Presentation

SQL Saturday

SQL Padre Presentation

This Saturday is SQL Saturday #514 in Houston, TX. 

And this Saturday, I will be doing my first presentation at a SQL Saturday.

Luckily my presentation is in the morning so I can get it over with and enjoy the rest of the day. Otherwise, I probably would be stressing about it all day!

Hostile Takeover is my presentation on what do you do when handed the keys to a SQL server you have never seen.  What information would you want to know and more importantly HOW do you get that information!

I will show some easy to use tools and scripts developed by people way smarter than I am.  Heck, I will even show you how to hack into a SQL Server!  As far as my website goes, I will update my slide deck and scripts repository after SQL Saturday!  And hopefully I will find the time to upload the information to the SQL Saturday website!

Indexes and Execution Plans (my presentation)

SQL Padre Presentation, SQL

Last night I had the opportunity to once again speak at our local Baton Rouge SQL User Group meeting.  And as usual, it was a blast. 

The topic of choice was “Indexes and Execution Plans: Using them together for the better!” This was somewhat of a 101 class designed to show how you can read and use Execution Plans to build your indexing strategies.

An introduction into basic terms with minimal slides and then I was on to demos. My demos were all based on a Phone Book database that I created with a White Pages table and a Yellow Pages table.  I populated the data using this nifty website Mokcaroo.  One bit of new knowledge I learned during the process.  The tSQL phrase of INSERT INTO ….VALUES… has a 1000 row limit.  Who knew?

I believe meaningful discussion was had by all and without hesitation the “peanut gallery” were in top form!  Enjoyable to say the least!

My last point of the discussion was “how to determine if the indexes were useful”. I demonstrated the code I use to list all indexes and their usefulness.  My code to do this can be found in my previous blog post in the 8 Weeks of Indexes series: “Determining what you have now.”

During my presentation, I mentioned one of my favorite books on Execution Plans by Grant Fritchey (b|t) called SQL Server Execution Plans, Second Edition and ITS FREE so there is no excuse not to get it and read it!

Since my slide deck was very minimal because the focus was on the indexing demos, I really don’t see the point of posting it; but I will include the demo scripts just in case.

Oops, I did it again!

SQL Padre Presentation, SQL, SQL User Group ,

No, I am not talking about Brittany Spears; one blog post could not possibly define or explain that child!

I am talking about SQL User Groups!  I opened my mouth for a brief second and sure enough I was shocked and surprised by what came out of it.

“I will present at the November meeting.”

What the heck did I just say? What did I just volunteer my self to do? I really need to learn to take my wife’s advice.  “Just say NO”  LOL

Any way, on to picking a topic to present. One of the most intriguing things for me as a SQL DBA is performance tuning. The ability to push the limits and make queries go faster!  I get excited when I figure out how to shave milliseconds of off of a query.

For me the best way to approach performance is to try and develop your queries and indexes correctly from the start.  My presentation, “Indexes and Execution Plans”, will begin with a brief overview of indexes and execution plans; how to read them and to use them to your advantage in development. I will then give code examples on how to use execution plans to determine the best need (if any) for indexes.

See you all on November 11th at the Louisiana Tech Park on Florida. customLogo

My presentation and code will be available after the user group meeting.

Hostile Takeover

SQL Padre Presentation, SQL, SQL User Group ,

Last night, I had the privilege of presenting to the Baton Rouge SQL Server User Group (@BRSSUG).  This was my 2nd time presenting to the group and I hope it was as informational as it was enjoyable for me.

The Nuts and Bolts of the presentation

The whole premise of the presentation was to outline and layout what to do when you are given a SQL Server to manage.  In some cases you may “discover” a new SQL Instance on your network and not have access to it.  I presented one method of gaining access through what I call a “hidden door”.

I am a big supporter (even though I don’t do it as often as I should) of documentation!  PowerKnowledge is Power and as our friendly neighborhood Spiderman would say “With great power comes great responsibility”.

What type of information do you need to collect and document on?  I explained several bits of information that I gather on a regular basis and gave several tips and demonstrated some wonderful scripts from people much smarter than I am on how to collect this information.  I have been using these scripts in “My SQL Toolbox” for a  long time.

Here is the slide-deck I used last night with all the links to the various tools of “people smarter than me” that I use on a regular basis.