Category Archives: Webcasts and Events

Microsoft TechEd 2012–Multiple rows affected

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WP_000363If you were at Microsoft TechEd India 2012 held at Bangalore, then you would agree with me without a shadow of doubt that it is quite difficult to write a wrap-up post of the entire event. The event for me was what I refer to as PPP. And by PPP, I am not talking about Point-to-Point Protocol. What I am referring to is a self-coined term…. People, Passion and Parallel.

People because it was great to connect a face to the twitter handle or online persona that you have interacted with in the past. What amazed me was some of the folks that I met at TechEd introduced themselves with their Twitter handle first and their actual name later! It is phenomenal to see how social media can empower collaboration between a technical community! The #TechEdIn twitter hashtag was trending on Twitter India in less than 15 minutes after the event started on Day 1 and continued to trend for the next three days!

Passion for technology that was evident from Day 1 to Day 3 where the rooms overflowed with people attending the sessions at different tracks. It was as if people were watching technical blockbusters at TechEd!

Parallel is the name of the game as everything that was happening at TechEd was in parallel… Whether it was the networking that was happening between folks or be in the technical sessions being delivered in parallel at the different tracks or the technology showcases displaying the several cool stuff from the sponsors at the venue. I heard multiple conversations in the hallways where debates were being raged (among the attendees) to decide on which session they should attend under which track! And obviously Twitter stands testament to the fact that such a dilemma existed since there were numerous tweets on this topic!

Since my daily bread and butter revolves around Microsoft SQL Server, it was quite obvious that I was lurking around the sessions which had remotely anything to do with data! On day one, I would be found mostly at “Data and Developer – Synergy with SQL Server” and on day three I was mostly at “Know Your Data – A Day in Life of a DBA”. Though there was a copious amount of information exchange in the session, there were also some really humorous moments which deserve a mention:

Vinod [B | T] and Pinal’s [B | T] session on “SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective” probably landed them as top candidates for a thin one and the fit one series in case they ever choose to pursue a media related career option!

Pinal Dave’s session on “Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance” left people in splits…

Balmukund’s [B | T] session on “Keeping Your Database Available – ‘AlwaysOn’“ made learning fun and even though he had presented this in the past at other forums… This time around he came back with a totally new look and feel along with a high quality technical session on SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn features with demos.

The VDI demo that I showed was using the “SQL Server Backup Simulator” which can be downloaded from here. The snapshot demo was shown using a modified version of the code present in the snapshot.cpp file from the Microsoft SQL Server Virtual Device Specification.

I had a lot of fun presenting my session on the “Lesser Known facts of SQL Server Backup and Restore” on March 23rd at TechEd. The slide deck used for the presentation is available below without a few situational humorous elements which wouldn’t really make sense to a person who had not attended the session. (Had to add the disclaimer before I got pulled up with comments that this was the incomplete slide deck!)

Here are some additional resources on VDI and VSS in case you want to indulge in some light reading Smile

IO Frozen messages while taking NT Backup for SQL databases
INFORMATIONAL- SHEDDING LIGHT on VSS & VDI Backups in SQL Server
Troubleshooting SQL Server Backup Issues
Incorrect Buffercount can cause Out of Memory Errors
VDI (VSS) Backup Resources
How It Works: SQL Server Backup Buffer Exchange (a VDI Focus)

The photographs from the session are available on TroubleshootingSQL’s Facebook page. Last but not the least, there needs to a be special vote of thanks to Pinal Dave who ensured that we had a seamless experience during the event.

The session recording is embedded below:

People… Passion… Parallel… @TechEdIn

TechEd India 2012 Session

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TechEd

TechEd India is always a much anticipated event and I always feel that this event keeps getting better year on year. This year I have the privilege of presenting at TechEd which is being held at Bangalore from March 21-23, 2012. My presentation topic is “Lesser Known Facts of SQL Server Backup and Restore”. The topic abstract is as follows:

Backup and restore are considered the most common tasks performed by DBAs. Most of the time the knowledge does not go beyond memorizing the syntax of backup and restore. In this session we will uncover some hidden facts which will change the perspective of DBAs towards this process.

What can you expect from this session?
image1. I will be talking about the some of the unknown facts about SQL Server database backup and restore which will help you streamline your backup performance and DR strategy.
2. Demo of a backup restore using a tool that I have written to show you some interesting statistics.
3. Clearing up some common myths around backup/restore.

I will delivering this session from 3:15PM IST – 4:15PM IST on SQL Server Administration track on Day 3 (March 23rd).

There will be other speakers like Pinal Dave [B | T], Vinod Kumar [B | T], Balmukund Lakhani [B | T] and Jacob Sebastian [B | T] who will not only help you gain knowledge but also have amazing demos in their presentations which will have you running the following query: SELECT REPLICATE(‘awesome’,1000) in your head!

If you haven’t already registered for TechEd yet, then you can do so by visiting the TechEd site. The Facebook event for my session is available here.

SQL Saturday 76: The WiFi gods were happy

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I just concluded my presentation on “Debugging the Deadlock for the Scheduler” at SQL Saturday 76 over a Lync meeting. The WiFi and Lync gods decided to be benevolent today and let me present without an untoward incident! As always it was fun to demonstrate the use of a debugger…Winking smileThe attempt of the presentation was to demonstrate what can be done proactively and reactively when dealing with a deadlocked schedulers condition.

A special thank you is due to all the sponsors without whom the event today wouldn’t have been possible: Microsoft New Zealand, RedGate, SQL Pass, New Zealand MS Communities and SQL Services!

The slide deck used for presentation today is available on Slide Share and is embedded below:

The demo files used are available at SkyDrive in the file SQLSat76_Demo.zip The walkthrough for the debugging that I explained along with the use of the Powershell script to automatically collect DMV outputs based on messages in the Windows Application event log are available using the posts available under the walkthroughs link below as well as the zip file mentioned above.

And last but not the least, a big Thank You to Dave [Twitter | Blog] for helping arrange all the logistics so that I could present and also for giving me this opportunity!

Resources:

Whitepaper: How To Diagnose and Correct Errors 17883, 17884, 17887, and 17888
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917684.aspx

Walkthroughs
https://troubleshootingsql.com/tag/deadlocked-schedulers/

WinDBG
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463009

Microsoft Public Symbol Server
http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

KB: New concurrency and scheduling diagnostics have been added to SQL Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319892/en-us

Cheers!

SQL Saturday #76: Gearing up for the fun remotely

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imageI am quite excited about this Saturday (January 28th, 2012) which will witness SQL Saturday #76 being organized at Auckland. This time around I will not be physically present for the event but will be presenting via Live Meeting on “Debugging the deadlock for the scheduler”. It would have been awesome to be there in person but I shall make the most of the remote opportunity! As they say… If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride! I am going to show you some cool stuff that you can do when you encounter a Deadlocked Schedulers scenario in SQL Server including a demo on debugging a SQL dump!

There are a bunch of other interesting sessions on a whole gamut of topics for you to pick and choose from! Space is limited so if you want to attend and be part of the fun and learning, then get yourself registered here pronto. The list of sessions that for the day are available here.

Venue: Microsoft New Zealand, Level 5, 22 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland CBD
Date: January 28th, 2012
Time: Registration opens at 8.30AM NZ time | Event will conclude around 5PM NZ time

Looking forward to another fun-filled Saturday! Winking smile

SQL Saturday #116: A first but definitely not the last

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Last weekend we successfully concluded SQL Saturday #116 which was the first ever SQL Saturday organized in India. I had the opportunity to present at the event and it was definitely an experience that I enjoyed immensely! Right at the outset, I want to call out two aspects of the event:

  • The audience – The audience participation and enthusiasm was amazing without whom this event wouldn’t have been a success!
  • Our sponsors, volunteers and SQL PASS – It’s needless to say that the event without the support of our sponsors and volunteers wouldn’t have been possible!

The event had two tracks with even a SQL Server Clinic which was like an Ask-the-Expert session where you could bring the problems that you experience with SQL Server and discuss it with the SQL experts from CSS. This was a new addition which was the brainwave of my colleague, Tejas Shah [Twitter]. If you have attended the SQL Pass Summit, then you will be familiar with this concept.

I was presenting on Demystifying SQL Server Memory Dumps which I thoroughly enjoyed presenting! I have already uploaded my presentation to the SQL Saturday website. All the debugging demos shown are available under the debugging category tag on my blog.

Thank you everyone who attended in making this a fun event for us!!

Here are some other blog posts on the event from other speakers/attendee: Lohith [Speaker], Sudeepta [Attendee/Volunteer], Manas [Volunteer/Attendee], Varun Dhawan [Attendee] and Vinod Kumar [Speaker].

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