A while back Kendal Van Dyke (b | l | t) asked me a great question regarding the ideal VMware vSphere networking configuration for a SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Group configuration. That’s a great topic for a blog post, so let’s go!
Normally, a fairly stock setup can work without any major issues, but in systems with heavier activity, these tips can prevent or fix potential networking issues that can lead to system instability.
WOW! SQL Saturday Atlanta this year is turning into one of the largest SQL Saturdays ever! I’m absolutely honored and pumped to be lucky enough to speak at this incredible event. May 18 is going to be a wild day at Georgia State University in Alpharetta, GA. I’m very excited to speak here – Georgia is my home state, and I have not been back in quite some time. I’m doing a deep dive on getting the most performance when virtualizing your business-critical SQL Servers, which is one of the topics that I get the most excited about.
Session Title: Squeezing the Most Performance from Your VMware-Based SQL Server
Session Abstract:
Sure, your SQL Server is up and running. Anyone can click through a SQL Server install nowadays. But… is it running at its peak potential? Do you have your VMware environment configured properly? Have you measured the performance lately? Your business-critical SQL Server performance does not have to suffer just because it was virtualized. Very specific VMware and SQL Server tuning tips and tricks from David Klee (@kleegeek) will be presented in this session.
Session Level: Advanced
I look forward to meeting all of you there! Tell your friends and let’s all geek out!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at the first ever SQL Saturday Fargo! Jason Strate (b | l | t) and his wonderful wife Sarah (t) and the rest of the team came together and coordinated the entire event. For a first event, this was awesome. Microsoft lent their Executive Briefing Center for the event, and it was absolutely incredible. They also helped by handling lunches and badges, and their events staff were second to none.
Up to now, Fargo did not have a SQL Server Users Group. But… members from the event came together and will be forming one very soon! Microsoft’s briefing center is going to donate space for the meetings.
I could not be happier with the way this event went! My session was almost full, and questions were very insightful, and the weather was perfect.
Thanks Jes Borland for the photo!
I look forward to speaking here next year and doing what I can to help build another strong Microsoft community in this area of the country.
Session Title: Database Health and Performance
Session Abstract: Sure, your SQL Server is up and running. Is it healthy? Is it performing the best that it can? Where are your performance bottlenecks? In an emergency, can you objectively demonstrate where a performance problem lies? This dynamic dialog session will present a solid process for checking your environment’s overall health and performance levels as well as solutions for common problems. Some of the items focused on include dynamic management views (DMVs), Windows Perfmon, and disk performance tools such as IOMeter and SQLIO.
Session Slides and Scripts - SQL Server Health and Performance 20130427
Again, thank you all for attending, and thanks goes to the coordinators of the event and to Microsoft for the wonderful meeting space! I’ll see you all next year (or maybe sooner)!
Today has been quite the day! This afternoon I presented for the SQL PASS Performance Virtual Chapter and tonight I spoke to the Gulf Coast SQL Server Users Group. I presented my Virtualizing Business Critical SQL Servers presentation, and really enjoyed the conversation that we had. Thank you again, and the slides are listed below. You guys are great!
Abstract: Everyone knows that SQL Server can be virtualized, but most are only virtualizing development and testing environments. Top-tier production workloads can be virtualized too, and David Klee (@kleegeek) will provide valuable insight into how to properly prepare for and implement a successful virtualization campaign for ALL of your SQL Server environments and prepare your organization for the change. Practical tips, tricks, and gotcha’s will be discussed in this dynamic dialog session.
Today I was fortunate enough to be able to give a new presentation to the SQL PASS Performance Virtual Chapter called ‘It’s All About the Performance, Right?’ The feedback I have received has been overwhelmingly positive, and I would like to thank the coordinators and all of the attendees! Your questions were top-notch, and I look forward to continued involvement with this amazing chapter! My primary focus in this phase of my career is data performance, and I am very happy to share what I know. You all are great, and I look forward to giving back to this amazing community!
The presentation was recorded, and I will post the link to the recording here as it becomes available. In the meantime, I have the slide deck for you to download and review. As always, if you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to email me with your questions. It might take me a few days to respond, but I promise that I will respond. Thank you again!
Abstract: Just about anyone can click through a SQL Server installation and get it working. But, it is not running close to efficient, and as the workloads grow, it will only get worse. This session provides valuable details on how to tweak and tune your SQL Server installations to ensure maximum performance, as well as tips on capacity management so you know when you need to add more hardware to take your server to the next level.
Slide Deck - It’s all about the Performance, Right
Two weeks ago was a busy one. I helped coordinate and spoke at our second SQL Saturday Omaha on April 6, flew to Las Vegas for the new SQLintersection conference at the MGM Grand, and then flew to Chicago to speak at SQL Saturday Chicago.
SQLintersection is part of a group event trifecta along with DevIntersection and AngleBrackets. Take a look at the following speaker lineup. How could you NOT want to attend these conferences! MVPs, industry founders and executives, and legendary experts abound!
(This list is not all inclusive, and for those speakers that I omit, it’s not because I don’t like you! It’s because I’m mainly putting the speakers whose sessions I attended)
This year is the first year that I have submitted a session to VMware’s VMworld 2013, to be held in San Francisco this August 25-29. They are cool enough to open up the submissions for the general public to vote on which sessions they would like to see at the event! I’d really like to speak on one of my favorite topics, Business-Critical SQL Server Virtualization, and would very much appreciate your votes if you would like to see me present the following session. You can even vote if you are not planning to attend the conference.
Please click HERE to access the voting site, create an account, and scroll to my session (number 4726). Click the thumbs-up icon to vote for my session.
Session Title: Successfully Virtualizing All of your Business-Critical SQL Servers
Abstract: Virtualizing all of your organization’s business-critical SQL Servers is technically achievable, but is sometimes met with resistance for any number of reasons. In order to ensure complete success with your SQL Server virtualization initiatives, let’s explore a new approach that involves all application and business owners in the process. We will discuss how to measure and quantify the physical server’s performance levels. We will demonstrate many key configuration and tuning techniques that will squeeze out the most performance from the virtualized SQL Server. We will then discuss how to apply these techniques to objectively demonstrate that the virtualized SQL Server will perform equal to or better than the physical equivalent, and how to broadcast this success to the entire organization. Once virtualized, we will also discuss how to efficiently manage and monitor the performance of these machines to ensure that the systems continue to operate at peak performance.
Thank you TriPASS for a great SQL Server Users Group session tonight! Thank you all for attending, and your questions were great! I’ll get the books shipped out once I receive the information, and please contact me if you have any questions at all. I’ll see you all for the follow-up session to this in a few months!
Session: Virtualizing Business-Critical SQL Servers
Abstract: Everyone knows that SQL Server can be virtualized, but most are only virtualizing development and testing environments. Top-tier production workloads can be virtualized too, and David Klee (@kleegeek) will provide valuable insight into how to properly prepare for and implement a successful virtualization campaign for ALL of your SQL Server environments and prepare your organization for the change. Practical tips, tricks, and gotcha’s will be discussed in this dynamic dialog session.
I have a very busy next week in the works! Here are the upcoming speaking engagements that I am working on, and feel free to contact me if you wish to attend!
Tuesday evening, April 23, I am speaking remotely to the North Carolina Triangle SQL Server Users Group (TriPASS) about ‘Virtualizing Business Critical SQL Servers’. This session will be completely via Webex due to scheduling, so register with TriPASS so you can get the webinar URL in time!
Session Abstract: Everyone knows that SQL Server can be virtualized, but most are only virtualizing development and testing environments. Top-tier production workloads can be virtualized too, and David Klee (@kleegeek) will provide valuable insight into how to properly prepare for and implement a successful virtualization campaign for ALL of your SQL Server environments and prepare your organization for the change. Practical tips, tricks, and gotcha’s will be discussed in this dynamic dialog session.
Next, Thursday afternoon April 25 at 18:00 – 19:00 UTC I am speaking to the SQL PASS Performance Virtual Chapter virtual user group with a brand-new session called ‘It’s All About the Performance, Right?’ RSVP at this link. This is a free global group (along with all of the other fantastic virtual chapters) so please sign up and attend!
Session Abstract: Just about anyone can click through a SQL Server installation and get it working. But, it is not running close to efficient, and as the workloads grow, it will only get worse. This session by David Klee (@kleegeek) provides valuable details on how to tweak and tune your SQL Server installations to ensure maximum performance, as well as tips on capacity management so you know when you need to add more hardware to take your server to the next level.
That evening, I am speaking remotely to the Gulf Coast SQL Server Users Group with another round of the ’Virtualizing Business Critical SQL Servers’ session that I love to deliver. Contact the SSUG if you are interested in attending!
Finally, next Saturday, April 27, is SQL Saturday Fargo ND at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center! I am excited to speak on ‘Database Health and Performance‘ in Room 2 at 8:30 am (bring your coffee). I know this is going to be a great event, and I cannot wait to talk with the attendees and the other speakers.
(I’ll also be delivering an advanced session on ‘Squeezing the Most Performance from your VMware-Based SQL Servers‘ at SQL Saturday Atlanta on May 18, but that’s not in April – more on this event in an upcoming post!)
As always, thank you all for supporting these wonderful events. I am always thrilled to be able to give back to the community that has taught me so much and continued to support my insatiable appetite for geeky knowledge over the years. I hope to see you all soon!
This past Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at one of the largest SQL Saturdays I have ever attended – SQL Saturday Chicago. I was happily blown away by the attendance of well over four hundred highly-motivated individuals, and really enjoyed all of the interactivity and questions in my packed-beyond-capacity session!
Session Abstract:
Database Health and Performance
Sure, your SQL Server is up and running. Is it healthy? Is it performing the best that it can? Where are your performance bottlenecks? In an emergency, can you objectively demonstrate where a performance problem lies? This dynamic dialog session by David Klee (@kleegeek) will present a solid process for checking your environment’s overall health and performance levels as well as solutions for common problems. Some of the items focused on include dynamic management views (DMVs), Windows Perfmon, and disk performance tools such as IOMeter and SQLIO.
Download the slides and scripts here: Database Health and Performance slides and scripts
Special thanks goes to the coordinators and volunteers, and as always, the attendees of this awesome event. You all did a tremendous job and should be commended!
A special shout out goes to my friend Frank Gill (t | b)! You did a fantastic job at this event and I wish you continued luck as you ramp up your speaking career!
I will certainly see you all next year!