I was privileged to have a chat with my buddies over at www.dotnetrocks.com, Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell, episode number 876 (876!). Listen to the most popular internet audio talk show for .NET developers!  Here’s the abstract:

Carl and Richard talk to Kevin Kline about the latest features in SQL Server 2012. The conversation starts out talking about the new features that developers will love, like windowing – no need for cursors anymore, you can request a window of records from a set and move easily window-to-window. Kevin also talks about the new column store index that is especially useful with repeating data. There’s also a discussion on the role of SQL Server in an increasingly NoSQL world, along with cool new technologies like Hadoop, Cassandra and Hekaton. Kevin closes with an offer of some free tools at SQL Sentry, including Plan Explorer, a tool to help you understand the query plans that SQL Server makes from your queries. Check it out!

Let me know what you think.  Thanks,

-Kevin

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So with that in mind, I wanted to whip out a quick blog post to let you know I’m still alive and thinking of y’all.  What could be quicker and easier than some cool new resources you might not have seen?  For your perusal:

• Whitepaper: Managing Windows 7 and Windows 8 Side-by-Side
  • http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37144
• Poster: Networking in Virtual Machine Manager
  • http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37137
• Windows Server 2012: Core Network Companion Guide for Deploying IP Addressing in Branch Offices
  • http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37034
• Become a Virtualization Expert in 20 Days ( Blog Article Series )
  • http://aka.ms/VirtExpert
• Build Your Private Cloud in a Month ( Blog Article Series )
  • http://aka.ms/BuildYourCloud
• Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” FREE IT Pro Study Group
  • http://EarlyExperts.net

Let me know what you think.  Thanks,

-Kevin

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…read more…

Many thanks,

-Kevin

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I also described last month how the TPC provides several different types of benchmark tests. For example the TPC-C and TPC-E benchmarks are extremely useful for measuring transaction throughput. On the other hand, the TPC – H benchmark is  useful for measuring business intelligence workloads.

Today, I would like to give you a primer on how to read the benchmark reports that are published by the major database and hardware vendors.  You never know when a vendor will publish a new benchmark. There’s no set schedule for them to publish their test findings. Of course, you can always look for new advertisements from many of the vendors. But that’s very imprecise. I prefer to find out if there are new results on my own and so I typically start at http://tpc.org/information/results.asp. There, I’ll check to see if my favorite hardware or database vendors have published any new test results…. read more …

Many thanks,

-Kevin

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Let’s talk about database application benchmarking.

This is a skill set which, in my opinion, is one of the major differentiators between a journeyman-level DBA and a true master of the trade. In this article published in my monthly column at Database Trends & Applications magazine, I’ll give you a brief introduction to TPC benchmarks and, in future articles, I’ll be telling you how to extract specific pieces of valuable information from the published benchmark results.

But let’s get started with an overview … read more.

Many thanks,

-Kevin

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The day one highlight, introduced by the SQL Server team’s best presenter – Amir Netz (Twitter), is the release of a new BI data visualization tool called Project “GeoFlow” for Excel.  GeoFlow is a 3D visualization and storytelling tool that helps you map, explore and interact with both geographic and chronological data for visualizing data which is difficult to identify in traditional 2D tables and charts. With GeoFlow, you can plot up to a million rows of data in 3D on Bing Maps, see data changes over time and share findings through appealing screenshots and cinematic, guided video tours of the data. It’s really something you have to see to understand – check out the video demo and screenshots below. You can also download and try it out firsthand today. It’s an entirely new way to experience and share insights – one you’ll probably enjoy.  For more information on GeoFlow, check out the Excel team’s blog and visit the BI website.

The highlight for me, aside from connecting with so many friends and colleagues in the exhibit hall at the SQL Sentry booth, was the day 2 keynote address by Dr. Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame.  Freakonomics is both a brilliant blog and the number one business book in America.  His insights are well documented in a variety of places, not just in his own channels, but also in places such as TEDtalks.  I’m also really enjoying his new website, https://www.freakonomicsexperiments.com/.

Steve presented an outstanding keynote, full of funny anecdotes and insights into the world of data analytics and interpretation. A couple of his comments really resonated with me which are worth repeating. In one story, he pointed out how some of the greatest insights came from corporate data which was collected incidentally or coincidentally. The data that help provide the greatest and most valuable revelations were from data that was basically a corporate afterthought.  Another revelation – he’s only now starting to make much use of relational databases.  He primarily uses spreadsheets, flat files, and the Stata statistical analysis tool.  Another insight, which I’ve known and proselytized as “the Fresh Pair of Eyes” approach, is that it really helps him to gain insights in a problem by knowing as little about the problem as possible.  As it turns out, if you know the industry or the challenge at the core of the problem, you make a lot of assumptions that limit your means of interpreting data.  By knowing nothing or next to nothing about a particular problem, you can ask the questions that insiders never ask.  Here’s an example (not from the keynote though) – let’s say you’re an energy company CEO.  You might spend a lot of time thinking about how to accommodate the expected huge increase in energy consumption due to lots of people driving electric cars.  You might tell your data analysts to figure out when and how to ensure peak electrical usage is available at the times when consumers are recharging their electric vehicles.  But a fresh pair of eyes would point out that electric cars, in their present form, are a huge energy boondoggle compared to hybrid and plain ol’ cheap, high-mileage models like the Honda Civic.  Consumers will never recoup their investment in a high-priced, all-electric car compared to a cheap, gas sipping model.

At the heart of his presentation is the fact that data is meaningless when it doesn’t answer important questions!  Many times, data professionals spend so much time devising elegant SQL statements and clever user-interfaces that they forget about using a fresh pair of eyes when they look at business questions.  Our session, Operational Excellence for the BI Pro, focused on the trails and travails of successfully implementing and growing the footprint of a business intelligence project.

In addition, we had a fun and very informative panel discussion breakfast on Thursday of the PASS BAC. At right is a picture of Nick Harshbarger, Justin Randal, and me prior to the session.  The audience was very engaged and, despite having no slides, there was a whole lot of wisdom goin’ on.  The panel included Chris Webb (Twitter | Blog), Craig Utley, Jen Stirrup (Twitter | Blog), Paul Turley (Blog),  and Stacia Misner (Twitter | Blog). I served as the moderator and facilitator of the session.  We recorded the session, with a little HD Flip camera, and although I haven’t checked out the file yet, we’re hopeful we can post it or at least a transcript soon.

Do you have a “fresh eyes” story? I’d love to hear it!  Post a comment here!

Many thanks,

-Kevin

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The site is something called “curated content”. This means it’s a single consolidated location to look up lots of disparate articles and content, all in one easy to search location. This “curated content view” contains the best content, video, and community-centric information from Microsoft, including topics like:

SQL Server Data Tools

· Get started with sample projects, code samples

· Video demos by Gert Drapers (blog)

· Script common data portability tasks using Sqlpackage.exe

· Link to the SSDT team blog

SQL Server Management Studio

· Manage SQL Database using SSMS

· Backup and restore w/ SQL Azure

· Migrate local databases to Azure

· Video demo of hybrid scenarios by Gert Drapers (blog)

Windows Azure SQL Database

· SQL Database backup and restore

· Import/export SQL Database

· Windows Azure training kit

· Connection management and troubleshooting connections

Enjoy,

-Kevin

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One such limitation of SQL Server Express Edition is that it supports no more than 1GB of RAM for the instance.  Of course, you could have many Express Edition instances on a single Windows server, each with its own 1GB of RAM.

But what does that metric of 1GB of RAM actually mean?  The key thing to remember is that the restriction is for buffer cache.  Since SQL Server has many other caches, even when not counting the plan cache, there are plenty of other caches within SQL Server.  (Run a query against sys.dm_os_memory_clerks if you’d like to see some of the others).  Because only the buffer cache has the strict 1GB limitation, you can actually watch SQL Server Express Edition’s memory working set size grow to around 1.4-1.5GB due to the other memory caches at play.

Pawel Potasinski, a SQL Server MVP from Poland (Twitter | Blog), once posted an interesting repro for this behavior:

– Assess amount of databases resident in buffer cache

SELECT
 CASE
 WHEN database_id = 32767 THEN 'mssqlsystemresource'
 ELSE DB_NAME(database_id)
 END AS [Database],
 CONVERT(numeric(38,2),(8.0 / 1024) * COUNT(*)) AS [MB in buffer cache] 
FROM sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors 
GROUP BY database_id 
ORDER BY 2 DESC; 
GO

-- Assess amount of tables resident in buffer cache
SELECT
 QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(p.object_id)) + '.' +
 QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(p.object_id)) AS [Object],
 CONVERT(numeric(38,2),(8.0 / 1024) * COUNT(*)) AS [MB In buffer cache] 
FROM sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors AS d 
 INNER JOIN sys.allocation_units AS u ON d.allocation_unit_id = u.allocation_unit_id 
 INNER JOIN sys.partitions AS p ON (u.type IN (1,3) AND u.container_id = p.hobt_id) OR (u.type = 2 AND u.container_id = p.partition_id) 
WHERE d.database_id = DB_ID() 
GROUP BY QUOTENAME(OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(p.object_id)) + '.' + QUOTENAME(OBJECT_NAME(p.object_id))
ORDER BY [Object] DESC;
GO

-- Fill up Express Edition's buffer allocation
IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.test', N'U') IS NOT NULL
 DROP TABLE dbo.test;
GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.test (col_a char(8000));
GO

INSERT INTO dbo.test (col_a)
 SELECT REPLICATE('col_a', 8000)
 FROM sys.all_objects 
 WHERE is_ms_shipped = 1;

CHECKPOINT; 
GO 100

 The bottom line for the hard memory limit of SQL Server Express Edition is “Yes, it’s limited. But it’s a squishy limit. Not a hard limit.”

Although your mileage may vary, I’d bet a dollar that you’ll find more than 1GB in the active working set for your instance of SQL Server Express Edition.  I am curious, however, if you’re seeing much variation between versions and even service packs of SQL Server?  Let me know if you try this out on more than one version and/or service pack level of SQL Server.  Did it change much between versions?  Let me know!

Enjoy,

-Kevin

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Google Author

Check out this list of speakers:

• Aaron Bertrand, Sr. Consultant, SQL Sentry, Inc. [blog | twitter]
• Andrew J. Kelly, Mentor, SolidQ [blog | twitter]
• Bob Ward, Principal Architect Escalation Engineer, Microsoft [blog | twitter]
• Brent Ozar, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
• Conor Cunningham, Principal Architect, SQL Server, Microsoft [blog]
• Grant Fritchey, Product Evangelist, Red Gate Software [blog | twitter]
• Jeremiah Peschka, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
• Joseph Sack, Principal Consultant, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
• Kendra Little, Managing Director, Brent Ozar Unlimited [blog | twitter]
• Kevin Kline, Director of Engineering Services, SQL Sentry, Inc. [blog | twitter]
• Kimberly L. Tripp, President/Founder, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
• Mat Young, Senior Director of Products, Fusion-io [blog | twitter]
• Paul S. Randal, CEO / Owner, SQLskills.com [blog | twitter]
• Paul White, SQL Kiwi Limited [blog | twitter]
• Steve Jones, Editor, SQLServerCentral.com [blog | twitter]
• Sumeet Bansal, Principal Solutions Architect, Fusion-io [blog | twitter]

Read the list of SQL Server sessions here.  On top of the list of outstanding sessions to attend, I’ll be giving a keynote on Tuesday afternoon. Witness:

So the only thing between the attendees and the booze in the reception hall is our keynote address?!?  Oh yeah, that’s going to go down real smooth, isn’t it?  I’ll last about as long as a puny henchman between James Bond and the villain of the movie.  Sumeet Bansal, from Fusion-IO, will have to survive until the credits roll.  We’ll be talking about high performance computing on SQL Server 2012 with an eye towards high availability, AlwaysOn, and Availability Groups.

If you’re in Las Vegas, I hope to see you there!  If not, you should consider coming to this excellent conference.

-Kevin

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If you weren’t aware of my leadership training specially geared for IT professionals, check out ForITPros.com, as well as my DVD and stream media training Leadership Skills for the IT Professional.

-Kevin

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Google Author