June 2009 - Posts

• SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit

  The Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism Team has put together a training Kit on SQL Server 2008 Covering the following: Date and Time Types Filestream Grouping Sets Reporting Services Row Constructors Spatial Data SQL CLR Table-Valued Parameters T-SQL Merge Statement Within the download is a series of Presentations, Demos and Hands-On Labs that are free and definitely worth the time to look into it. Enjoy!   Posted Jun 22 2009, 08:45 PM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: SQL Server 2008, Free Offer, Training, Download

• Swiss IT Pro User Group Meeting July 2009 : Virtualization - What's New (VMware / Microsoft)

  We've got the information for next month's User Group Meeting, Channelled through SwissITPro this month.  Theme:Virtualization - What's New (VMware / Microsoft) Language:  Deutsch Tuesday / Dienstag - 7 July / Juli 2009 17:45 - 21:00 Uhr   (Kleiner Apéro 17:45 - 18:15 Uhr) Where / Wo? Digicomp Academy AG  (Zürich) Limmatstrasse 50 CH-8005 Zürich Tel. +41 44 447 21 21 Nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit, Ihren Kollege und die Kern Swiss IT Pro User Group Freiwillige kennenzulernen. Session #1: Hyper-V v2.0 - Was ist Neu? Der Hyper-V V 2.0 in Windows Server 2008 R2 beinhaltet viele Neuerungen für die Virtualisierung. Mittels Live Migration, also dem Verschieben von Virtuellen Maschinen auf andere Hosts im laufenden Betrieb und ohne Unterbrechung, wird der Hyper-V nun in der Lage sein weitere neue Data Center Szenarien zu unterstützen. Mehr ... Session #2: Update VMware vSphere 4 Manage Virtualized Services (Cloud): Wie überwache ich die Performance und Verfügbarkeit von Applikationen in der virtuellen Infrastruktur und wie flexibel kann ich auf sich ändernde Bedürfnisse reagieren? Mehr ... IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFO Event registration (it's free) and detailed session information can be found here. Der Event wird auch durch Live Meeting übertragen. Anmeldung an info[a.t]swissitpro.ch mit Ihren Vor- und Nach- Name und Firma ist obligatorisch. This Event will also be broadcasted via Live Meeting. Register for this by sending an email to info[a.t]swissitpro.ch with your firstname, lastname and company (required.) Posted Jun 22 2009, 05:59 AM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: SwissITPro, Swiss PASS Chapter, Virtualization

• Re-post from The Microsoft Learning Community and Evangelism Team Blog - free Microsoft Certification voucher

  For those of you who have enlisted or who are still to enlist for my help to get you through the SQL Server exams on SQL Server 2005/2008, look at this poast as it could get you an exam voucher to give you even more motivation to get through all the study and practice! :) from:  http://blogs.technet.com/mslcommunity/archive/2009/06/17/this-rss-is-dead-but-the-new-one-could-win-you-a-free-exam.aspx This RSS is dead… but the NEW one could win you a free exam! As the title says… if you are reading this post thru your RSS, you are missing out big time. :) We know that moving is tough, but we couldn’t set up RSS re-direct on TechNet.  So… we put together a little something for you to win when you let us know you have subscribed to the new Born to Learn: Everyday, 3 lucky folks will each get a free Microsoft Certification voucher, valid for any Prometric centers. It’s very simple - you subscribe to the new Born to Learn, AND post a comment on Born to Learn to let us know.  We will do a random drawing at the end of the business day (Pacific time), and let you know if you are the winner. :) If you don’t win the first day, no worries – come back the next day and check it out– this daily drawing goes on daily until June 30, 2009.  Everyday 3 exam vouchers will be given out. (Each person is limited to one free voucher.)   Posted Jun 21 2009, 11:54 PM by Charley Hanania with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Certification, Free Offer

• SQL Management Studio Snapshot Add-In

  I attended a talk the other day and the speaker was showing SQL Server Potentials and Professionals alike on how easy it was to manage SQL Server from Management Studio. One of the areas emarrasingly was creating Database Snapshots. The presenter looked all over Management Studio for it but couldn't find it... Do you know where it is??? Well look here for it, as its an add in tool written by Sean Price in 2007 :o) http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/seanprice/archive/2007/07/15/sql-management-studio-snapshot-add-in.aspx  But don't forget that "Real DBA's write code command line" (Quoted from an ORACLE DBA I worked with)   Posted Jun 21 2009, 12:02 PM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: Database Snapshot, Tools

• Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices Whitepaper for SQL Server

  We've been discussing this for so long and warning Sys Admins about making sure our servers are in proper good nic before handing over to us for the SQL install and config. So rather than just talking about it, we can point them to a whitepaper on it... simplifies the list of blog entry links that we generally have to search for and email them ;o) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd758814.aspx all good :)   Posted Jun 19 2009, 12:31 PM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: Whitepaper, Best Practices

• Backing up Sharepoint Databases for True Point in Time Recovery

  I've been working on a whitepaper for Quest (for a while) which focusses on Sharepoint Recoverability from a DBA's perspective. As you proably know Sharepoint uses SQL Server to store its data, and although the data structures and usage within the SQL Server databases isn't what a DBA would call "optimal" its heavy use of tables etc brings things such as Performance Tuning, Capacity Planning and Disaster Recovery into the realms of the DBA as a relatively "complex" database application. I've spoken to some MS folks and MVP's on some of the current gaps we've got for a method or two I've been trying to code and document for the paper, mainly around binding the various databases LSN's ([Transaction] Log Sequence Numbers) to time as a base in order to create restore paths that cater for the control type databases and the other content and component type databases. The latest info I got from Mike Epprect from MS Switzerland (thanks Mike!) is that although the info isn't available to the DBA from the internal data structures, DMV's and Backup tables, MS's Data Protection Manager (DPM) handles this and the out of SQL Components as well such as the various files that need to be in synch for recoverability. I'll be looking in to it and doing some tests around it to work out how well it handles all of this and also so see if we can bring it closer to the DBA neutral perspective of looking after database recoverability for Sharepoint, Biztalk et al as normal DB Applications. Let me know if you've done this before or if you've got any gotchas that will same me what little time I have these days. Posted Jun 06 2009, 02:32 AM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: Quest Software, Transaction Log, Recoverability, Whitepaper, Sharepoint

• Failover Clustering and Virtualization - Update from MS CSS

  Virtualisation and Failover Clustering wasn't one of the options you had for SQL Server previously, but Bob Ward has just updated a KB with details on the change of stance and why its now supported :) In reading my blog, you'll know that I'm not the biggest fan of Virtualisation... You'll also know that its not virtualisationper se that is the issue in my view it's how the term has been percievably made into the be all and end all of issues in IT. It is still immature in my eyes as a technology to take over all other strategies in enterprise environments and people should also remember that SQL Server in itself "virtualises" on a number of different levels in its own product space namely through effective use of SQL Server instances and databases within an instance... Take a look at the blog post in any case. Bob's posts are always great, and support of this is definitely a step in the right direction [when used for the right reasons ;) ] http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/05/19/sql-server-support-policy-for-failover-clustering-and-virtualization-gets-an-update.aspx   Posted Jun 02 2009, 02:58 PM by Charley Hanania with no comments Filed under: Clustering, CSS, Virtualization