Category: Meetings

Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

Ask Me Anything Session

Pat Phelan will lead our discussion tonight.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

Anything But: Troubleshooting When it’s Not SQL Server

Here we go again: the SQL Server is slow but where is the problem? Is there a large blocking chain or a high number of deadlock events? Maybe it is a slow query using a large number of resources? Does the query have a non-optimal execution plan? Many times as a DBA, we ask these same questions and answer NO to all of them because the performance issue is outside of SQL Server. In this session, we will focus on troubleshooting all of the typical issues that are not SQL Server-related but impact SQL Server. We will explore troubleshooting virtualization, storage, memory, CPU, OS, and networking issues.

Ben DeBow

Ben DeBow is the Founder and CEO of Fortified and has more than 25 years of experience designing, scaling, and implementing on large data implementations around the world. At Fortified, Ben is responsible for the Product Strategy and being an industry thought leader around data platforms. He is an author and speaker at many industry conferences in his spare time, he volunteers with many environment organizations and is a part time BBQ judge.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

SQL Server Authentication and Authorization In-Depth

Authentication and authorization – better known as logins, users, roles, and permissions – are foundational concepts in SQL Server security. While simple in nature, their flexibility can make them complex to implement, leading many DBAs and developers to take shortcuts that compromise their databases’ security. We’ll dive deep into this topic in this session so you can get to know these basic building blocks better and learn how to avoid some common mistakes. We’ll also take a look at the latest innovations in SQL 2022 that finally close some long-time gaps in the security model.

Ed Leighton-Dick

Ed Leighton-Dick is a Microsoft MVP, SQL Server performance and architecture specialist, and Founder/Principal Consultant of Kingfisher Technologies. He is a frequent volunteer with PASS, including roles as regional mentor, chapter leader of I-380 PASS SQL Server User Group, and organizer of SQLSaturday Iowa City. He can often be found teaching sessions at local, regional, and national events, including user groups, SQLSaturday, and PASS Summit. 

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

10 Cloudy Questions to Ask Before Migrating Your SQL Server

Cloud adoption of database-related services continues to accelerate, but the choices for which service to select – IaaS, DBaaS, and PaaS – all impact the features available to your applications. Selecting a service is a critical first step in the migration process, and selecting poorly can lead to cost overruns and significant time spent going down the wrong path. The questions you do not ask or consider prior to a migration can make or break your cloud experience. The most important ten questions to answer, such as your availability requirements, database-level dependencies, migration strategies, and other critical concerns, will all be discussed so that you are ready to move to the cloud with confidence in your platform of choice.

David Klee

David Klee is a Microsoft MVP and VMware vExpert with a passion for the convergence of data, cloud, and infrastructure. David spends his days handling performance and HA/DR architecture of mission-critical SQL Servers as the Founder of Heraflux Technologies. His areas of expertise are virtualization and performance, datacenter architecture, and risk mitigation through high availability and disaster recovery. You can read his blog at davidklee.net, and reach him on Twitter at @kleegeek.

David speaks at a number of national and regional technology related events, including the PASS Summit, VMworld, IT/Dev Connections, SQL Saturday events, SQL Cruise, PASS virtual chapter webinars, and many SQL Server User Groups.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

Review of PASS Summit 2022

We will have a recap of the PASS Summit and then enjoy a bit of social time to celebrate the holidays.

Ed Leighton-Dick

Ed Leighton-Dick is a Microsoft MVP, SQL Server performance and architecture specialist, and Founder/Principal Consultant of Kingfisher Technologies. He is a frequent volunteer with PASS, including roles as regional mentor, chapter leader of I-380 PASS SQL Server User Group, and organizer of SQLSaturday Iowa City. He can often be found teaching sessions at local, regional, and national events, including user groups, SQLSaturday, and PASS Summit. 

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

A Query Tuner’s Practical Guide to Statistics

Have you ever heard that a huge difference in estimated vs actual number of rows can cause poor query performance? Ever wondered where SQL Server comes up with that “estimated number of rows” value in the first place?

The answer lies in SQL Server Statistics, which can be a very daunting if not dry subject matter. Come to this session for a practical guide to statistics for the T-SQL query writer and tuner. We will demystify statistics, the histogram, and how this impacts execution plan quality.

When you leave, you’ll have a strong understanding of the role statistics play in your execution plans, and how to dig deeper and tune those troublesome queries.

Andy Yun

Andy Yun is a Field Solutions Architect at Pure Storage, who has been with SQL Server for over 20 years as both a Database Developer and Administrator. He focuses on performance tuning, with expertise in T-SQL, storage engine internals, and monitoring. Andy strongly believes in passing knowledge onto others, regularly speaking at conferences and user groups, and mentoring industry colleagues. Andy is a former Microsoft MVP, co-founder of the Chicago SQL Association, and former co-leader of the Chicago Suburban User Group and Chicago SQL Saturday Organizing Committee.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

DBATools: Migrating Database Servers

Times past SQL Server Instances were migrated using various scripts and checklists. While Checklists are always a good idea DBATools has made it easier using a few commands.

H. Ross Reed

H. Ross Reed is a Lead Database Administrator for the Options Clearing Corp. He has been a database administrator for over 20 years. He’s Co-Organizer of the Chicago Data Professionals User Group, and a frequent presenter.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

DevOps & CI/CD for Azure Synapse Analytics

DevOps is not just for developers.  If you are working with Data in the Cloud you need to understand how DevOps works for data.  In this demo heavy session we will set up a DevOps Repository, create a Dev Azure Synapse Analytics environment, link it to our Repository, create build & release pipelines, create our QA from an ARM template, and deploy our Dev changes to QA.  The goal of this session is to walk through the process from start to finish.

Bradley Ball

Bradley Ball is a Sr. Azure Engineer for the Azure FastTrack CXP PG at Microsoft, and uses his knowledge of data platforms to help onboard customers to Azure while working with Product Groups to refine Azure’s Data Services.  He is the FastTrack Service Lead working with the Azure Synapse Analytics, SQL Server PG’s.  He’s done some cool things like working as a Defense contractor for the U.S. Army and the Executive Office of the President of the United States for the Obama Administration.  Prior to joining Microsoft he was a Data Platform MVP.  He has presented at many SQL Saturdays, for Microsoft Data Platform User Groups across the US from California to Florida to New Hampshire and Puerto Rico.  A frequent presenter at conferences and community events, author of two books and many articles on SQL Server, and Co-Host of the Tales from the Field Streaming show.   He is passionate about enabling anyone using data to achieve greatness.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

A Practical Starter Guide to SQL Notebooks

Have you been hearing about SQL Notebooks in Azure Data Studio but haven’t worked with them yet? Or have you played around with notebooks but not been able to figure out how to make them work for you?

Let’s jump into SQL Notebooks together as we figure out how we can use them in our day-to-day work! We will start by looking at the different options that are available to us in SQL Notebooks. Then we will examine real world scenarios and create notebooks for them. Finally, we will learn how we can share the notebooks with our coworkers.

When you leave, you will have the practical knowledge and comfort level to use SQL Notebooks in your day-to-day work.

Deborah Melkin

Deborah Melkin has been working as a database professional with SQL Server for over 20 years. She spends her days helping coworkers with all aspects of database design, queries, performance, documentation, and deployment. In 2016, she began her blog, Deb the DBA. Soon after that, she began speaking at SQL Saturdays and user groups. Deborah is a board member of the New England SQL Server User group (NESQL). She was named as an IDERA ACE Class of 2020, is a Friend of Redgate, and won Speaker Idol at PASS Summit 2019. Deborah is also a Microsoft MVP for the Data Platform.

In her spare time, Deborah can usually be found doing something musical or doing something geeky with her husband, Andy, and dog, Sebastian.

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Event link at our Meetup page.

• 5:30 pm Networking
• 6:00 pm Meeting

Check Out My Tools!

Calm down, these are software tools and are probably all G Rated!

This is a quick and breezy introduction to the tools that I use regularly. It does not cover any of these tools in depth, it is intended as a glimpse into my toolbag to give you ideas, not a deep dive into using any or all of the tools I use regularly. This is a quicker, more light-hearted overview of a previous presentation titled Tips, Toys, and Tricks.

A few of these tools are purchased. A handful are services which vary in cost from free to OMG. The majority of the tools in this presentation are freeware or shareware (where you contribute if you like a product, especially if you want more features).

Depending on time, we may explore some tools in more depth after the presentation. If you have tools that interest you, feel free to ask about them in the Q&A.

Pat Phelan

Pat Phelan joined a user group (DECUS) in High School, and many more since then. Pat was paid for his first program before he got his driver’s license. After many jobs (with some great stories) in High School and College, Pat worked over twenty years for a major accounting firm. Pat started working for Involta in 2007 and is now the database mentor and a member of the Engineering team. Involta builds, owns and operates world class colocation datacenters and provides managed services and support staff to clients.

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