Category Archives: DBA Career

30 Days of Adventure in Australia and New Zealand

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Starting Saturday, September 26, 2009, I will begin a 30 day, 9 city, and 11 session speaking tour of Australia and New Zealand. While I have been on several 2 and 3 week speaking tours, this will be my longest and most complex.

I have spent nearly a year making the arrangements, coordinating the tour with various user groups so I could make as many presentations as I could in the shortest time possible. This past two months have really been intensive, as I have had to book flights, train rides, and hotels for all these locations. The entire journey will include nearly 20,000 miles of traveling.

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PASS Community Summit to be Held in Seattle

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Organized by SQL Server users for SQL Server users, PASS Summit Unite 2009 is the largest and most intensive Microsoft SQL Server and BI conference in the world. In its 10th year, PASS Summit returns to the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle Nov. 2-5, 2009.

Guided by the results of a recent Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) membership survey, PASS Summit Unite 2009 will focus on helping SQL Server professionals cut IT costs in a difficult economy, stretch their technology investments, and squeeze the most value from their educational opportunities. Continue reading →

Help Design a New SQL Server Monitoring Tool

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In an experiment in SQL Server community involvement, the members of Red Gate Software’s software development usability team have created a new website called www.thefutureofmonitoring.com. This team, among other teams at Red Gate Software, are working Version 2 of its popular SQL Response software.

The goal of the new website is to get your input on what you would like to see in a SQL Server monitoring tool. For example, what do you dislike about software installers, or what memory counters do you think are the most important? In fact, you can even help the usability team design a new dashboard.

Whatever you think about SQL Server monitoring tools, feel free to share those thoughts with the usability team at their new website. In fact, I have already given the team my input on the next version of SQL Response, and they would really like to hear from you too.

Josef Richberg Voted Exceptional DBA of the Year

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image For the second year in a row, SQLServerCentral.Com and Red Gate Software have sponsored the Exceptional DBA of the Year awards. DBAs are nominated by the SQL Server community, and the top five finalists are selected by a panel of judges. These five finalists are then voted on by the SQL Server community, and a winner selected.

This year, the top five finalists included Stuart Cianos, Chuck Lathrope, Raymond Laubert, Josef Richberg, and Alex Rosa.

The winner of the 2009 Exceptional DBA award, selected by popular vote was Josef Richberg. As the winner, Josef will receive a trophy, a license for Red Gate Software’s SQL Toolbelt, a full conference pass for the 2009 PASS Community Summit, and travel expenses to attend the summit.

To read an interview with Joseph, and to find out about his perspective of what it means to be an Exceptional DBA, visit this link.

24 Hours of PASS was an Adventure

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On July 21, just a few short weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Rick Heiges, who is on the Board of Directors for PASS, asking me if I was willing to participate in the 24 Hours of PASS virtual conference, to be held on September 1, 2009. This was the first I had heard of this new project, which by the way, was Rick’s idea.

I wrote him right back, saying yes, and offering several different sessions I could do, and he picked one on “How to Use SQLDiag to Troubleshoot SQL Server Problems”. Fortunately, I had done the same presentation earlier this year in Vancouver, at SQLTeach, so I didn’t have to start from scratch, creating a new presentation. The only problem was that my original presentation was designed for 75 minutes, and I would only have 40 minutes to give my presentation at the 24 Hours of PASS session.
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