PASS | Convergence of Data and Infrastructure

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!

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.

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!

PASS Summit 2017 Precon – Virtual SQL Servers: Right to Ludicrous Speed

Best Practices, Business, Cloud, Events, Performance, Professional Development, SQL Server, Storage, Technology, User Groups, Virtualization No Responses »

Sep 152017

PASS has continues to ramp up the plans for the PASS Summit in Seattle this October, and my precon session, “Virtual SQL Servers – Right to Ludicrous Speed” has a few open slots for this Tuesday session. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I’m thrilled to be able to present to the group advanced SQL Server VM tuning techniques learned from over 17 years of performance tuning.

If any of you want to excel your DBA skills, not only for your on-premises SQL Server VMs but also your VMs in the cloud, I hope all of you can join me in what I consider the best SQL Server ecosystem conference in the world.

Session Details:

Join this full-day introduction session focused on managing and boosting the performance of a virtualized SQL Server environment. The focus of the course is to help those new to virtualization, infrastructure, and cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service concepts to become familiar with the concept and purposes of virtualization and how it can benefit them as data professionals. Participants will gain exposure to all layers of virtualization underneath SQL Server, from storage to hypervisor to the SQL Server instance, no matter if on-premises or in the cloud, and will learn how to construct the entire stack with a strong emphasis on SQL Server performance.

Intended Audience
The intended audience of this course is information workers (both business and IT-centric) involved with architecting a virtualization strategy for SQL Server, or managing business-critical SQL Servers that have already been virtualized.

Course Topics
The following topics will be addressed during the course:
• The Physical Infrastructure Underneath the VM
• Storage and SAN Concepts and Design
• Virtualization and Infrastructure Fundamentals
• The SQL Server Virtual Machine
• Networking, Support, and Licensing
• SQL Server Infrastructure in the Cloud
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery and SQL Server
• Performance Investigation and Tuning of the Entire Stack

A working set of the screens and configuration settings referenced in the session, together with the reference slides and documentation, will be provided to attendees, for strategic reference in working with virtualized SQL Server in their own environments.

Register today! Seats are sure to fill up for these precons!

SQL Saturday Minnesota Preconference Training Session

Best Practices, Business, Cloud, Events, Performance, Professional Development, SQL Server, Storage, Technology, User Groups, Virtualization No Responses »

Sep 072017

This is just a quick reminder to encourage you to attend my next round of all-day precon training session at the upcoming SQL Saturday in Minnesota on Friday, October 6 called ‘The Complete Primer to SQL Server Infrastructure and Cloud‘.

The focus of the course is to help those new to the enterprise server infrastructure concepts become familiar with the concept and purposes of each layer of the architecture around their databases, and how this knowledge can benefit them as data professionals. Participants will gain exposure to all layers of infrastructure, virtualization, and cloud underneath SQL Server, from storage all the way through to the SQL Server instance, and will learn how to review and engineer the entire stack with a strong emphasis on SQL Server performance.

The following topics will be addressed during the course:

Datacenter Fundamentals
Cloud versus On-Premises
Infrastructure Stack Fundamentals
Storage and SAN Concepts and Design
Networking and Interconnect Topologies
Physical Server Technologies
The SQL Server Virtual Machine
High Availability and Disaster Recovery
Performance Investigation and Tuning of the Entire Stack

I am really happy to be delivering this precon, and look forward to seeing you all there! Reserve your seat at this exciting event here. Tickets are available at just $110!

24 Hours of PASS, Summit Preview Session

Events, SQL Server, Virtualization No Responses »

Jul 032017

I’m proud to announce that I’ve been selected to present a session in this year’s 24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview webinar series entitled Virtual CPUs: Right to Ludicrous Speed. This session is scheduled for July 20th, 2017, at 03:00 GMT, or July 19th at 11pm Eastern.

These webinar series are a sneak peek at some of the sessions to be presented at this year’s PASS Summit in Seattle the last week of October. These sessions are from world class speakers and authors who we have all been studying under for years, and now you can see them live!

Session abstract: One of the largest points of contention with virtual SQL Servers and the VM administrators is how to configure the CPUs. Experience says more CPUs are better for performance. VM admins say less is better. Third-party vendors say you need all of them (and it doesn’t matter how many your hosts have either). Can over-provisioning virtual machine CPUs speed things up, or does it slow things down? What is the right methodology to determine the correct number of virtual CPUs? How does this configuration align with the physical servers? From sampling and analyzing performance data, to “right-sizing’ your SQL Server virtual machine CPU count, to properly aligning the VM with the physical server NUMA topology, you will gain the understanding of how to properly manage and validate your virtual SQL Server vCPU configuration in this insightful session. Valuable tips and tricks will be shared that you can take back to your virtual SQL Servers and immediately apply to your own environments.

Register today to watch these sessions!

PASS Summit Precon on Virtual SQL Server Performance

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

Jun 132017

PASS has just announced this year’s precon sessions for the PASS Summit in Seattle this October, and I am humbled to announce that my session, “Virtual SQL Servers – Right to Ludicrous Speed” has been selected for one of the Tuesday precon slots. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I’m thrilled to be able to present to the group advanced SQL Server VM tuning techniques learned from over 16 years of performance tuning.

If you are less interested in SQL Server infrastructure than other topics, I urge you to check out the other precons being presented at this conference. The topics and presenters are world class, and if I was not presenting this precon on Tuesday, I’d be in one of the other precons!

I hope all of you can attend what I consider the best SQL Server ecosystem conference in the world. I’ll never miss it, and I look forward to meeting you all there!

Session Details:

Register today! Seats are sure to fill up for these precons!

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