Speaking Seven Times in April

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April will be a busy month for me as I will be speaking seven different times, on seven different topics, at four different user group and conferences. Here’s my lineup:

Baltimore SQL Server Users Group
Monday, April 5, 2010, 7:00-8:00PM
”How to Use the SQL Server 2008 Performance Data Collector to Analyze Queries”
I will be speaking remotely at this meeting, as I couldn’t fit it into my travel schedule.

Atlanta Microsoft Database Forum
Monday, April 12, 2010, 6:30-9:00PM
”How to Become an Exceptional DBA”

Chicago SQL Server Users Group
Thursday, April 15, 2010, 5:30PM
”How to Optimize TempDB”

SQL Saturday  #31 Chicago
Saturday, April 17, 2010
”How and When to Use Indexed Views” – 3:00PM
”Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans” – 4:00PM

European PASS—Neuss, Germany
April 21-23, 2010
”Essential DBA Skills: Best Practices Every SQL Server DBA Must Know” – Thursday—1:00PM
“How to Analyze Performance Monitor Data Using PAL”—Friday—11:45PM

If you are able to attend any of these events, be sure to stop me and say hello.

How Many DBAs Use the Maintenance Plan Wizard/Designer?

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image When I wrote my most recent free eBook, Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server Maintenance Plans, some of the DBAs I know asked me why I wrote it. After all, “real” DBAs don’t use the Maintenance Plan Wizard/Designer built into SQL Server 2005/2008 Management Studio (SSMS) to maintain their databases, they write Transact-SQL or PowerShell scripts instead. The reason I wrote the book is because there are many DBAs, many more than you think, who use this tool.

In a recent survey on my website (www.bradmcgehee.com) I conducted the following poll:

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An Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Audit

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Excerpted from Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008, which is available as a free eBook.

Previous versions of SQL Server have included a variety of built-in ways to audit activity inside SQL Server. These included:

Login Auditing: Only tracks user login successes and/or failures. Results are sent to the OS Application Log.

SQL Server Profiler (SQL Trace) Audit and Related Events: Profiler includes over 40 specific audit events, and over 130 additional events that can be traced. Results are stored in trace files.

DDL Triggers: DDL triggers can be added to a database to identify when any DDL event occurs.

C2 Audit Mode: This former auditing standard (now superseded by Common Criteria Compliance) uses SQL Trace to capture audit events, which are stored in trace files.

Common Criteria Compliance: A new international auditing standard which also uses SQL Trace to capture data, which are stored in trace files.

None of the above methods offer much granularity, most are not easy to administer, and with the exception of Login Auditing, they can add a large amount of overhead to running SQL Server, hurting its performance.

To help overcome these problems, SQL Server 2008 includes a feature called SQL Server Audit. SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition includes all of the features described in this article, which includes both the SQL Auditing Foundation and Fine Grained Auditing. SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition only provides the SQL Auditing Foundation. Continue reading →

SQL Server Social Group a Fresh Perspective on User Group Meetings

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The Cam river flows through Cambridge, England. At the center of the river you can see a punt (a type of boat) used to navigate the Cam.

I must have attended at least 25 different SQL Server and .NET user groups over the past couple of years, and most of them have a familiar format: food and drinks combined with some socializing, a formal presentation, and a prize drawing. I have seen a few other minor variations, but it is hard to tell one user group meeting from another. That is, until I recently spoke at the SQL Server Social Group in Cambridge, England this past month.

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Want to Learn More About How to Master Microsoft Technologies?

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If you want to learn more about how to master various Microsoft technologies, visit the website Born to Learn. This website includes blog, forums, and an event calendar to keep you up to date on how Microsoft can help you in your career. While anyone can view the site’s contents, you have to register in order to participate in the forums and social networking aspects of the website.

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