25Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Microsoft Links to Help Your Career

Misc
I received this list of links from my Microsoft rep. It was really an impressive list. So I asked if I could post it to the blog. Figures, it was already out there. Buck Woody had compiled it. It's worth a look through. There really is a lot of information that focuses on you and your career available from Microsoft. Who knew that a big company like that could be so helpful. Also, how great was it that Buck Woody pulled it all together for convenience.
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24Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Community

Misc, PASS
I'm always impressed and amazed with what happens in the SQL Server community. If you need help, there almost always seems to be a willing and able hand that reaches down to pull you up. It happens again and again, all around. I take part in SQL Server Central, one of the best, and biggest, communities out there for SQL Server. The people that pitch in every day are some of the nicest you're ever going to meet, but they're also extremely well informed. I regularly benefit from people swinging by this blog to offer suggestions or solutions or improvements to my ramblings. I've been making friends and developing contacts at the PASS Summit for the last four years and at my local user's group for the last two.  I've also been…
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20Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Call for Speakers

PASS
Yeah, everyone has a blog post up about it. Who am I to buck the trend. The call for speakers is officially open. You will need to set up a PassPort if you don't have one already (a wise move, whoever thought of it). Get on over there and register.
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19Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Database.sqlpermissions

Visual Studio
Raise your hand if you think this is a real pain in the bottom method for editing user permissions? Yeah, me too. Visual Studio Team System Database Edition is far to fine a tool to make us edit XML to set database user permissions. A co-worker has posted a change request on MS Connect. Connect works really well as long as people vote for what you report. I've seen several things change in SQL Server or get fixed primarily because of the reports in Connect. So if doing this: <PermissionStatement Action="GRANT">      <Permission>EXECUTE</Persmission>     <Grantee>UserRole</Grantee>      <Object Name="dbo" Type="SCHEMA"/> </PermissionStatement> Makes you crazy and you would rather type this: GRANT EXECUTE ON SCHEMA :: dbo TO UserRole ; Then click on the link and get the word in front out to Microsoft.
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19Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 13 Comments

Execution Plan Estimated Operator Cost

Uncategorized
I've said it over and over again, the costs on operators in execution plans, even in actual execution plans are estimates.  You need to understand that when looking at your execution plans. It's vital because you need to be able to distinguish between the truly costly parts of a plan and the less costly parts of a plan. Don't believe me? Take a look at this picture and see if you can spot the discrepancy: Spot it yet? Add up the costs for the operators visible in the part of the plan... Yep 125%.  And there's more to the plan that I'm not showing. I think this one must total near 200%. The statistics are up to date and there's no consistency errors in the database. These estimates are just off sometimes.…
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14Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Technical Editor

Uncategorized
Joseph Sack was the technical editor for my book. He also happens to be a great guy. I learned a lot from him as we went through the book. Where I didn't learn from him, he kept me focused, always pointing out where I was slipping off the 2008 track. Whatever worth the book holds, a lot of it comes from him. Oh, and he writes, all on his own. So it's not like he needs me at all.
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13Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 20 Comments

It’s a book!

Uncategorized
I just received my copies of the book. "SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled" is an honest to gosh, in print, available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble BOOK! Sorry, just need a little time for a victory dance on the table. Huzzah!
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13Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

Disabling Database Encryption

T-SQL
SQL Server 2008 introduced TDE (either Total Database Encryption or Transparent Database Encryption, I've seen both) which is a way to get a passive encryption in place on the database to prevent people from stealing backups or detaching files & stealing them. It works with a Certificate in the server, and there are mechanisms around password protection of the Certificates, management etc. Setting it up & turning it on are very easy. This example is from a chapter on a book I'm working on: USE master; GO CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'Chapter8Backup'; GO CREATE CERTIFICATE Chapter8Certificate WITH SUBJECT = 'Chapter 8 Certificate' GO USE AdventureWorksLT GO CREATE DATABASE ENCRYPTION KEY WITH ALGORITHM = AES_128 ENCRYPTION BY SERVER CERTIFICATE Chapter8Certificate GO ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorksLT SET ENCRYPTION ON GO…
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11Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

PASS Call for Speakers, March 20th

PASS
In case you don't read the Connector when it comes out (and delete it like I used to), they've announced that the call for speakers is going to open on March 20th and close on April 3rd. No links to the web site yet. That will be in the Connector and on the PASS web site when they open it. I've got three presentations that I'm putting in. I hope everyone else is ready with theirs.
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