When our SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers book got published I ran to my grandma with a copy of the book for her blessings. Well, just like every grandma, she loves me, her grandson, unconditionally. She is not into the technology domain (obviously), but she loved the book. She read the first few pages where I was mentioned and read about my co-author Vinod Kumar. After reading the introduction she looked at me and said “When I was young we used to read books, now all those good books are converted into the movies, when do you think this book will be converted into a movie?“

Silence. A very long silence.

I just could not answer her right away.  As a matter of fact, I went into a deep thought. I never thought that she could actually ask me such question. It may be a very simple question, but I felt that it was very important to me. I was just stunned and speechless. I returned home from my grandma’s place, with her blessings and an interesting thought of a “Movie from the Book”. I just could not get this out of my mind.

Jan 24, 2012 - Movie from Book

I talked to my grandma very often, but since the last conversation my wife called her often and I did not talk to her at all. There was no reason to talk to her maybe because I constantly felt that she is with me. Her blessings were with me. I could not get her question out of my mind, still. I was extremely motivated and inspired from my last conversation with her. I called her early morning on January 24. Her very first questions were how I was doing and how was her great granddaughter. I told her that regarding our last conversation, there is actually a movie which is inspired from the book. Her very first reaction was that she knew this would happen as she was confident that my book would reach milestones. We talked for long hours.

Today – Fast Forward

Well, the book was an inspiration for the course, but the video course was developed using totally different angle. We made sure that we’d take the broader idea from the book but wanted present something unique and novel. Vinod Kumar and I thought about it for a long time. We wanted to decide on the format of our course. We spent hours talking about the course – how we could make it unique and give a different experience to every attendee. We wanted to keep the subject light enough to digest, yet deep enough to satisfy everyone’s learning eagerness. After spending some days and efforts for the preparation of the unique content and exceptional demos, the course has become a reality for us.

SQL Server Questions and Answers

This course is designed to help you have a better understanding on how to use SQL Server effectively. The course presents many of the common misconceptions about SQL Server, and then carefully debunks those misconceptions with clear explanations and short but compelling demos, showing you how SQL Server really works. This course is for anyone who works in SQL Server databases, and basically for those who want to improve their knowledge and understanding of this complex platform.

In this course, each topic starts with a question and ends with an answer which is supplemented with a demo. Every question has an exercise file and a demo associated with it. Additionally, in the very last session, we have covered lots of SSMS tips and tricks. Here are the topics we have covered in this course:

• Introduction
• Retrieving IDENTITY value using @@IDENTITY
• Concepts Related to Identity Values
• Difference between WHERE and HAVING
• Order in WHERE clause
• Concepts Around Temporary Tables and Table Variables
• Are stored procedures pre-compiled?
• UNIQUE INDEX and NULLs problem
• DELETE VS TRUNCATE
• Locks and Duration of Transactions
• Nested Transaction and Rollback
• Understanding Date/Time Datatypes
• Differences between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR datatypes
• Precedence of DENY and GRANT security permissions
• Identify Blocking Process
• NULLS usage with Dynamic SQL
• Appendix Tips and Tricks with Tools

Today we are very happy that our course is out. The journey from the book to the Training Course took 80 days and the experience was wonderful. In a future post, I will share the experience of writing book and building the training course.

In the end, we just want to thank YOU, our dear reader, who made this experience possible.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

I suggest you mark your calender right now and present at the hall before time to secure your seat.

Session Details

SQL Server Performance Tips and Tricks

In this session we will go over various SQL Server Performance Tuning Tricks and Tips. Learn about top tips and best SQL Server performance practices related to:

• Unused Indexes
• Clustered Indexes
• Importance of Statistics
• Index Maintenance Scripts
• ColumnStore Index
• A Surprise Secret Tip

January 7, 2012 1:30 PM

I will ask 5 questions during my session and needless to say 5 winners will get copy of my book.

The session will be 100% demo oriented and I will share lots of tips and tricks during this session. Just like every other session of mine, this session will have lots of trivia for you as well it will be extremely interactive. If you prefer to stay quite during the session, this session will a perfect technology opener for you. Once you are in the session – you will be talking and discussion various aspect of performance along with your co-attendees and me.

Additionally, I am personally waiting for the sessions of Rick Morelan who is founder of Joes 2 Pros series. Do not miss any of the sessions of SQL Saturday – here is the complete schedule.

My friend Vinod Kumar has written blog on his sessions, read it here.

Note: Session will be not recorded. There will be no live cast of the session.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

One of the interesting questions I recently received is how many people actually touch the manuscript of the book before it goes to the publisher. Now this number may vary, but here is how many people touched our book’s manuscript.

• 2 authors
• 1 technical adviser
• 3 technical editors
• 1 language  adviser
• 2 layout designers
• 2 other people at the publisher/printer

With this many people collaborating, keeping organized was our main concern.  There were multiple people working together and most of the time we all were working parallel to each other on various part of the book. We kept on increasing the versions of the Word documents which we were all sharing. In the end the final version was sent to the printer. In our book there were two kinds of inaccuracies – 1) Ones we overlooked and did not correct, and 2) Ones we noticed but missed while collating various versions.

Before the book was published, everybody involved (every single person who contributed to the book in any capacity) had decided that if any errata was found, the next version must not have that error and we should maintain an error log. It has been 60 days since the book has been published and we have received quite a lot of communication on the book. The number one request is that many want a second part of the book, I am overwhelmed with your support and love.

Here is the page where we are listing all the errata of the book, if you are reading the book and you find anything which you would like to share with us – you are welcome to send us an email at books “at” sqlauthority.com. It does not matter if it is an English grammar error or technical inaccuracy – we value your input on any and all points. We aspired to be as close to perfect as possible and the first step is to accept our mistakes. Once we know the mistake, we will not repeat it and promptly correct it.

I know that I am looking forward to hearing from my readers about what they loved and what they’d like to see changed, and I’m sure my fellow collaborators would like to hear from you, too.  Thank you again for all your support.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Every day I write continuously. Here are few of the writing tasks I do in my everyday routine.

I write -

Emails

I write nearly 400+ emails every day. I get about 1000 emails and 10s of thousands of spam e-mails. I am thankful that 99.99% of the spam is caught by spam filters. The remaining spam I report to my email provider. However, I still get over 1000 valid emails. I do my best to answer each of them. I write a customized email to every single person. I research quite often for a few answers and that makes me write more and more. Work and personal emails combined together means I write more than 400 emails a day. If I take a one day vacation, the next day I find myself writing 800+ emails. An empty inbox has been just a dream forever.

Web Browser

To answer emails I have to research a lot, and every day I keep on finding myself writing more and more on various browsers and in search engine boxes. An efficiency tool helped me discover that I write more than 2000+ words every day just in the search engine box. I think 2000+ words is a lot of typing!

Social Media

You can find me on pretty much all the social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. I have been writing various status updates and sharing information which interests me. I really find this easy but sometime this can be very distracting as well. I often cut off myself from all the social media when I am working on something important but when I find leisure time I often spend considerable time on my social media. I often answer a few technical questions on Facebook as well engage with community folks.

Blogs

I have blogged every day for the last five years and if you consider the average length of the blog post to be about 500 words, and since I am about to reach the 2000th  blog post, I have written about 1,000,000 (1 Million) words so far. As per Wikipedia the longest novel is Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady (by Samuel Richardson) and it has 969,000 words. If you think War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy was the longest novel, it had only 587,28 words. Well, just writing blog posts I have done almost the same amount of writing as the longest novel in the world. Note that here I am not comparing the quality or genre of the work, just comparing the length of the work.

My Daughters Workbook

I did not want to include this here. However, it is currently the best part of my life. I enjoy doing work books with my 2.25 year old daughter. I enjoy it, I sometimes write the letter ‘A’ hundreds of time to demonstrate how it is written to my daughter. Recently she spotted the letter A in the newspaper and ran to me and proudly demonstrated to me that it is ‘Daddy’s A’. I loved it, I cherish every moment of my life when I am writing with my daughter. I think this is the best time spent.

3 Books in Year 2011

After writing so much throughout my life I always wanted to write a book that adds real value to the publishing world. I wanted to write a book which tremendously helps the community. I am fortunate that I was able to write three various books in the year 2011. I am lucky to write three books which covers various aspect of my favorite technology, SQL Server.

SQL Programming

SQL developers need to be able to create processes for working databases by using one of many programming objects (like functions, stored procedures, constrains, or triggers). By creating objects that talk with SQL you simply change the way other programs (like applications or web pages) can interconnect. These eternal programs only need to call your programming objects by name rather than needing to submit large pieces of advance code. With SQL Programming Development (Volume 4 of 5) in the SQL Server Joes 2 Pros development series, you learn how programming objects work in SQL Server.

[Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle]

SQL Wait Stats

You learn a lot when thrown into a crisis situation, where everyone is looking to you for answers. The system is down, the CEO is pleading with you for answers, as each minute of downtime further cuts into the company’s bottom line. You can almost hear the fiscal charts turning upside down. The simple fix you thought would work when you received the call will not fix the scenario you’ve just walked into. In a hurry, you need new ideas right away. Let this book be your solution manual at work.

[Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle]

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers

Today we use computers for various activities, motor vehicles for traveling to places, and mobile phones for conversation. How many of us can claim the invention of the micro-processor, a basic wheel, or the telegraph? Similarly, this book was not written overnight. The journey of this book goes many years back with many individuals to be thanked. Though each of these chapters are geared towards convenience we highly recommend reading each of the sections irrespective of the roles you might be doing since each of the sections have some interesting trivia about working with SQL Server. In the industry the role of accidental DBA’s (especially with SQL Server) is very common. Hence, if you have performed the role of DBA for a short stint and want to brush-up your fundamentals then the upcoming sections will be a great review.

[Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [IndiaPlaza] [Sample Chapters] | [Kindle]

In future blog posts I will dive deeper into these books’ writing experiences.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Puzzle 1: Find “The Hidden Tiger”

Find “The Hidden Tiger” in the following image created by American wildlife artist Rusty Rust. Just to give you a hint – there is already one tiger standing and looking at us. Now you have to find “The Hidden Tiger”. Trust me; it is very much in front of your eyes. You just have to find it. Trust me it is there.

Puzzle 2: Why no Red-Arrow on User when Login is disabled

Earlier I posted SQL SERVER – Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays – Database Properties – Number of Users and asked a question why there is Red-Arrow on the username and I have received lots of replies which say the reason behind it was that the login is disabled and the user does not have an access to the database.

Let us now create scenario. We will do following three tasks:

• Create Login
• Create User and associate with the Login
• Disable Login

USE [master]
GO
-- Create Login
CREATE LOGIN [sqlauthority] WITH PASSWORD=N'SQL@Authority1'
GO
-- Create User
USE [AdventureWorks]
GO
CREATE USER [sqlauthority] FOR LOGIN [sqlauthority] WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA=[dbo]
GO
-- Disable Login
USE [master]
GO
ALTER LOGIN [sqlauthority] DISABLE
GO


Now we will go and refresh SSMS indows and check the user. The user will not have the Red-Arrow. Now, try to connect to SQL Server using the same user and it will return the following error, suggesting that the login failed as the account is disabled.

Login failed for user ‘sqlauthority’. Reason: The account is disabled. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 18470)

Now here is the question for you:

If Login is disabled, why does the user associated with the same have no Red-Arrow pointing downwards?

I am sure that finding the answer to this will be a great learning experience for all.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Schedule and Venue

Event Date: January 7, 2012
Event Time: 10 AM to 6 PM
Event Venue: Microsoft Singature Building, Domlur, Bangalore , Bangalore, India

Important Links:

Register for the event – We are 100% over capacity. Please put your name on waiting list, we are working on various options.

Submit your session title and abstract by December 10, 2011. Today is last day!

Call to Action – Spread the words

Blog, tweet, facebook it – spread the word. Use the #SQLSat116 as your hashtag on tweeter. Use the SQL Saturday Logo in your postings.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers on Kindle

I am really impressed how kindle ebook format works. If I find any errata or make changes in the kindle format book now and re-publish the book in kindle format again, if you have purchased the eBook earlier, you will get updated version automatically and for FREE. If the fever of eBook reading on kindle is yet not caught up on you – you can still get this book on Amazon and Flipkart. Remember if you are expert in SQL Server – this book not for you but if you are looking for mastering the basics or a quick revision on SQL Server Concepts – this book is for YOU!

Here is the link to download Kindle Software for free PC, WP7, and in marketplace for various other mobile devices. I thank you for giving warm response to SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers book. I am motivated to write the next expanded version of this book.

The price of this book is currently set to low introductory price. It will be reset to normal price on 1st January, 2012.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SQL Saturday is FREE event all the attendees and 100% SQL community driven.

Schedule and Venue

Event Date: January 7, 2012
Event Time: 10 AM to 6 PM
Event Venue: Microsoft Singature Building, Domlur, Bangalore , Bangalore, India

Click here for link.

Who can participate

Everyone.

Cost to attend the event

FREE for all.

Call to Action – Register for the event

Experience suggests that all the SQL Saturday event always gets over capacity. There are always more attendees than the event venue can accommodate. Register for the event. SQLPASS website maintains waiting list after the capacity is full.

Call to Action – Submit SQL Session

Speaking at this SQL only event which happens world-wide is prestigious itself. You are welcome to submit your session title and abstract by December 10, 2011. We will have volunteers and speaker dinner either on event day or the day before.

Call to Action – Nominate yourself as Volunteer

Every successful event needs dedicated volunteers, this events needs your help. Send email to sqlsaturday116 “at” sqlsaturday.com your details. You can also opt yourself as volunteer when you register for the event.

Call to Action – Spread the words

Blog, tweet, facebook it – spread the word. Use the #SQLSat116 as your hashtag on tweeter. Use the SQL Saturday Logo in your postings.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

If you are new to SQL Server, don’t think I left you out of my book writing efforts. If you are new to the subject or have not had to deal with SQL Server in a long time, this book is perfect for someone who wants or needs a last minute refresher. If you are facing an upcoming interview and want to impress your future bosses, this book is perfect for getting you up to speed in a short time. However, if you are already an expert, you will still find a lot to learn and many pointers and suggestions that go deep into the subject.

As I said before, I wrote this book in order to help my community, and I certainly hoped that this book would become popular. However, we decided to print a very limited number of copies to begin with. We did not think that it would sell out since much of the information is available for free online. We could not have been more wrong! We incorrectly estimated what people wanted. We did not realize that there is still a need and an interest for structured learning. So, with great reservations, we printed quite a large number of copies – and it still ran out in 36 hours!

We got call from the online store with a request for more copies within 12 hours. But we had printed only as many as we had sent them. There were no extra copies. We finally talked to the printer to get more copies. However, due to festivals and holidays the copies could not be shipped to the online retailer for two days. We knew for sure that they were going to be out of the book for 48 hours.

48 hours – this was very difficult as the book was very highly anticipated. Many people wanted to buy this book quickly, and receive it soon in order to meet a deadline or to study for an upcoming test of their knowledge. But now this book was out of stock on the retail store. The way the online store works is that if the Indian-priced book is not there they list the US version of the book so that buyers will not be disappointed. The problem was that the US price of the book is three times more than the Indian price – which means one has to pay three times as much to buy this book instead of the previous very low price. We received a lot of communication on this subject, here are some examples:

• We are now businessmen and only focusing on money
• Why has the price tripled in 36 hours
• Why we are not honest with the price
• If the prices will ever come down
• And some of the letters we cannot post here!

Well, finally after 48 hours the Indian stock was finally available online. Thanks to our printer who worked day and night to get all the copies printed. He divided the complete stock in two parts. The first part they sent immediately to online retailer  and the second part they kept with them to sell. Finally, the online retailer got them online promptly as well, and the price returned to normal. Our book once again got in business and became the eighth most popular new release in 36 hours.

We appreciate your love and support. Without all of your interest and love we would have never come this far and the book would not be so successful. After thinking about all your support and how patient you were with our online troubles, the online retailer has decided to give an extra 25% discount for a limited time only.

I think the 48 hours when the book was out of stock were very horrible and stressful and I’d like to apologize to my loyal readers for the mishap. I hope that the 25% off is enough to sooth any remaining hurt feelings, and that everyone will continue to learn and discover things in the book. Once again thank you so much and I truly hope that you all enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My book SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers is available now.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Here are few updates on various contest and books give away in recent time.

Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend – I have received so many entries for this contest. Many have sent me email asking if this contest can be extended by couple of days. For the same the deadline for this contest is now Nov 10th 7 AM. You can send your entries by that time. The prize is 2 combo set of Joes 2 Pros is of USD 444. If you have not take part in the contest please take part now.

Guess What is in the box? – There were many entry for this contest. We played this contest on blog as well, facebook. The answer of this contest was announced in 2 days in blog post announcing my new book. The winner was Manas Dash from Bangalore. He answered “The box will contain SQL book authored by Vinod and Pinal”. This was the closest answer we received.

Win 5 SQL Programming Book Contest will have winner announced by Nov 15th and winners will be sent email.

Win 5 SQL Wait Stats Book Contest is closed and winners have been sent their award.

My third book SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers have run out of stock in India in 36 hours of its launch. We are working very hard to make it available again.

Thank you again for excellent support! Without your participation all the give away have no significance.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/11/08/sqlauthority-news-updates-on-contests-books-and-sql-server/feed/ 2 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/11/01/sqlauthority-news-5th-anniversary-giveaways/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/11/01/sqlauthority-news-5th-anniversary-giveaways/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:30:41 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=15345 ]]> Please read my 5th Anniversary post and my quick note on history of the Database.

I am sure that we all have friends and we value friendship more than anything. In fact, the complete model of Facebook is built on friends. If you have lots of friends, you must be a lucky person. Having a lot of friends is indeed a good thing.
I consider all you blog readers as my friends so now I want do something for you. What is it? Well, send me details about how many of your friends like my page and you would have a chance to win lots of learning materials for yourself and your friends. Here are the exciting prizes awaiting the lucky winner:

Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend

This is USD 444 (each set USD 222) worth gift. It contains all the five Joes 2 Pros books (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3, Vol4, Vol5) + 1 Learning DVD. [Amazon] | [Flipkart]

If in case you submitted an entry but didn’t win the Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros books, you could still will  my SQL Server Wait Stats book as a consolation prize! I will pick the next 5 participants who have the highest number of friends who “liked” the Facebook page, http://facebook.com/SQLAuth.
Instead of sending one copy, I will send you 2 copies so you can share one copy with a friend of yours. Well, it is important to share our learning and love with friends, isn’t it?
Note: Just take a screenshot of http://facebook.com/SQLAuth using Print Screen function and send it by Nov 7^th to pinal ‘at’ sqlauthority.com.. There are no special freebies to early birds so take your time and see if you can increase your friends like count by Nov 7th.

Guess – What is in it?

It is quite possible you are not a Facebook or Twitter user. In that case you can still win a surprise from me. You have 2 days to guess what is in this box. If you guess it correct and you are one of the first 5 persons to have the correct answer – you will get what is in this box for free. Please note that you have only 48 hours to guess. Please give me your guess by commenting to this blog post.

Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Today is this blog’s birthday, and I want to do a fun, informative blog post. Five years ago this day I started this blog. Intention – my personal web blog. I wrote this blog for me and still today whatever I learn I share here. I don’t want to wander too far off topic, though, so I will write about two of my favorite things – history and databases.  And what better way to cover these two topics than to talk about the history of databases.

If you want to be technical, databases as we know them today only date back to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when computers began to keep records and store memories.  But the idea of memory storage didn’t just appear 40 years ago – there was a history behind wanting to keep these records.

In fact, the written word originated as a way to keep records – ancient man didn’t decide they suddenly wanted to read novels, they needed a way to keep track of the harvest, of their flocks, and of the tributes paid to the local lord.  And that is how writing and the database began.  You could consider the cave paintings from 17,0000 years ago at Lascaux, France, or the clay token from the ancient Sumerians in 8,000 BC to be the first instances of record keeping – and thus databases.

If you prefer, you can consider the advent of written language to be the first database.  Many historians believe the first written language appeared in the 37^th century BC, with Egyptian hieroglyphics. The ancient Sumerians, not to be outdone, also created their own written language within a few hundred years.

Databases could be more closely described as collections of information, in which case the Sumerians win the prize for the first archive.  A collection of 20,000 stone tablets was unearthed in 1964 near the modern day city Tell Mardikh, in Syria.  This ancient database is from 2,500 BC, and appears to be a sort of law library where apprentice-scribes copied important documents.  Further archaeological digs hope to uncover the palace library, and thus an even larger database.

Of course, the most famous ancient database would have to be the Royal Library of Alexandria, the great collection of records and wisdom in ancient Egypt.  It was created by Ptolemy I, and existed from 300 BC through 30 AD, when Julius Caesar effectively erased the hard drives when he accidentally set fire to it.  As any programmer knows who has forgotten to hit “save” or has experienced a sudden power outage, thousands of hours of work was lost in a single instant.

Databases existed in very similar conditions up until recently.  Cuneiform tablets gave way to papyrus, which led to vellum, and eventually modern paper and the printing press.  Someday the databases we rely on so much today will become another chapter in the history of record keeping.  Who knows what the databases of tomorrow will look like!

Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SafePeak is in business of accelerating performance of SQL Server applications, as well as their scalability, without making code changes to the applications or to the databases. SafePeak performs database dynamic caching, by caching in memory result sets of queries and stored procedures while keeping all those cache correct and up to date. Cached queries are retrieved from the SafePeak RAM in microsecond speed and not send to the SQL Server. The application gets much faster results (100-500 micro seconds), the load on the SQL Server is reduced (less CPU and IO) and the application or the infrastructure gets better scalability.

SafePeak solution is hosted either within your cloud servers, hosted servers or your enterprise servers, as part of the application architecture. Connection of the application is done via change of connection strings or adding reroute line in the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file on all application servers.

For those who would like to learn more on SafePeak architecture and how it works, I suggest to read this vendor’s webpage: SafePeak Architecture.

More interesting new features in SafePeak 2.1

In my previous review of SafePeak new I covered the first 4 things I noticed in the new SafePeak (check out my article “SQLAuthority News – SafePeak Releases a Major Update: SafePeak version 2.1 for SQL Server Performance Acceleration”):

1. Cache setup and fine-tuning – a critical part for getting good caching results
2. Database templates
3. Choosing which database to cache
4. Monitoring and analysis options by SafePeak

Since then I had a chance to play with SafePeak some more and here is what I found.

5. Analysis of SQL Performance (present and history):

In SafePeak v.2.1 the tools for understanding of performance became more comprehensive. Every 15 minutes SafePeak creates and updates various performance statistics. Each query (or a procedure execute) that arrives to SafePeak gets a SQL pattern, and after it is used again there are statistics for such pattern. An important part of this product is that it understands the dependencies of every pattern (list of tables, views, user defined functions and procs). From this understanding SafePeak creates important analysis information on performance of every object: response time from the database, response time from SafePeak cache, average response time, percent of traffic and break down of behavior. One of the interesting things this behavior column shows is how often the object is actually pdated. The break down analysis allows knowing the above information for: queries and procedures, tables, views, databases and even instances level.

The data is show now on all arriving queries, both read queries (that can be cached), but also any types of updates like DMLs, DDLs, DCLs, and even session settings queries.

The stats are being updated every 15 minutes and SafePeak dashboard allows going back in time and investigating what happened within any time frame.

6. Logon trigger, for making sure nothing corrupts SafePeak cache data

If you have an application with many parts, many servers many possible locations that can actually update the database, or the SQL Server is accessible to many DBAs or software engineers, each can access some database directly and do some changes without going thru SafePeak – this can create a potential corruption of the data stored in SafePeak cache. To make sure SafePeak cache is correct it needs to get all updates to arrive to SafePeak, and if a DBA will access the database directly and do some changes, for example, then SafePeak will simply not know about it and will not clean SafePeak cache.

In the new version, SafePeak brought a new feature called “Logon Trigger” to solve the above challenge. By special click of a button SafePeak can deploy a special server logon trigger (with a CLR object) on your SQL Server that actually monitors all connections and informs SafePeak on any connection that is coming not from SafePeak. In SafePeak dashboard there is an interface that allows to control which logins can be ignored based on login names and IPs, while the rest will invoke cache cleanup of SafePeak and actually locks SafePeak cache until this connection will not be closed. Important to note, that this does not interrupt any logins, only informs SafePeak on such connection.

On the Dashboard screen in SafePeak you will be able to see those connections and then decide what to do with them.

Configuration of this feature in SafePeak dashboard can be done here: Settings -> SQL instances management -> click on instance -> Logon Trigger tab.

Other features:

7. User management

ability to grant permissions to someone without changing its configuration and only use SafePeak as performance analysis tool.

8. Better reports

for analysis of performance using 15 minute resolution charts.

9. Caching of client cursors

10. Support for IPv6

Summary

SafePeak is a great SQL Server performance acceleration solution for users who want immediate results for sites with performance, scalability and peak spikes challenges. Especially if your apps are packaged or 3^rd party, since no code changes are done. SafePeak can significantly increase response times, by reducing network roundtrip to the database, decreasing CPU resource usage, eliminating I/O and storage access.

SafePeak team provides a free fully functional trial www.safepeak.com/download and actually provides a one-on-one assistance during such trial.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Well, the books have been very well received and in fact we ran out of huge stock 2 times in India so far and once in USA during SQLPASS. I have received so many questions on this subject that I feel I can write one more book of the same size. I have been asked if I can create videos which can go along with this book. Personally I am working with SQL Server 2012 CTP3 and there are so many new wait types, I feel the subject of wait stats is going to be very very crucial in next version of SQL Server. If you have not started learning about this subject, I suggest you at least start exploring this right now. Learn how to begin on this subject atleast as when the next version comes in, you know how to read DMVs.

I will be presenting on the same subject of performance tuning by wait stats in webcast embarcadero SQL Server Community Webinar. Here are few topics which we will be covering during the webinar.

• Beginning with SQL Wait Stats
• Understanding various aspect of SQL Wait Stats
• Understanding Query Life Cycle
• Identifying three TOP wait Stats
• Resolution of the common 3 wait types and queues

Details of the webcast:
How to Identify Resource Bottlenecks – Wait Types and Queues
Date and Time: Wednesday, November 2, 11:00 AM PDT
Registration Link

I thank embarcadero for organizing opportunity for me to share my experience on subject of wait stats and connecting me with community to further take this subject to next level.

One more interesting thing, I will ask one question at the end of the webinar and I will be giving away 5 copy of my SQL Wait Stats print book to first five correct answers.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Following are the top 2 requests that I keep on receiving in emails, on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.

“Please send us FREE PDF of your book so we do not have to purchase it.”

“If you can share with us the eBook (free and downloadable) format of your book, we will share it with everybody we know and you will get additional exposure.”

Here is my response for the abovementioned requests:

If you really need my book and cannot purchase it due to financial trouble, then feel free to let me know and I will purchase it myself and ship it to you.

If you are in a country where the print book not available, then you can buy the Kindle book, which is available online in any country, and you can just read it on your computer and mobile devices. You DO NOT have to own a Kindle to read a Kindle format book. You can freely download Kindle software on your desired format and purchase the book online. For next 5 days, the kindle book is available at 3.99 in USA, and in other countries, the price is anywhere between 3.99 and 5.99. The price will go up by USD 2 everywhere across the world after 1st November, 2011.

Here is the link to download Kindle Software for free PC, WP7, and in marketplace for various other mobile devices. I thank you for giving warm response to SQL Server Wait Stats book. I am motivated to write the next expanded version of this book.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Filed under: About Me, Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/10/27/sqlauthority-news-sql-server-wait-stats-ebook-to-download-on-kindle-answer-to-free-pdf-download-request/feed/ 10 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/10/22/sqlauthority-news-random-thoughts-and-random-ideas/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2011/10/22/sqlauthority-news-random-thoughts-and-random-ideas/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:30:13 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=15125 ]]>

There are days when I keep on wondering about SQL, and even my life overall. Today is Saturday so I decided to write about SQL Server. Just like any other mornings, I woke up at 5 and opened my blog editor. I usually do not open Twitter or Facebook when I am planning to focus on my work, as they are little distractions for me. But today I opened my Twitter account and came across a very interesting quote from a friend:

‘Can I expect you to be different today?’

Well, I think it was very powerful quote for me to read first thing on a new day. This quote froze me for a while and made me think, “Do I really want to write about an SQL Server tip, or something different?”  After a little thinking, I’ve realized that for today I would go on and write something different. I am going to write about a few of the ideas and thoughts I had yesterday. After writing all these, I realized that if I am thinking so much in a day, and if I write a blog post of my random musing of the week or month, it can be so long (and boring).

Here are some of my random thoughts I’d like to share with you:

• When the airplane lands, why does everybody get up and try to rush out when their luggage would be coming probably 20-30 minutes later?
• I really do not like this question when it was asked to me: “SQL Server is not using optimal index which I just created – how can I force it?” I am not going elaborate on this statement but you are allowed to in the comment section.
• Why do some people wish Good Morning even when they meet us after 4 PM?
• Can I optimize a query so much that it gives me a result before I execute it?
• Is it corruption when someone does their personal household work at office?
• The lane where I drive is always the slowest lane.
• Why waste time on correcting others when there are a lot of pending improvements for ourselves?
• If I have to get Tattoo, which SQL Server Execution Plan symbol should I get?
• Why do I reach office so early that the coffee machine is yet running its daily cleaning job?
• Why does every laptop have a ‘Page Up’ key at different locations on the keyboard?
• While I like color movies, I really appreciate black and white photographs.
• I do not appreciate statements like, “If I receive your books in PDF, I will spread it to many people to give you much greater exposure. So would you please send them to me ASAP?”
• Do not tell me, “Why does the database grow back after shrinking it every day?” I suggest you use “Search this blog” for the explanation.
• Petrol prices are currently at INR 74. I hope the rate remains there.

Let me ask you the same question which started my day today:

 “Can I expect you to be different today?”

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

I wrote book on SQL Wait Stats. [Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle]

I really wanted to learn about SQL Wait Stats. There was no real book available so I wrote the book myself. Since I wrote this book, I feel I can now more 100 pages to what I had contributed. I am very fortunate that my SQL Wait Stats book is very well accepted in community. Every author who authors book has dream that his book is well received and well read. In the recent internet era eBooks and PDF copies are everywhere and the job of reading print book and using bookmark is getting faded. Just like the same every author wants to have their books book signing event. I am so fortunate that during this SQLPASS the similar opportunity has presented to me.

I will be also doing book signing but here is interesting twist – you do not have to purchase the books (USD 11.99) – this book will be FREE for you.

Here are further details:

Event: SQL Server Wait Stats Book Signing
Date: October 13, 2011 Thursday
Time: 1 PM to 2 PM
Location: SQLPASS Exhibitors Booth #300

Thanks to kind people at expressor Studio for kindly helping me to with this arrangement.

Read the review of the book on SQLConcepts and on flipkart.

See you tomorrow!

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

“The greatest of all gifts is the power to estimate things at their true worth” – Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Please Note: The date and time are Thursday 13 at 1 PM (not Wednesday) – there are few emails asking for the same.

Quotes listed above are really relevant to the news of the day. Regular readers of my blog knows that I have published SQL Server Wait Stats [Amazon] | [Flipkart] book. I am glad to say that this book has become extremely popular since it has been published. It has ran out of stock in India two times thus far. In USA, we could manage the inventory efficiently. This book is now available on Kindle (at a price less than that of a coffee).

Recently, the kind people at expressor Studio have previously gave away few copies of my book. The same folks have sent me email that they got excellent feedback for the book from the readers who received the book. They have decided to give away 100 copies of my Wait Stats Print Book on Thursday October 13, 2011 between 1.00 and 2.00 PM at SQLPASS exhibition at Booth #300. I am just speechless at their efforts and good will for my book.

Tomorrow, I will be available between 1.00 and 2.00 PM at booth #300 and signing the books personally. Just stop by the booth and pick up the book. We intend to give away 1 book every minute of that hour. Honestly, it will be more than 1 book as there will be 100 books to give away during the short period of 60 minutes (on First come first serve basis!)

See you tomorrow!

and thanks one more time expressor Studio.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Let us play today a very simple game –  frequently asked questions and answers. These questions were prepared by my lovely wife Nupur Dave.

Click to Enlarge

Why did you start this blog?
It began just as a bookmark for myself. I tried to collect all the frequently used scripts at one place and that is how this blog started.

What is the original name of SQLAuthority.com?
I think for this answer you need to read my earlier blog post – Origin of Blog Name Revealed. This post was written almost a year ago.

What is one thing you want to highlight in the last 100 posts?
There are two things – I am now a published author and have two books with my contribution.

SQL Wait Stats – A book on the unique subject of Wait Types and Queues
[Amazon] | [Flipkart]

SQL Server Programming – A book explaining various SQL Server Concepts in easy to read language
[Amazon] | [Flipkart]

Who is Rick Morelan?
Rick is a great SQL enthusiast. He has co-authored two books with me and during the course I learned a lot of things from him. He has the talent to explain any complex idea in the simplest way. Writing a book with him was a real pleasure and excellent learning experience.

What are your plans for the next 100 blog posts?
Well, the first of November is my blog’s anniversary. We are going to have a fifth anniversary celebration of this blog. I am thinking something big – something really big for all of us. I am not sure yet but all of the readers will have blast on the anniversary of this blog.

What is the next big surprise?
Watch the blog post of Nov 1, 2011

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

My Personal Coordinates

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/pinaldave
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/SQLAuth
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pinaldave
• Email: pinal ‘at’ SQLAuthority.com

Blog Coordinates

• Facebook: http://facebook.com/SQLAuth
• Newsletter: Feedburner
• Feed: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/feed/
• Comments Feed: http://blog.sqlauthority.com/comments/feed/

My Preference for Facebook

I am very active on Facebook. I think the Facebook page is great way to stay connected with everyone. I check my Facebook page once in every 2 hours during the day. I want to make sure that no comments left on the Facebook are missed. I often post or blog various events related to the SQL Server. I think Facebook comments give us a structured communication medium. There are so many topics that we discuss on Facebook.

For example,

What are we going to learn on today?
What is going on in the SQL Server World around the globe?
Where I am I speaking next?
Where can you find more details about various SQL Servers?

I always announce all my upcoming news first on my Facebook page. I consider every fan and friend on the Facebook page as very special. Earlier, we had done a special exclusive competition on Facebook page, where we had gave away a lot of gifts.

Office Hours

Every week, I observe office hours on my Facebook page, where I am available to answer any SQL Server-related question. We actively communicate during this hour. The best part is that there are so much conversation going on at the same time, and the learning experience goes to next level ‑ so many questions and so many real answers in 60 minutes.

My Preference for Twitter

I currently follow many people on Twitter, and I enjoy reading the information shared on twitter. However, Twitter can be considered like a river; so, I often miss lots of things. If you want to draw my attention to something, then please include @pinaldave or #SQLAuthority somewhere in the email; this way, I will get an email of the same in my mailbox, and I will surely read the comments.

I often post my new activities and interesting finds on my Twitter. I do not consider Twitter as a marketing channel; so I always make sure that I write all of my tweets myself. If you are following me on Twitter, then only tweet you will which are automated contains information regarding my blog and link to my blog.

You can always ask me any question on Twitter, and I always make sure that I respond to it. I often RT tweets, which I find interesting in my river of tweets. If your tweet is during the time when I have not keep my Twitter page open, then I may miss your tweet. This does not mean that your tweet was not interesting and I ignored it. If you want me to read your tweet, then you can always mention my name or send me an email directly.

I open Twitter in the morning and evening for couple of hours. During the work hours, I usually keep off Twitter  as it can be a distraction.

My Preference for LinkedIn

LinkedIn is my professional network, and I often participate in questions and answers as well in the groups. I do not post personal posts in this network and keep the communication totally work related and professional. If you have any question regarding the blog, I suggest you go with the Facebook page or contact page on the SQLAuthority blog.

My Preference for Email

No matter how much ever we grow our social media network, Email still seems to be the most preferred method. I get more than 300 emails every day on various subjects. This 300+ does not include any work email, personal email, or emails from my close friends. These emails are from various people who have questions for SQL Server or technology in general. I always make sure that I answer any email in 24 hours.

I have created my own deadlines to answer emails. Let me just quickly share with you.

• Family, Friends and Work: 2 Hours
• Questions related to Books: 8 Hours
• Questions related to Blog: 8 Hours
• Other: 24 Hours

If you do not get answer from me in 24 hours, which means your post has either hit my spam folder or just got lost in cyberspace. When your first email is delivered to spam your subsequent emails may be delivered to spam as well. I suggest you try alternative method to contact me in this case. I suggest facebook page as next method to communicate with me.

While asking question through Email

Sometime I get questions that have very little information. If you have any question related to the SQL Server, I suggest you include as much as information you can instead of just sending me an email suggesting ‘help me’. Here is the list of the few things that I would like to see in any email query.

• SQL Server Version
• Screenshot of the error
• Issue you are facing
• Expected result
• Current result
• Recent changes in server/configuration or anything else

Instant Communication / Messengers

Many have figured out my messenger id by trying my username at various communicators. I often get pinged asking for help. I use the messenger mainly for friends and family. I always politely answer each of the messenger pop-ups and forward them to any of the abovementioned communication media. It will be of immense help if you email me when you have an urgent question. I assure you that I will do my best. I have a family, job and other priorities. All the social media communication channels give me time to answer the questions when I am free; however, instant messages can create interruption.

Stay updated

There are cases when you just wanted to stay updated with what is happening with SQL Server and SQLAuthority.

Feed

If you are using the RSS reader, I suggest that you subscribe my Feed in your RSS reader. Most of the RSS readers provide facilities to reply right back to the blog author or go to comments page.

Newsletter

If you do not prefer the RSS reader and prefer to go our good old email way, then you can subscribe to my newsletter over here. This will ensure that the emails directly reach your mailbox. You can hit reply and reach me ‑ write away!

Summary:

If all of these sound too complicated, then just get in touch with me any way you prefer. I am here to help you always!

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Earlier this year in February, I wrote a 30-day series on Wait Types and Queue. This series was very popular and I have received a number of good and encouraging comments on various parts of the series. The no.1 request was to compile the concept in an eBook. This idea really appealed to me. Talking about personal preferences, I do not like eBooks as I spend lots of time on the computer, and if I have to read books, I prefer to read printed ones my way. Driven with the same idea, I published SQL Wait Types and Queues in print copy. If I do not mention Rick Morelan (Founder of Joes2Pros) it will not be fair. Rick is such a great supporter in all the efforts.

On the good occasion of having total of 31 Millions Views on SQLAuthority.com here is the interesting news for all!

My SQL Server Wait Stats books are available on [Amazon] | [Flipkart]. Recently I got a number of extremely motivating emails from kind folks at expressor studio; they really liked my book. They have decided go to next step and want to give away 5 print copies of SQL Wait Stats books.

The rules of the contest are very simple. In the next 48 hours go ahead and register yourself at expressor studio. They will select 5 random winners who will directly receive the SQL Server Wait Stats books. This contest is open to everybody worldwide. The winners will be selected by the end of the month. Winners will be informed via the email address provided at the time of the registration.

Thank you expressor studio, I am truly touched with your kind offer.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Lohith N who is finest .net expert and have recently taken my interview on about the subject of book writing. He asked me my experience about book writing and so many other things.He has even taken my earlier interview where video views have crossed more than 1300 views.

In latest episode we discuss on the following things:

• About his new book
• His experience as an author
• Why the name SQL Joes 2 Pros
• Where can we buy his books
• Challenges when writing this book

SQL stands for Structured Query Language and to learn SQL one needs Structured Learning. Here is the list of the books I have personally share my passion with and authored myself.

|

[Amazon] | [Flipkart] SQL Programming Joes 2 Pros (vol 4) – Pinal Dave

[Amazon] | [Flipkart] SQL Wait Stats – Pinal Dave

Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

The event started right on time, at 10 am, with my introduction and welcome to the audience.  My presentation on my favorite subject of “SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting Using Waits and Queues.”  Because of the number of speakers, I had to cut my presentation short by 10 minutes, so I only had 50 minutes to explain how to use swaits and queues to fine tune performance.  There was a good response to my talk from audience.

I feel the best presentation, though, was “HTML5 – Future of the Web” by Harish Vaidyanathan.  He explained how HTML5 is going to change the internet, and taught everyone a lot about how to best use Internet Explorer 9, and discussed CSS3, SVG and DOM specifications.  Many people in the audience came specifically for this session – many had to take a half day leave off work just to travel there.

At this point we all took a break for lunch, but there was no one taking a nap with a full stomach because we had a presentation of the new Windows Mango phone from Dhananjay Kumar.  New technology like this always wakes everyone up!

After this came “TSQL Worst Practices” by Jacob Sebastian.  He too had to cut his talk short by 10 minutes in order to accommodate everyone, but his discussion of what SQL queries to avoid was still excellent. He is magnificent presenter and Ahmedabad loves him.

The final presentation was “ASP.NET Tips and Tricks” by Tejas Shah.  This was a good overview of asp.net fundamentals, and how to use them to improve application performance.  However, the day was not over here!  We kept the audience entertained with prizes and give-aways.  Names were drawn for prizes and there was a quiz session with great gifts for the winners.

Overall, the day was a huge success.  There was a good mix of SQL and non-SQL subjects, and many audiences members commented on how much they learned.  We had a much bigger turn-out than expected – all the chairs were filled 45 minutes before we even started!  For our next conference we need to find a space that will hold everyone, especially since we are hoping to have 600-800 people attending.  We definitely feel we can reach this goal.  We are already looking forward to the next Ahmedabad Microsoft Community TechDays.

Download presentations:

HTML5 Beauty of Web -By Harish Vaidyanathan

TSQL Worst Practices- By Jacob Sebastian

SQL SERVER Performance troubleshooting using Waits and Queues -By Pinal Dave

ASP.NET Tips and Tracks -By Tejas Shah

Other reports:

Tech-Ed on Road 2011- Ahmedabad–A great event- By Jalpesh

Tech-Ed 2011 on the Road in Ahmedabad – by Ritesh Shah

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Meanwhile do you know how can you generate Zero without using any numbers in T-SQL. My friend Madhivanan has done that and I find it very interesting.Run following T-SQL code – ‘SELECT $’. He has written many other tricks how to generate zero also on his blog.

On another note – I have published my answer for question about SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) here.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Here are few things which I had learned in my very first month (not necessarily I have practices them on production).

• Never compress (zip) native backup using any tools, when disaster happen sometime the extra time to un-compress the database can be too long and not acceptable for business SLA
• Do not truncate logs
• After restoring full database backup – only restore latest differential back, no need to restore all the backup
• Always write WHERE condition when deleting and updating

Sr. DBA always advised me – always keep your résumé ready and car ready – you never know when you can not recover disaster! Well for sure it was a joke. Today’s T-SQL Tuesday remind me of my very first month as DBA trainee.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)