The second presentation will be a regular, 75-minute session about the basics of storage for the DBA. I think both of these sessions will be a lot of fun!  Here are the abstracts for both sessions:

Scaling SQL Server 2012

SQL Server implementations can rapidly evolve and become more complex, forcing DBAs and developers to think about how they can scale their solution quickly and effectively. Scaling up is relatively easy but can be expensive, while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades, you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem.” And if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or third-party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This comprehensive full-day session will give you concrete, practical advice about how to scale SQL Server. Starting with your current workload, configuration, and hardware, we’ll explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we’ll cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. For scale-up solutions, you’ll learn how to scale up properly with nearly zero down time. And for scale-out implementations, you’ll learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data-dependent routing. We’ll also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

Storage Subsystem Basics for the DBA

Do you feel lost when talking to your storage administrator? Are your storage subsystems like a mysterious black box where your databases live but you can’t go visit? This session will get you up to speed with the fundamentals of storage subsystems for SQL Server. You’ll learn about the different types of storage available and how to decide which to use for different workload types. You’ll also learn useful tips and techniques for configuring your storage for the best performance and reliability. We’ll then cover methods to effectively measure and monitor your storage performance so that you’ll have valuable information and evidence available the next time you have to discuss I/O performance with your storage administrator.

There will be a large presence at PASS Summit 2013 from SQLskills, with sessions from Paul Randal, Kimberly Tripp, Jonathan Kehayias, Glenn Berry, and Erin Stellato. The PASS Summit is always a good time, since it is an event where you can make a lot of valuable connections and friendships and learn a great deal of technical content during the week.

The post Speaking at PASS Summit 2013 in Charlotte appeared first on Glenn Berry.

Scaling SQL Server 2012

How can you scale SQL Server 2012? Scaling up is relatively easy (but can be expensive), while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem”, and if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or 3rd party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This session gives you concrete, practical advice on how to deal with this situation. Starting with your present workload, configuration and hardware, we will explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we will cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. Once that decision is made, you will learn how to scale up properly, with nearly zero down-time. If you decide to scale out, you will learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data dependent routing. We will also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

You can get a copy of the flyer for both pre-cons here: SQL Saturday #197 Pre-Cons

Here is the session I will present on Saturday:

Hardware 201: Selecting Database Hardware

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Don’t let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD.

My friend and SQLskills colleague, Joe Sack will also be speaking at SQLSaturday #197.  I hope to see a lot of people at this event!

The post Speaking at SQLSaturday #197 in Omaha on April 5-6 appeared first on Glenn Berry.

SQLskills is a sponsor of SQLSaturday #188, and we will be giving away a certificate for a $500.00 discount on a future SQLskills Immersion Event class at the SQLSaturday event.

Here is the preconference session on Friday:

Scaling SQL Server 2012

How can you scale SQL Server 2012? Scaling up is relatively easy (but can be expensive), while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem”, and if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or 3rd party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This session gives you concrete, practical advice on how to deal with this situation. Starting with your present workload, configuration and hardware, we will explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we will cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. Once that decision is made, you will learn how to scale up properly, with nearly zero down-time. If you decide to scale out, you will learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data dependent routing. We will also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

Here are the two regular sessions on Saturday:

Hardware 201: Selecting Database Hardware

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Don’t let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD.

Dr. DMV: How to Use Dynamic Management Views

SQL Server 2005 introduced Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) that allow you to see exactly what is happening inside your SQL Server instances and databases with much more detail than ever before. SQL Server 2008 R2 adds even more capability in this area. You can discover your top wait types, most CPU intensive stored procedures, find missing indexes, and identify unused indexes, to name just a few examples. This session (which is applicable to SQL Server 2005 through 2012), presents and explains over fifty DMV queries that you can quickly and easily use to detect and diagnose performance issues in your environment.

This SQLSaturday should be a lot of fun, and I hope that I see a lot of people there!

The post Speaking at SQLSaturday #188 in Lisbon, Portugal appeared first on Glenn Berry.

In a change of pace, I will be speaking at an Oracle event in February. It is the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group Training Days that goes on from February 11-13, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. This is a pretty large event, with a large list of presentations.  I will be doing a hardware presentation, which is actually pretty relevant for SQL Server or for Oracle. Who knows, maybe I can convince some Oracle DBAs to take a look at SQL Server?

Here is my abstract:

Hardware 301: Diving Deeper into Database Hardware
Microsoft made some sweeping changes to their software licensing model for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition, moving from socket-based licensing to core-based licensing. This alters much of the conventional criteria for hardware selection for database servers that will be running SQL Server 2012. This also caused a significant amount of angst in some quarters, with fears of huge increases in SQL Server 2012 licensing costs compared to older versions of the product. This session will cut through the uncertainty and hype to show you how to properly evaluate and choose your database hardware for usage with SQL Server 2012. You will learn how to choose hardware for different types of workloads and how to get the best performance and scalability for the lowest licensing cost.

The post Speaking at the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group Training Days on February 12, 2013 appeared first on Glenn Berry.