Author Archives: Brad

Give SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP a Quick Try for Free

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You have probably heard that the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP is available, but you may not have given it a try yet because it is such a pain to download the huge install file, find a test server to run it on, and then install it. Under the best of conditions, this is at least a 3 hour job.

Now, if you want to check out the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2 (the August 2009 CTP), you can without going through all this hassle. Instead, you can go to www.sqlserverbeta.com, create a virtual instance of the software, and try it out, all for free.

All you have to do is fill out a short registration form, and shortly thereafter, you will have your own personal instance of SQL Server 2008 R2 to play and experiment with.  So now, you don’t have any excuse to learn about, and try out for yourself, all the cool new features in R2.

This offer is sponsored by PASS, Microsoft, Dell, and MaximumASP.

Thursday at the PASS Community Summit

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The last full day of the 2009 PASS Community Summit was the first day I have had at the conference to attend sessions all day long. My day started with two keynotes. After the obligatory vendor keynote, Dr. David DeWitt presented a keynote on future trends in data and storage technology in SQL Server, which was well-received by the audience.  See Steve Jones’ blog for more information on the keynote.

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Wednesday at the PASS Community Summit

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The second day of the full PASS Summit was packed with sessions. If fact, it was hard to select from the 56 sessions that were available.

The day started with the Rushabh Mehta announcing the 2009 PASSion Awards, an annual award given by PASS to those volunteers that have given a lot of their time volunteering. This year, two awards were made. For the North American award, it was given to Allen Kinsel , who gave a lot of time volunteering for the PASS Program Committee.

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Tuesday at the PASS Community Summit

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Today was the first official day of the full (3-day) conference, with about 2,200 full conference attendees. Officially, PASS claims there are 2,998 registrations from 46 countries, but that number includes pre- and post-con attendees (who are also attending the full conference), plus Microsoft employees.

As you might expect, the Seattle Convention Center was packed with DBAs all wearing their orange and brown lanyards with their attendee badge, many carrying bags of swag they picked up from the various vendors attending the conference.

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What Do You Do When Your Employer Doesn’t Want to Support Your DBA Career?

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At the 2009 PASS Community Summit, I have gotten the opportunity to talk to many DBAs, and to find out about what it is like to work for their organizations. In my book, How to Become an Exceptional DBA, and in many of my presentations, I highly recommend DBAs get as much training as they can so that they can stay at the top of their game; and to also get involved in the SQL Server Community as much as possible, such as posting in forums, speaking at user group meetings, writing articles, blogging, or whatever most interests them. I feel these two activities, among many others, can help enhance one’s career.

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