VMworld | Convergence of Data and Infrastructure

Q&A Session with SQL Server on VMware Experts at VMworld EMEA

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

Sep 072017

Greetings everyone! We had so many people stay after our SQL Server on VMware sessions at VMworld USA to ask great questions, I thought I’d extend an offer to everyone at the European show coming up in a week! Let’s talk SQL Server! We are going to crash the VMvillage hang space on Tuesday, September 12 at 3pm local time to hold an open-ended SQL Server on VMware Q&A session. This unscripted and unofficial session is for you, has no official agenda, and marketing is strictly off-limits.

Our illustrious experts include:

Michael Corey, Founder – Corey and Associates	Thomas LaRock, Head Geek – Solarwinds
Argenis Fernandez, Principal Architect – Pure Storage	Niran Even Chen, Double VCDX, VMware Corp.
… and me!

Mark your calendars, and bring your questions, specific challenges, or discussion points, and let’s do this! Anything goes – performance, availability, setup and configuration, conflicts between best practices for SQL Server and VMware, anything!

SQL Server on VMware VMworld USA Videos Now On YouTube

Best Practices, Business, Cloud, Events, Performance, Professional Development, SQL Server, Virtualization No Responses »

Sep 062017

I just realized that our two SQL Server on VMware sessions that I co-presented on Tuesday at VMworld USA, both of which made the top 10 sessions of the day list at the conference, are now on YouTube! They are free to watch for everyone!

For those of you with virtualized SQL Servers, regardless of platform and cloud or on-premises, I urge you to watch these two sessions at your convenience.

Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right (VIRT1309BU) (co-presented with Michael Corey)

Performance Tuning and Monitoring for Virtualized Database Servers (VIRT1430BU) (co-presented with Thomas LaRock)

VMworld 2017 USA Best Of

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

Sep 052017

I’m prepping for VMworld EMEA in Barcelona next week and will do a wrap up post for both events afterwards, but wanted to share something with the world. I’m proud to announce that the two SQL Server on VMware sessions that I co-presented on Tuesday at VMworld USA made the top 10 sessions of the day list at the conference! As such, they are recorded and now available for non-attendees to watch! For those of you with virtualized SQL Servers, regardless of platform and cloud or on-premises, I urge you to watch these two sessions at your convenience.

First, go to the top sessions page here. Scroll to Tuesday, and look for the following sessions:

Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right (VIRT1309BU) (co-presented with Michael Corey)

Performance Tuning and Monitoring for Virtualized Database Servers (VIRT1430BU) (co-presented with Thomas LaRock)

Thank you for everyone that attended these sessions, and special thanks to those who submitted your kind and supportive comments in the session reviews. We are looking forward to an amazing Barcelona experience!

VMworld EMEA SQL Server Sessions

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

Sep 052017

This trip to Barcelona for the next VMworld EMEA conference next week will be my second trip to this conference in two years. I’m ecstatic to get there and start talking SQL Server content with folks! I’m presenting on SQL Server performance, scalability, and monitoring in three sessions at this conference.

Tuesday 11am – Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right (VIRT1309BU) with Michael Corey

Wednesday 12:30pm – Performance Tuning and Monitoring for Virtualized Database Servers (VIRT1430BE) with Thomas LaRock

Wednesday 5:30pm – vBrownBag session – vNUMA and You (VMTN6680E)

We are also going to hold at least one impromptu SQL Server experts open Q&A session in the VMvillage at some point early in the week, so stay tuned to this blog for when and where to meet up!

If you want to schedule some time to meet, please contact me and let’s meet up! I’d love to meet you and answer any questions at the show.

VMworld 2017 SQL Server Sessions

Best Practices, Events, SQL Server, Virtualization No Responses »

Aug 232017

Just a reminder – our SQL Servers sessions for this year’s VMworld 2017 conference in Las Vegas are starting to fill up! I have four exciting sessions (if you’re a database geek) at the conference, and for those DBAs with VMware administrators attending this conference, tell them to attend these sessions so they can help build a better platform for your data.

ALL DAY SQL Server on VMware Boot Camp

The second revision of our business critical applications and databases pre-conference workshop is to be held at VMworld 2017 US this year on August 26th!

We will cover all pertinent aspects of best practices for deployments and ongoing management of MS SQL Server running in virtualized infrastructure. This deep-dive full-day workshopwill be delivered by VMware technical SQL Server specialists working in concert with world renowned external SQL Server and Virtualization experts, including me! The attendee will experience a workshop rich with technical content to include subjects such as vMotion for Failover Cluster Instances, Availability groups, SQLaaS with vRealize Automation and Site Recovery Manager. The content will be focused on best practices for design, implementation and management augmented with anecdotes of successful customer implementations.

SQL Server professionals, listen up. If your infrastructure admins are attending VMworld this year, please let them know about this course. Training them in the intricacies of the VMware platform as it relates to SQL Server, and having the training come from SQL Server professionals, is going to make your virtualization experience better.

Register for VMworld here! Add the training course at the bottom of the VMware Education courses during the registration process.

Monster VMs (Database Virtualization) with vSphere 6.5: Doing IT Right [VIRT1309BU]

with Michael Corey

VMware vSphere 6.5 has made a lot of changes to enhance the performance of Monster virtual machines (VMs). Databases by their very nature are the classic Monster VMs. If Monster VMs are not virtualized properly, they will never perform well and can negatively impact the performance of other VMs on the hosts. In this presentation, we will teach you how to properly virtualize Monster VMs/databases with vSphere 6.5. We will discuss why you should virtualize and take a look at some installation issues as well as how to architect for performance in terms of vSphere 6.5 specifics, including the storage layer, the processor, memory considerations, and the network layer. Topics will also include NUMA, memory reservations, and how to avoid common mistakes. These lessons will help you optimize any workload you are virtualizing.

Performance Tuning and Monitoring with Virtualized Database Servers [VIRT1430BU]

with Thomas LaRock

Business-critical database platforms are the last holdouts to enterprise virtualization. These systems are the most resource-demanding and latency-sensitive applications, and at the first symptoms of infrastructure challenges the DBAs blame the infrastructure. Successful virtualization of these platforms requires a different approach to virtualization from other applications. The speakers will share their years of experience in virtualizing data platforms. You will learn how to validate your VMware environment and manage the performance properly. Scalability concerns will be addressed through discussions on scaling database VMs upwards and outwards as you work with the DBAs to manage the data lifecycle. Key talking points will help you learn how to perfect database virtualization from a technical, an organizational, and people level.

SQL Server on vSphere: A Panel with Some of the World’s Most Renowned Experts [VIRT1930PU]

with Niran Even-Chen, Thomas LaRock, and Allan Hirt

Continuing from last year’s successful session, learn from some of world’s most renowned SQL Server experts’ real-life experiences gained while virtualizing the most demanding SQL Servers! In this panel discussion, you will also have the chance to ask your own questions about SQL Server on VMware vSphere and get answers from the SQL Server gurus.

For those of you who don’t manage SQL Servers in a VMware environment, check out all of the fantastic sessions in the performance tuning areas, as they are sure to help you boost performacne across your vSphere farms.

Make sure to select the SQL Server on VMware boot camp as part of registration if you haven’t already! I look forward to seeing you all there!

VMworld 2017 USA Sessions

Cloud, Events, SQL Server, Virtualization No Responses »

Jun 302017

I’m proud to announce that my sessions for this year’s VMworld 2017 conference in Las Vegas have turned up in the VMworld Content Catalog! I have four exciting sessions (if you’re a database geek) at the conference, and for those DBAs with VMware administrators attending this conference, tell them to attend these sessions so they can help build a better platform for your data.