SQL Server | Convergence of Data and Infrastructure

SQL Saturday Iowa City Precon June 22

Cloud, Events, Professional Development, SQL Server, Virtualization No Responses »

May 222018

I’m extremely proud to announce that I have been selected to present an all-new preconference training session on Friday, June 22, ahead of the SQL Saturday in Iowa City, Iowa. This all-day training class, entitled “Level Up Your Cloud Infrastructure Skills“, is designed to help you, the SQL Server professional, ramp up your knowledge so you know how to better manage workloads in the cloud.

Think infrastructure in the cloud is still just for sysadmins? Think again! As your organization moves into the cloud, infrastructure skills are more important than ever for DBAs to master. Expert knowledge of cloud-related infrastructure will help you maintain performance and availability for databases in the cloud. For example, know what an IOP is? How many does your database consume during a given day? Properly sizing a cloud database depends on your knowledge of this metric. Failure to properly configure storage performance at the time of deployment will slow down your SQL Server considerably. Come learn many of the key cloud infrastructure points that you should master as the DBA role continues to evolve in this all-day boot camp on ramping up your knowledge on cloud management!

RSVP for this exciting preconference training session here for just $125! Seats are limited, so register soon!

PASS Summit Session – On-Prem SQL Servers, Interstellar Performance

Cloud, Events, Performance, Professional Development, SQL Server, Storage, User Groups, Virtualization No Responses »

May 092018

I’m very pleased to announce that one of my sessions submitted for this year’s PASS Summit in Seattle, held from November 6 to 9th, called On-Prem SQL Servers, Interstellar Performance, has been selected and one of the first sessions to be announced for the conference. On-premises virtualization is still the principal location for your organization’s mission critical SQL Servers. Even during the journey to the cloud, improving the performance while on-prem improves your life and makes your databases more efficient.

Session Abstract: Your business-critical SQL Servers should not suffer from infrastructure-related bottlenecks. When properly architected and managed, the principal bottleneck to performance of these SQL Servers should be only limited by code. However, if not properly constructed, silent and seemingly random performance killers can strike and significantly hurt your database performance. Layers like virtualization, storage, and networking can all detract from database performance, and they are tough to identify. This session is packed with many live examples of tips and tricks gained from years of experience for getting the most performance from your physical and virtual SQL Servers. The major roadblocks to performance will be discussed and the knowledge gained will help you work with your infrastructure teams so that you can optimize the system stack for performance. Tools, techniques, and processes will be demonstrated to help you measure and validate the system performance of the key components underneath your data.

Register for this amazing conference today and take advantage of the lower conference fees now before they raise the price!

Presenting at New England SQL Server Users Group April 11

SQL Server, Technology, User Groups No Responses »

Apr 102018

I am proud to present an in-person presentation for the New England SQL Server Users Group entitled “Level Up Your Cloud Infrastructure Skills” on Wednesday, April 11, at 6pm Eastern.

Abstract: Think infrastructure in the cloud is still just for sysadmins? Think again! As your organization moves into the cloud, infrastructure skills are more important than ever for DBAs to master. Expert knowledge of cloud-related infrastructure will help you maintain performance and availability for databases in the cloud. For example, know what an IOP is? How many does your database consume during a given day? Properly sizing a cloud database depends on your knowledge of this metric. Failure to properly configure storage performance at the time of deployment will slow down your SQL Server considerably. Come learn many of the key cloud infrastructure points that you should master as the DBA role continues to evolve!

RSVP for this webinar here! Bring your questions!

Free Webinar – DBAs vs. SysAdmins in Cloud Availability April 19

Cloud, Events, Professional Development, SQL Server No Responses »

Apr 022018

SIOS and I are proud to host a joint free webinar entitled “DBAs vs. SysAdmins in Cloud Availability” on Thursday, April 19th, at 1pm Eastern. This webinar is hosted by MSSQL Tips.

Database and system administrators have historically had different perspectives on many topics such as high availability, disaster recovery, and performance tuning. Since one silo generally does not have full visibility into the other silos, the age-old shouting match exists when an availability challenge occurs. “Your systems must have the issue, not mine!” is a constant theme during these situations. However, moving these critical systems to the cloud presents some new challenges. Availability becomes an even more critical topic, as outages can occur more randomly than with on-premises systems, and the two sides must work more closely to achieve system availability that meets their organization’s SLAs. Come learn tips on how to work with your system administrators to achieve a higher level of ability for your critical SQL Servers in the cloud.

Update – Due to my fault of falling ill to influenza this late in the season, this webinar is being moved to May 3rd. Stay tuned for an updated link!

PASS Virtualization Webinar – April 11

Cloud, Events, Professional Development, SQL Server No Responses »

Mar 292018

I am proud to present a free webinar for the PASS Virtualization virtual chapter entitled “Level Up Your Cloud Infrastructure Skills” on Wednesday, April 11, at 1pm Eastern.

RSVP for this webinar here! Bring your questions!

Multiple disk controllers in VMs can mean improved performance

SQL Server, Storage, Virtualization 1 Response »

Feb 012018

I recently had a great question on some of the differences in virtual machine disk presentation from one of our amazing clients, and I thought I’d share the answer here because it’s a common question that I receive.

Some hypervisors (including some hyper-converged compute platform vendors who shall remain nameless) do not give you much flexibility in the way storage is presented to a VM. You pick the VM and click to add drives. That’s it. No knobs to turn, no mess, no fuss. It’s meant to be easy, and for almost all situations, that’s just fine.

But, that might not be the completely optimal way to configure a VM that is hungry for I/O (such as a large SQL Server), if you have the option to configure it a bit more closely.

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