Summit

    This goal is actually very straight forward.  In fact, I am actually cheating.  I just signed up for the conference and look forward to meeting other DBA’s and SQL Developers at this event.  If you work with SQL Server I highly recommend you do the same.

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Use UGSS and GITCA to support your User Groups

Posted on December 29, 2009 by johnsterrett| 5 Comments

If you are supporting/running a user group or  interested in becoming a technical presenter this blog post will help you. I am starting to help with the Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group and I wanted to share some knowledge learned from working with the Greater Wheeling Chapter of the Association for Information Technology Professionals. If your user group is based on technology (AITP, INETA, PASS) etc. I highly recommend you look into leveraging the resources provided by UGSS and Culminis GITCA.

Today I received an email reminder to sign up for the Q2 UGSS User Group Kit and this motivated me to write this blog post for leaders and presenters who are not familiar with UGSS or GITCA.  At the end of the day you need to offer something of value (knowledge, training, networking, swag)  for people to attend your events. I want to commend both UGSS and GITCA as they provide support to increase the value of your user group meetings.

Global IT Community Association (GITCA)

For starters Culminis is now GITCA.  Global IT Community Association (GITCA) represents over 700 member organizations and over 3.7 million IT professionals.   GITCA is the world’s largest international not-for-profit independent organization powered by dedicated volunteers devoted to the development and growth of the IT community by providing services to support leaders and connect user groups, associations, and student IT organizations.

The following is a list of benefits for user groups:

  • SharePoint hosting for user group
  • LiveMeeting account online meetings
  • Event Support
  • Community Development
  • Access to User Group Support Services (UGSS)  more on this below.

To apply check out the requirements and sign up if you qualify.

User Group Support Services (UGSS)

User Group Support Services (UGSS) is dedicated and committed to serving technical community members and leaders worldwide.  UGSS provides resources that will ignite your efforts as leaders and invigorate your experience as members.

The following is a list of benefits for Community Leaders:

  • Get speakers for your events – if you are interested in presenting sign up here. Groups will find you and ask you to present.
  • Get funding for your events – yes, they will help sponsor your events.
  • Get publicity for your events
  • Get more publicity for your events
  • Get swag (content, demos, samples and more) –  the photo below shows some items I received during the last kit.

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If you are the leader of a user group, a presenter, or someone who would like to sponsor events apply here. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email at jsterrett at gmail dot com and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

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