In the time since my last post about my Query Store pre-con at the PASS Summit (it’s just about a month away!) I’ve gotten several more questions about the session. I’ve consolidated them and provided answers here, and if anyone still wants to know more, please email me!
What version of SQL Server will you be running?
With the announcement on Monday from Ignite about SQL Server 2017, I can now say for certain that is the release I will be using. I will call out differences between SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017 as needed. I don’t expect everyone who’s attending to be running 2016 or 2017, but I do expect that you’re in the planning stages for an upgrade, are going to start planning soon, or you’re looking for some solid reasons to share with your company about why you should upgrade. I would argue that Query Store is a very good reason to upgrade, but that is definitely not the only one (check out the new features list for SQL Server 2016 and SQL Server 2017 – including enhancements to Query Store).
Will you have labs during your session?
No, but I will make all scripts available for attendees, and if you want to follow along during the day, you can get the scripts that morning. I tweak demos right up until a session – it’s what I expect to be doing the Sunday before. I’ll have all the scripts on a share that attendees can access the morning of the 30th. I *love* the idea of labs during a pre-con, and I know that some other presenters do them. Huge props, as it’s not easy to do. In order to cover everything I want to cover, I don’t have enough time for in-depth labs that everyone can walk through from start to finish in the time allotted. But again, feel bring to a laptop with SQL Server 2017 installed, along with the latest SSMS, and you can follow right along.
Are you giving anything away?
Besides knowledge? 😊 Yes, I will have codes for 30 days of free access to Pluralsight, which gives you access to over 50 courses from the SQLskills team, including my 3-hour course on Query Store. If there’s something you miss during the pre-con, you can watch the Pluralsight course to pick it up, or further enhance what you learned. I’m also working on a new course about the enhancements to Query Store in SQL Server 2017 and Automatic Tuning, which I’m also covering in my full day session.
Additional thoughts…
I’m also hosting a panel session at Summit and the organizer has emailed me to discuss how we handle questions during the session. In the case where there are a large number of attendees, sometimes people hesitate to ask questions, and sometimes it can slow down the flow of the session. While I am not setting records in terms of attendance, there are a lot of people that have signed up (which is fantastic) and I do want to make sure that everyone has a chance to ask their questions. I’ve thought about using Twitter, and I know that Slack has been suggested as an option. I’m still thinking about it. If you’re signed up and have a preference, feel free to let me know in the comments!
That’s it for the moment, but please keep those questions coming. Again, I want to make sure this is the right session for you to attend – there are a lot of great choices this year! Either way, I look forward to seeing at Summit next month!