Voice of the DBA

Category: Presentations

  • Database Maintenance Essentials – Oracle Training Days

    Presented at Oracle Training Days, 2013

    Abstract: SQL Server requires a minimal level of maintenance to ensure that the platform functions at an optimum level without any unnecessary outages or problems. This talk will look at the basics of the maintenance operations that should be performed on SQL Server on a regular basis. The topics covered include:

    • Managing MDF and LDF Files
    • Managing Indexes
    • Maintaining Statistics
    • Checking for Corruption
    • Creating Backups That Will Restore
    • Managing Maintenance Jobs

    I cover the reasons why maintenance is required and include a number of references to help you enable this maintenance in your environment.
    In some presentations I will also cover the Red Gate tools that make this maintenance easier to perform. This is optional.

    Slides: Download the PPTX

    Level: 100

    Length: 60 minutes

  • Database Maintenance Essentials

    Abstract: SQL Server requires a minimal level of maintenance to ensure that the platform functions at an optimum level without any unnecessary outages or problems. This talk will look at the basics of the maintenance operations that should be performed on SQL Server on a regular basis. The topics covered include:

    • Managing MDF and LDF Files
    • Managing Indexes
    • Maintaining Statistics
    • Checking for Corruption
    • Creating Backups That Will Restore
    • Managing Maintenance Jobs

    I cover the reasons why maintenance is required and include a number of references to help you enable this maintenance in your environment.
    In some presentations I will also cover the Red Gate tools that make this maintenance easier to perform. This is optional.

    Level: 100

    Length: 60 minutes

    Slides: Database Maintenance Essentials (SQL in the City)

    Presentations:

    You can view my complete speaking schedule here: http://wp.me/P14wgJ-1tV

  • Searching Binary Data in SQL Server

    More and more data collected in organizations is in an encoded format, essentially a binary classification of data. These can be images, audio files, video, or even common formats like Word and Excel files. This data contains lots of important data, but the formatting must be stripped out in order for users to effectively search this data.

    This presentation starts with a discussion of the three types of data in SQL Server to set the framework. It demos and explains:

    • structured data
    • semi-structured data
    • unstructured data

    The talk then looks at how unstructured data is stored in SQL Server, specifically briefly looking at Filestream and Filetable.

    There is a short discussion of full text search, with a look at the changes in SQL Server 2012 before moving on to the iFilter interfaces which are used to search the binary data while ignoring the encoding. There are demos of the basics of CONTAINS and FREETEXT searches, along with some of the more advanced options, like customizable NEAR and weighting of search terms.

    The talk finishes with a short look at the new semantic search feature in SQL Server 2012.

    Level: 200

    Length: 60 minutes

    Downloads: PPTX, code

    Presentation Schedule:

    June 1, 2013 – SQL Saturday #200 – Philadelphia

    May 3, 2013 – SQL Bits XI

    April 7, 2013 – SQL Saturday #197 – Omaha

    October 30, 2012 – SQL Connections, Fall 2012

  • Getting Control of Your Instances with Policy Based Management

    Managing lots of database or instances in an efficient manner requires a DBA to find automated ways to ensure their databases are configured correctly. In SQL Server 2008, Policy Based Management (PBM) was introduced to help DBAs implement a framework across their systems.

    This presentation discusses the philosophy of managing systems in groups and with declared rules, policies, and procedures. PBM is discussed from an architectural standpoint, as well as with practical demonstrations of policy creation, import, export, and limitations. There are also demonstrations on how to execute policies outside of the PBM interface using Powershell.

    Level: 100

    Length: 60 minutes

    Slides: PPTX, code