Tag Archives: Presentation

Speaking at the Columbus SQL Server User Group

Posted on January 11, 2012 by johnsterrett| 1 Comment

This week on Thursday, January 12th, 2011 a 6pm I will be speaking virtually at the Columbus, OH SQL Server User Group.  I will be giving an introduction to Policy Based Management.

If you are a chapter leader and would be interested in having me speak at your user group contact me.

Abstract

This talk will give you an introduction into monitoring SQL Server using Policy Based Management and Central Management System which is provided out of the box with SQL Server 2008. I will then show you how you can combine these features with the Enterprise Policy Management Framework on codeplex to provide monitoring for your whole SQL Server farm. This topic assumes you know nothing about PBM and CMS and will include lots of examples with only a few PowerPoint slides.

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2011 was a crazy year!

Posted on December 29, 2011 by johnsterrett| 1 Comment

Now that we are finishing up the last few days of the year its time to take a few minutes and reflect on my accomplishments for the year. To be honest, looking back at the blog posts I have no idea how I completed so many mile stones.  Last year I privately established some long term goals and I knocked several items off my three year and five year plan in the first year.

Major Accomplishments in 2011

PASS Member Summit 2011 Ribbons

Vendor said, "Wow... it looks like you had a very big year. Would you like to attend our vendor party?"

My first child was born in February.  Typically having a child would slow you down but somehow I still completed several milestones. I have to give huge props to my wife for all her help and support.

This year I gave presentations at the first SQL Rally; the SQL PASS Member Summit; SQL Saturday in Houston, TX (presented multiple sessions); the Pittsburgh SQL User Group and several session at the West Virginia SQL Server User Group.

One of my good friends and I co-founded the first SQL Server User Group in West Virginia. I also helped relaunch the Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group and was truly honored to  speak at the relaunch event. I also organized the 2nd  Annual SQL Saturday in Wheeling, WV. Its was truly an honor to bring my peers and friends to my hometown for some free SQL Training (photos). Towards the end of the year I also became a PASS Regional Mentor for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Personally, I also had the following accomplishments.  I was included in a local

Reading with my baby

It's never to early to get started on your professional development.

magazine article on “Digital Generation.” Finally, I changed jobs and became a SQL Server Consultant.  I am truly blessed to say that many of these milestones couldn’t happen without my #sqlfamily and  my tech giants mentors .

My 11 Favorite Blog Posts in 2011

The following are my favorite blog posts and tips written by me in 2011.

I look forward to sharing some goals next week as we break in the new year!


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Posted in SQL Server 2008, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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Speaking at WV SQL User Group on August 25th

Posted on August 16, 2011 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment
I look forward to giving my Evaluate your Daily Checklist against your SQL Enterprise with PBM and CMS presentation at the WV SQL Server User Group in Wheeling, WV on August 25th at the Orrick Building.
You can still sign up and registration is free.  In fact, everyone is a winner because there will be free pizza and every user group attendees knows there is no better prize than free pizza!

Abstract

You will walk away from this session with an understanding of how to use the Policy Based Management and Central Management Server to complete a daily checklist against your whole SQL Server farm. We will cover the basics to evaluate, monitor and apply best practice policies, which are included out of the box with SQL Server 2008. We will also make custom policies to cover additional best practices to evaluate daily checklist items. Finally, we will combine Policy-Based Management and Central Management Server with the Enterprise Policy Management Framework on codeplex to automate the monitoring process and create manager friendly reports to monitor your checklist items against the whole SQL Server farm.

Session goals include:
  • You will be able to install, configure and run scripts against the Central Management Server
  • You will be able to use Central Management Server and/or Policy-Based Management to complete a daily checklist
  • You will be able to evaluate and build custom policies.

Bio:
John Sterrett is a database administrator at Remote DBA Experts and a member of the Integrations team. John has been active within the SQL Server community, including hosting the first and second annual SQL Saturday in West Virginia. John also presented a lightning talk and chalk-talk at the SQL Server 2010 Member Summit, presented sessions at three SQL Saturday’s, and presented to the Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group. John is a syndicated blogger at SQLServerPedia and contributes tips at MSSQLTIPS. You can find his blog at www.johnsterrett.com

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Posted in Professional Development, SQL Server 2008, Uncategorized

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Speaking at SQLRally today!

Posted on May 13, 2011 by johnsterrett| 2 Comments

A few months ago I blogged that you don’t have to be an expert to speak. This fact is very true as I am speaking at #SQLRally  today about “Evaluating a daily checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee.” Two years ago I would have never imagined that it would be possible for me to share my knowledge at SQLPASS events.

NOTE: If you are attending my session and have a camera please take photos and share them with me. I forgot my camera in Wheeling, West Virginia.

If you are at SQLRally or not at SQLRally you can access my slide deck here.  You can also find my references here. If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

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Intro to Central Management Server

Posted on May 11, 2011 by johnsterrett| 1 Comment

Do you have a DBA team that consists of more than one dba? Do you have a windows authenticated account that has access to all the SQL Server instances in your farm? If so, you might really want to consider leveraging the Central Management Server (CMS) to do your heavy lifting.

Today, we will cover creating your first Central Management Server. Come back later in the week to see a great example to automate the process of verifying full daily backups.

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 Step 1: You might not be able to registered serves or see Central Management Servers in SQL Server Management Studio. To view them click on view in the menu bar and click on Registered Servers.

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 Step 2: Now that you can see Central Management Server folder right click on it and click on Register Central Management Server. This will allow you to designate a server as your Central Management Server.

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 Step 3: Register your new CMS. In this example I am going to use PBMDEMO\SQL2008 as my Central Management Studio. Once you enter the name test the connection and then save your settings.

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Step 4: Now that the PBMDEMO\SQL2008 Central Management Server is configured lets add a group to hold development and production instances. This is done by right clicking on the instance (PBMDEMO\SQL2008) and clicking on New Server Group.

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Step 5: Configure a folder for your production servers. We will use Production as the group name. This will be shown as a folder in the screen shot below.

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Step 6: Configure a folder group for your development servers. In this case we will add our SQL Express edition as a development server.

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Step 7: Lets add our Express edition server to the development group. Right click on Development folder and select New Server Registration.

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Step 8: Add PBMDEMO\SQLEXPRESS as the server name and test the connection. Once its successful save the connection. Lets now repeat steps 7 and 8 to add four instances of SQL Server to the production group (PBMDEMO, PBMDEMO,2008 and PBMDEMO\2005, PBMDEMO\2000)

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The screen shot above should be the final result for adding five production instances and one development instance. Come back later in the week as we show you how to leverage the CMS server to run and automate the execution of multi-server queries.

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Pittsburgh SQL User Group is Back!

Posted on April 28, 2011 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment

It was an honor to be the first presenter for the reboot of the Pittsburgh SQL Server User Group on Tuesday.  I gave a sneak peek into my SQL Rally presentation, “Evaluate your daily checklist against 100+ servers while you get a cup of coffee.” I knew it was a success when I got home and saw the following tweet.

This tweet is purely SQLWinning

This tweet is purely SQLWinning

If you attended the session feel free to download the slide deck and check out my reference material.

Question and Answers

I get a kick out of helping people solve problems. If I don’t know the answer this gives me the opportunity to learn something new. Here are a few questions that were asked during my session. I didn’t have the answers of the top of my head so I am including them in this post.

Q: “How can I automate the process of shrinking a T-Log?”

A: First I highly recommend reviewing your backup and recovery plan. Frequent backups of the transactional log is key to free up your VLF’s. If there isn’t a free VLF available the log grows. With that said, if you just want to automate the process of shrinking T-Logs check out Jeremiha Peschka’s script

Q: “How do I run a T-SQL script against all databases on a single instance?”

A: First, I was thinking about doing a simple loop in PowerShell to execute the T-SQL (see Aaron Nelson’s second script) but then I remembered an undocumented stored procedure. The undocumented stored procedure is sp_msforeachdb. Both options should work.

Photos

Below is a few photos taken before I started the presentation.

Right side say, "cheese"

Right side say, "cheese"

Left side say, "gouda"

Left side say, "gouda"

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Posted in SQL Server 2008, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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Speaking at the West Virginia SQL User Group

Posted on February 15, 2011 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment

I am presenting SQL Server 2008 for Developers  at the West Virginia SQL User Group (WVPASS) meeting on February 17th at 6PM.  The meeting is free, open to the public and pizza will be provided.  If you’re in the area (Pittsburgh peeps this includes you) they would be glad to have you.  Registration is still open for the event.

I also submitted two abstracts to SQL Saturday #75 in Columbus, OH. The abstracts are SQL Server 2008 for Developers and Evaluate your Daily Checklist with Policy-Based Management and Central Management Server. The event is scheduled for June 11th. I hope to see you there!

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Wheeling, WV to Houston, TX – A SQL Saturday #57 Recap..

Posted on February 1, 2011 by johnsterrett| 3 Comments

Everyone, If you attended SQL Saturday #57 in Houston, TX thank the host and the sponsors. With out their dedication and hard work this event wouldn’t have happened.  Finally, if you haven’t done so submit a speaker evaluation for the sessions you attended.

Now that the basics are covered lets move on to the recap.

Why Houston?

Last week I took a trip out to H-Town to speak at my eighth venue in the last twelve months.  Family was a huge motivator for attending SQL Saturday #57.  Being a graduate of James E. Taylor High School in Katy, Texas I was able

John Sterrett SQL Server 2008 for Developers Presentation

If you build it they will come!

to double dip and visit my parents and my oldest brother.  I flew in on Thursday to surprise my father for his birthday. I got an extra bonus when I arrived.  I found out that this was also going to be the same day my nephew was born.

Venue

On Saturday, we meet up at the church for the first SQL Saturday in Houston. Yes, that sentence is correct.  The Houston Area SQL User Group was able to get the Bammel Church of Christ to host the event. I have to be honest when I found out that a church was going to be used I was skeptical.  Normally, these events are at a community college, university or Microsoft Office.  I wondered if a church be a good venue for a SQL Saturday? I was right, it wasn’t a good venue. It was a fantastic venue.  Kudos to Nancy Hidy Wilson (Blog | Twitter) and the Houston User Group for selecting this venue.

Connecting (Volunteer & Speakers Dinner)

Normally, when I am selected to speak at a SQL Saturday I always attend the volunteer and speaker dinner and the after party. Its a great opportunity to network.  We met up at the Outback Steakhouse in Tomball.  I felt like I was back at summer camp as I hanged out with some friends and also made some new friends. (Thomas LeBlanc, Wes Brown, Ryan Adams, Jen and Sean McCowen, Sri Sridharan, Tim Mitchell and more…)

My favorite quote comes from Sri, “John you cannot say its a once in a lifetime opportunity. Your Steelers are always in the Super Bowl.”

Learning (Presentations I attended)

  • Dean Richards – Best Practices for SQL Server on VMWare
    With the economy changing we all need to find ways to do things cheaper. One of the easiest ways to do this is to virtualize your servers. The concept seams great but SQL Server can be tricky to manage.  How do you configure the guest memory? How does the host share its CPU power with guests? I learned this and a lot more during Deans session.
  • Ryan Adams – Manage Your Shop with CMS and Policy Based Management
    Those of you who know me know I am very excited about Central Management Server and Policy Based Management. I currently use it to evaluate my daily checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server with 3,000+ databases.  I am extremely interested in seeing how other DBA’s use it.  Ryan is into mirroring and loves the mirroring facets provided with PBM.  I am glad he showed this to me.
  • Thomas LeBlanc – Transition from DBA to BI
    Any time I can sit in the front row on a sofa and watch Thomas speak its a win-win. This talk was special because  I got my learn on and felt like I was at comedy hour.  I enjoyed his path from DBA to BI.  I really liked how he was able to use his DBA skills to make a good first impression.  He also showed us a great spreadsheet out there on the interwebs to build a data dictionary for your facts and dimensions.

Sharing (My Presentations)

  • SQL Server 2008 for Developers (About 30 attendees)
    Every once in a while I submit this topic to see if people are still interested in seeing demos going over the new features provided for developers with SQL Server 2008.  During the presentation I polled the attendees to see who hasn’t migrated to SQL Server 2008.  There still is a crowd that wants to know how to implement DateTimeOffset, T-SQL enhancements,  Merge, Table Value Parameters, Change Data Capture.  I spoke right before lunch and had a few people stay extra to go over a bonus demo.  I also talked with a few of the attendees later in the day and I got some great feedback.If you attend my session please submit feedback.  You can find the slide deck and sample code on my blog.
  • Evaluate your Daily Checklist using CMS and Policy Based Management (5 Attendees)
    My PBM and CMS talk was included in the last session.  This was my first presentation using VMWare Workstation.  I did this for two reasons. One, Brent Ozar made me do it. Finally, I wanted to throw up an instance of SQL 2000 for this demo and I couldn’t do it with Windows 7.  Even though the crowed was small one attendees told me he is going to start using PBM and CMS due to my presentation. This is the greatest complement I could receive. 

    If you attend my session please submit feedback.  You can find the slide deck and sample code on my blog.

Bloggers SQL Saturday #57 Posts

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Posted in Events, SQL Server 2008, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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I want your vote for #SQLRally

Posted on January 26, 2011 by johnsterrett| Leave a comment

Hello Everyone, I am John Sterrett coming to you from Wheeling, WV and I need your vote for SQL Rally! I need your vote because I eager to share what I have learned about Policy Based Management and Central Management Server in the past four months.  This presentation will give people the knowledge they need to start evaluating a daily checklist.

Let me take a step back for a second and explain. I am currently responsable for over 100+ Instances of SQL with more than 3,000 databases.  We rarely didn’t evaluated a daily checklists against all of our production databases until I learned about Central Management Server and Policy Based Management.  Now, I can evaluate my daily checklist in the amount of time it takes to get up out of my seat and brew a cup of coffee.  I am eager to show you multiple ways to start evaluating your checklists.

What is SQLRally?

 SQLRally is PASS’ new regional event that fills the gap between our free PASS SQLSaturday 1-day training events and PASS Summit, the world’s largest conference for the SQL Server community. One of my favorite parts about SQLRally is that the community votes for the presentations.

Hopefully, I will be selected to speak at the first annual SQLRally. Regardless, I look forward to presenting this abstract at user groups, virtual chapters and  future SQL Saturday’s. In fact, I am giving this presentation at SQLSaturday in Houston this Saturday. If you would want me to deliver this abstract or one of my other presentations contact me.

How do I vote?

 Click here to vote. You will see my session under the fifth group (PBM).  You get two votes for this catagory so I will also recommend Jorge Segarra  (Blog | @SQLChicken) because I wouldn’t be using PBM without his contrubutions to the community.

What am I voting for again…..

Evaluate your daily checklist against 100+ instances of SQL Server while you get a cup of coffee

Abstract

You will walk away from this session with an understanding of how to use the Policy Based Management and Central Management Server to complete a daily checklist against your whole SQL Server farm. We will cover the basics to evaluate, monitor and apply best practice policies, which are included out of the box with SQL Server 2008. We will also make custom policies to cover additional best practices to evaluate daily checklist items. Finally, we will combine Policy-Based Management and Central Management Server with the Enterprise Policy Management Framework on codeplex to automate the monitoring process and create manager friendly reports to monitor your checklist items against the whole SQL Server farm.

Deliverables

  • You will be able to install and configure Central Management System
  • You will be able to use CMS and/or PBM to complete a daily checklist
  • You will be able to evaluate and build custom policies.

Session Prerequisites:

Session prerequisites assume you are familiar with SQL Server Management Studio, have an instance of SQL Server 2008, and that you have administrative access with SQL Server. You don’t have to be familiar with Policy-Based Management or Central Management Server, you will learn the basics during this session.

Related Posts:

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Posted in SQL Server 2008, SQLServerPedia Syndication

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Un-SQL Friday #2 – My Tech Giants

Posted on January 21, 2011 by johnsterrett| 6 Comments

UnSQL Friday #2

The second round of UnSQL Friday is here and the topic is so good I am typing while I eat lunch rushing to beat the deadline to get this in. UnSQL Friday was created by Jen of @MidnightDBA’s to provide an avenue for SQL Bloggers to focus on a non-technical topic. The topic is as follows:

“Read this blog, and then write whatever you want about Tech Giants. Be sure to mention in your blog that you’re writing for Un-SQL Friday, and link to this post. Oh, and have it up any time before the weekend (Saturday Jan 22) hits, mmkay?”

Jen said, to write about whatever I want so here we go!  I am using this venue as an opportunity to say thanks to a bunch of people who have helped become who I am today. I will also explain how they fit into my definition of a Tech Giant.

There are several other people I could include but I have a deadline so I will have to find another way to thank them later.

What is a Tech Giant?

This definition is subjective and will be defined differently from blogger to blogger so here is my definition. To me a Tech Giant is someone I look up too within IT; someone who has helped me out; someone who is mentoring me; someone who is mentoring me without even knowing that they are mentoring me.

In no particular order here is a list explaining why these individuals peeps are my tech giants:

David Hoerster, Eric Kepes & John Hidey

David Hoerster, Eric Kepes & John Hidey: These are three stand up .NET developers who are highly involved in Pittsburgh .NET User Group and the Pittsburgh code camp for years. To this day I will always remember my first code camp four years ago. The next year they gave me my first public speaking opportunity. Every year the Code Camp in Pittsburgh gets bigger and bigger. This year there were two code camps with over 150 attendees.  David, Eric and John showed me first hand how important it is to give back to your technical community.

Side Note: How the heck are none of these guys a Microsoft MVP? This almost makes me question the MVP program. I am going to do my part in correcting this by nominating them at the Microsoft MVP site.

Thomas LaRock aka SQLRockStar

Tom LaRock: Last year Tom asked the community if anyone wanted to have a mentor on his blog.  I jumped on this opportunity and we have been skyping (is this actually a word?) monthly. His book (check out my review) and those sessions have shaved years off my learning curve moving from a developer to becoming a valuable Production DBA.

I finally meet Tom in person at the 2010 SQL Pass Member Summit. He introduced me to almost everyone in the community that week. It’s weird, in a way I feel like he is my older brother from another mother.

Tom also has a great blog. In my opinion it’s one of the most entertaining technical blogs out there because he does a good job teaching with stories. A perfect example is “Everything I Needed to Know about Waits and Queues I learned From the TSA.”

Side Note: Other than his addiction to bacon and being a Patriots fan he is a great guy! Can you tell I am a die hard Pittsburgh Sports Fan?

Brent Ozar

I love this book!

Brent Ozar: I ran into Brent virtually two years ago at the Pittsburgh SQL User Group. At the end of his presentation he challenged the crowd to start blogging. I found his intro to blogging series and gave it a try.  A little later I was hooked.  Brent made me a syndicated blogger at SQLServerPedia. People will see this blog post because he took a chance on a new blogger.

Its amazing how much time and energy he puts into the SQL PASS Community with his presentations and blog posts.  His blog is a great resource for SQL Server, Professional Development, Speaking and Blogging.  Did I mention that he also co-authored one of the best SQL Server books (its the image on the left side)?

Side Note: I am working on creating a VMWare Workstation image right now due to his blog post on “How to rehears a Presentation.” Brent, I will be shooting you some question soon :-)

Andy Warren

Andy Warren: The first SQL Saturday in West Virginia wouldn’t have happened without Andy’s help.  Andy and I had several phone calls where he gave me the guidance I needed to make it happen. He helped me from the point where I wondered,can I make this happen up to the week of the event.  Now, I have spoken at three SQL Saturdays and am adding another one to the list next week.  I don’t think this would have happened without Andy’s support.

Side Note: At SQL PASS Summit I learned that Andy is referred to as the godfather of SQL Server. I am not sure why this is true. I will have to follow-up with more at a later date.

Justin Siebert

Justin Siebert: There is no way I am going skip the great state of West Virginia. And there is no one better qualified than Justin. He started his own consulting company to provide Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimization. He now does business with Fortune 500 companies.  He is a big supporter of LAMP and is doing great things with WordPress.  His website is a perfect example.

Once he found out I was interested in blogging he talked me into using WordPress. Justin gives me several tips on WordPress and SEO and has never asked for money.   He also pulls me aside every once in a while to make sure I am focused on my goals and heading down the right path.

Side Notes: some people call Justin by his name. I call him the SEORockStar.  Justin and I might be the only remaining die-hard Pittsburgh Pirates fans left in Wheeling (Yes the owner Bob Nutting also lives in Wheeling).

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