Monthly Archives: May 2009

TechEd 2009 Recap

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teched_speaker

Keynote speaker, Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President of Windows Business at Microsoft.

TechEd 2009 was started with a keynote presentation from Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President of Windows Business at Microsoft, which you can view at this link (along with many other videos from the event). He made several announcements, including that SQL Server 2008 R2 will become available the second half of 2010, and that the first public CTP will become available the second half of 2009. For more information on what will be included with SQL Server 2008 R2, and to optionally sign up to be notified when the CTP becomes available, click here.

As you might expect, the economy significantly hurt attendance at the event, with about 7,000 total attendees, much less than in previous years, when it has often sold out. Even with 7,000 people attending, the Los Angeles Convention Center never seemed to be extremely busy, other than the first day following the keynote. Friday had very light attendance, with a lot of people leaving early to play or go home.

Over the five days of the event, I attended 23 different SQL Server sessions, including Chalk Talks, Discussion Panels, and Breakout Sessions. Compared to last year’s TechEd, this year’s event had far fewer SQL Server-related sessions. For many time slots, I had only one or two other SQL Server-related sessions I could have attended. Both SQL Server Connections andPASS Community Summit, both coming up this November, will offer more SQL Server content that TechEd did this year.

I attended several sessions that discussed some of the new features to be found in SQL Server 2008 R2. For those of you who don’t know, late last year Microsoft announced three major initiatives for SQL Server 2008. They were called Kilimanjaro (KJ for short), Gemini, and Madison. At that time, it was very confusing as to what Microsoft was planning, especially given that the next release of SQL Server was not to become available until 2011.

After attending various sessions, I think I understand what Microsoft is doing with SQL Server 2008 R2, although we won’t know for sure until the public CTP becomes available later this year.

First of all, Kilimanjaro is the code name for SQL Server 2008 R2. It includes many new features, such as multi-server management, increased scalability, better virtual server support, and much more. See this link for more details. While SQL Server 2008 R2 is an interim release of SQL Server, it is not SQL Server 2011 (or whatever name they will call the next version of SQL Server). SQL Server 2011 will be a major release, unlike SQL Server 2008 R2, which is essentially SQL Server 2008, with a few new features added. While there are many reasons why Microsoft is releasing SQL Server 2008 R2, one of the main reasons it is being released is to keep up with new features that will be available in Windows 2008 R2, Microsoft Office 2010, and Visual Studio 2010 (these names may not be the final names used when these products are released).

Second of all, Gemini is the code name for the new BI enhancements that will be included with SQL Server 2008 R2. In other words, Kilimanjaro refers to the non-BI enhancements available in SQL Server 2008 R2, while Gemini is the code name for the BI enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Third of all, Madison is the code name of a highly-scalable BI product that is not included in SQL Server 2008 R2. What makes this all the more confusing is that Madison will be released around the same time as SQL Server 2008 R2. Madison (or whatever name they end up using for this new product) will be sold separately from SQL Server 2008 R2, and is designed for very large data warehouses that need huge scalability. From what I understand, Madison will be sold as part of a hardware/software package from various vendors, such as HP and Dell. See this link for more information on Madison.

Although attending TechEd sessions was very educational, one of the biggest reasons to attend any conference are the networking possibilities. I meet with many different people I haven’t seen in a long time, and met many new people. In fact, I probably learned more from talking with other attendees than I did by attending sessions.

For those who want to attend TechEd next year, it will be held in New Orleans, LA, June 7-11, 2010.

Microsoft Offers User Groups Direct Support

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If you are a leader of a Microsoft-related user’s group, and you haven’t done so already, you will want to check out Microsoft’s User Group Support Services at ugss.codezone.com. Once your user’s group is registered and approved by Microsoft, a wealth of services of available to you, including financial support, help with finding sponsors, managing your membership and events, publicizing your events, finding speakers, and much more.

Do You Need an IT or CS Degree to be a Successful DBA?

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When I am making small talk with DBAs I know, one of the things I like to ask them is what their college degree is in. While Information Technology (IT) or Computer Science (CS) degrees are common responses, most DBAs I know don’t have a degree in IT or CS. In fact, the types of degrees they hold range wildly. Some of the responses I have gotten include:

  • PhD in Clinical Psychology
  • BA in Creative Writing
  • BS in Geology
  • Masters in Engineering
  • PhD in Organizational Psychology
  • Pharmacy
  • BA in Philosophy
  • BS in Hydrology
  • BA in Linguistics
  • Masters in Business Administration

Personally, I have a BA in Economics and a Masters in Business Administration, and I only took one computer-related course during my undergraduate and graduate studies.

Once I find out what degree a DBA friend has, I often follow up, asking them how they became a DBA. This provides an even more diverse set of stories, most of which are rooted in a deep interest in technology, and through some unplanned and convoluted set of events, they are now successful DBAs.

So my question to you is, what is your college degree in? And to follow up, how did you get from where you stated to where you are today? And last of all, does your college degree really make all that much difference in your success as a DBA?

SQL Server DBA Certifications: How Many People Have Which Certifications?

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According to Microsoft, as of April 2009:

153,130 people have received the MCDBA: SQL Server 2000 certification

51,445 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2005 certification

854 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2008 Implementation and Maintenance Certification

3,577 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence certification

333 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance certification

456 people have received the MCTS: SQL Server 2008 Database Development certification

7,928 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2005 Database Administrator certification

358 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2008 Database Administrator certification

3,377 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2005 Database Developer certification

213 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2008 Database Developer certification

1,385 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Developer certification

137 people have received the MCITP: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer certification

18 people have received the MCA: Database certification

39 people have received the MCM: SQL Server 2005 certification

2 people have received the MCM: SQL Server 2008 certification

From the numbers above, it appears that DBA certifications are becoming less popular among DBAs. What do you think?

For more information on Microsoft DBA certifications, visit here.

Physical File Defragmentation

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Do You Include Physical File Defragmentation as Part of Your SQL Server Maintenance?

Ever since I can remember, beginning with MS-DOS 1.0, physical file fragmentation has often been a problem on many systems I have used, hurting I/O performance as the disk heads have to thrash about to find all the many file fragments that make up a single physical file. Generally, using either the built-in OS defragmentation tools, or third-party tools, I have kept my physical files defragmented, so they are contiguous, helping to optimize my system’s I/O.

As technology has changed (SANs or SSD drives) physical file fragmentation has become less important. See Linchi Shea’s blog series on this topic. On the other hand, there are still a lot of servers with local storage that can be still be negatively affected by physical file fragmentation.

When I build a new physical box to run SQL Server, the new box has little or no physical file fragmentation to start with. Then, when I create my MDF and LDF files, I pre-size them to as close as I can to their final size (or at least as large as I expect them to grow in the next year or so). This way, when the MDF and LDF files are created on a new server, they are created in a contiguous manner, and there is no physical file fragmentation. Of course, if I do need to grow the MDF or LDF files, I do so in a controlled manner to minimize fragmentation. I avoid using autogrowth to grow my databases, as this can greatly contribute to file fragmentation as the MDF and LDF files grow over time.

In other cases, I have to deal with SQL Servers that have been around for a long time and have not been properly maintained. In those cases, I check for how bad fragmentation is, and if it is bad, I fix it before I create any new pre-sized MDF or LDF files. As a DBA, I prefer to be proactive and prevent physical file fragmentation from occurring in the first place.

What I would like to know is what has been your experience with physical file fragmentation on your SQL Servers? Have you experienced it? How has it affected performance? How do you fix it if you have it? What defragmentation tools do you use, and why? How do you prevent it from happening in the first place? In other words, how do you deal with physical file fragmentation on your SQL Servers?