15Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 10 Comments

PASS Evaluation Results

PASS
I received my evaluation results this afternoon (thanks so much Marcella). I had about 35 people attend the session and 11 took the time to respond. Overall, the session seems to have been well received. I had one person ding me for finishing early. I did finish early, but then we actually went over time on the Q&A session, so I think it was a wash. For my first time presenting in this type of environment, I find this to be useful feedback. I can see where Andy Warren is coming from in suggesting some questions that would be specifically helpful to the speaker would be nice. The questions are primarily aimed at determining whether or not the topic will be useful next year and whether or not the speaker…
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11Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

New England Data Camp v1.0

Misc, PASS
Adam Machanic of the New England SQL Server Users Group (among other things), has contacted the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group to ask us to take part in a one day SQL Server code camp. Of course we said yes. It's taking place at the Microsoft facility in Waltham on Saturday, January 24th. You can register here. If you're interested in speaking, speaker registration is here. I'll be listing the sponsors as they become available, but it will be a PASS event. As information gels around this, I'll continue posting updates.
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10Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 11 Comments

Whine

T-SQL
I'm working on the chapter on cursors. My editors thought my plan for the chapter was less than optimal. I wanted to have the chapter head Cursor Cost Analysis And then this would be the entire chapter: They cost too much. DO NOT USE THEM! Ah well. Guess I have to go through it and create all the silly examples. End of whine.
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10Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Tagged Again, Two Mistakes

Misc
OK. I really do need to take a look at incoming links more often. This one was pointed out to me. Now I'm to provide two mistakes... Only two? This is another idea originating with Chris Shaw who apparently spends all day providing a duel service. He torments fellow DBA's and provides blogging fodder. I'm not sure which is more useful to the public. 1)  HUGE mistake. Way back, much earlier in my career, I thought I could do no wrong and learn anything I needed to learn within a week or so. First time I learned that wasn't true was when I claimed to be a database expert at the consulting company I was working for. They sent me off to a client where I proceded to trash a database…
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10Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

SQL Quiz Part 2

Misc
Gee, thanks TJay. I have apparently been tagged to take part in a quiz started by Chris Shaw. It's an experiment in learning where a series of people answer the same question, hopefully spreading some useful knowledge. The question: What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those? This is tough. You could answer based purely on technical issues, what was my toughest technical challenge. You could talk about career issues, tough bosses, ignorant co-workers, incompetent subordinates, clueless clients. You could also talk about shifting jobs as companies fail or are mismanaged or you move. You could also talk about missed opportunities, when you faced the large scale challenges and didn't quite rise to the occasion. Anyway... My Answers) 1) My…
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08Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Whitepaper

Uncategorized
One of my tasks for the coming year is to evaluate each and every SQL Server 2000 system, identify all the databases, the applications they belong to, and provide an upgrade to SQL Server 2008 cost estimate. I've only started reading this new white paper from Microsoft, but I can already tell it's going to be a huge help.
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03Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Dynamic Management Views Put to Work on Blocking

SQL Server, T-SQL
This is my first pass at a modern (2005/2008) blocking monitoring script. I think it's a decent blocking script to capture information about blocks as they are occurring. Filters can be applied and it wouldn't be hard at all to add on other information such as execution plans, plan hash, etc. SELECT  tl.request_session_id AS WaitingSessionID        ,wt.blocking_session_id AS BlockingSessionID        ,wt.resource_description        ,wt.wait_type        ,wt.wait_duration_ms        ,DB_NAME(tl.resource_database_id) AS DatabaseName        ,tl.resource_associated_entity_id AS WaitingAssociatedEntity        ,tl.resource_type AS WaitingResourceType        ,tl.request_type AS WaitingRequestType        ,wrt.[text] AS WaitingTSql        ,btl.request_type BlockingRequestType        ,brt.[text] AS BlockingTsql FROM    sys.dm_tran_locks tl         JOIN sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks wt         ON tl.lock_owner_address = wt.resource_address         JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests wr         ON wr.session_id = tl.request_session_id         CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(wr.sql_handle) AS wrt         LEFT JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests br         ON br.session_id = wt.blocking_session_id         OUTER APPLY…
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02Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

More Dynamic Management Views: sys.dm_tran_locks

SQL Server, T-SQL
I'm working on the chapter on blocking in the new book. Explaining blocking of course means explaining locks. Prior to 2005, to understand locks, you went to sp_lock. Not anymore. Now you can query sys.dm_tran_locks. It's so much more sophisticated than the old system procedure.  Best of all, the information within it is simply a view into the internal locking infrastructure, so you're not placing extra load or extra processing on the system to marshal this data. A simple query to get basic locking information would look like this:   SELECT tl.request_session_id             ,tl.resource_database_id             ,tl.resource_associated_entity_id             ,tl.resource_type             ,tl.resource_description             ,tl.request_mode             ,tl.request_status   FROM sys.dm_tran_locks tl That just outputs roughly the same information as sp_lock. Lots more detail, not available in sp_lock, is available if you need it. Things…
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01Dec 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Finally, the GDR is Released

Visual Studio
From the Data Dude himself. This is great news. I've been working with the CTP's for several months now, telling the other DBA's on my team that they had to wait until it was completely ready for release. It's been a long wait, but I'm sure it's worth it. My congratulations to the team. I met several of you at the PASS Summit. I really apreciate the work you've put into this great tool. It really makes a difference in how we develop and deploy databases. The changes in the GDR are making a great utility even better.  Thanks Mr. Drapers. Thanks also to Jamie Laflen, especially for helping validate some of the ideas I presented at PASS. Thanks to all the rest of the team, whose names I don't…
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