10Feb 2009 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Things you know now…

Misc
Brent Ozar has passed on another doozie. His list is pretty good. Since I'm much more a tactical guy than a big picture strategic guy, my advice to me in the past is going to be more tactical in nature. Learn the Rules of Normalization Yeah, eventually I picked up  on them, but not before I built about six or seven systems I would be profoundly embarassed to show anyone today. I realize that pointing at the fundamentals is just shy of a non-answer to the question, but the fact of the matter is, I was a bit of a cowboy. Still am. The beauty, and curse, of being a cowboy is, you tend to bypass things. Sometimes, you're riding by trouble you just don't need. Other times, you're hell bent for…
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06Feb 2009 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

VSTS:DB More on Composite Projects

Visual Studio
It occurred to me, all the searches coming by looking for information on composite projects in VSTS:DB, maybe instead of wondering how it's done you're wondering why it's done. In the GDR release there are three kinds of projects you can create; database, server, partial. Database and Server projects are created directly through the VS GUI as new projects and I covered that a bit in the last post. Partial projects are something different. Partial projects are pieces of structure or code, for example a tally table, that you want to share across multiple projects. Partial projects are created by accessing the object or objects you want to define as a partial project in the Solution Explorer. Right click on the object(s) and select Export As Partial Project. This creates a…
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04Feb 2009 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

VSTS:DB Composite Projects

Tools, Visual Studio
I've seen several searches go by from people who are looking for how to create composite projects. Here's a quick run-down. In the example, I'm going to create a main database project called BaseDB, a server project called MyServer, and a composite project that combines the two called Comp. This project is just another database project as you can see in Figure 1: [caption id="attachment_379" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="New Database Project"][/caption] Once the new project is created, you need to right click on the References object in the Solution Explorer. Figure 2: From the pop-up menu select Add Database Reference. The window in Figure 3 will pop up: [caption id="attachment_383" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Add Database Reference"][/caption] You can select the other projects for a dynamic view into their changes, or for a…
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03Feb 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration

Uncategorized
I just got a book in the mail from a friend, Todd Robinson, who was the technical editor. The name of the book is Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration. The book was written by Ross Mistry and Hilary Cotter. I don't know Ross Mistry and I think I met Hilary Cotter once, although I know who he is. However, since Todd was involved, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a high-end, must read. I just started and the initial chapter's discussion on using Windows Server 2008 sparked a few questions for my local admin team. I'm looking forward to more. Thanks Todd.
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02Feb 2009 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Visual Studio Team System Database Edition Best Practices

Visual Studio
Barclay Hill, Program Manager for Visual Studio Team System Database Edition at Microsoft has just launched a new blog that I'm excited about. He's going to be blogging on best practices for VSTS:DB. His initial post outlines the topics he hopes to address and it's an impressive list. I responded immediately with an offer to help because I'm using the tool and struggling a bit to get it to do everything we need and because I really like all that VSTS:DB has done for me and my team already. Any one else interested in pitching in should go over there and get involved. Here's what I sent as an initial message: I saw your blog post and request for interest and participation and decided to pitch in. The company where…
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29Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Board Summary

PASS
Andy Warren posted a summary of how he saw the PASS Board Meeting that recently took place. If you're a volunteer for PASS, I'd strongly suggest going over and reading it. SQLBatman also posted on this a few days ago. It's absolutely worth a read too. As a volunteer, I have to say, I really enjoy having some knowledge of what's going on, the processes behind the decisions, and the intent of those decisions. This knowledge makes it easier to maintain a level of enthusiasm that will help to keep me involved. I'm sure it'll work the same way for others. By the way, helping the community is one reason to get involved, but an even better reason is the great people you'll have an opportunity to work with.
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27Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

New England Data Camp Evals

PASS, T-SQL, Tools
Anyone reading this who attended the New England Data Camp and filled out an eval, for any of the sessions, thanks. For those 63 evals between the two sessions that I received, thanks. Here are the aggregates on my sessions: Using Visual Studio Team System Database Edition: Average of Knowledge 8.344827586 Average of Presentation 8.482758621 Average of Preparation 8.103448276 Average of Interesting 8.172413793 Average of Overall 8.275862069 Number of Submissions 29 Understanding Execution Plans Average of Knowledge 8.647058824 Average of Presentation 8.617647059 Average of Preparation 8.705882353 Average of Interesting 8.529411765 Average of Overall 8.625 Number of Submissions 34 These are all on a scale of 1-9. I'm really quite happy with the results. Here are the average results for all the speakers and all the sessions at the Data Camp:…
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26Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Apress Alpha Program

Uncategorized
Apress has a new program called Alpha where they make available books in progress. You can download, for a price, an e-copy of some of the chapters of the book for early review. It allows you to get in on the action a bit and you can post comments to the author to influence the final work. My new book, SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled, just got added to the Alpha program. They have 10 of the 16 chapters posted. Additionally, they've got a publication date set for March. I've only seen the production copy of three of the chapters and I'm on the second draft of chapter 16, so I think that seems tight, but they're the pros.
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