Author Archives: Brad

Interview with BI Expert Tim Mitchell

Posted on by

Tim Mitchell will be speaking at the SQLServerCentral.com track at SQL Server Connections, October 31-November 3, 2011, in Las Vegas, NV.

 

tim mitchellTell us about yourself.

I’m a practitioner of business intelligence, primarily focusing on SQL Server. I’ve been in the IT field for over a decade, and have worked with SQL Server in various capacities for about 8 years. By day, I work as a BI consultant. I’m proud to be a part of Artis Consulting in Dallas, where I help deliver BI solutions across the entire SQL Server stack. During my spare time, I serve on the board of directors for the North Texas SQL Server User Group in Dallas (Irving), and I blog and speak at community events as much as I am able.

Continue reading →

Interview with SQL Server MVP Grant Fritchey

Posted on by

Grant Fritchey will be speaking at the SQLServerCentral.com track at SQL Server Connections, October 31-November 3, 2011, in Las Vegas, NV.

 

Grant Fritchey

Tell us about yourself.

I have twenty plus years’ experience in IT, in the areas of technical support, development, and database administration. Currently, I work for Red Gate Software as a Product Evangelist, where I spend a lot of time speaking, and writing articles for SQLServerCentral.com and Simple-Talk.com. I’m one of the founding officers of the Southern New England SQL Server Users Group and I am its current president. I’ve been involved with the SQL Server community since the 2005 PASS Summit when I saw people having a good time while they were learning. I’ve also been a Microsoft SQL Server MVP since 2009.

Continue reading →

Interview with SQLServerCentral.com Editor Steve Jones

Posted on by

Steve Jones will be speaking at the SQLServerCentral.com track at SQL Server Connections, October 31-November 3, 2011, in Las Vegas, NV.

 

Steve Jones

Tell us about yourself.

I’m the editor of SQLServerCentral.com, which is a position I’ve held for over 8 years. I started writing articles as a DBA to help other people and to share the knowledge I’d been given by so many other great authors over the years, and it has turned into an amazing job. Prior to that, I was a DBA for almost a decade, working with SQL Server v4.2, 6.5, 7.0, and 2000. I am a Microsoft MVP and enjoy working with data, mostly from the administration and management side of the DBA job.

Continue reading →

When was the Last Time You Removed an Index Because it was Never Used?

Posted on by

image

Indexes can be great for boosting the performance of a query, but if an index is never used, it can drag down an instance’s performance. This is because unused indexes must be maintained just like any index. For example, anytime a row is inserted, updated, or deleted, indexes must be maintained. If a lot of records are updated or inserted into a table, an index may experience page splitting. During index rebuilding or reorganizing, indexes are defragmented. During DBCC CHECK DB, indexes have to be checked for their integrity. During all of these processes, all data modifications have to be logged in the transaction log. And of course, indexes take up space in the data cache and on disk. All of these resources are wasted on unused indexes, and can hurt the overall performance of an instance of SQL Server.

Continue reading →

What SQL Server Books Do You Recommend?

Posted on by

Reprinted and amended from my editorial at Database Weekly.

For nearly 11 years now, one of the most common questions people e-mail me about is what SQL Server books do I recommend for the novice DBA. A decade ago, there were many, many titles available, and it was easy for me to recommend books. I had several favorites for many generic categories: “Introduction to SQL Server Administration”, “Introduction to Transact-SQL”, “SQL Server Certification”, and “Advanced SQL Server”.

Continue reading →

Vote for the 2011 Exceptional DBA of the Year Award

Posted on by

image

It’s been my experience that most DBA’s aren’t properly recognized for their contributions to their organizations. As the “protectors of the organization’s data,” DBAs are one of the most important people in any organization. To help recognize the contributions of DBAs, the Exceptional DBA of the Year Awards was developed by Red Gate Software and SQLServerCentral.com to help bring about more awareness of what DBAs do and how important they are.

The 2011 nominees have been selected by the judges and they are:

  • Tom Hill
  • Jeff Moden
  • Colin Stasiuk
  • Scott Shaw
  • Chris Taylor

If you would like to help build awareness of the importance of DBAs to organizations, be sure to vote for your choice by visiting www.exceptionaldba.com. Selecting the winner will be tough, as all of the nominees are exceptional DBAs in their own right.