26Sep 2013 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

PASS Votes

PASS
I've already made my own intentions clear. I'm casting one of my votes for Allen Kinsel. But, I get three votes. Some of you may be asking yourselves, why didn't recommend two other candidates? Honesty time. First, no one else asked me to. I'm actually glad of this. If I received requests for help from more than three of the candidates, I would be very hard pressed to choose. Yes, I ultimately have to, but I don't have to publicly reject anyone. At this point, it looks like I'm ready to vote for every other candidate. That's a good thing from my standpoint, maybe not so much from theirs. However, if anyone wanted a little help, they should have asked. That's a good policy with life in general. Second, I…
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23Sep 2013 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Votes and So Should You

PASS
To put it bluntly, you need to go cast a vote for Allen Kinsel for the PASS Board. In his own words, here's why Allen is running. Why am I supporting Allen? First, he's a friend. But ignore that. This isn't, or at least shouldn't be, a popularity contest. It's about getting what you want, what you need, out of the PASS organization. I absolutely believe that Allen has the best interests of this organization at heart. He wants to make a difference for the better. More than that, I've seen him working as a volunteer within the organization where he does make a difference, does make things better. He brings passion to the job. If you've ever volunteered to help run any kind of organization, you'll know that one…
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26Aug 2013 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Make the PASS Summit Work For Your Employer

PASS
It was pointed out to me that since PASS is such a huge networking event, any employer would be crazy to send a good employee to the event. They'll just come back and hand in their two weeks notice. You know, that's entirely possible. But, let's not confuse networking with job hunting. Funny enough, while I did get my latest job while at the PASS Summit, it wasn't through the personal network that I had built up over the years of going to, and speaking at, the Summit. I use that network as an extensive knowledge base. If I have a question about Availability Groups, I have at least three different people I can reach out to. If I get stuck on some internals question, I have other individuals I…
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21Aug 2013 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Speaking this Fall

PASS, Redgate Software
I've been at home through the whole month of August, restingworking hard, but it's time to get on the road again. First up, it's off to San Diego for two events. On Friday, September 20th, Red Gate (my Lord and Master) is hosting a free afternoon session of training. Steve Jones (b|t) and I will be walking through several sessions oriented towards the DBA and the skill sets they need to get things done. It's a free event, training done the Red Gate way, so register here, get some free training, a little networking and finish up with a frothy beverage. Then it's off to SQL Saturday San Diego the next day, Saturday, September 21st. As I write this, they haven't posted the schedule, so I'm not sure what session I'll be doing,…
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15Aug 2013 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Azure and Your MSDN Account

Azure
I've heard over and over again that the reason people don't want to learn Azure, to explore it, to understand where it's applicable to them and their business (and where it's not, because, it does have well-defined limitations) is because they don't want to pay for it. Fine. Don't. Do you have an MSDN account? What? You do? Then you have access to a credit in Azure and an account with a spending limit. Your credit level is dependent on what level of MSDN you currently subscribe to, but who cares. You not only will NOT pay anything to play in Azure, you will NEVER pay anything. You can't go beyond your limit. Want some more incentive (not that you should need any now)? Cool. Set up your Azure account…
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12Aug 2013 by Grant Fritchey 19 Comments

You should NOT attend the PASS Summit

PASS
If you asked me, prior to today, if I would type or say those words, I would have laughed right at you. But then, I saw this question on Ask SQL Server Central. It's from a college student, not yet twenty-one, who was considering paying his (assuming it's a guy since their handle is 'Eagle Scout') own way to the Summit and wondered if it would be worth it. It pains me to say that I suggested that he not do it. Don't get me wrong. I think the PASS Summit is probably the single greatest resource you have to advance your career. Where else can you go to get that broad a choice in training? Where else can you go to get that many of the leaders of our industry, specializing…
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07Aug 2013 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

24 Hours of PASS Streaming Available

Azure, PASS
If you missed the 24 Hours of PASS Summit 2013 Preview, you missed some excellent sessions. I watched a few, but not all. But now, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can go back and catch the ones I missed. You can too. I'd like to call out my session, Be a Successful DBA in the World of Cloud and On-Premises Data. I know that my fellow DBAs and database developers are largely dismissive of Azure. I get it. But I really think you're missing out on this. It's another excellent tool in your toolbox that you need to start taking advantage of. Little things like getting a quick and easy installation of SQL Server 2014 or Windows Server 2012 R2 up and running. Helpful things like the…
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01Jul 2013 by Grant Fritchey 15 Comments

Getting Started With SQL Server 2014 the Easy Way

Azure, PASS
You know you want to at least take a look at the new Client Technology Preview (CTP) of SQL Server 2014. I don't blame you either. I want to spend hours swimming through it too. But, you're thinking to yourself, "Heck, I'd have to download the silly thing, provision a new VM, walk through the install... Nah. Too much work." I don't blame you. I found myself on the road the day the software was released, so I was going to attempt to do all that work on a hotel wireless system. In short, I was going to have to wait, no options. Or were there? Actually, there is a much easier option. Azure Virtual Machines. And no, it's not that I can simply get a Windows Azure VM ready to go…
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09Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit Day 3: Dr. David Dewitt

PASS
Two quick points, I'm putting this blog together using the Surface.. ooh... and this isn't a keynote, but a spotlight session at the Summit. Still, I thought I would live blog my thoughts because I've done it for every time Dr. Dewitt has spoken at the Summit. Right off, he has a slide with a little brain character representing himself. But, we're talking PolyBase, and futures. This is basically a way to combine hadoop unstructured nosql data with structured storage within SQL Server. Mostly this is within the new Parallel Datawarehouse. But it's coming to all of SQL Server, so we need to learn this. The information ties directly back to what was presented at yesterday's keynote. HDFS is the file system. On top of that a framework for executing…
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08Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2012 Day 2: Keynote

PASS
Welcome to Day 2 of the PASS Summit! It's been a very exciting event so far. Today I'm presenting two sessions, one on tuning queries by fixing bad parameter sniffing and one on reading execution plans. Please stop by, or watch the one on execution plans on TV as PASS is livestreaming events all day long on SQL TV (which is what I used to call Profiler). The intro video, which can be good or goofy was really good this year. They had people from all over the world talking in their native language, making the point that the PASS organization is a global community. It really is. Doug McDowell is giving us the finance and governance information for the PASS organization. I find this boring and vital at the…
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