SQL Saturday #81 Birmingham

Today I had the great pleasure of meeting other SQL Server professionals from all over the Southeast, and listening to some great presentations on everything from design and statistics to the upcoming SQL "Denali".

We had five different sessions to choose from in each of the six time slots. My choices today were

Database Design
SQL "Denali" High Availability
SQL Statistics
Building a Professional Development Plan
Table Partitioning
Advanced DW Scenarios in SSIS

It was not just informative. These events are about networking and being a part of a community centered around the SQL Server product. Plus, on top of great sessions and door-prizes, we were provided with coffee, doughnuts, sodas, and a nice box lunch. If you have not been to one, I highly recommend it.

Upcoming SQL Saturday in Birmingham, AL

It is time for year three of the incredible FREE training day on SQL Server in Birmingham, AL.  This event has grown each year across the country, and this year will be no exception.  If you are anywhere in the Southeast region, I recommend you make the trip to Birmingham on July 30th.  Otherwise, please go to the main site and find a SQL Saturday closer to you.  You owe it to yourself to take advantage of these free events to continue your professional development and take advantage of networking with other SQL Server professionals.

http://sqlsaturday.com/81/eventhome.aspx

Send Email in SQL 2008 Express

No Email functionality in SQL Express? No problem. This is a nice article on using CLR to send email in SQL 2008 Express.
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQL+Express+2008/71341/

SQL Saturday Free Training

I just attended my first free SQL Saturday training day (#29 in Birmingham, AL) and it was an amazing day. The training was of the highest quality and as I went through the day with free coffee/soda and free lunch provided, I could not believe all of the value that was being provided for free. Of course it is not free, just free to we the trainees.

A big thank you to all the sponsors and the volunteers that made the day possible.

I want to encourage all of you reading this to go to the SQL Saturday website and find SQL Saturday's in your region. There were many people that I met in sessions who were from Tennessee and Georgia, and some had been to as many as three SQL Saturday's in different locations. It is worth a little driving time.

The hardest part was choosing which sessions to attend, since it was pretty common to have two or more sessions that I was interested in going at the same time. Here is the list that I finally went with.

Parallel Query Execution Dive Deep presented by Kevin Boles.
Database Design Patterns presented by Louis Davidson.
Tuna Helper for SQL Server DBAs presented by Janis Griffin.
Tricks & Tips for Writing Better Queries presented by Joe Webb.
SQL Server Locking and Blocking Made Simple presented by Joe Webb.

In each session, I already knew some of the material and I learned some new things, and most importantly gained some insight from people who approached problems from different angles. SQL Server is so robust, there are hundreds of ways to carve the turkey.

I hope if you have never attended SQL Saturday that you will make it a priority. All it costs you is one Saturday.

FILESTREAM Article on SQLServerCentral.com

One week ago, an article I wrote on FILESTREAM in SQL 2008 was published on SQLServerCentral.com. This was the first time I had written for a professional publication, online or in print, and I want to thank Steve Jones for giving me the opportunity.

In case you missed it, here is a link to my article.
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/FILESTREAM/67668/

I highly recommend that those of you with any inclination toward documentation or training start writing articles. It not only forces you to dig deeper on a subject than you may have done otherwise, but it also helps to establish you as a professional in the field. I know we all have busy lives, but I think it is worth it. Only time will tell.

And speaking of Steve Jones, check out his recent blog entry on Technical Article Writing where he lists several good places to submit your work.

Books on SQL 2008

From what I have seen there are are two basic types of tech learners: the book learners and the "learn as you go" crowd. I lean toward the learn as you go crowd in that I enjoy jumping in with both feet and playing around with a product, then reading about it later. The playing around gives me more context for the books.

Anyway, I picked up a few books to start reading up on SQL 2008 to augment my playing around. At the office I have Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration since initially management and administration will be my focus for work. I have barely started it, but the chapter overviews look promising.

At home I have two more books. I started reading Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals because from what I have read online, it is an excellent book for really understanding the guts of how SQL Server works. I'm only in Chapter 1, but my quick overview of the book looks promising.

The third book, which I have not started, is Microsoft SQL Server 2008-Database Development which is preparation for the 70-433 MCTS exam. I have never received a Microsoft certification, but I think it is time that I start down that road. Due to my current title of Database Developer this seemed like a good MCTS to start with. Since this one is the least important for me ramping up the installation, setup, and maintenance of SQL 2008, it will probably be the last book I read.

I'll post my impressions of the books as I finish them. And if you have any good book recommendations, feel free to post them in the comments.

Introduction

My name is Hugh Thomas and I finally decided to cut my teeth on my first professional blog about SQL Server. I have been developing databases for about fifteen years going back to Access version 2.0. In 2000 I started developing with SQL 2000 and I've never looked back.

As a database engine and feature-rich tool set, I consider the SQL Server platform to be the best bang for your buck and the easiest platform to have multiple tiers of support, from the very basic support user up to the Super DBA.

I have been using SQL 2005 in production since three months after it was released and am currently testing SQL 2008 for future development. Although my primary roll is that of a Database Developer, I have played the roll of our primary (well, really our only) DBA since 2000. That means I have installed SQL 2000-2008 multiple times, dealt with the configuration side of the server and services, and banged my head against the wall when things went South.

I plan to blog about what I learn, mistakes I make, and link to interesting resources that I find along the way. If my successes and failures can help someone else, all the better.

Until next time,

Hugh