SSWUG.org SQL Server Virtual Conference

Session Abstracts

Abstracts
Session/Speaker	Description
Log Shipping Basics Brent Ozar	The boss wants you to plan for disaster, and wants to know the business will be protected if the production SQL Server goes down. Be armed with answers about log shipping with this presentation, which will cover the basic concepts and how to implement it.
Log Shipping To The Cloud Brent Ozar	In an ideal world, we would have a standby SQL Server in a disaster recovery datacenter, but we cant always afford that luxury. In this session, Brent Ozar will explain how to log ship your database to Amazon S3, a cloud-based file service, and bring up a standby SQL Server in the event of an emergency. It's like having your own disaster recovery datacenter, but without the cost - until emergency strikes.
Reaching Compliance with SQL Server 2008 Brent Ozar	To become a production DBA at a public company, hospital, bank or even just a security-minded firm, you need to understand the basics of regulatory compliance. In this session, you'll learn how to talk the language and learn what tools are available in each version of SQL Server to make your job easier.
SQL Server Encryption Brent Ozar	Regulatory compliance needs are a big pain point for DBAs. How do we make sure our data stays safe? Brent will explain the options available for SQL Server 2005 and 2008, do a Transparent Data Encryption implementation with SQL 2008, and demonstrate its strengths and weaknesses. Attendees will get scripts and sample Policy-Based Management policies.
Introduction to SQL Server Analysis Services Brian Knight	Is your customer looking for drag and drop reports or capabilities inside of Excel. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is the answer for you then. You’ll be amazed how quickly you can develop sophisticated reports after watching the basics of this session.
Introduction to SQL Server Integration Services Brian Knight	This session will get you past the learning curve of SSIS. Brian covers creating an end to end package that covers many of the concepts in SSIS. He covers, looping over a set of files, processing each file and then archiving. You won't want to miss this if you're new to SSIS.
Changing Technology to Change the Future Chris Shaw	In Part 2 of the series we will look at how SQL Server 2008 can help you save your company money. When the belts and budgets get tighter SQL Server 2008 can save you time and money. We will cover SQL Server 2008 money saving features by doing more with less.
What Does the Future Hold for the Job Market? Chris Shaw	What does 2009 and 2010 hold in store for DBA’s in field? In this three part series we will we will look at 3 aspects for the future. In the first series we will talk about the Job Market what is going on where the work is and where the work is not. We will talk about what happens if you get caught in a layoff or what you can do to help avoid being caught up in a layoff. If you are concerned about the future you won’t want to miss this session.
When Worst Case Hits You Chris Shaw	In part 3 of the series we will look at what happens when worse case hits you, If you have been caught up in a layoff how do you move forward. We will talk about social networking, building that online network and how to handle those critical interviews.
Using Database Mirroring for High Availability Eric Johnson	Database Mirroring is one of the latest failover technologies available natively in SQL Server. In the session, we will cover using database mirroring for high availability. We will look at set up, maintenance, monitoring, and failover. In addition, we will look at the role of the witness server and how it is used to facilitate automatic failover. We will also look at other SQL Server objects that you need to account for when using Database Mirroring for HA and techniques you can implement in order to read the data on the mirror database. This session is for beginning to advanced SQL Server DBAs with little or no Database Mirroring experience.
Using Log Shipping for High Availability Eric Johnson	Log Shipping has been around in one form or another since SQL Server 2000 and many “homegrown” and third-party solutions have recently become available. This session will cover all you need to know about log shipping to use it effectively for high availability. We will look at set up, maintenance, monitoring, and failover. In addition, we will look at other SQL Server objects that you need to account for when using Log Shipping for HA. This session is for beginning to advanced SQL Server DBAs with little or no Log Shipping experience.
Using Transactional Replication as a High Availability Solution Eric Johnson	In this session, we will cover using transactional replication for high availability. Even if you have set up replication before, there are some differences when using it in HA situations. We will look at the recovery of logins, restoring identity columns, managing related tables, maintaining triggers on the subscriber, and several other key concepts that you must know in order to implement transactional replication as an HA solution. This session is for intermediate to advanced SQL Server DBAs with an understanding of replication concepts.
Exhibit Hall Exhibit Hall	Exhibit Hall -- Please take a few minutes to visit our Sponsors
Exhibit Hall Exhibit Hall	Exhibit Hall -- Please take a few minutes to visit our Sponsors
Exhibit Hall Exhibit Hall	Exhibit Hall -- Please take a few minutes to visit our Sponsors
ABCs of CTEs Jason Strate	Common Table Expressions (CTE) aren’t as common as their name implies. CTEs are often seen as a secret part of the dark art of recursion. This session will explore CTEs to show how they can be extremely useful in improving performance and legibility of T-SQL code. And, of course, look at their use in returning recursive data.
Become Your Own Picasso: Writing Better T-SQL Jason Strate	While not everyone can be a Picasso, there is an art form to writing great SQL statements. In this session we'll go over tips and tricks in writing SQL. And, also, go into some popular bad practices and provide demonstrations to better change those velvet Elvis's to Rembrandts. As every paint brush can't paint every masterpiece, the same goes for SQL statements. After this session, you'll have a few more paintbrushes and probably throw out a few that are no longer useful.
Do Certifications Really Matter? Jason Strate	In this session, see the tracks for SQL Server certifications and discover what you need to know about the exams. Which track will be right for you? What steps should you take? How do I get going? Does anyone take them seriously?
Extended Events, Because I Want the Answer Today Jason Strate	In this session we’ll review Extended Events which is a new feature to SQL Server 2008. Learn the ins and outs of how to get detailed information on the obscure. With a few T-SQL statements work that used to take weeks to complete can be uncovered in minutes leading to a resolution when most are trying to figure out where the issue coming from.
SQL 101 -- The Essentials Jeremy Lowell	If you are new to SQL or a DBA interested in learning the t-sql language, this is a great place to start. We will cover the basics, as time allows for. Topics to include DML statements (select, insert, update, and delete).
SQL 102 – The Essentials – Beyond the basics Jeremy Lowell	A great follow-up to SQL 101 or a refresher if it’s been a while since you’ve written a join statement that looks like this: “Where a.id *= b.id” We will also begin to explore Stored Procedures, CTE’s and some built in functions like Sum, GetDate, Group by and order by.
SQL 103 – The Essentials – DMV’s & t-sql for internals. Jeremy Lowell	If you have ever wondered what some of those 286 system views are in your user database, this is for you! We will cover a handful of these views, also known as DMV’s. They contain data that every DBA should smile about and be able to understand. We will also look at some t-sql that will provide you with information about what’s going on with your SQL Server.
Disk IO Tuning for SQL Server 2005 Kevin Kline	Tuning disk subsystems for optimal SQL Server performance is typically the domain of very experienced, enterprise DBAs. It normally takes many years of exposure to the hard disk subsystem to learn exactly what configurations perform best, provide the greatest fault tolerance, and allow for the most scalability. This session will answer questions like: - How do I configure my hard disks? Do I need RAID? - What are the types of RAID and which kind is best for my application? - How does RAID compare to SAN? - How many disks will I need for my high-performance application? - What is needed to properly monitor the performance of my disk subsystem? - How do I tune my system for improved IO performance? Setting up hardware can be very intimidating, especially when the application needs to scale. Learning the tips and techniques described in this session will help you avoid costly mistakes and serve as the foundation for the long-term success of your SQL Server environment.
End-to-End Troubleshooting for SQL Server 2005 Kevin Kline	Learning how to detect, diagnose and resolve performance problems in SQL Server can be very difficult. It often takes years of on-the-job experience to learn how to use the tools and techniques that help you detect when a problem is occurring, diagnose the root-cause of the problem, and then resolve the problem. This hands-on session will take you from the very start of a problem situation on SQL Server, showing you how to use the native tools that help you keep SQL Server at top performance. This session will detail and demonstrate: - Performance Monitor (PerfMon) - SQL Profiler/Server-side Trace - Correlating PerfMon and Profiler results - Graphic Explain Plan and Transact-SQL Showplan - SQL Server 2005 and 2008 DMVs - When to use Trace Flags These tools and techniques can make your long days shorter and make difficult troubleshooting activities much faster and easier. Every DBA needs to know how to keep their SQL Server in tip-top condition, and you’ll need these skills to do it.
Surviving the Data Avalanche Kevin Kline	The SQL Server database platform is hosting larger and larger databases. But the industry term “Very Large Database” (VLDB) is more difficult to define than ever with multi-terabyte database becoming very common. This session will answer questions like: - How do I configure my SQL Server instances to support multi-terabyte databases? - What risks and problems do VLDBs pose? - How do I overcome issues presented by VLDBs? Administrating and protecting very large databases is extremely difficult and very hard to learn except through direct experience. This session helps you learn from the experiences of others so that you can apply their lessons learned and mitigate your risks before you ever experience them.
7 SQL Server development practices more evil than cursors Paul Nielsen	Cursors do indeed cause performance issues, but cursors are easy to correct. This session addresses the problem of cursors and then uncovers 7 common practices that are more costly than cursors Based on several years of consulting specializing in optimizing third-party ISV databases, the list of worst practices range from critical database design blunders to indexing errors to T -SQL faux pas’. Avoiding the blunders on this list will be the difference between a successful database project and a failure. Not to leave you in the dark, this session will contrast every evil practice with a best practice to solve the problem.
Intro to Data Modeling Paul Nielsen	Data Modeling is part science and part art and all mystery if you’re new to databases. This session starts at the very beginning – assuming you’ve never designed a database before, and talks you through the basics in plain English.
Secrets of the Phantom Row Paul Nielsen	Transactional integrity is the nemesis of scalability and concurrency, which means that developing for scalability requires mastering SQL server’s transactional integrity features. This session will explain SQL Server’s transaction isolation levels in depth – what they accomplish, what they prevent, how they lock, and when to use them. If you ever wondered if “No Lock” was a good idea, or which business case is offended by the phantom row, then this demo filled session is for you.
Panic! Disaster Strikes Sarah Barela	No matter how much we prepare, when disaster strikes we all feel a moment of panic. For some that panic quickly passes as we get down to work to fix the problem. For others the panic continues to grow as we search for a solution. This session is designed to make you know how to recover from disaster. We will cover specifically how to recover from common disaster scenarios. What to do when the master database is corrupt, a drive array with half your database files fails, a hardware failure, a sql injection attacks wipes out whole tables and many more.
SQL Server Security In-Depth Sarah Barela	In this session, we will cover the SQL Security model, with a focus on understanding the impact of each authentication mode. I will discuss best practices when configuring your SQL Server and assigning permissions based on the principle of least privileges. We will evaluate common threats and vulnerabilities within SQL Server and what you can do to mitigate those threats. Finally, I will show you how SQL Injection is used to attack your SQL Servers and steps to prevent attacks.
Upgrading to SQL Server 2008, It is easier than ever! Sarah Barela	Are you ready for SQL 2008? Many organization are still trying to upgrade from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005 and are now faced with the decision should they upgrade to directly SQL 2008 or do they upgrade to SQL 2005 then SQL 2008. In this session, we cover if you should upgrade to SQL 2008 and discuss potential incompatibility issues. We will then discuss the different methods to upgrade and how to plan for a rollback if needed. This session will cover upgrading SQL 2000 and SQL 2005.
How SSWUGVC is made and Future Planning Stephen Wynkoop	We'll show you our studio and how we deliver the conference to you.
How SSWUGVC is made and Future Planning Stephen Wynkoop	We'll show you our studio and how we deliver the conference to you.
Keynote Day 1 Stephen Wynkoop	Keynote for today.
Keynote Day 2 Stephen Wynkoop	Keynote for today.
Keynote Day 3 Stephen Wynkoop	Keynote for today.
Visual Studio Team System Database Edition – Managing Database Deployment Ted Malone	This presentation will extend the previous sessions and discuss how Data Dude can be used to deploy databases. This session will cover deployment topics such as creating build scripts, pre-deployment scripts, post-deployment scripts and using command-line tools to create an extensible deployment environment. This session will feature many demonstrations and will not be a typical “slide-based” presentation.
Visual Studio Team System Database Edition – Managing Multiple Database Projects Ted Malone	This presentation will extend the basics of Data Dude and discuss some of the more advanced topics required for multiple projects, such as database references and SQLCMD variables. We’ll discuss how Data Dude can be used to support database development across multiple deployed databases and manage the schema version of each. This session will cover source control management issues as well. This session will feature many demonstrations and will not be a typical “slide-based” presentation.
Visual Studio Team System Database Edition – Managing the Database Development Lifecycle Ted Malone	In this session, attendees will learn how to incorporate “Data Dude” into their day to day lives. We will discuss how projects are organized and the basics of how the environment works. We’ll discuss the initial project creation, how schema objects are laid out, and how Data Dude can be used to improve database developer productivity. This session will feature many demonstrations and will not be a typical “slide-based” presentation.
Maintenance Plans Thomas LaRock	In SQL 2008, Maintenance Plans create a workflow of tasks to ensure your database is optimized and backed up on a regular schedule. The Maintenance Plan will create an SSIS package that will be scheduled and run with SQL Agent. Attend this session and learn how Maintenance Plans will ease your administrative overhead.
Optimizing Backup and Restore Performance Thomas LaRock	As databases continue to grow in size, the time it takes for backup and recovery grows in length of time. Attend this session and learn methods to minimize the time it takes for your backups to complete, as well as how to minimize the amount of time it takes to recover.
SQL 2008 Performance Data Collection Thomas LaRock	Learn how the Performance Data Collection can help you understand more about the types of activities hitting your SQL 2008 instance. Attend this session and learn how to implement the data collections effectively.
SQL 2008 Policy Based Management Thomas LaRock	As the number of instances you are responsible for increase the amount of time you can spend working on any one instance decreases. Attend this session and learn how Policy Based Management (PBM) can cut your administration time, ensure the stability of your enterprise.
Auditing your Users TJ Belt	Periodically, an auditor would stop by my desk and ask me to show them all the users and their permission’s on a particular database. Most of us know how to do this, and it is easily gathered. Typically, the next question is ‘What has changed?’. After a couple iterations of this, you will realize that you need to devise a way to store this information to adequately respond to this question. A snapshot of the user information needs to be gathered from time to time, and stored. In this presentation, we’ll discuss reasons for storing this information, show code for tables, and explain processes that will enable you to quickly and effectively answer the auditors requests in a consistent and timely manner.
Best Practices TJ Belt	Having worked with databases for some time now, I felt it important to get some best practices documented. This presentation will touch on the simple things that we often take for granted while using our favorite database systems. From naming conventions, to cursors, to temporary, derived and variable tables, to the use of dynamic sql. We’ll touch on a great many different ideas and hopefully further cement your own best practices, making you a more exceptional DBA or Database Developer.
Job execution system TJ Belt	In a production environment, as a DBA protecting the environment, you do not want to give out Admin rights to many, if any individuals in the company. Granting the least possible permissions needed is the desired route. This is a protection for the system you have a responsibility to care for. However, people often need to gain access to perform their job functions. When folks need jobs to be executed outside of the normal execution times, how do we solve this dilemma? This presentation will detail a system that solves this problem.
Monitor Index Fragmentation TJ Belt	Monitor Index FragmentationAs our databases are being used, our index fragmentation can tend to increase. Having an automated system that defrags or removes the fragmentation is necessary. Even a rarely used system will peak the fragmentation with their periodic executions. Keeping track of the level of fragmentation prior to and after fragmentation has been removed will help gather metrics on your systems. Automating this process will relieve pressure on your on-call staff, pressure on your database system, and even increase performance. Let’s discuss ways to accomplish this task.