Kendal Van Dyke

2011 PASS Board Election Results

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Results of the 2011 PASS Board of Directors election were officially announced this morning. I want to congratulate my friends Adam Jorgensen (Blog | Twitter), Denise McInerney (Blog | Twitter), and Rob Farley (Blog | Twitter) for each being elected to a 2 year term on the Board. All three are passionate about PASS's success and will work to continue making PASS a better organization every day.

Unfortunately (for me at least) I finished outside of the top 3 and was not elected. Obviously not the result I had hoped for, but it was still a good experience for me and perhaps I'll run again in 2012.

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to vote (whether it was for me or not). The future of PASS is in good hands with the addition of Adam, Denise, and Rob and I'm looking forward to what they help PASS accomplish in 2012.

2011 PASS Board Elections Notes

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:00:00 +0000

As I write this the final hours for the 2011 PASS Board of Directors elections are ticking away. Before the results are announced to the candidates and general public I wanted to share how I thought this year's election cycle went.

Random Thoughts

Whereas each of the last two elections had some contentious issue, this election cycle was controversy free. Kudos to the Election Review Committee for the changes that were made this year!
Gut feel - the community at large was relatively quiet, or at least quieter than previous years. Not a bad thing, though. Maybe it's because every candidate's application was posted, because of the timing of the elections cycle (things ran later this year than usual), because there weren't any big controversies, or some combination thereof. Whatever it was, though, I don't believe there was voter apathy. The #passvotes hashtag received some good buzz on Twitter and several people did post blogs. It'll be interesting to see if the number of votes cast this year exceeds 2010.
The NomCom's job was to vet the 6 candidates but with 3 seats open and an ideal target of 3 candidates per seat their role this year was more or less to make sure that none of the candidates were underqualified. That's not to downplay the job they did by any means - they volunteered a tremendous amount of their time and effort - but it will be very interesting (next year perhaps?) to see what happens when they have to make the really tough call at where to draw the line on who makes the slate and who doesn't.
Many people made the comment that any combination of the 6 candidates would be a good addition to the Board. I agree - even if that means I'm not one of them.

Suggestions For Improvement

I have two suggestions for next year's elections:

As with last year's election the NomCom produced a detailed score sheet that assessed each candidate on a variety of topics (see this link for an example of what last year's sheet looked like). These sheets were used to rank the candidates but unlike last year the detailed scores were not published nor made available to anyone outside of the NomCom. As a candidate I would like to have at least seen my own scores so I know what areas I can improve on.
I'd like to see at least one live Q&A session with all the candidates that's moderated by PASS during the elections. If the elections run during the Summit and all the candidates are in attendance we could do something similar to the Board Q&A; otherwise we could leverage LiveMeeting and do it online.

Whether I'm elected or not, I've enjoyed the experience of running and appreciate the support I've received. The results will be announced publicly in the December 28 PASS Connector. THANK YOU to everyone who voted, and stay tuned to find out who your newest PASS Board members are!

PASS Summit 2011 Session Evaluations

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:45:00 +0000

Session evaluations from the 2011 PASS Summit have been entered, calculated, and officially released to speakers. While I didn't make it into the "best of" sessions (hey, room for improvement right?) I did improve over last year's scores.

Following a similar format from previous years, each question is rated on a scale of 1-5 (1 = Very Poor, 2 = Poor, 3 = Average, 4 = Good, 5 = Excellent) with room for additional comments should the person completing the form feel compelled to add more information about why they gave a particular score. There were also two comment-only (i.e. unrated) questions. Here's how I fared:

Working With XML In SQL Server

Level: 300
Attendance: 47
Responses: 25
Average Rating: 4.56
Overall Rank: 64 (out of 190 sessions)

1. How would you rate the Speaker’s presentation skills? 4.6
Comments:

Kendall started off the last session of PASS with a corny SQL joke. Excellent. :) Kudos for pointing out the insecure way of connecting to SQL and mentioning that it should never be done

2. How would you rate the Speaker’s knowledge of the subject? 4.68
Comments:

a few questions he couldn't answer on indexes/stats

3. How would you rate the accuracy of the session title, description and experience level to the actual session? 4.64
Comments:

too basic 100 or 200
very good overview

4. How would you rate the quality of the presentation materials? 4.56
Comments:

time was limited

5. Did you learn what you expected to learn? 4.32
Comments

Exactly what I wanted! Thx!
neutral since I'm still new to xml

6. What will you take away from this session? (comment-only question)

Possible methods to improve currently poor XML use.
great tips on working w/XML
a better overview of xml-dml queries
i want to query my execution plan DMV's using Kendal's query
resources to obtain queries

7. What would you change to improve the overall quality of this session? (comment-only question)

correct the level
would like to see a few more of the "cool" examples that were at the end (eg querying for showplans)
Put this session before the 500-level session on performance tuning XML usuage
Not a thing
90 minute

Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room

Level: 200
Attendance: 61
Responses: 42
Average Rating: 4.36
Overall Rank: 124 (out of 190 sessions)

1. How would you rate the Speaker’s presentation skills? 4.4
Comments:

Flowed well and handled questions gracefully.
Good, but more dynamic.
Thorough explanations.
Speaks a little too fast for me.
Very easy to understand and open to answering questions.
Applause at the end is a good sign. Humor, self-deprecating - clear, funny and smart. (Note from me: Thanks!)

2. How would you rate the Speaker’s knowledge of the subject? 4.6
Comments:

Knows his stuff :)
Very good knowledge of the topic - was able to answer most questions.
Very good.

3. How would you rate the accuracy of the session title, description and experience level to the actual session? 4.29
Comments:

Hoped for more concreate guide for DR vs. HA.
Should describe this as a high level overview.
This was more of a HA class than DR while still very good, title was a little misleading.
Might have been 100 level.

4. How would you rate the quality of the presentation materials? 4.31
Comments:

More examples.

5. Did you learn what you expected to learn? 4.19
Comments:

Well presented @ SQL DBA!
Not what was expected.
Doing this stuff, but needed "this is what to do!" :)
Speaker broke down technologies.
Learned about replication.
Was hoping for more in depth info but speaker warned us at beginning it was an overview.

6. What will you take away from this session? (comment-only question)

There is no single solution Even though there are many options avaiable
Ideas about different types of disaster recovery.
Better understanding of HQ and HR concepts.
A good idea of the various strategies I can use in my shop.
HA vs. DR. Good score card.
Given me a better understanding of how I can back-up and keep our data current.
More knowledge and points to take back and improve.
Good info on which strategy to use when and why.
Understanding difference between HA/DR.
Different DR technologies - will implement database mirroring with in the next month.
Very good overview of a topic a lot of people mess up: HA vs. DR.
Excellent score card!!!
Good overview of techniques and strategies.
The info on transactional replication was really helpful.
A better sense of what's available out there.

7. What would you change to improve the overall quality of this session? (comment-only question)

Nothing. Good job.
A couple demos (mirroring, t-log shipping) would have been nice.
Less time spent on the "basics" that are well known. Hoped for more info on using combinations of the technologies - clustering with mirroring.
Class focused on clustering over DR.
None, other than to check slides before presentation. (Me: Yep, I had a typo in one of my slides. My fault!)
Add multi site clustering info.
More time.
Demo some types of recovery mirror, etc.
It's skimming the surface. Learned stuff, but was surprised at how much of it i know.

Conclusion

One thing I've learned after presenting at three Summits is that I'm not going to over-analyze the results. I'll leave it at this: I didn't bomb my presentations and I improved over last year's scores so I'm happy. There are a few things I'll tweak to both sessions to make them better, and some of the comments confirm that I could easily turn the HA\DR presentation into a day-long precon (something I've been kicking around for a while now).

I'd like to thank everyone who attended my sessions and took the time to provide honest feedback. I'm happy to have been given the opportunity to present at the Summit and am looking forward to next year!

A PASS Board Of Directors Endorsement

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:45:00 +0000

One of the requirements for the PASS Board of Directors application was a collection of recommendations - 3 from volunteers, 3 public, 1 personal, and 1 work-related. Every candidate's application is available for review (here's mine) with some minor amount of information redacted. One such section was for the volunteer recommendations and for me that means the recommendation from my friend Andy Warren (Blog | Twitter).

With permission from both Andy and the Nomination Committee I'm posting his recommendation here:

To: PASS Nominating Committee

Subject: Letter of Recommendation for Kendal Van Dyke for the PASS Board of Directors

I was introduced to Kendal in 2007 and soon after he agreed to do a presentation for the just re-launched oPASS chapter. Since then he’s gone on to speak at many other chapter meetings and SQLSaturday events, and has been selected twice to speak at the PASS Summit. He’s a confident and capable presenter.

He’s done more than just speak at events. He’s been active in growing oPASS and early this year launched our second Orlando chapter, MagicPASS. He was also a key member of the SQLRally team, taking ownership of the local side of marketing and also leading a networking ‘speed dating’ session as part of the event. He’s well known on Twitter, blogs on a recurring basis, and has built a substantial network in the community.

Kendal has all the personal attributes I look for in a candidate. He’s a good listener, willing to work hard, willing to take criticism, understands that not all decisions are perfect and that not all decisions will be popular, and he has no agenda other than to give back. He’s spent time with me discussing how the Board works and why we made some of our decisions, and I know he has spoken with others about this as well.

Kendal is a PASS success story. We held events that opened doors for him, and as a result he’s had a lot of opportunities to grow. I think highly of Kendal, and I believe he would do well on the Board if elected.

Regards,

Andy Warren

Director, PASS

PASS Board Of Directors Voting Open Through Dec. 20

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:30:00 +0000

Voting for the 2011 PASS Board of Directors elections started earlier this week and if you were a PASS member in good standing as of June 1 you should have received an email with a link to cast your vote. If you've already voted - thank you! If you're undecided I'd encourage you to visit the election site, read each candidates' background and platform, and if you still have questions post them on the discussion forum. All the candidates, myself included, are monitoring the forum and will usually answer within 24 hours.

So why should you vote? Besides being easy - just a few clicks and you're done - you are helping decide who you want to lead a growing international organization that can impact your day-to-day professional life. If you've ever been to a SQLSaturday, SQLRally, Summit, user group meeting, a virtual chapter meeting, or 24 Hours of PASS you have been part of a PASS event. It takes a strong leadership team to help make all of those events happen, and by voting you're adding your input on who you think will best be able to continue to provide that leadership.

If you haven't received an email with a link to vote, please visit the election website and look for the link in the lower right corner to contact PASS HQ and let them know.

Voting is open through December 20. I hope you take the time to make your voice heard and cast your vote!

Database Mirroring In A Windows Workgroup

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Database Mirroring is a popular high availability solution and low-cost alternative to clustering, especially for smaller shops who can't afford the costs associated with SANs and Windows Server Enterprise or for smaller installations where clustering is simply overkill.

I recently set up mirroring for servers in a Windows workgroup and I had a few struggles getting it to work correctly. I did eventually get it running and wanted to share two things in particular that you might find helpful if you find yourself in a similar situation.

SQL Service Accounts

Because a workgroup isn't part of a domain any account that SQL is run as on a machine in a workgroup is a non-domain account. Books Online states "If you run SQL Server under a non-domain account, you must use certificates" for configuring mirroring. However, that's not entirely accurate - unless you have a specific need for certificates you don't have to use them.

The solution is simple - use local machine accounts with the same username and password for each SQL instance that will participate in mirroring.

Let's pretend you have two servers named serverA and serverB that will participate in mirroring and the SQL Service on each server uses a local machine account named sqlservice. When you configure mirroring and use the Database Mirroring Security Wizard you'll want to make sure to pay attention to the part where you specify the service accounts. If serverA is going to be the Principal and serverB the Mirror you'll want to put serverB in the Principal and serverA in the Mirror on this screen:

Although this seems backwards from what you might think at first don't worry - when the wizard completes it will actually create the login for serverA on serverA and the login for serverB on serverB. This is because the wizard creates mirroring endpoints on each server and grants CONNECT access to the service account from the other partner. In this example since serverA is the Principal the wizard will use the credentials you entered for the Mirror (serverA\sqlservice) to create a login on the Principal (serverA) and the credentials you entered for the Principal (serverB\sqlservice) to create a login on the Mirror (serverB).

The simplified reason this approach works is because when a connection is established from serverA to serverB the credentials supplied from serverA match the local machine account on serverB and access is granted - No certificates required!

Fully Qualified Domain Names

Books Online indicates that while you can use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for server network addresses you can also use IP addresses. Windows workgroups don't have the concept of a FQDN so I went with IP addresses and everything appeared to work…until I tested failover. Failover to the mirror worked great except that the apps on the web servers using the SQL native client (configured with the right connection string parameters) wouldn't talk to the mirror. On top of that, after failover the mirror would lose connectivity to the witness and if I rebooted the principal all the databases on the mirror would go into recovery mode. Talk about a demo that didn't go over so well!

Digging around in the Windows event log on the mirror turned up this error:

Database mirroring connection error 4 'An error occurred while receiving data: '64(The specified network name is no longer available.)'.' for 'TCP://[SERVERNAME]:5022'.

where [SERVERNAME] is the name of the mirror. It turns out Adam Machanic (Blog | Twitter) had the same issue and fixed it by switching to FQDN. The problem? In a workgroup there are no FQDNs and trying to enter just a machine name in the mirroring wizard results in an error.

The solution? Add "fake" FQDN entries to the Windows hosts file (usually located in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\) on the principal, mirror, witness, and web servers, then rebuild mirroring using the "fake" FQDNs.

Conclusion

I hope my pain becomes your gain should you ever find yourself having to set up database mirroring in a Windows Workgroup!

PASS Board Of Directors Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:45:00 +0000

I had my telephone interview for the PASS Board of Directors this afternoon and I'm cautiously optimistic that I did well enough to make it on the final slate. We had an hour booked but ended up only taking 30 minutes - I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or just is what it is. I prepared by brushing up on the PASS Bylaws and 2011 & 2012 budget (available on the governance section of the PASS website) which certainly helped with some of the questions I was asked. Overall I think I did OK; I'll find out for sure November 18 when all the candidates are notified of their rankings.

In the interest of full disclosure I'll point out that I know everyone on the Nomination Committee at some professional or personal level, though I suspect that's the case for most of the other candidates as well. That said, I'm confident that they'll be able to put relationships aside to provide a fair assessment of all the candidates. It's not an easy task, especially if it means there's a potential for delivering disappointing news to someone you know.

With the interview over I've done everything I can to make it onto the ballot. Make it or not, I'm satisfied with the changes in the process made by the Election Review Committee earlier this year. Hopefully that means PASS election controversy is a thing of the past!

Why I'm Running For The PASS Board Of Directors

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

If you read this week's onnector email you may have noticed that I'm one of the six candidates who have applied for the PASS Board of Directors this year. Campaigning hasn't officially started yet - the Nomination Committee is still in the review process - but I'd like to at least share a little bit more about who I am and why I made the decision to apply.

Meet Me

Born, raised, and still a Florida native, I graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Florida State University in 1999. I started working as a VB 6 developer where I was first exposed to SQL Server 7.0. It didn't take long before I shifted from writing VB to writing TSQL. The more I learned, the more I got hooked, and from that point on I've always considered myself a DBA. Over the years I've managed both servers and people and learned a ton both technically and professionally.

Married for 12 years, my wife (also a Florida native, a rarity these days!) and I have been blessed with 3 kids. I'm a huge space geek and living in Orlando - just 45 minutes from Kennedy Space Center - helps feed my hobby. When I'm not in front of a computer or chasing rockets I'm either busy doing something PASS related or helping out with Cub Scouts where my wife and I run our son's Webelos den.

Now that you know more about me...

Why I Want To Serve On The PASS Board

Going back about six years ago, I had no idea who or what PASS was except that their logo was on the SQL 2005 system views poster from SQL Server Magazine. In 2006 I moved to Orlando and a coworker introduced me to Andy Warren (Blog | Twitter). That introduction opened the door to start attending OPASS, speaking, and blogging. Between then and now I went from being a consumer - your everyday average DBA who gets the job done - to being a contributor by speaking at SQLSaturdays, User Groups, and the PASS Summit, starting a User Group (MagicPASS), helping plan a brand new conference (SQLRally) bearing the PASS brand, and most recently was recognized as a Microsoft MVP.

Along the way I've had the chance to open doors for people in the same way that Andy opened the door for me. There is an incredible sense of pride and fulfillment in seeing the same spark ignite in someone the way it did for me. PASS has been an enabler for me to get where I am today and I feel like I'm ready to pay it forward by helping to give as many other people those same opportunities as I can. So with that in mind I'm running to help carry the torch forward - to help PASS do what it does even better.

What's Next

If you haven't visited the 2011 election portal yet I encourage you to do so. Between now and November 22 everyone who submitted an application has to complete a personal interview. Once the interviews are done the Nomination Committee will recommend a slate of candidates to the current Board of Directors. Upon approving the slate campaigning and voting is scheduled to run from December 6-20 and the election results will be announced on December 28.

I hope that you pay attention to the elections and cast your vote when it comes time!

My PASS Summit 2011 Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:00:00 +0000

The 2011 PASS Summit is in the rear view mirror (has it really been almost three weeks now?)...and as always what an incredible week it was! Here were some of the highlights of the week for me:

The People

The number of old friends and new people I see at the Summit every year is at the top of the experience list for me. There's simply no other time or place where so many SQL people from all walks of life are gathered together. DBAs tend to be few in number at most shops so when we all get together at the Summit it's a great opportunity to talk shop, share stories, and build valuable friendships. I was hard pressed to go anywhere without running into someone I knew from a SQLSaturday, user group meeting, previous Summit, or who I've gotten to know on Twitter. The running joke is that it takes you 30 minutes to go 50 feet at the Summit, but it's really not a joke; with that many people there it's easy to get wrapped up in an engaging conversation with someone and lose track of time.

The Sessions

I was privileged to be selected to deliver two sessions this year and really enjoyed giving both of them. I didn't count how many people came to each (hoping that the program committee will be able to provide that when all the session evals have been tabulated) but the rooms were 3\4 full for each session so I know I had a decent turnout for both. I received positive comments from people after both so I think I did OK...but like all the other speakers I'm anxious to see the evals.

The Announcements

To me announcements are like getting presents at Christmas - you know they're coming, don't always know what they are, and most of the time you're really excited about what you discover. There were no shortage of announcements from Microsoft at this year's Summit: the SQL 2012 name and launch date, the new features for working with Hadoop (including a Windows based Hadoop distribution), an ODBC Linux drive, a new SQL Azure CTP, and Power View (aka "Crescent").

Not to be left out, Red Gate launched one of the coolest contests I've ever seen: DBA in Space. I grew up a space geek so you'd better believe I'm excited about the chance to win a suborbital flight!

The Donations

Last year I left the Summit with mixed feelings - one of the reasons being that I saw a lot of homeless and needy people around downtown. I committed to doing something to try and help in some small way this year and the result was SQLGive, a campaign to collect toiletries and clothes. With help from Chris Shaw (Blog | Twitter) we were able to set up collection bins at vendors' booths in the expo hall on Wednesday & Thursday and at the bookstore on Friday. Thanks to the generosity of many attendees we had close to 50 lbs. of soap, shampoo, toothpaste, socks, gloves, and even some food that were donated to Seattle's Union Gospel Mission.

I want to thank Idera, Quest, Perpetual Technologies, SSWUG, and SQLSentry again for letting us put collection bins at their booths. I also want to thank Tom Roush for his help delivering everything to the UGM dropoff point. I think the best way to relay the appreciation that people feel from receiving even a small amount of help is the story that Tom shared with me afterwards:

When I went there to drop the things off – there was a guy standing out there who helped me to get the stuff into the place - he looked nice, clean shaven, and I asked, "do you work here?" – he laughed, said no, then helped me get the stuff in. Later, he wanted me to know how much it meant for me to have asked that question. Seems he'd only been off the streets less than a week, and was just amazed, and obviously touched, that I'd think he was a "regular" person.

The End

OK so this wasn't a highlight, but it could be next year. I don't like how the Summit ends; There's so much excitement at the beginning but barely a whimper at the end. On any other night it's easy to find a group of people to go to dinner with, hang out with, etc...yet I had a hard time finding people to go to dinner with on Friday night. I think we need some kind of closing event as a way for people who are still there to say goodbye to everyone and end on a high note.

I'd like to see everyone get together in the dining hall for some final words from the PASS president and a champagne toast to say goodbye. Maybe next year I'll convince someone to give this a try. :-)

Final Thoughts

The Summit is one of the highlights of my year. I meet so many people and learn so much that I don't want it to end. I'm already excited about the 2012 Summit, and I hope that you are too!

#SQLGive Update - New Dropoff Locations

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:15:00 +0000

Since announcing #SQLGive earlier this week I'm happy to report that two additional vendors have agreed to host dropoff boxes at their booths - Idera and Quest Software. Here's the full list of where can drop off your donations:

Perpetual Technologies - Booth #516
SQLSentry - Booth #512
Idera - Booth #221
Quest Software - Booth #502

...and in case you don't know what SQLGive is you can read all about it here.

See you at the Summit next week!

My PASS Summit 2011 Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The annual PASS Summit is upon us once again! Here's where I'll be next week:

Monday

Arriving in Seattle mid-afternoon
Monday Night Networking Dinner @ Lowell's - 6-9 PM

Tuesday

Breakfast w\ Andy Warren at Top Pot Doughnuts on 5th Ave. - 6-8 AM
SQLSaturday Round Table - 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
PASS Chapter Leader Meeting - 2-5 PM
First Timers Orientation and Networking Session - 5:30-6:30 PM
Welcome Reception and Quiz Bowl - 6:30-8 PM

Wednesday

Day 1 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM
Presenting Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room - 10:15-11:30 AM in Room 613-614
Chapter Lunch - 12-1 PM (come meet me at the MagicPASS table!)

Thursday

Day 2 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM (I'll be sitting at the official blogger's table for this one)
Women In Technology lunch - 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Community Appreciation Party - 7-10 PM (I've got a commitment earlier in the evening - going to try and make the last hour of this if I can)

Friday

Day 3 Keynote - 8:15-10 AM (Don't miss this one!)
Birds of a Feather Lunch - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (I'll be at table #40 talking Replication, come join me!)
Presenting Working With XML In SQL Server - 4:15-5:30 PM in Room 612

So that's the official stuff that I'm planning on going to. Of course there will be other things going on after hours (e.g. SQL Karaoke) but I'm keeping my schedule open for those and will make a game-time decision about where to go and what to do. I'll also be around the convention center at sessions, the expo hall, or just hanging out at the couches near the registration desk for an occasional much-needed break.

I'm looking forward to next week and if you're going I hope to see you there!

Going To The PASS Summit? Can I Have Your Soap And Shampoo?

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:45:00 +0000

After last year's PASS Summit I put my money where my mouth was and said I will do something this year to help the hurting and homeless in Seattle when I return. With less than a week to go until the start of the 2011 Summit it's time to make good on that promise.

A small group of volunteers and I have teamed up to help Seattle's Union Gospel Mission by collecting toiletries and other items that can be distributed to people in need. If you're like me you probably don't use the soap and shampoo in your hotel room. Instead of letting it sit there unused, we're asking you to take them with you to the convention center and donate them instead.

On Wednesday and Thursday you can drop your donations at Perpetual Technologies in booth #516 or SQLSentry in booth #512 (see the map here). The only requirement is that what you are donating has to be unopened in order for the Mission to accept it. There are more things that the Mission is looking for, so if you're feeling kind please don't stop at soap and shampoo. Some of their other immediate needs include:

Tube socks
Wrapped candy for Halloween
Non-perishable food
Hats, gloves, and hand warmers
Razors & shaving cream
Bottled water (individual size)
Men's clothing (jeans and khakis particularly needed)
Full-size shampoo & deodorant
Toothbrushes & toothpaste

(Please remember that these need to be new, unopened items)

On Friday afternoon, with help from Seattle DBA Tom Roush, we will collect all of the items and deliver them to the Mission's downtown drop-off facility. From there the Mission will distribute the items to those in need via their many services, including their Search and Rescue Van that delivers items directly to people on the street who can use them. Note: The Union Gospel Mission is a Christian organization. Whatever your faith is (or isn't) shouldn't matter, though. What we're doing is simply trying to help people who are in need.

If for whatever reason you can't make it by the expo hall or forget to drop your donations off I will happily take them in person. I'm giving two sessions - Wednesday at 10:15 AM in Room 613-614 and Friday at 4:15 PM in Room 612 - plus I'll be all over the convention center throughout the week so you're bound to run into me at some point.

To all of my blogging and tweeting friends, I'd also appreciate it if you could help me by spreading the word (we're using the hashtag #SQLGive on Twitter).

THANK YOU and see you next week in Seattle!

SQLSaturday Orlando Is Tomorrow!

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Tomorrow marks the 4th annual SQLSaturday Orlando, held at Seminole State College in Sanford. We've got 46 sessions by 40+ speakers covering Business Intelligence, Database Administration, SSIS, Performance, and more. In addition, we'll have fantastic sponsors onsite to demo their products and what I hope ends up being one of the most memorable SQLSaturday lunches ever for attendees (for both the food and atmosphere).

It's hard to pick which sessions to attend with so many great ones at the same time, but here's some of the ones I'm most looking forward to:

From Ground to Cloud for Databases - Buck Woody
Powershell by Example - Ron Dameron
T-SQL Alphabet Soup - Rodney Landrum (I've seen this one and it's a lot of fun!)
TempDB Performance Troubleshooting and Optimizing - Eddie Wuerch
Parallel Query Execution Deep Dive - Kevin Boles
Transaction Log Deep Dive - Kevin Boles
T-SQL Enhancements in Denali - Plamen Ratchev
Working With XML In SQL Server - me!

Of course ALL of the sessions are going to be great and with the exception of my own time slot I expect to make some tough last minute decisions on which sessions I want to see the most. Somewhere in there I'll have to fit in networking and face time with all of the fantastic sponsors who are helping to make the day possible.

As if all of that weren't enough, make sure to stick around until the end of the day because we've got a lot of great prizes to give away. And finally, don't forget about the after party at Liam Fitzpatrick's in Lake Mary from 6:30 - 8:30 PM.

Haven't registered? Don't worry, there are still seats available - sign up here before it's too late!

One last note - we've made the schedule available for mobile devices (iOS, Android, Blackberry, and WinMo). First grab the Guidebook app here then download the schedule from within the app. This is hands down the best way to look at when sessions are taking place and it's free.

Checkin starts at 7:30 AM. I hope to see you there!

Configuring Windows 7 For Paired Storage

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:00 +0000

In recent years solid state drives (SSD for short) have dropped in price enough to be an affordable option in most mid-to-high end laptops & desktops. However, despite their insanely fast IO speeds their limited capacity compared to traditional spindle based storage (HDD) remains one of the biggest drawbacks. This has given rise to the concept of paired storage - using an SSD and HDD in the same machine to achieve a balance between speed and capacity.

Storage guru Stephen Foskett (Blog | Twitter) recently blogged about how he's implemented paired storage on his MacBook Pro. I'm using paired storage on a Windows 7 PC so I thought I'd share how I set it up to work for me.

Hardware

My laptop (Lenovo T410) shipped with an ultrabay slot on the side occupied by a DVD-RW drive. I ordered the laptop with a 500GB HDD to max out capacity, and knowing I was adding an SSD I also purchased an ultrabay adapter that allowed me to remove the DVD-RW drive and replace it with the HDD. For the occasional times I needed an optical drive I picked up an adapter on Ebay ($17!) that turned the DVD-RW into an external drive that connects via USB. I found a decent price on an 80 GB Intel X-25M SSD which completed everything needed to run paired storage.

Installation

My goal was to run the OS on the SSD to take advantage of its speed but the laptop shipped with the OS on the HDD so I needed a way to move it over to the SSD. Most Windows laptops ship these days without any physical media; instead they include a recovery partition which contains a factory image that can be restored to the boot partition. Fortunately Lenovo included a utility to make recovery DVDs from that image, so the first step was to create recovery media. Once that was done I physically moved the HDD to the ultrabay slot, installed the SSD in its place, then plugged in the USB optical drive and used the recovery media to lay down Windows on the SSD.

A nice "feature" of the the recovery media is that it self propagates a recovery partition on the SSD. Because space is a premium and I have physical recovery media there's no sense in keeping the recovery partition around so it was promptly deleted and the OS partition expanded out to make full use of the SSD space.

With Windows installed on the SSD I formatted the HDD to prepare it for use.

OS Changes

All of the OS changes I applied were motivated by two reasons - minimizing SSD space used and reducing SSD writes. SSDs have a limited write life cycle and manufacturers figure that an average user will write less than 100 GB per day to them when they calculate how long the drive will last. Wear leveling algorithms help spread the writes around to maximize life, and it also helps to keep as much free space as possible on the disk so there are more bits to spread all those writes around on.

The paging file will typically be as large as the amount of RAM but because it's used infrequently it's a perfect candidate for moving to the HDD. Changing it involves more than just a few clicks, but it's not terribly hard - here's step by step instructions for how. I set the file size to 400 MB on the SSD to allow Windows to write a dump file if something catastrophic occurs and set the file size to System managed size on the HDD.

Hibernation is a feature I never use and keeping it enabled lets a multi-GB file called hiberfile.sys hang around taking up space. Even if I did use hibernation there's no way to move this file to the HDD. The easiest fix for this is disable hibernation and delete the file. Follow this link for how to do it.

User Profiles

User profiles in Windows 7 are located in C:\Users and contain system files to support a user's session while logged in along with a user's documents, music, photos, etc.. Some people suggest moving the entire user profile to the HDD; I prefer a more limited approach that involves specific folders so that system files within the profile remain on the SSD. There's two ways to go about doing this: move the folder to a location on the HDD or use libraries to include the additional folders from the HDD.

In either approach you'll first want to set up folders on the HDD with the same path and permissions as they have on the SSD. An easy way to do this is by using xcopy from a command prompt running as an administrator. Here's an example of the command looks if my username is Kendal, my HDD is drive letter Z:, and I want to create a new folder for documents:

xcopy /T /O /I C:\Users\Kendal\Documents Z:\Users\Kendal\Documents

The /T switch creates a directory structure but doesn't copy any files. /O copies permissions, and /I tells xcopy that it's dealing with directories (folders) instead of files.

Moving specific folders to the HDD is relatively easy. For example, if you want to move your My Documents folder then in Windows Explorer navigate to the folder's parent directory (e.g. using the previous example for xcopy syntax it would be C:\users\Kendal) , then right click on the Documents folder and choose Properties. On the Location tab you can change the directory to the new directory you created on the HDD.

When you click the OK button you'll be prompted to move any files that existed in the old folder to the new folder. If you choose No they won't be moved and the folder will stick around on the SSD. If you choose Yes then Windows will move the files to the new folder, present the appropriate prompts to deal with any conflicts as needed, then delete the old folder.

Libraries are another approach that work just as well, and in some cases even better if the folders you're including in a library aren't part of the standard set that can be moved using the technique I just described (e.g. folders for Virtual Machines). Microsoft has a good overview of what libraries are and how to use them that you should read up on first if you're not familiar with the feature.

Before setting up a library I use xcopy to mirror folder paths and permissions to the HDD. Once folders are set up for documents, music, etc. I add them to libraries and mark the folder on the HDD as the default location for saving files. If you choose to use libraries you'll also want to configure applications to use the folders on the HDD by default, e.g. iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Picasa. (This is an extra step that you don't have to do if you move the folders as previously described)

There is also a visual quirk that happens when you add the new folder to a library where the view shows files grouped by each folder in the library instead of as one unified folder like this:

If you prefer to see all the files in a single view simply right click on empty whitespace, choose Group By > (None)...

...and viola!

Other Folders

Over time other folders on the SSD start to accumulate files that take up space but are infrequently used. One in particular is C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Windows Update uses this folder to store downloaded patches and updates; the entire contents of this folder is safe to delete. No worries if you delete a downloaded update before you've applied it - Windows Update will just download it again for you.

I recommend grabbing a copy of the free utility WinDirStat to find other large files and folders that are taking up space on the SSD. Some applications will create really large (several GB large) files nested somewhere within the AppData folder in your user profile path. Outlook puts .OST and .PST files there and if you've got an iPod\iPhone\iPad you'll see 4-5 GB device backups there as well. Another folder that consumes a lot of space over time is C:\Windows\Installer. WinDirStat will help you find them easily.

Once you've found them you can use xcopy to move their folders to the HDD, then use junction, a free tool from Microsoft Sysinternals, to create junction points to the folders. A junction point is essentially an alias which allows an application to access a file or folder as if it existed on a particular path but the actual path is somewhere else. If you're not familiar with junction points or how to create them I'd hold off from trying this option for now - otherwise you could create more problems than you're trying to solve.

Conclusion

Even though I'm not running on the SSD exclusively I still get fantastic performance. I can get from power on to logged in and read to use in less than 60 seconds and on average applications take no more than a few seconds to load. Because the HDD only contains files that are used infrequently I get all the speed of the SSD plus the storage benefits of the HDD.

If you've already got Windows installed and want to make the move to paired storage but loathe the thought of reinstalling Windows Lifehacker posted a very helpful guide for how to do it that's worth checking out.

If you're thinking about putting an SSD into your machine but worried about the lack of space then paired storage may be exactly what you're looking for.

Are You Willing To Relocate?

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:30:00 +0000

I've recently been talking to people looking for DBAs and one of the questions that always gets asked early on in the conversation is "Are you willing to relocate?". It's an easy question to ask but not always easy to answer. I suspect most people would easily give a yes or no if asked in a casual conversation, but if you put more thought into it the answer becomes more of a maybe (or "it depends" for the DBAs reading this).

My current situation has afforded me time to figure out my own answer. I listed out all of things I thought I should consider and found that I was able to group them into two general "cost based" categories: financial and emotional.

The financial considerations included the obvious, e.g. salary and opportunity for career growth, and the not so obvious, such as: cost of living compared to where I live now, what it costs to move, and even the potential commute (my friend Andy Warren (Blog | Twitter) recently wrote an editorial on SQLServerCentral.com about this that I recommend reading).

I think the emotional considerations are even more important, though, because money alone doesn't lead to happiness. For example, I have friends who moved from Toronto to Orlando for a fantastic job and a very comfortable life but after a few years moved back because that was their home where they felt most happy. I can relate; my wife and I are both Florida natives, and with three kids plus siblings and parents within driving distance I realize how emotionally difficult it would be for my family to move far away from that.

So all things being equal, my preference would be first to stay local, then relocate elsewhere in the state, and finally move "somewhere else" (admittedly I'm not entirely sure where that somewhere else would be). That's not to say I would turn down an opportunity that requires relocating over something local, but it would have to be something special. Special is something life altering - maybe even historic - like launching rockets into space or solving world problems. Special is something unique, meaning you're the only place doing what you're doing. Special is a once in a lifetime opportunity that can't be passed up. In other words, if I can find a job close to home doing roughly the same things you're doing halfway across the country, I'm probably not going to be motivated to move. That's not a knock against you - it's just what I've decided is best for me right now.

Alternatives

More recently, especially in the technology industry, companies are starting to open up to telecommuting. Steve Jones (Blog |Twitter) and Robert Pearl (Blog | Twitter) recently shared their thoughts about it in You Can Telecommute and Telecommuting - Hype or Happening?. With what I've heard about how hard it is these days to find quality DBAs I don't think it's unreasonable to consider telecommuting if you think you've found the right person for your team. However, I also understand there's no replacement for in person meetings, so maybe a good middle ground is to be onsite for one work week each month. It seems reasonable to me, at least.

Are You Willing To Relocate?

I think it's a good idea to ask yourself this question from time to time because things can - and do - change. Maybe it's the unexpected downsizing that lies ahead, or more optimistically it's the next great job offer that you get after meeting someone at a SQLSaturday or the PASS Summit (or whatever conference you happen to be at).

I encourage you to take some time to think about what it would take for you to relocate for a job. It's a good exercise to go through, and you'll find yourself in a much better position to give an answer you're confortable with the next time someone asks.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:00:00 +0000

I've done it; I've violated one of the rules I give to people who are interested in blogging: I went dark. It was unintentional, of course, but I'm still guilty nonetheless. The reason? Life's been really busy - both personally and professionally - and I let blogging fall to the bottom of the priority list.

After SQLRally 2011 wrapped up in May I took a self-imposed hiatus to recover and spend time focusing on family and a new role at work. Before I knew it, a few weeks turned into three months, during which I'd managed to publish all of 3 posts. It certainly wasn't for lack of ideas (I actually started a lot of drafts); rather a combination of work, vacation, and family time plus running MagicPASS, speaking at SQLSaturday South Florida, and helping plan SQLSaturday #85 (Sept 24 in Orlando) has just plan kept me busy! While I could have put more effort at night into finishing some of those posts I started, I found it a lot easier to plop down in front of the TV and catch up on the backlog of shows that had accumulated on the DVR.

That takes me up to a week and a half ago...

Who Moved My Cheese?

The aforementioned title (from the bestselling book of the same name) refers to dealing with change, and in this case it's change that's been unexpectedly placed on me. As of last week I'm looking for a new job. (In case you're wondering what happened, I'll keep things succinct and just say it wasn't my choice nor was it related to job performance)

Fortunately the SQL community has been an absolutely fantastic support. I have had numerous people offer words of encouragement, and many others have sent me leads on places that are looking for a new DBA. I've even had people send me short term contract work to help keep things afloat while I figure out where to go next. Words simply cannot express my gratitude. This experience is proof positive for me why it's worth taking the time to build a professional network and to help out other people whenever you can.

The good news? I've got some time to finish up on all those drafts I've started in the last few months. I'm also really looking forward to catching up with friends both old and new at the PASS Summit in Seattle in a few weeks.

Oh, and if you're looking for a DBA, I happen to know someone who is available. :-)

SQLSaturday Orlando 2011 Call For Speakers Closes July 24

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:40:00 +0000

The 2011 version of SQLSaturday Orlando (officially SQLSaturday #85), a joint effort between Orlando's PASS chapters OPASS and MagicPASS, is taking place on September 24 at Seminole State College. The call for speakers is open through July 24 and there are still spots available. We've got two ways for speakers to get involved this year: regular sessions and an all day preconference session. We're looking for speakers with all levels of experience, from first timers to experts, and for all topics related to SQL Server.

Why Speak?
Whether you're a first timer or a pro there's some great reasons to come speak in Orlando this year:

Networking…SQLSaturday started in Orlando and it's become a favorite for many people to return to every year. In addition to speaking about your passion you'll get the chance to hang out with other speakers at the Friday night speaker party; we've got the perfect venue with good food and an atmosphere that's great for networking.
Great weather…While the rest of the country is cooling down the average September temperature in Orlando is just above 80 degrees. It's also one of the least busy times of the year for the theme parks so if you've got family consider bringing them with you for a day of fun and short lines.
Cool speaker gifts…Last year we gave out hand crafted coffee mugs; this year we're cooking up something truly unique. Trust me, it's something you won't find at any other SQLSaturday.
Cheap travel…If you're coming from out of town flights into Orlando are inexpensive compared to other cities. There's a billion hotels here too so you can generally find a decent one at a good price without too much effort.
You'll learn something…It's not just the attendees that benefit from the sessions; as a speaker you'll learn more than you thought you knew when you're putting together your presentation.

Step It Up A Notch
The preconference session is on Friday, Sept 23, and is a great opportunity for more experienced speakers to take things to the next level with an all-day deep dive into a topic. We've already got Microsoft's Buck Woody (Blog | Twitter) coming to talk about performance tuning and we're looking for a second person to present an all day session to ~50 attendees. We'll pay your travel and hotel expenses, take care of collecting funds, and after expenses you pocket 25-50% of the profit depending on your level of experience as a speaker. Full details are on the SQLSaturday 85 front page. This is a great place to start if you're interested in taking your speaking efforts to the next level as it will open the door to presenting precons at a future SQLRally and PASS Summit.

I'm looking forward to this year's event and I hope you'll consider coming!

Presenting For South Florida SQL Server UG Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Tonight, June 22, at 6:30 PM EDT I'm presenting Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room for the South Florida SQL Server User Group. This is one of my sessions selected for the 2011 PASS Summit in Seattle so by watching you'll get a preview of what you can expect to see if you go to the Summit this fall.

This will be an online presentation via LiveMeeting so you can join in even if you're not in the South Florida area. You can RSVP to attend here, or just join the LiveMeeting directly at 6:30 PM.

Here's what I'll be covering:

Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room

There are a lot of options when it comes to disaster recovery and high availability with regards to SQL Server. Most business owners (and many DBA's) lump disaster recovery (DR) & high availability (HA) together and while they do share some pieces, they call for different strategies. Do you pick one or more than one of these options, and what criteria do you use to make the choice? It’s incredibly important that you understand the decision tree that helps you pick the right options(s) for your business and that you can explain the choices clearly to the stakeholders. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, but it is complicated. This presentation will give you a high level understanding of the options, the costs, complexities, & reasons for using each of them.

Speaking At The 2011 PASS Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:45:00 +0000

The official notices went out to speakers last week and I am privileged to have the opportunity to present two sessions at this year's PASS Summit in Seattle (Oct. 11-14). This year there were hundreds of abstracts submitted (I read "over 600" here) for ~70 available regular session spots; the program committee had their work cut out for them, and I'd like to publicly thank them for the time they spent reviewing every abstract to put together the schedule.

Here's what I'll be talking about:

Working With XML In SQL Server

Track: Application and Database Development
Level: 300

XML is a technology that Developers and DBAs alike share a love-hate relationship with; it's powerful and flexible yet it can be bloated and difficult to work with at the same time. Regardless, XML has found a home in many applications - including SQL Server (e.g. execution plans) - so it's important to understand how to work with it in your databases. This session will show you how to use the XML data type, perform basic operations on XML data, and how to use FOR XML to create XML from relational data. This isn't a session to convince you to use XML, but to show you what you can do with XML when you do need to use it!

Paging DR Availability, You're Wanted In The Recovery Room

Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
Level: 200

There are a lot of options when it comes to disaster recovery and high availability with regards to SQL Server. Most business owners (and many DBA's) lump disaster recovery (DR) & high availability (HA) together and while they do share some pieces, they call for different strategies. Do you pick one or more than one of these options, and what criteria do you use to make the choice? It’s incredibly important that you understand the decision tree that helps you pick the right options(s) for your business and that you can explain the choices clearly to the stakeholders. It’s not as complicated as it sounds, but it is complicated. This presentation will give you a high level understanding of the options, the costs, complexities, & reasons for using each of them.

You can see all of the sessions that have been selected (including pre-cons, spotlights, and the new half-day format) on the 2011 Summit website. If you're thinking about going don't wait to ask the boss - prices increase June 30. If you're not sure how to ask and need some ammunition check out this excellent advice from Brent Ozar (Blog | Twitter) and the ROI page on the Summit site.

I hope to see you in Seattle in October!

Orlando 101 For SQLRally Attendees: Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:00:00 +0000

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some "insider" tips. After posting my tips for travel & hotel, food, shopping, and entertainment yesterday it hit me that I forgot to mention one of the best things about coming to Florida this time of year - the weather!

Sunshine…And Rain
Mid-May temperatures in Orlando peak in the low-90's (F) in the afternoons and drop into the low 70's (F) at night. What gets most people when they come here, though, is the humidity. It's not uncommon for the humidity to reach 60-75% on an average day, and when it rains it'll get close to 100%.

Speaking of rain, occasionally there are isolated showers in the afternoon that last 20-30 minutes - long enough to get the ground wet - but an hour later you'd never know it even rained because the heat evaporates all the water again. The biggest problem it causes is on the roads because for some reason people forget how to drive when it starts to rain.

If you have allergies bring your medication of choice - pollen levels in the area are very high this time of year.

Mosquitos
The Everglades (massive wetlands that cover 1\3 of Florida) start in Orlando and that means there are a lot of places with standing water. Standing water is breeding grounds for mosquitos and they come out en masse when the sun goes down! You may want to pick up some bug spray for the outdoors after hours events we have planned on Wednesday and Thursday.

Forecast
Here's the forecast for May 11-13, courtesy of weather.com:

Don't forget your bathing suits, sandals, and sunscreen…and see you next week at SQLRally!

Orlando 101 For SQLRally Attendees: Entertainment

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:30:00 +0000

The inaugural SQLRally in Orlando is less than a week away (May 11-13)! Maybe you're coming to Orlando for the first time, or maybe you've been here before but just aren't familiar with the area. I live a few miles away from the Marriott so I thought I'd share some "insider" tips. In this final post I'll talk about entertainment options. Most of this list will be things you'd consider doing if you're staying a few extra days, but some things you can squeeze in

The Obvious Stuff
The first thing that most people think of when they think about Orlando are the theme parks, so I'll get the obvious ones out of the way:

Walt Disney World Parks

Magic Kingdom
Epcot (The annual Flower & Garden Festival is currently happening, cool if you're into gardening\plants)
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Typhoon Lagoon
Blizzard Beach

SeaWorld

Universal

CityWalk (Nighttime shops & restaurants, including Blue Man Group)
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure

Now with that out of the way, here's a few things most people don't think about when they visit Orlando:

Disney Related Activities
In addition to the theme parks there are a ton of other things to see and do around the Disney area. Here's a few:

Downtown Disney - They've got an official LEGO store, Cirque du Soleil La Nouba, and Disney Quest (5 floors of all you can play video games). They've also got a balloon ride that takes you 400 feet in the air for a nice view of Orlando. Parking is free.
Disney's Boardwalk - Ask for a free 3 hour parking pass at the parking lot security gate and go check out the ESPN Club and Jellyrolls (dueling pianos).
Magic Kingdom Fireworks - Park at the Grand Floridian and walk over to Narcoossee's. You have a clear view of the Wishes fireworks show from across the Seven Seas Lagoon and they pipe in the music so you get the full experience of the show without having to be in the park. Fireworks are at 9 PM on the 10th, 11th, and 13th, and at 10 PM on the 12th. (Tip: Bring Bug Spray!)

Alligators!
Florida is famous for alligators. Visiting here without seeing at least one would be like going to the mountains in the winter and not seeing snow. Here's two places for seeing live gators:

Gatorland - Watch feedings and someone step into the ring to wrestle with a live gator. You'll see more alligators in one spot here than anywhere else.
Everglades Airboat Tours - If seeing gators in captivity's not your thing how about hopping on an airboat and seeing them in the wild?

Be A Kid Again
There are plenty of places where you can let your inner child out. Here's a few

Old Town - Come join fellow SQLRally Attendees Thursday night from 7-10 PM. Old Town is best described as a permanent county fair. They've got shops, bars, a mechanical bull, and a really cool slingshot ride that sends you a few hundred feet skyward in under 5 seconds (Check out a video of it here, wear headphones - NSFW language). Next door is Fun Spot USA with 3 Go Kart tracks and some killer thrill rides like a giant swing that drops you from 300 feet high.
Helicopter Tours - Check out Orlando from a helicopter! There's quite a few of these places around town. The closest to the Marriott are Sunshine Helicopter Tours on Highway 192 (407-390-0175) and International Heli-Tours on International Drive South (407-239-8687)

Museums
These aren't your fine art kind of places…

Ripley's Believe It Or Not - You'll find some strange, oddball kinds of things here.
Titanic, The Experience - Full scale recreations of famous parts of the ship, original artifacts recovered from the wreck, live actors dressed in period clothing, and more bring the story of the Titanic to life.

The Coolest Pad On The Planet
A 45 minute drive from Orlando - but well worth it if you're into space - is the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. They've got a rocket "garden" full of flight hardware, IMAX movies, a space shuttle simulator, one of the few remaining complete Saturn V rockets in the world, and tours of Kennedy Space Center.

At the time I write this it's possible that Space Shuttle Endeavour may launch while SQLRally is taking place, so keep an ear to the ground because on launch days the visitor's complex is closed. Of course, seeing a launch in person is pretty cool, too. (The best place to keep up with shuttle launch news is SpaceFlightNow)

Get Your Geek On
Orlando is also home to Skycraft Parts & Surplus, a treasure trove of miscellaneous electronics and mechanical parts that you'll love if you're the maker\tinkerer type.

Liquid Bread
Like beer? Check out Orlando Brewing, Florida's only certified organic brewery. Tours offered daily at 6 PM, and after the tour enjoy a drink fresh from the tap.

Conclusion
These are just a handful of the things you can do in Orlando, and hopefully you'll take some time to try and do at least one non-SQL related thing for fun. If there's something else you're interested in or have heard about that's not on this list feel free to catch me in person and ask me about it. If I don't know I'm sure someone else local does!

See you next week at SQLRally!

Orlando 101 For SQLRally Attendees: Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:15:00 +0000

Because Orlando is such a tourist destination there are no shortage of places to go shopping. Here's the major malls and outlets near the Marriott:

Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores, 15657 S Apopka Vineland Rd (1.7 miles from Marriot)
Downtown Disney, 1780 East Buena Vista Drive (3.5 miles from Marriott, and they've got the only official LEGO store in Orlando!)
Orlando Premium Outlets, 8200 Vineland Avenue (3.6 miles from Marriott)
Festival Bay Mall, 5250 International Drive (11 miles from Marriott)
Florida Mall, 1187 Florida Mall Avenue (12.5 miles from Marriott)
Mall At Millenia, 4200 Conroy Rd (12.5 miles from Marriott)

Also, if you need some quick supplies, there's a Walmart Supercenter located 2 miles down the road from the Marriott and a Target just a bit further at 3.2 miles away.

In my next and final post I'll cover entertainment options.

Orlando 101 For SQLRally Attendees: Where To Eat

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Celebration, FL

I mentioned in my last post that the Lake Buena Vista\Westgate area of town is very touristy, and that also means there are a lot of chain restaurants and cheap buffets. If you're looking for something off the beaten path and less chain-restaurant check out these places in "downtown" Celebration, about 2.5 miles away from the Marriott:

Cafe D'Antonio (Italian)
Thai Thani (Thai)
Celebration Town Tavern (American\New England)
Seito Sushi (Sushi)
Columbia Restaurant (Cuban)
Shannon's of Celebration (Irish)
Imperium Wine Room (Salads, Flatbreads, Paninis)

For drinks after the after-hours activities are over I highly recommend the Celebration Town Tavern, Shannon's, or Mulligan's Pub (all three in Celebration). Town Tavern has live entertainment every night, and if you're still in the area on Friday night they've got karaoke starting at 10 PM.

Outside of Celebration there's a few other places that I like that are close to SQLRally:

Cafe' Tu Tu Tango (Tapas), 8625 International Drive
Seasons 52 (Flatbreads, seasonal local fare), 7700 Sand Lake Road
Bahama Breeze (Caribbean), 8735 Vineland Avenue
Sweet Tomatoes (Salad, Soups, Flatbread), 12561 South Apopka-Vineland Road

In my next post I'll cover where you can go shopping in Orlando.

Orlando 101 For SQLRally Attendees: Accommodations & Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:00:00 +0000

In this post I'll talk about hotels (I hear some people may still one) and travel. But first…

The Lay Of The Land
The area of town where SQLRally is being held has two common names: Lake Buena Vista and Westgate. It's a very touristy section of town - lots of hotels, lots of restaurants, plenty of places to shop, and lots of people here on vacation. The single best piece of advice I can offer here is bring a big bag of patience. It takes twice as long to do whatever it is you're doing than you think it's going to take.

Hotels
If you're travelling alone and looking for the least expensive option possible, consider finding a roommate to split the cost of a rental car and hotel room with. (Use the #SQLRally hashtag on Twitter to help with this)

Two miles away from the Marriott is the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Lake Buena Vista. I haven't stayed there personally but everything I've seen and read suggests it's a decent place for under $100 per night. They offer free shuttle service to most area parks and attractions and it's walking distance from shopping and dining.

If you're bringing family & kids two places come to mind:

The Nikelodeon Hotel is right across the street from the Marriott and they've got plenty of things to keep children occupied. It'll cost you about the same as the Marriott but your kids will probably enjoy staying at the Nickelodeon more. They offer shuttle service to area attractions at a marginal cost.
Just a few miles away are all the Disney resorts if you're bringing younger kids and the Nickelodeon isn't your cup of tea. Disney is the only hotel\resort which offers *free* shuttle service to\from the airport, and once you're on Disney property there's free public transportation to all of their offerings. The only catch is that you'd need a way to get to the Marriott but at that point cab fare is pretty cheap or you could catch a ride with another attendee who has a car.

Travel
The Orlando area is very spread out and I highly recommend renting a car to get around once you're here. Every rental company has a presence at the airport, most are fairly cheap for an in-town rental.

As I mentioned there are a lot of people visiting the Lake Buena Vista\Westgate area; Orlando ranks consistently in the top 20 most traffic congested US cities! Interstate 4 is the main road that cuts through the heart of Orlando and at times it can be bumper-to-bumper stop and go. Mornings around 10-11 AM are particularly bad, as are evenings from 5-6 PM.

The Marriott is located on Highway 536 (World Center Drive) and if you're coming to the after hours events your GPS may route you along Highway 535 (Vineland Rd). The intersection of these roads, and especially the stretch on 535 to I-4, are insanely busy around 5-7 PM. You may be better off taking 536 to I-4 (it's like picking the lesser of two evils), then get off I-4 at 535 (exit 68). Check the traffic beforehand and make a judgment call - but either way be prepared for traffic!

If you don't want to rent a car there are plenty of shuttle\taxi services that can get you from\to the airport and the Marriott for $50 or less, then once you're at the Marriott you can catch rides with other attendees who have cars. Here are two services based in the area which have been recommended to me:

Greater Orlando Shuttle: (321) 939-2200
Celebration Transportation Services: (407) 383-7741

We've also listed some other hotel and travel options on the SQLRally website that you may want to check out.

Next Up…
In my next post I'll cover places in the area to eat.

Meme Monday: 99 Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Kendal Van Dyke) — Mon, 02 May 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Tom LaRock's (Blog | @SQLRockstar) latest Meme Monday challenge asks: "how many things can go wrong with a database server that are NOT related to a disk drive?" and invites SQL bloggers to list 9 problems in an attempt to come up with 99 total. Here are some things I've seen over the years at different places I've been:

Access rights - too much, too few, & everywhere in between
Not understanding that replication turns one update statement affecting 500K rows into 500K update statements that affect one row each
Not understanding why 500K update statements affecting one row each don't replicate immediately
WITH (NOLOCK)
Ambiguous schema design
Not paying attention to alerts (if they're even set up to begin with)
Default database growth settings
Not setting max server memory (especially on x64 instances)
Dynamic SQL

Why stop at 9? Here's a few more fun ones…

ORM tools…they're getting better, but jeez some of the first iterations of these generated some nasty, horrible SQL (see #9)
Not taking backups
Not testing restores when you actually do take backups
Index hints on every table referenced in a select statement (do you really think you're that much better than the query optimizer?)
SELECT * FROM…
Error messages displayed on public facing web applications which include the connection string (bonus: showing the username and password for the SQL login in plain text)
Public facing web based "tools" which let you enter T-SQL in a text box and execute it against any one of the servers shown in a dropdown list…(yes, unfortunately I really did see this once)
Public facing access to SQL Server instances
SQL injection

Tag, you're it! What kinds of bad stuff have you seen before?