This 15 modules, level 300 course provides students with the knowledge and skills to capitalize on their skills and experience as an Oracle DBA to manage a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 system. This workshop provides a quick start for the Oracle DBA to map, compare, and contrast the realm of Oracle database management to SQL Server database management.

Module 1: Database and Instance
Module 2: Database Architecture
Module 3: Instance Architecture
Module 4: Data Objects
Module 5: Data Access
Module 6: Data Protection
Module 7: Basic Administration
Module 8: Server Management
Module 9: Managing Schema Objects
Module 10: Database Security
Module 11: Data Transport
Module 12: Backup and Recovery
Module 13: Performance Tuning
Module 14: Scalability and High Availability
Module 15: Monitoring

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

Update: Do not forget to checkout last three photos and follow me on twitter (of course!)

I have previously documented my four-day experience of SQL PASS 2009 Summit at Seattle. There were many reasons for SQL enthusiasts to attend the SQL PASS event; I am listing my own reasons here in order of importance to me.

• Networking with SQL fellows and experts
• Putting face to the name or avatar
• Learning and improving my SQL skills
• Understanding the structure of the largest SQL Server Professional Association
• Attending my favorite training sessions

During these four days, there was so much happening that it is difficult to document everything. I had tried to cover this event briefly on a daily basis in the following blog posts:

SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 1
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 2
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 3
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 4

I will list a few of the additional details that I have not included in the earlier post. Keynotes were the best part of the event, and I have covered major points of the keynote in above mentioned posts. I had met many SQL Legends during this event and included information regarding them. However, there were few things I still missed and I am listing them here. Seattle is great city, and I am visiting it the second time. This time I got an opportunity to take the Underground city tour and I had really enjoyed.

It was great to meet SQL Server MVP Glenn Berry at the MVP Summit. He is a very kind and friendly person. You will always find him hanging around with people from different organizations and countries. If you try to eavesdrop his conversation, you will hear terms like ‘dmv’, ‘performance’, and ‘optimized query’ very often. He is very much known for his excellent optimization script known as “SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries“. If you have never taken a look at that, I urge you to go there and check this out. I believe that even if he blogs once a year only with this script, his fans will not complain. I have previously published his interview on my blog. Please note that he is the only person ever featured in an interview on this blog.

It depends! This is one most loved (or hated) phrase in the world of programmers or DBA. It is quite common to start answering question using this phrase. Mostly, this phrase initiates humor but rarely, people take this as offence. Again the intent of speaker is not always conveyed properly, it depends on how the phrase is used (I could not resist to use this phrase as well :P). I had very interesting discussion with Michelle Ufford and Jason Strate when we were waiting for coffee at one afternoon. We discussed both the sides of this phrase. Michelle suggested many good points when and why this phrase is valid. Jason also suggested that this phrase is commonly used a) when the presenter does not have sufficient information to answer or b) when the presenter does not know the answer. We discussed that it would be really interesting to start the conversation answering the most possible answer and then talking about special cases (for which it depends is quite commonly used.) Let us see one example.

Q: Does index improve performance?
A1: It depends on query and data you have.
A2: Usually YES; however, there are cases when it reduces performance, for which the query and data needs to be examined carefully.

There are times when it depends totally make sense. I use it several times; I love the blog of Andy Warren which talks is branded as it depends. This discussion between three of us was just a friendly discussion, and if you think we are talking about you, it is wrong!

During this event, I had great conversation with SQL Legend Buck Woody. This man is full of energy and may be the most loved person in this summit. His session was the funniest session I have ever attended. At the end of his session, I had more than 2 pages of my notebook filled with notes. If I have wrote down how many times, I have laughed loudly, I would have no time to do anything else. Buck had a good hour of discussion with me. We discussed many different topics, ranging from Community to Microsoft and Collage Students to SQL. I am very thankful to Buck for spending his valuable time with me – I am honored.

Joe Celko – this name is very popular in SQL world, and I admit that I was always afraid of him. Every time I see his photo, I just felt nervous. I never thought that I should meet him. Honestly, for the same reason, I did not attend his session. I was absolutely wrong. I met him right after his session was over. He is one of the most friendly people I have met in my life. He is very soft spoken. He gauges the level and understanding of other person and speaks at the same level. He made me laugh and taught many good techniques for how to become good speaker and presenter. When I said I was sorry that I was scared of him, he laughed and said that he knows this. Boy, what a mistake I did!! I should have attended his session. Well, at least I am accepting my mistake here. He is indeed a very friendly soul. He promised me that one time he will come to India.

Brian Moran is the newly elected board member; I would like to call him as ‘the Man with 1000 successful ideas‘. You have to come across him to know what I am talking about. I had the great opportunity to meet him and discuss few things, besides SQL. Brian had many excellent ideas about how to build the community, how to help SQL PASS and few excellent ideas about how to take PASS to the next level. I am glad that he is one of the board members for PASS. PASS is all about passion, and Brian clearly demonstrates the same.

I met all of them and had a great conversation with them. It was great to meet Ed Hackney; he is a wonderful person and very easily approachable. He talked about SQL community in India and how any community cannot be restrained within geographical boundaries.

I was waiting to meet Thomas LaRock. He is an excellent SQL Master, and he talked in detail about outsourcing SQL technology and SQL community. I really enjoyed meeting him and spending some time with him during the summit. I plan to learn more from him when I meet him next time.

Robert Cain, he is one of the very few SQL masters, who have expertise in .net and Business Intelligence at the same time. I have previously wrote about him in Big Thinkers – Robert Cain. He has given approval that I can write about his BI presentation on this blog. I will write about it soon.

I have previously written a lot about Greg Low on this blog. However, I just can not resist to put this excellent photo once again here. He has great respect for the international community; and he had spent some quality time with me discussing how to enhance and grow the global community. Greg gave his insight and few plan cache tips as well. You can read my review of his book ‘Book Review – The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities (Rational Guides)‘. You can also read our discussion on plan cache ‘SQL SERVER – Plan Caching and Schema Change – An Interesting Observation‘.

Following image is for sure very interesting! Can you recognize the person? Well, just go here and read about Mr. Denny. And I do have permission from him to publish this photo!

PASS 2010 dates are announced; this event will take place between 8 and 12 November 2010.

Following image is my favorite as it brings the future and past of PASS together. Kevin Kline, a hero of PASS summit, (as he dedicated 10 years of his life to serve PASS board) is in same frame with Rushabh Mehta, who is President Elect for 2010.

Now I am coming to the most interesting part of my experience. I want to introduce to all of you the youngest SQL PASS fan and follower. Her name is Shaivi Dave, and she is big fan of SQL PASS! Shaivi suggests that save your money and register right away for PASS. There is no other conference which is as valuable as SQL PASS.

She had conveyed her wish to SQL PASS President Elect Rushabh Mehta when she was just 19 days old. May be one of following years, we will see her at summit.

This is note is addendum to my four original posts. I strongly suggest you all to read my earlier posts for details on keynote and other SQL legends.

SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 1
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 2
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 3
SQLAuthority News – SQL PASS Summit, Seattle 2009 – Day 4

If you have visited this event and have something more to add to what I have written, please feel free to add it here as a comment. I am looking forward for you all to add more details and information here. Follow me on twitter.

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

Introduction

This article will cover the most spectacular feature of SQL 2008 – Policy-based management and how the configuration of SQL Server with policy-based management architecture can make a powerful difference. Policy based management is loaded with several advantages. It can help you implement various policies for reliable configuration of the system. It also provides additional administration assistance to DBAs and helps them effortlessly manage various tasks of SQL Server across the enterprise.

Basics of Policy Management

SQL server 2008 has introduced policy management framework, which is the latest technique for SQL server database engine. SQL policy administrator uses SQL Server Management Studio to create policies that can handle entities on the server side like the SQL Server objects and the instance of SQL Server databases. It consists of three components: policy administrators (who create policies), policy management, and explicit administration. Policy-based management in SQL Server assists the database administrators in defining and enforcing policies that tie to database objects and instances. These policies allow the administrator to configure and manage SQL server across the enterprise.

The following advantages can be achieved by appropriate administration of policy management system.

• It interacts with various policies for successful system configuration.
• It handles the changes in the systems that are the result of configuration against authoring policies.
• It reduces the cost of ownership with simple elaboration of administration tasks.
• It detects various compliance issues in SQL Server Management Studio.

Policy Management Terms

To have a better grip on the concept of Policy-based management there are some key terms you need to understand.

• Target – A type of entity that is appropriately managed by Policy-based management. For example, a table, database and index, to name a few.
• Facet -A property that can be managed in policy-based management. A clear example of facet is the name of Trigger or the Auto Shrink Property of database.
• Conditions – Criteria that specifies the state of facet to true or false. For example, you can adjust the state of a facet that gives you clear specifications of all stored procedures in the Schema “Banking”.
• Policy – A set of rules specified for the server objects or the properties of database.

Practical Example of Policy Management

Exploring of Facets

Facets are database objects and each of them is a container of one or more database object. First, you need to navigate the object explorer and expand the policy-based management node and the management node. You will see conditions, policies and facets nodes. SQL Server 2008 has many different facets available to use.

To view the list of facets, expand the facet node

Double click on each of these facets to the list of the facet properties.

Let us understand the two next elements of creating condition and creating policy with real life example of Statistics. We will try to create statistic property of the database. We have property of statistic IsAutoCreated. We can set that using database property window under option tab. This property takes two values True or False.

We will follow up on this property in different steps. We will first create condition and right after we will use the same condition in a policy. That policy will be evaluated by user. User will have to two options either let us evaluated by scheduled task or fix non complaining policy manually.

Create a Condition

Creation of condition in Policy-based management is the next thing after identifying the problem. In our case, we want to make sure that everywhere IsAutoCreate is set to True everywhere.

Each facet displays different kinds of properties. As we are interested in the IsAutoCreated property of the statistics we have to select facet as Statistic.

Create a Policy

Creating a policy is the next important task after creating a condition. The condition has to be created to select the proper property of the object. However, a policy is created to specify the location where the condition has to be applied.

Please follow the instructions given in the above image. Make sure to select all target databases. In given example I have two database installed on my server that brings up two different targets servers.

This brings up an interesting concept of targets. Targets are database objects. They can be whole database or single parts of the database. It may be possible that they are different kind of objects but have same kind of properties.

While creating a policy we have kept the evaluation mode as “on demand”, which means that we will be running this policy manually, instead of scheduled job. Scheduled job is good idea to run policy.

Evaluate a Policy

As in the previous step, we have selected to evaluate the policy manually; we will evaluate that using SSMS. Right click on policy brings up with lots of options. Select Evaluate from the menu, this will bring up the following image.

On the screen of Evaluate Policies there is a button which suggests evaluating the policies. Once clicked it will give the following kind of screen with a status.

You will see a green icon in the image. This icon indicates the policy evaluated the status to True. If you notice you will find that in our example all the policies are complied with.

Fix Non-complying Policy

Now, let us change the IsAutoCreate policy of one of test databases to true and run the evaluation all over again. If you observe you will notice that one of the statuses is marked as false with a little red image on the left.

Furthermore, once you select the checkbox and clicked on the Apply button you will find an additional checkbox on the side. This Apply button will raise a popup confirming that the property of the target has been changed to comply with the policy. Next, click Ok to confirm. This will change the properties of the Test database to comply with the new policy on all of our targets specified earlier.

In our example, we have manually evaluated the policy and fixed its noncompliance. With powershell you can perform the same using SQL Server Agent.

Summary

Policy-Based Management empowers you with greater control over the procedures of database as a Database Administrator. It provides you the ability to enforce paper policies at database level. Paper polices are used as guidelines for understanding database standards. However, it necessitates some skills, time and efforts to enforce these polices. You need to go with a fine toothed comb to enforce these policies. Policy-based management system helps you define these polices and ensure that they will be enforced appropriately.

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

PASS Summit 2009 is now only 10 days away and I am very excited for the same. I can not wait to attend the summit as this is the most awaited conference of SQL Server in world. Everybody will be there and there will be something for everybody. My core expertise is in Query Optimization and Performance Tuning area, and when I see the list of PASS session on the subject, I am totally speechless. There are so many great speaker at PASS who are there to talk on the subject.

It is absolutely not possible to attend all of them many of them are running parallel to each other. In any case, I strongly suggest if you are the expert who try till last bit to optimize the query and performance, I expect you to attend many of the following session. There is always option to get recorded DVD for the sessions afterwords.

You can read my article here regarding Why I am Going to Attend PASS Summit Unite 2009- Seattle.

Here is my list of the sessions related to performance tuning and query optimization.

Making Effective Use of the Plan Cache
Greg Low (Solid Q Australia)

Capturing and Analyzing File & Wait Stats
Andrew Kelly (Solid Quality Mentors)

T-SQL Tips & Tricks
Itzik Ben-Gan (Solid Quality Mentors)

Best Practices for Working With Execution Plans
Grant Fritchey (FM Global)

DMV’s as a Shortcut to Procedure Tuning
Grant Fritchey (FM Global)

Lies, damned lies and statistics
Gail Shaw (XpertEase)

Insight into Indexes
Gail Shaw (XpertEase)

Enhance your T-SQL to perform better
Joe Webb (WebbTech Solutions, LLC)

Exploring Index Internals
Kalen Delaney (SQLearning)

Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look at Performance Tuning for VLDB’’s
Michelle Ufford (GoDaddy)

Optimizing SQL Server 2008 Applications using Table Valued Parameters, XML and MERGE
Tobias Ternstrom (Microsoft Corp.)

SQL Server Execution Plans From Compilation To Caching To Reuse
Maciej Pilecki (Project Botticelli Ltd.)

Using SQL Server 2008 for Performance Tuning
Buck Woody (Microsoft Corp.)

SQLCAT: Designing High Performance I/O for SQL Server (90 Mins)
Thomas Kejser (Microsoft Corp.)
Mike Ruthruff (Microsoft SQL CAT)

SQL Server 2005 / 2008 Performance Tuning and Optimization Techniques (90 Mins)
David Pless (Microsoft CSS)

Dr. DMV: How to Use Dynamic Management Views to Monitor and Diagnose Performance Issues With High Volume OLTP Workloads
Glenn Berry (NewsGator Technologies)

How the Query Optimizer Works
Ben Nevarez (AIG)

I will personally try to attend many of the above listed sessions. Here are two sessions not from above list, which I will be sure attending. You are encouraged to meet me and attend this two rock star sessions.

Overcoming SSIS Deployment and Configuration Challenges
Rushabh Mehta (Solid Quality Learning)

SQL Server 2008 – Create powerful XML Schema collections to validate your XML documents
Jacob Sebastian (beyondrelational.com)

Let me know what sessions you will be sure attending by leaving your comment here. It would be good idea to create the list of the session which one is confident about attending.

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

Dive deep into the world of Microsoft technologies at the Community TechDays and get trained on the latest from Microsoft. Build real connections with Microsoft experts and community members, and gain the inspiration and skills needed to maximize your impact on your organization while enhancing your career. What more… you can watch some of these sessions LIVE online from the comfort of your workstation as well.

In Ahmedabad this event is scheduled to on Oct 3, 2009.

The agenda of this event is as following.

You might have listened Jacob and Pinal many times so far in Ahmedabad but this is very first time Vinod Kumar (Microsoft Evanglist) is known for his website Extreme Exchange is visiting Ahmedabad. It is very fortunate of Ahmedabad that Vinod Kumar is going to present his very first session along with local MVP speakers. I strongly suggest that you must not miss this unique opportunity to meet and learn first hand from him.

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

On 20 April 2009, Oracle Corporation announced its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in a deal worth about US$ 6 billion. This would have been just another one of corporate mega-deals that sound interesting in the news but really have no effect on your life. Except for the fact that with the purchase, Oracle acquired the world’s most widely used open-source database engine- MySQL. About 12 million small databases, mainly in websites and small businesses, run on the open-source MySQL platform, since it is stable, easily adaptable and most important of all for cash-strapped small companies, free. Note that ‘free’ here means that there is no software license to purchase (unlike commercial database engines like Oracle DB and Microsoft SQL Server), but most customers still have to pay third-party vendors for additional services like user interface design, technical support, bug fixes and so on. This is what makes the open-source model paradoxically both free and profitable.

First of all, why did Oracle buy Sun Microsystems? The main reason for the purchase was to get Sun’s major products- Sun hardware, Solaris and Java. The SunServer+Solaris+Oracle combination (especially the Oracle database), is globally used in mission-critical systems, from banks to hospitals to nuclear power stations, because of its stability and robustness. It is perhaps the most trusted combination of hardware, operating system and database there is. Java is also a key platform and supporting component for several Oracle products, for example Oracle’s Fusion Middleware is wholly built to run on Java.

So the MySQL acquisition was not really the focal point of the purchase, but it was nevertheless an important aside. Sun itself acquired MySQL in 2008 for about US$ 1 billion, Oracle now owns both of them. While Sun was known for its commitment to open source software, Oracle is a corporate giant without a track record for supporting open-source initiatives. So there arose understandable concern within the IT community about what will happen to MySQL. Will Oracle try to kill MySQL so that it does not compete with Oracle’s own offering? Will Oracle help to develop MySQL further as a platform? Will they leave it alone and not be bothered? Will they sell it off to another company? The real answer right now is that nobody knows, except perhaps Oracle senior management.

Major Outcomes

Let us now examine the different outcomes being put forth by pundits. The first one, from insiders like IHL Consulting Group President Greg Buzek, is the glum opinion that Oracle will kill off MySQL because it partially competes with Oracle’s own database engine. Matters are complicated more by the fact that even though Oracle is mainly bought by large organizations (whose chief concern is system stability, vendor robustness and support, and not the software license fee), while MySQL is primarily used by small companies and small websites, its development has recently scaled up and MySQL can now offer enterprise-class computing, which then becomes a major headache for Oracle.

Another reason given for Oracle deciding to bury MySQL is that the company is not really a supporter of the open-source model, instead preferring the tried and tested pay-per-license route. In fact Oracle is viewed with some suspicion in the open-source community- a sort of mega-corporation bent on world (software) domination. This is the chief cause for concern for the MySQL community. However, Oracle does have some redeeming acts in its interaction with open-source products. For example, the company has fully supported development of its software products to run on Linux.

The second possible outcome is that Oracle will continue to encourage and support MySQL development. One argument for this is that MySQL, as part of the Sun purchase together with Java and Solaris, offers Oracle CEO Larry Ellison a weapon to fight his main rival Microsoft. Also, don’t discount the fact that Oracle is keenly aware that MySQL is open-source, meaning its source code and original developers are still around. So even if Oracle were to try and kill MySQL, either by stopping development or by licensing and charging for it, the development community can simply start working on an open-source, similar clone application. This is how Linux itself was originally conceived- as a free spin-off of commercial Unix operating systems.

A third possibility is that Oracle executives may decide that MySQL is simply too much bother, and decide to sell off the company to someone else. Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL for about a billion dollars, and Oracle may decide that since MySQL was not the main reason they bought Sun anyway, they might as well dispose of it for roughly the same amount.

A fourth possible outcome is that Oracle may elect to offer support contracts and consulting on MySQL to companies that need a lighter-weight solution than Oracle’s full, and at times bloated, database products. In this way, they offer the comfort of their large-vendor status to the potential clients who may be worried about using open-source software- a shrewd market-capturing move.

But that same decision may have its own potential pitfall. Oracle’s main reason for buying Sun was to integrate and sell whole computing platforms. But IT managers might choose to avoid this one-vendor offering, from server to database application to support services, because it can also result in a single point of failure or arbitrary price changes in the platform’s licensing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the truth is that simply don’t know what Oracle will do with MySQL. There are several interesting alternatives, some more viable than others. But it is safe to assume that in the short-term, Larry Ellison will not take any drastic steps that may alienate his huge client base. Only time will tell.

My Opinion

In many of the application, I do not need full featured SQL Server Enterprise Version. I just need something simple and free. This is when I use SQL Server Express Edition. You can read the complete reference over here SQL SERVER – SQL Server Express – A Complete Reference Guide.

Please contribute here with your comments and opinion.

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

Simple-Talk.com has published my very first article on their site. This article is introducing Change Data Capture – the new concept introduced in SQL Server 2008. Change Data Capture records INSERTs, UPDATEs, and DELETEs applied to SQL Server tables, and makes a record available of what changed, where, and when, in simple relational ‘change tables’ rather than in an esoteric chopped salad of XML. These change tables contain columns that reflect the column structure of the source table you have chosen to track, along with the metadata needed to understand the changes that have been made.

Introduction to Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server 2008

Please read my article and leave your valuable comments here. If you like the article do not forget to rate it.

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

Posted in Database, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Data Storage, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL, Technology ]]> http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/08/15/sql-server-introduction-to-change-data-capture-cdc-in-sql-server-2008/feed/ 5 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/08/13/sql-server-reason-for-sql-server-agent-starting-before-sql-server-engine-service/ http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/08/13/sql-server-reason-for-sql-server-agent-starting-before-sql-server-engine-service/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:30:57 +0000 pinaldave http://blog.sqlauthority.com/?p=6590 ]]>

Nakul, a dedicated member of the Gandhinagar SQL Server User Group, recently emailed me with a very interesting, but quick question. He asked me why the SQL Server Agent starts before SQL Server Engine does? He made the very valid point that as the SQL Server Engine is the core service, it should start first, and there is little point to running the SQL Server Agent without it.

Off the top of my head, I can offer the following quick reasons for this sequence:

• The SQL Server Engine does not only run jobs for SQL Server Engine itself. It also runs jobs for other core services like the SQL Server Analysis Service, Integration Service, Reporting Service etc.;
• The SQL Server Agent can run almost any kind of task that an Operating system can run. For example invoking any program or running shell scripts;

• The SQL Server Agent also starts jobs which are scheduled to run the second the SQL Server Engine starts, and for this reason it is needed; and
• Replication, mirroring and a few other tasks also depend on Agent Jobs.

These are the reasons that I have come up with so far. Can you think of any more? Let us have your views.

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

About a week ago, SQL Server Expert, Imran Mohammed, provided a script, which will list all the missing identity values of a table in a database. In this post, I asked my readers if any could write a similar or better script. The results were interesting. While no one provided a new script, my question sparked a very active discussion that is still ongoing.

When providing the script, Imran asked me if I knew of any specific circumstances in which this kind of query could be useful, as he could not think of an instance where it would be necessary to find a missing identity. I was unable to think of a single reason for listing missing identities in a table. I posted Imran’s script on the assumption that someone would come up with an improved script, but as mentioned earlier, nobody did. Instead, we have been able to follow a very interesting discussion on subject of the need, if any, for listing Missing Identity values.

So, the question is this: “Do you know a real-world scenario where a Missing Identity value in any table can create problems?“

I have already received some extremely interesting comments from many experts, and all have posed the above question in one form or another. At this moment, I am still trying to think of an example from my own experience, but have yet to find one. Imran has since come up with one good example. Here is what he and other experts have suggested so far.

Jacob Sebastian – IDENTITY values are not expected to be sequential and there are all chances of having missing identity values, the most common cause is transaction rollbacks.

Simon Worth – The identity column is basically just a random number – even though they come sequentially. A developer making an assumption that the next record inserted will have an identity that is 1 more than the last inserted record. And if this is the case – then there are flaws in the logic of the developer.

Jacob Sebastian – What if the value in my table is 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 etc where “4″ is missing from the sequence. So what is the importance of knowing whether a table has missing identity values or not?

Imran Mohammed – If you use Identity property as your most unique column and Transaction Identifier, then definitely you would want to know why few transaction did not completely, Is there any specific fashion these transaction fails (Can be found out looking at missing values of identity)… Could be helpful to debug.

Now it is your turn. Let us have your thoughts.

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

Glenn Berry works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College – University of Denver, where he has been teaching since 2000. He is one wonderful blogger and often blogs at here.

1) Please tell us something about yourself.
I have been working as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies for about 3.5 years. Before that, I worked as a Performance Architect at a company called Mortgage Cadence for about four years. I have also been teaching SQL Server classes at night at University of Denver – University College for ten years. I have a couple of miniature Dachshunds, who are like my children.

2) We all know that you work as NewsGator, tell us something about your prime responsibility?
Well, my job title is Database Architect, but I am really the only database type person in the entire company. I pretty much have to do it all, from designing our architecture to writing stored procedures, to making sure our backup jobs are running. The good thing about that is that I get to stay hands on with SQL Server, which I really enjoy.

3) What would you like to call yourself – a Production DBA, a Database Architecture, A Database Developer or something else?
I end up doing both Database Development and Database Administration, along with the overall architecture. I call myself a Database Architect because it seems like the best overall description.

4) What is the largest size of database you have handled and what was your role with that database?
Our largest database is about 4TB (after Page Compression in SQL Server 2008). We currently have about 8TB of data between all of our production SQL Server instances.

5) NewsGator must have TB of data and millions of transactions a min. Would you please tell something about infrastructure?
We have about 8TB of data, which is really not that large by SQL Server 2008 standards. We are using pretty low-end, commodity hardware (no HP Superdomes here!). We are running completely on SQL Server 2008 in Production since February 2009. We were in the Katmai Technology Assistance Program (TAP), which was a private, external beta for SQL Server 2008, which helped us get a head start on getting SQL Server 2008 deployed very quickly. We are using Windows Server 2008 for all of our database servers, and we have had very good luck with that.

We have to run 24 x 7 x 365, with no regular maintenance windows. Because of this, we are using database mirroring on all of our mission critical databases, which works very well for us. We even used database mirroring to upgrade each of our production SQL Server 2005 databases to SQL Server 2008 with less than 30 second outages.

6) Tell us 3 most important tips for SQL Server.
It is very important to know your environment and workload (from a SQL Server perspective). That way, you will recognize when something has changed, and you will be able to make better decisions in a crisis situation. It is also important to stay current with what is going on with the latest hardware (I read tech enthusiast sites like AnandTech and Tom’s Hardware), so that you can do a good job selecting and sizing hardware. Too many DBAs just blindly trust their I.T. department to select hardware.

7) People call you the most friendliest MVP of all. Why?
I do know a lot of the other SQL MVP’s, and I guess that I have managed to avoid offending anyone so far. I was recently renewed for my third year as a SQL MVP, so I must be doing something right. I was lucky enough to be chosen to present two Community Sessions at this year’s PASS summit, so hopefully I will meet many more SQL Server people in the future.

8) Tell us something about yourself, which is not commonly known.
I like to read military history and science fiction. Long ago, I was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. I was a tank commander in an M60A1 Rise\Passive tank. I think that military experience is very useful for a DBA, since it helps teach you to be disciplined, detail-oriented, and prepared for anything.

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

Today is July 30 and I am very happy; it’s my Birthday, celebration time!!! The most common question I receive on my every birthday is -what are my plans for birthday. Let me share my plans here today. Additionally, if you are interested to know when SQL Server was born read my post SQLAuthority News – Author BirthDay – SQL Server Birthday.

My first plan is that I am going to take a break from blogging on anything technical today and spend more time with my family.

Let me tell you about my second plan. I am very much pleased and encouraged with active participation from many of you on this blog. I have received so far more than 10s of thousands of comments on my blog. These comments are open for you all to read and you can use them in any fashion that can help you out. Without good participation there is no life in any community, whether it is offline or online.

For the same reason, I have introduced Top 7 Commenters section in the side bar of SQLAuthority.com. There are many active users who have been participating for a long time. One of them I just recognized is Imran Mohammed. This SQL Expert has been extremely helpful to the community and has been providing comprehensive answers to hundreds of questions. Hats Off to you Imran! I totally appreciate your knowledge and dedication to SQL community. Without passion and love toward helping community, this is absolutely not possible.

You can subscribe to SQLAuthority.com feed, which will display all the new posts of my blog as they are published.

You can subscribe to SQLAuthority.com comments, which will show all the new comments posted on the blog as they are published.

If you prefer to receive SQLAuthority.com articles in email, you will get all the fresh posts in email.

There is no automated feature for top commenters where I host, so I will have to calculate this manually. I will keep it updated on weekly basis. Every week we will see new names there. First column is number of post, and second column is number name with link to experts website or blog or email.

Every day I receive a couple of emails about starting a forum on SQLAuthority.com. I do plan to start the forum in future. Currently, there are plenty of very good forums on the web. SQLAuthority.com is a blog and below every blog post there is a discussion related to the subject discussed in the blog post.

SQLAuthority.com is all about community and people who are passionate about SQL. Everyone is welcome to participate here. There are many ways to participate.

• Discussing blog post
• Helping user who have posted their issues on blog
• Asking questions
• Writing Guest Post
• Submitting useful SQL Scripts
• Reviewing any Microsoft-related products
• Reviewing Books

Let me know if you have any other useful and interesting suggestions on how I can involve YOU more in my efforts to take SQL community to the next level.

If you are interested in participating in volunteer program do send me email at pinal ‘at’ SQLAuthority.com and we can discuss something out.

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

Just about a year ago, I had written on the subject of how to insert data from one table to another table without generating any script or using wizard in my article SQL SERVER – Insert Data From One Table to Another Table – INSERT INTO SELECT – SELECT INTO TABLE. Today, we will go over a similar question regarding how to generate script for data from database as well as table. SQL Server 2008 has simplified everything.

Let us take a look at an example where we will generate script database. In our example, we will just take one table for convenience.

Right Click on Database >> Tasks >> Generate Scripts >>

This will pop up Generate SQL Server Scripts Wizards >> Click on Next >> Select Database >> This will bring up a screen that will suggest to Choose Script Option.

On Choose Script Option Screen of Script Wizard under section Table/View Options Look at Script Data row and Turn the Option to True.

The Next Screen will ask about object types. Select all the objects that are required in the generated script. Depending on the previous screen it will show few more screen requesting details about the objects required in script generation.

On the very last screen it will request output options. Select the desired output options of Script to file, Script to Clipboard or Script New Query Window.3

Clicking on Finish button will generate a review screen containing the required objects along with script generating data.

Clicking on Finish button one more time will generate the requested output.

Similarly, if you want to generate data for only one table, you can right click on the table and follow almost a similar wizard. I am sure this neat feature will help everybody who has been requesting for it for a long time.

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

Problem: SQLAuthority.com site was not allowed in some browsers as pinaldave.com site was marked as malware or badware distributing third party site.

Status: SQLAuthority.com and pinaldave.com both the sites are safe now and there is no threat to your computer. Feel free to click on the links.

Since the last two mornings I have received over 200 emails querying about the error my sites were generating. I encountered countless questions and worst of all I was thrown verbal abuse for not getting my own site up right away and for being careless. I’m much relieved today as everything is back to normal and I forgive those who abused me. There are few explanations I have been demanded numerous times by my several regular readers. Many readers send me question on twitter demanding to know what actually happened.

Question : What is the current status of your site?
Answer : All well, no problem. Business is as usual.

Q: What exactly happened?
A: I host my blog on a supreme blog platform wordpress.com. All the images that are displayed in this blog I host at my other hosting facility where I host my website pinaldave.com. All the images, photos and code come from pinaldave.com.

This was done to facilitate cross posting any blog at anytime on any platform without any hassle with one mouse click.

My host where I hosted pinaldave.com got affected by some kind of virus and trojon. Because of the same reason, all the websites which were hosted on that server were adversely affected with malwares and badwares. My site saw this impact too and all the browsers and anti virus started to report it as unsafe site.

My blog site SQLAuthority.com contains lots of images and photos from pinaldave.com, so it was marked as a site containing links to malwares. Commutatively, both my sites were as marked as malicious sites and browsers started to prevent displaying them.

Q: How did you fix the problem?
A: I had to change my webhost to a new one and re-uploaded my site.

Q: Why did you change your webhost?
A: Yes, I tried to inform my webhost about this attack but to my utter disappointment they did not take this issue seriously. I tried to call them up multiple times and explained them the problem. For all my efforts, I received verbal abuse from their supervisor.

This is not the first time where I faced such grave issue with my previous host. This is the third major issue in the past two months. Previously, their SQL Server 2008 was down for two days straight so my site was also down for the same duration. Just a month ago, I faces problem with my email account; it stopped working for two full days. As my site was down for almost five days in the past 60 days and to top this I faced verbal abused by the supervisor, I decided to move on to a new host.

Q: Who was your previous host?
A: I do not want to talk about them any more. They used to host my site for long time. After I reported the problem they did not care to respond to me and did not fix the problem for over 24 hours.

Q: Are you angry with your previous host?
A: Not at all. Such things do happen so I’m chilled. However, when I was politely reporting a problem to them I did not expect to hear abusive language from their customer support. It came as a shock to me but now I’m out of it. After all, I have to move on.

Q: Who is your new host?
A: GoDaddy.com and they are doing great! Most of the people think of Danica Patrik when GoDaddy is mentioned, I think of  Index De-Fragmentation Script of SQLFool.

Q: What’s next?
A: Please spread the words that everything is alright now.

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

SQL Server 2008, the latest release of Microsoft SQL Server, provides a comprehensive data platform. Books Online is the primary documentation for SQL Server 2008.

Books Online includes the following types of information:

• Setup and upgrade instructions.
• Information about new features and backward compatibility.
• Conceptual descriptions of the technologies and features in SQL Server 2008.
• Procedural topics describing how to use the various features in SQL Server 2008.
• Tutorials that guide you through common tasks.
• Reference documentation for the graphical tools, command prompt utilities, programming languages, and application programming interfaces (APIs) that are supported by SQL Server 2008.

Download Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Books Online

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

What is Business Intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of application programs and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data from various data sources, thus providing enterprise users with reliable and timely information and analysis for improved decision making. To put it simply, BI is an umbrella term that refers to an assortment of software applications for analyzing an organization’s raw data for intelligent decision making for business success. BI as a discipline includes a number of related activities, including decision support, data mining, online analytical processing (OLAP), querying and reporting, statistical analysis and forecasting.

1 What is Business Intelligence
2 Business Intelligence for Success
3 Business Intelligence Scenario
3.1 Revenues
3.2 Customer relationship management
3.3 Sales and marketing
4 Business Intelligence Terms

Read complete article here.

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

SQL Server 2008 offers an impressive array of capabilities for developers that build upon key innovations introduced in SQL Server 2005. The  SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit  will help you understand how to build web applications which deeply exploit the rich data types, programming models and new development paradigms in SQL Server 2008. The training kit is brought to you by Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism.

The training kit includes the following content:

• Presentations (6)
  • Filestream
  • Spatial
  • T-SQL
  • Date and Time Types
  • SQLCLR
  • Reporting Services
• Demos (12)
  • AdventureWorks Racing All-Up SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 All-Up Spatial Demo
  • Spatial Types Demo
  • Intro to Filestream Demo
  • SQL CLR Nullable Types Demo
  • Programming with Filestream Demo
  • Reporting Services Web Application Integration Demo
  • Date and Time Support in SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • T-SQL Table-Valued Parameters Demo
  • T-SQL Row Constructors Demo
  • T-SQL Grouping Sets Demo
  • T-SQL Merge Demo
• Hands-on Labs (3)
  • Using Spatial Data in TSQL
  • Using Spatial Data in Managed Code
  • Using SQL CLR in SQL Server 2008

Download SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit

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

I had a gala time at TechEd India 2009 event! Meeting with great people is an experience of a lifetime. My session was well attended and well appreciated, which also gives me another reason to feel happy.  Moreover, my SQL Server Cheat Sheet gained unpredicted popularity at the event. Let me share with you all a little story behind this cheat sheet.

For my personal use, I created one handy SQL Cheat Sheet, which I hang on my desk always. Even though I have a sound knowledge of SQL Syntax there are many occasions when I need to quickly refer to syntax. This cheat sheet helped me quite a bit and saved my time. Besides, it saved me from getting annoyed of looking up for same syntax again and again. This experience gave me the idea of creating a proper SQL Server Cheat Sheet, which was until now in a simple excel document.

I often received numerous requests from my friends, UG members and blog readers to covert the SQL Server Cheat Sheet into a more presentable one. Well, my designing skills are limited and also I never undertook this creative task. I was inspired by Rushabh Mehta of SolidQ as well the directors of Digicorp to create PDF printable version of this cheat sheet. Designers at Digicorp created this professional looking cheat sheet and then it was printed on a high quality glossy paper. When I had the first glimpse of the final SQL Server Cheat Sheet, I realized that I should do something for my community and share this useful cheat sheet with more and more SQL developers. TechEd India 2009 was one such opportunity where I was able to achieve my goal; I distributed several SQL Server Cheat Sheets among the participants.

SQL Server Cheat Sheet acquired so much popularity at TechEd that I ran out of all the copies around noon on the third day of the event. I had promised many attendees that I will put this online and also I will send it to them using physical email.

Now, you can download SQL Server Cheat Sheet and print it on a glossy paper yourself. I request you all to spread the words and pass this cheat sheet to your friends. Bookmark it, reprint it, and distribute it! Due to copyright issues you are not allowed to host it online anywhere other than its original location listed below.

Download SQL Server Cheat Sheet

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

Update : If you visit SQL Server Energy Event, you will get free printed copy of SQL Server Cheat Sheet

Original post : http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2009/05/20/sql-server-download-pdf-sql-server-cheat-sheet/

Today, we will delve into a very simple issue that one of the Jr. Developers at my organization confronted. I have a preference for T-SQL. According to me, all the developers should always use T-SQL instead of Design feature of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). In fact, sound knowledge of T-SQL has the potential to make a huge difference in the development of the developer. One issue with using design mode of SSMS is that it sometimes adds too much overhead to the actual code and locks up the complete database. In the earlier version of SSMS, it was quite common to see that even on doing a small change the whole SSMS got hanged and went unresponsive till the operation was over.

The reason for SSMS to go unresponsive is that when some operations (i.e. adding column, changing datatype of any column, etc) happen, it has to do much more work than the actual operation. Let us now examine an operation where we will add a new column to an already existing table.

• Transaction starts.
• When a new column is added SSMS renames the existing table to temp table.
• After that, it creates a new table with new specification.
• Now, SSMS has two tables: copy of  previous table with data and empty table with new structure.
• SSMS now starts moving older data from older table to newer table.
• If there is any error, it rolls back transaction.
• If there is no error, it commits all the previous operations.
• Transaction ends.

This entire operation is very resource intensive and puts lock on SQL Server tables in operation, eventually hanging SSMS.

SQL Server 2008 SSMS has new a feature that averts this issue. SSMS prevents user from running any operation that goes through the above-mentioned process. Let us see an example for the same.

First, create table using the following script in any database.

CREATE TABLE dbo.Table_1
(
ID INT NOT NULL,
First VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
Second VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
Third VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

Once the table is created open the table in SSMS by clicking on the table name and selecting “Design.” Try to include another column to the existing table and click on save (CTRL+S). It will prevent it from saving and will emit the following error in popup.

Saving Changes in not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can’t be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created

I like how SSMS takes stance of displaying warning message and stops user from going further to do operation, thereby preventing hanging of SSMS. However, this feature can cause inconvenience in a situation when one is required to save table using SSMS. If such situation arises, then this feature can be turned off by going to Menu >> Tools >> Options >> Designers >> Uncheck “Prevent Saving changes that require table re-creation”.

This restriction only applies to operation attempted using only SSMS. If modification of tables are attempted using T-SQL in Query Editor, it will work just fine!

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

First day of TechEd India 2009 is over and when I recall the day I can say that it was truly a blast! This immensely huge and grand event was conducted successfully. I am having a tough time trying to recapitulate the first day as there were several different activities worth covering. Let me start with the three most important events of day.

Steve Ballmer – Microsoft CEO – was the Keynote speaker at TechEd India. He is really an enthusiastic person. As soon as he showed up on stage, the entire auditorium was charged with energy. People were extremely keen to see him and listen to him. He gave a very impressive overview of Microsoft Strategies and its future planning. Listening to him about recession was quite interesting. Steve is a man with wisdom and according to him this is in fact a good time and things will soon improve. With a tinge of humor he said “Recession is life time opportunity and do not miss to learn new things and grow out as stronger person”. Now, you tell me where else you will get to hear optimistic statement like this.

Today, I had a technical session on “SQL Server Management Studio 2008 New Features”. I really enjoyed the presence of participants at my session. The session hall was occupied with SQL enthusiasts who were excited to learn something new. I commenced my session by saying that the session was useful for people who are ever going to touch Management Studio. My session had nearly 9 demos and around 40 slides. Interestingly enough, I proficiently covered everything in less than 40 min, and we had ample time for discussing, addressing future issues with SQL Server, and interacting with SQL Server Product Team of Hyderabad. It may come as a surprise to few but yes, there are an interesting lot of people in SQL Server Product Team in Hyderabad.

Vigorous participation of people made my session interactive throughout. There was a two way communication. Not surprisingly, I received lots of feedback while the session was progressing. At one point, the entire hall was crammed with people and we ran out of chairs. I must thank the team leads Abhishek Kant and Abhishek Baxi for their speedy arrangement of additional chairs to accommodate all the attendees. SQL Server Cheat Sheets, which were prepared along with me by Digi-corp, were available for free pickup. We did not expect that SQL Server Cheat Sheet will become so popular; we ran out of them right during the session. I was able to arrange few of them right away, thanks to the agility of my cooperative wife Nupur, who is also attending TechEd event along with me.

Today, was one of the most important days of my life as I got the opportunity to meet a person I always wanted to meet. Vinod Kumar is a very well-known person in SQL community, and it feels weird to give introduction about him who is a celebrity in his own right. But for those who do not know him, let me introduce him to you. Vinod Kumar is a technical evangelist at Microsoft who is very passionate about community. He is one of the lead organizers of the highly esteemed TechEd India event. I was fortunate to spend time with him today and exchange a few words with him. Vinod is a very down to earth person and refuses to be addressed as “Sir.” He likes to be called just “Vinod.” He gave me many good suggestions, tips and advice. I would like to mention one statement he made -“Just be what you are!”

I attended two TV interviews and one community jam event as well. When I started giving autographs I did not realize when the number crossed 125. It was surprising, exciting and real fun! I will give details about it tomorrow.

Even though today was an action-packed day, I did take about sufficient time to meet few of my MVP fellows. Whenever MVPs meet, we have a great time! It was a pleasure to meet Jacob Sebastian (Beyond Relational), Vikram Pendse (The Silverlight Guru), Suprotim Agrawal (SQL Server Curry), Mahesh Mittkari (Pune UG), Satya (SQL Server Q&A – he came from Scotland to see Steve B and meet us), Amit Bansal (Peopleware India), Mahesh Dhola, Sanjay Shetty (INETA Lead), Ashwin Kini (Culminis Lead), Nauzad Kapadia (Quartz), Niraj (Niraj Rules), Arun (XML Guru), Gitesh Bajaj (PPT God), Hardik Shah (MS), K-Mug Leaders and many more.

Please pardon me if I missed any name. I will update it in my tomorrow’s post with further information about what we talked about and how much we enjoyed together.

Jacob (XML), Pinal (SQL), Vikram (Silverlight)

Back at hotel, I had lip smacking Thai Dinner with my wife. We both are vegetarians so the choice was limited, but nonetheless the food was great.

I’m looking forward to another action-packed day tomorrow. You can follow updates on Twitter here.

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

Presently, I am at TechEd India 2009 in Hyderabad as one of the participants of this prestigious event. I will be heading a session on SQL Server Management Studio 2008 New Features.

I had recently blogged about TechEd 2009 India here.

Excerpt from the previous article

“Tech.Ed-India is a great opportunity to gear yourself up to keep pace with the latest technology innovations and trends.  This event offers you the platform to get comprehensive hands-on-training and free certifications in some of the most sought after technologies of today. In fact, it is a must-attend event for all developers and IT Professionals.”

I have received an astounding number of emails inquiring about TechEd details, and I have responded to all the queries I have received so far. Many of you have shown eagerness to meet me at TechEd. Absolutely! You all can meet me. Even I am looking forward to meeting you all and using this great opportunity to get in touch with technology enthusiasts like me. I will be in Hyderabad throughout the three-day long event. You can find me in community pavilion when I am not attending sessions.

Details of my session are as follows:

Subject : SQL Server Management Studio 2008 New Features
Speaker : Pinal Dave
Venue : Community Pavilion, TechEd 2009 India
Date and Time : May 13, 2009, from 4:00PM to 5:00PM
Level : Every Developer from Novice to Expert

This session is not only for SQL Server fans but it is useful for everybody. It will not be based on any intricate T-SQL concepts, and there will be no deep diving into the complexities of SQL Administration subject.  This simple session will focus on practical and to-the-point understanding of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). I promise to all the developers that after participating in this session they will certainly become faster and smarter developers and realize its benefits. I will touch base on tricks of SSMS, which will give you an edge over your co-workers. This session will be a great platform to learn new things about SSMS and after the session is over you will surely tell yourself – I wish I knew it earlier!

I have created a SQL Server Cheat Sheet, which I will be carrying along with me. All the attendees of my Unconference session is guaranteed to receive a copy of this sheet. This useful one-page sheet has been prepared in keeping with the needs of all developers. This stunning cheat sheet is printed on an expensive glossy paper and designed by a professional designer.

I would like to express my gratitude to Digicorp for sponsoring this SQL Server Cheat Sheet.

I will be  live blogging about TechEd 2009 India event from Hyderabad to keep you all aware of the latest happenings over here. Keep watching my twitter for live updates.

Follow Me!

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