SQLSaturday #50 - East Iowa 2010

Event Date: 09/18/2010 00:00:00

Event Location:

  • University of Iowa - University Capitol Centre
  • 201 S Clinton St
  • Iowa City, Iowa

PDF of Schedule

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Sessions

This is a list of sessions from the event, based on the schedule in the XML files.


Title: Take the Awesomeness Home: the Data Collector

Abstract: SQLSaturday provides insight into how to query your SQL Servers’ performance, configuration, and needs. But there is a problem for the DBA: how do we quickly apply our new knowledge and scripts to multiple production servers? How do we collect the data we need regularly and query which instances need the most attention? How can we easily create reports proving ROI? In this session, attendees will learn to set up performance data collection with the SQL 2008 Management Data Warehouse (MDW). We will demonstrate how fast it is to create and configure custom data collections, giving examples from simple to complex scripts. This is the tool you need to automate collection for the awesome insights you’ve learned at SQLSaturday!

Speaker(s):

  • Kendra Little

Track and Room: Track 3 - N/A


Title: Query hints: The Jekyll and Hyde of T-SQL Coding

Abstract: Dealing with the SQL Server optimizer can be maddening at times. One moment it will take a seemingly impossible query and make it run in no time flat. At other times, the optimizer will insist on a poor plan even though a much better alternative is available. What should you do when the optimizer won’t behave? One option we have available is the use of query hints. While almost everyone agrees that query hints should be avoided whenever possible, there are some situations that make this difficult to achieve. Sometimes the judicious use of a query hint can save the day, but since hints are a taboo subject, we do not discuss them as much as we should. Come to this session and let’s see if we can find a practical approach to hints!

Speaker(s):

  • Chris Leonard

Track and Room: Track 4 - N/A


Title: Stay Agile, Stay Sane

Abstract: Agile software development emphasizes continuous deployment and its methods do not directly include long term planning. DBAs must ensure data integrity and have a long term view for application scale, so Agile methods present challenges. Come learn about successful real-world practices iteratively developed in a high transaction internet service environment over the last five years. We have created a flourishing Agile shop while meeting high requirements for uptime, customer response, and data consistency. In this session we’ll cover key habits for success, practices to avoid, how and when to get started, and why Agile development can be a great thing for DBAs. Topics will also include how “Testing in Production” can be a huge benefit.

Speaker(s):

  • Kendra Little

Track and Room: Track 3 - N/A


Title: Using XML to Query Execution Plans

Abstract: SQL Server stores its execution plans as XML in dynamic management views. The execution plans are a gold mine of information. From the whether or not the execution plan will rely on parallelism to what columns are requiring a key lookup after a non-clustered index seek. Through a the use of XML this information can be available at your fingertips to help determine the value and impact of an index and guide you in improving the performance of your SQL Server databases. In this session we’ll look at how you can begin to understand and query the structure of the execution plans in the procedure cache. Also, we’ll review how to uncover some potential performance issues that may be lurking in your SQL Server.

Speaker(s):

  • Jason Strate

Track and Room: Track 3 - N/A


Title: Women in Technology Lunch Panel

Abstract: Encouraging the Next Generation Everyone has heard that the number of women in technology is declining. How can all of us, women and men, encourage more young women to consider a career in technology? Join three dynamic Women in Technology – Kathi Kellenberger, Wendy Pastrick, and Jes Borland – to discuss this important and hot topic over lunch. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions, make suggestions, and share their experiences as well.

Speaker(s):

Track and Room: Breakout - N/A


Title: Applying Database Design

Abstract: Beyond database design fundamentals (for example, Normalization) lies the area where you have to create “real” solutions. In this session, I will cover a good number of patterns that we commonly find useful to try to apply to the problem of building (and interpreting) a database solution. Ideas like generalization, subclassing, single table domain tables, optional data, and more will be discussed, some of them good, some not so good (don’t assume which will be which), but all that are common and/or useful for your database implementations.

Speaker(s):

  • Louis Davidson

Track and Room: Track 4 - N/A


Title: Take Control with Resource Governor and PBM

Abstract: A large majority of a modern DBA’s workload consists of managing their policies and resources on their system in order to ensure that they are being followed and resources are accessible when needed. SQL Server 2008 provides both Policy Based Management(PBM) and Resource Governor, which allows the DBA to discretely manage system policies and resources in a very structured way. In this session, we will show you how to configure, monitor, and administer these features to help lower your anxiety levels while increasing your system’s availability.

Speaker(s):

  • Arie Jones

Track and Room: Track 1 - N/A


Title: Monitoring Data Changes the Microsoft Way with CDC

Abstract: Most modern enterprise database environments require some measure of auditing their data. Previously, the DBA would need to put together a complicated web of triggers and history tables in order to properly track data changes. Now in SQL Server 2008, Change Data Capture allows the DBA to readily enact a very straight-forward method for tracking the changes and understanding easily how they took place. In this session, we will examine how to set-up, configure, use, and administer the Change Data Capture process in your environment.

Speaker(s):

  • Arie Jones

Track and Room: Track 1 - N/A


Title: Getting To Know Your Indexes

Abstract: Without proper indexing SQL Server can be hard pressed to create efficient and performant execution plans. Dynamic Management Views (DMV) and system views provide a slew of information about indexes that can be used to analyze indexes within SQL Server. In this session we’ll go under the hood of SQL Server to look at DMVs and system views to know what indexes you have, should have, and how they feel about the way applications are treating them.

Speaker(s):

  • Jason Strate

Track and Room: Track 4 - N/A


Title: If You Build It, They Will Try to Break It

Abstract: It’s fun to build it, but sometimes it can be even more fun to try and break it. SQL injection is one of the more common web vulnerabilities, and although many of us may be familiar with code injection, there are many new tools that help automate the attacker’s job. As developers, it is good to know what the bad guys are using and how these tools work. This talk will take us from the basics of SQL injection to remote code execution. We will then look at some of the ways SQL injection attacks are being automated (with tools such as sqlmap, sqlninja, and other fuzzing applications).

Speaker(s):

  • Trenton Ivey

Track and Room: Track 2 - N/A


Title: SQL Performance Planning Tips for Developers

Abstract: As developers, we get blamed when things run slow, very often from both the users and DBAs. In this session we will go through some tips that you may start to use in your project the next day, without going into too much details of database engine.

Speaker(s):

  • Dagong Wang

Track and Room: Track 3 - N/A


Title: Transactional Replication 101

Abstract: Replication simplified! Learn the basic parts that make up replication, what tools are included to help you along plus a look into monitoring.

Speaker(s):

  • Wendy Pastrick

Track and Room: Track 2 - N/A


Title: Developer AMA (Ask Me Anything)

Abstract: An “Open Space” discussion facilitated by at least one developer, guided by these principles: whoever comes is the right people; whatever happens is the only thing that could have; and when it’s over, it’s over. Before it’s over, discussion will likely range from “What’s wrong with developers?” to “What’s wrong with DBAs?” and various more productive topics in between.

Speaker(s):

  • Keith Dahlby

Track and Room: Track 1 - N/A


Title: Application Coding Sins

Abstract: As DBAs, some of us might spend time writing actual application code, while others may spend time chewing out developers for writing poor code which negatively affects database performance. This session will cover some common sins of application coding and best practices you can recommend to developers.

Speaker(s):

  • Bob Pusateri

Track and Room: Track 1 - N/A


Title: Closing

Abstract: Closing and Raffle

Speaker(s):

Track and Room: Breakout - N/A


Title: Develop T-SQL code Defensively

Abstract: The goal of defensive database programming is to produce robust database code. You will learn how to program defensively by reviewing real life examples. Also you will learn some of the most common scenarios when T-SQL code breaks because of changes in environment settings and concurrency, and how to develop T-SQL that does not break in such situations.

Speaker(s):

  • Alex Kuznetsov

Track and Room: Track 2 - N/A


Title: Designing a Data Mart 101

Abstract: Business Intelligence is becoming more important as competition becomes more fierce and global. If you are a traditional DBA supporting OLTP databases, how can you begin to understand the dimensional model? This session will take you step-by-step through designing a data mart, the first stop on your journey in this exciting and growing field.

Speaker(s):

  • Kathi Kellenberger

Track and Room: Track 4 - N/A


Title: What’s New with Reporting Services

Abstract: With the launch of SQL Server 2008 two years ago and R2 this year, Reporting Services (SSRS) has changed quite a bit. Find out why you should take the plunge and upgrade your SSRS implementation. Learn about enhancements in performance, reusability, and cool new features so you can take your reports to the next level.

Speaker(s):

  • Kathi Kellenberger

Track and Room: Track 2 - N/A


Title: Database Design Fundamentals

Abstract: In this session I will give an overview of how to design a database, including the common normal forms and why they should matter to you if you are creating or modifying SQL Server databases. Data should be easy to work with in SQL Server if the database has been organized as close as possible to the standards of normalization that have proven for many years. Many common T-SQL programming “difficulties” are the result of struggling against the way data should be structured and can be avoided by applying the basic normalization techniques and are obvious things that you find yourself struggling with time and again (i.e. using the SUBSTRING function in a WHERE clause meaning you can’t use an index efficiently).

Speaker(s):

  • Louis Davidson

Track and Room: Track 4 - N/A


Title: Are You Following Your Own Best Practices?

Abstract: Everyone has their own best practices that they try to follow. But often times we aren’t sure how well we are following our own or industry best practices. In this session we’ll go into monitoring and managing best practices throughout your environment. The session will look at how to create a solution using policy based management and other tools to report on your compliance to best practices.

Speaker(s):

  • Jason Strate

Track and Room: Track 1 - N/A


Title: SSIS 2008 Basics - Get Up to Speed in 60 minutes!

Abstract: This session discusses what is needed to install, develop, and execute a basic SSIS 2008 package. An overview of some basic yet powerful tasks available to administrators and developers as well as ways to increase the performance of commonly used tasks and components will be discussed briefly. We will cover • Planning and Installation Requirements • Developing a basic SSIS package • Importing/Exporting packages • SSIS issues to watch out for • Deploying an SSIS package to production • Differentiating various package storage methods • Running packages manually or on a schedule

Speaker(s):

  • Ted Krueger

Track and Room: Track 3 - N/A


Title: Developing T-SQL that survives concurrency

Abstract: Many T-SQL modules run correctly without concurrency, but they intermittently break when they are exposed to real life concurrency in OLTP systems. You will learn common real life scenarios when concurrency breaks T-SQL code. In addition, you will learn how to develop robust T-SQL which works correctly under concurrency.

Speaker(s):

  • Alex Kuznetsov

Track and Room: Track 2 - N/A


Speakers

This is a list of speakers from the XML Guidebook records. The details and URLs were valid at the time of the event.

Louis Davidson

Twitter: - drsql

LinkedIn: Louis Davidson

Contact: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/author/louis-davidson/

Louis Davidson has worked in the IT industry for over 25 years as a corporate database developer and architect. He has been a Microsoft SQL Server MVP for 15 years and has written five books on database design, and contributed to many other SQL Server books as an author and tech editor. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. You can read more about Louis at http://drsql.org.

Chris Leonard

Contact: http://www.databaseguy.com

Chris Leonard consults as works as a database development manager at Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar. He has also consulted with Microsoft Learning as a Subject Matter Expert for SQL Server 2005 and 2008, helping them design and build some of their education and certification products. Chris enjoys astronomy, geocaching, camping, hacking his Android, and watching lots of movies. He has been married over 20 years, has four kids, and yes, he used to be an opera singer.

Kendra Little

Contact: http://littlekendra.com

Kendra Little is a Senior DBA in the online advertising industry with seven years of DBA experience and ten years experience with SQL Server. Kendra creates tools to automate database maintenance, implements custom perf monitoring, tunes production servers, and builds SQL Reports for trending. She works closely with an Agile development team to plan and deploy weekly changes. Kendra is passionate about helping build the DBA profession as a dynamic, necessary function for successful businesses.

Alex Kuznetsov

Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/alexander_kuznetsov/default.aspx

Alex Kuznetsov is a database developer with more than a decade of experience. Alex has written a book entitled “Defensive Database Programming with Transact-SQL”, and contributed to “MVP Deep Dives” and “The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development”. He blogs on sqlblog.com and publishes articles on simple-talk.com and devx.com,.

Jason Strate

Twitter: - @stratesql

LinkedIn: Jason Strate

Contact: http://www.jasonstrate.com/

Jason Strate is a SQL Server Solutions Architect with Pragmatic Works. He is also a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and MCM. He has over 15 years of experience developing, architecting, and managing data platforms. Jason writes, blogs, and presents on SQL Server.

Kathi Kellenberger

Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/kathi_kellenberger/default.aspx

Kathi Kellenberger is a Data Technology Specialist with Microsoft in St. Louis, MO. Before joining Microsoft in 2010, she was a DBA and a SQL Server MVP. Kathi is author of “Beginning T-SQL 2008” and co-author of “Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services” and “SQL Server MVP Deep Dives.” In her spare time, Kathi enjoys singing (she is the original #sqlkaroke), cycling, playing with her 5 year old grandson, and climbing the stairs in very tall buildings.

Dagong Wang

I’m a .net developer since version 1 and working in the Business Services IT group of the University of Iowa. It’s my first presentation in SQLSaturday. So be nice and patient to me, please.

Bob Pusateri

Twitter: - @SQLBob

LinkedIn: Bob Pusateri

Contact: http://www.BobPusateri.com

Bob Pusateri is a Microsoft Certified Master, DBA, and systems architect with over 10 years of experience on SQL Server. His interests involve internals, performance optimization, and cloud technologies. He is an active member of two Chicago-area PASS Local Groups, a community speaker, and maintains a web presence through both Twitter (@SQLBob) and his blog (bobpusateri.com).

Ted Krueger

Contact: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/?disp=authdirauthor=68

Ted Krueger has been working in development and database administration for over a decade. Ted currently works for a respected consulting company, Magenic Technologies as a valued Database Professional resource. He is a PASS Region Mentor, Friends of Red Gate member, SQL Server MVP and community mentor. Ted blogs and is also one of the founders of LessThanDot Technical Community

Jason Strate

Twitter: - @stratesql

LinkedIn: Jason Strate

Contact: http://www.jasonstrate.com/

Jason Strate is a SQL Server Solutions Architect with Pragmatic Works. He is also a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and MCM. He has over 15 years of experience developing, architecting, and managing data platforms. Jason writes, blogs, and presents on SQL Server.

Kendra Little

Contact: http://littlekendra.com

Kendra Little is a Senior DBA in the online advertising industry with seven years of DBA experience and ten years experience with SQL Server. Kendra creates tools to automate database maintenance, implements custom perf monitoring, tunes production servers, and builds SQL Reports for trending. She works closely with an Agile development team to plan and deploy weekly changes. Kendra is passionate about helping build the DBA profession as a dynamic, necessary function for successful businesses.

Alex Kuznetsov

Contact: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/alexander_kuznetsov/default.aspx

Alex Kuznetsov is a database developer with more than a decade of experience. Alex has written a book entitled “Defensive Database Programming with Transact-SQL”, and contributed to “MVP Deep Dives” and “The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development”. He blogs on sqlblog.com and publishes articles on simple-talk.com and devx.com,.

Arie Jones

Contact: http://www.programmersedge.com

Arie Jones ‘AJ’ is the Principal Technology Manager for Perpetual Technologies, Inc. in Indianapolis, IN. Arie leads PTI’s team of expert consultants in planning, design, development, deployment, and management of database environments and applications to achieve the best combination of tools and services for each client. Additionally, AJ is a community speaker, has written several books such as “Learn SQL in 24 Hours”, and blogs extensively at http://www.programmersedge.com

Louis Davidson

Twitter: - drsql

LinkedIn: Louis Davidson

Contact: https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/author/louis-davidson/

Louis Davidson has worked in the IT industry for over 25 years as a corporate database developer and architect. He has been a Microsoft SQL Server MVP for 15 years and has written five books on database design, and contributed to many other SQL Server books as an author and tech editor. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. You can read more about Louis at http://drsql.org.


Kathi Kellenberger

Contact: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/kathi_kellenberger/default.aspx

Kathi Kellenberger is a Data Technology Specialist with Microsoft in St. Louis, MO. Before joining Microsoft in 2010, she was a DBA and a SQL Server MVP. Kathi is author of “Beginning T-SQL 2008” and co-author of “Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services” and “SQL Server MVP Deep Dives.” In her spare time, Kathi enjoys singing (she is the original #sqlkaroke), cycling, playing with her 5 year old grandson, and climbing the stairs in very tall buildings.

Keith Dahlby

Contact: http://solutionizing.net/

Keith Dahlby is a .NET developer and language geek from Cedar Rapids, IA. He works as a software guru at JP Cycles and blogs about various software development topics at Los Techies. Keith has spoken at community events around the midwest and studied Human-Computer Interaction at Iowa State University. His talks have been described as “terrific!”, “very interactive!”, and “the best I’ve seen all hour!”

Jason Strate

Contact: http://www.jasonstrate.com

Jason Strate, SQL Server MVP, is a DBA with over twelve years of experience. His experience includes delivering both OLTP and OLAP solutions as well as assessment and implementation of SQL Server environments for best practices, performance, and HADR solutions. He is a SQL Server MCITP and participated in the development of Microsoft Certification exams for SQL Server 2008. Jason has presented at the SSWUG Virtual Conferences, TechFuse, SQLSaturday events, and at PASSMN user group meetings.

Trenton Ivey

Contact: http://hackyeah.com

Trenton Ivey (hackyeah.com) is passionate about computer security. He currently works for Iowa Health Systems, but will soon be perusing a carrier in penetration testing and security consulting in the Northwest. He, when not writing programs (or breaking them), spends his time hiking, camping, rock climbing and slacklining with his wife.


Arie Jones

Contact: http://www.programmersedge.com

Arie Jones ‘AJ’ is the Principal Technology Manager for Perpetual Technologies, Inc. in Indianapolis, IN. Arie leads PTI’s team of expert consultants in planning, design, development, deployment, and management of database environments and applications to achieve the best combination of tools and services for each client. Additionally, AJ is a community speaker, has written several books such as “Learn SQL in 24 Hours”, and blogs extensively at http://www.programmersedge.com

Wendy Pastrick

Twitter: - @wendy_dance

Contact: http://wendyverse.blogspot.com

Wendy Pastrick is from Chicago, IL, and for the past 15 years has served as a Database Administrator supporting both development and production environments. Her many years of involvement with PASS include WIT Virtual Chapter and the Chicago Suburban User Group, serving as Regional Mentor, and as a PASS Board member since 2013. Wendy has organized several highly successful SQLSaturday events in Chicago.

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