I targeted the PASS speaker list because we are looking to promote the PASS Summit and thought it was best to ask people if they were interested in promoting their sessions. This can be a great way to drive attendance for those speakers that are doing a pre/post con session. For others it can be a way for then to practice their session one more time before the Summit, or just some general shameless self-promotion.

The biggest change to our format this time is that we are going to spread the event over two days (September 15th and 16th). We are keeping the same start time(s) as the last event, promptly at 12 noon GMT for both days. We’ll run twelve straight sessions, then take a twelve hour respite, and then crank it back up again the next day. Hopefully that will allow for more people to attend all the sessions they want to see.

Yeah, I know…people on the other side of the Earth have a less than optimal viewing time. When we looked at the numbers for the last event we found that an overwhelming majority of the attendees are from the USA and Europe. So we decided to switch up the format a bit in order to make it easier for those attendees to attend more sessions this time around. If you were one of the few from the Asia/Pacific region and are miffed that you will be forced to spend your overnight hours watching the sessions live, feel free to send me an email and we can discuss everything in more detail.

You should be able to begin registering for the event on or around August 11th. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions about the event, I will do my best to answer them.

And for those that have heard of the words “database design”, a majority of them simply think that it means nothing more than listing out the tables they will be using to store their data. The concept of a foreign key, for example, is quite, well, foreign to them. Never mind normalization, or constraints, or anything else for that matter. I wish more people understood how a good design up front can save a lot of time in support later on.

Let’s get started.

temdb

So many times I see a database “designed” by this method:

1. Create table
2. Insert data into that table

And that’s it. Sometimes the steps are repeated, and many tables are created and populated, but I have seen the case where there was one database, with one table, with no indexes (or key, or constraints), and a few hundred million rows. I came across this gem when I was asked to help find out why performance was so poor for the database. Luckily I had a LOT of options to explain why performance was less than optimal.

Another thing to be aware of at this level is the need to accurately define your datatypes. Don’t just go with nvarchar(50) for everything because some design tool chooses that by default. Be aware of the choices you are making when you create the table. If you have no idea what I am talking about then go here and read this article by Greg Larsen. I’ll wait for you to come back.

msdb

Now that you have a basic awareness of some of the value in a good database design, it is time for you to expand your horizons a bit more. You need to start mapping out relationships between the tables in your database. Start thinking about what columns in your table compose a unique combination of values. While at TechEd I was able to attend Buck Woody’s presentation on database design. My favorite part of his talk, besides his comments about Brent Ozar’s sleeping habits, was how you can use nouns in order to help you design a better database. Buck starts his overview of his database design process at about the sixteen minute mark and it goes like this:

1. Create and/or refine the business requirements
2. Break out your nouns
3. Refine nouns
4. Define relationships
5. Define datatypes

Steps two through four are part of a process called normalization, which is something we will discuss more in the master level.

Another item you need at this level is the ability to find your way around an ER diagram. There are a handful of tools you can use to create an ER diagram, and I won’t recommend any particular one here. The important point to take away from this level is that you are familiar enough with ER diagrams so that you can understand them to some degree.

model

To be at this level you should have a database that has primary and foreign keys defined, perhaps even some unique constraints. You should be able to make changes to your database based upon the ever-changing business requirements (trust me, they will always change). To truly be a model database designer, however, you will need to be adept at communicating with your business end users. You need to understand the business as well as, or perhaps better than, the end user. Otherwise you will find yourselves repeating step one (create/define business requirements) over and over again. Knowing your business will allow for you to help streamline that part of the process, and by streamline what I really mean is “make it slightly less painful than chewing on a piece of aluminum foil”.

If you can speak the language of your end user, allowing you to better define and create the necessary business requirements, then you will be well on your way to being a model database designer.

master

If you want to be a master database designer then you need to understand normalization, what it means to normalize (or denormalize) a database, and how to apply techniques to move your database into and out of particular normalization forms. In short, you need to dream about normalization much the same way as I dream about the elusive quad-thick slice of peppered bacon wrapped around a sea scallop and dipped in bourbon.

If you are looking for a completely dry explanation of database normalization then go here. If you want a slightly more readable format covering the basics, then go here. Personally, I like pictures, and here is a good one to help you understand normalization, especially after you read a little bit about it.By now you may be asking yourself “Self, why isn’t every database normalized by default somehow?” That’s a fair question. After all, why not have tools like SSMS force the user to create everything necessary in order for every database to be in the third normal form (3NF)? It’s because that, as with anything in life, there is a trade off whenever you want something. In this case the trade off can be performance. It could very well be the case that you want to denormalize your database, or at least parts of your database, in order to maximize performance. But as a master database designer you already knew that!

resourcedb

The easiest thing to do is to tell you to go and get every book Codd has ever written on the subject of database design and theory. But that would be rather shortsighted of me, considering how much of the world has changed since Codd did his most famous work. In today’s world we have “eventual consistency“, which can be viewed as a manner for which you remove the need to ever have a normalized database (or even transactions for that matter). Recently I had a person tell me that stored procedures are dying, which only served as a reminder to me that technology is always evolving. So, start with Codd, but don’t end there.

I have a section of my library dedicated to database design books. I really like Beginning Database Design: From Novice to Professional, and would recommend that highly for anyone that wants to get started by learning the fundamentals for database design. After that book, the rest is up to you.

“What makes you guys so special?”

The man was Rob Collie (blog | twitter), and he was asking about the SQL Community as a whole. And I really had no answer for Rob. We talked about it for a while, trying to figure out why the SQL Community seems to be much more social, and much more willing to help one another than other technical communities. I had noticed that even in the MVP forums that the SQL forum was always one of the more heavily used forums when compared to others. But why?

In the time since Rob accosted approached me I have been able to reflect a bit. I think I understand a few of the reasons why our Community is so chock full of awesome. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, or if I have missed anything.

People Crave Shared Experiences

This should not be a shocker to anyone, but we as humans tend to want to have shared experiences with one another. I really don’t know why that is the case, but it certainly seems to be true of most. It happens all the time in conversations when someone relates an experience and someone else responds by affirming that experience by sharing memories of their own. Something like:

“This one time, at band camp…”

“Yeah, I went to band camp once. It was full of awesome.”

Since DBAs are people too it makes sense that many of us already have the innate desire to share experiences. But so does everyone else, right? So clearly this is not enough to explain why we are special, but it does help explain why we all look to congregate and communicate.

We Are Organized

We, as database professionals, have a professional association (PASS), that allows for all of us to find ways to connect (and stay connected). I recently asked Rob if there was a user group or association for, say, Excel users. He didn’t know of any such groups, and I started thinking about all of those other MVP forums. What about the xbox MVPs? Is there a professional association for xbox users, for example? Or Zune?

For us DBAs we have such an association in place, and I think that is a contributing factor, no question. But other professional associations exist, so this is not enough to explain why we are so special. There must be something more.

We Have Vehicles For Discussions

Once we start to connect with each other at face-to-face events (user groups, SQL Saturdays, PASS Summit, etc.), we then need to have ways to stay connected once those meetings are over. We have that with Twitter (even have our own special hash tag for help, #sqlhelp, which we use when we have questions for one another), as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, and various public forums. We write articles for websites and try to find ways to help others learn something new.

None of these vehicles are for our use only, so this is not enough to explain why we are so special, there must be something more.

We Form a Support Group

Since most of us are in a production support role, a natural question is “who supports the support people?” Why, we do, of course! We need to be there for one another, because there are times when we know we need someone there for us as well. Many DBAs work alone in their shop; the lone voice of reason amidst a sea of madness and sloppy agile programming methods. Who else can understand the life of a DBA except for another DBA?

We tend to be very supportive of one another. We help each other when we have questions. We are allowed to make mistakes (especially if we learn from them and don’t repeat them very often). No one is scorned, or banished from the Community for not knowing something. About the only way to get yourself in trouble is to plagiarize our material. Stay clear of content theft and you are welcome to join in our conversations.

Other communities simply do not seem to act in the same manner. I think that what makes us so special is that, as a whole, we are made up of people that are not afraid of two things. First is that we are not afraid to ask for help. Second, we are not afraid to provide help.

Add It Up

And you get the SQL Community, which is indeed a very special Community to be a part of.

The deadline for applications to be submitted is July 21st, a full seven days after Bastille Day so there is really no excuse for anyone to be late getting their paperwork completed on time. If you know of anyone that you feel should consider running, get them to complete the application. If you know of someone and they appear reluctant to run, contact anyone on the nomination committee so that we can engage the person in a conversation. Perhaps we could clear up a few questions and that person would then be inclined to participate in the process.

I look forward to serving on the committee this year as we search for our newest Board members.

Well the recordings are now available for viewing. You will need to login to the PASS website in order to view them.

I wouldn’t try to watch them all in a row (again). I suggest that you set aside a few hours a week for the next six to seven weeks and enjoy the great content.

I will also be on UStream, you can watch me watching the sessions by going to:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/24-hours-of-pass

The broadcast will get started in just a few minutes…

6:55AM I’m awake, and so are the kids. I have enough time to get the bacon started before the event begins in just over an hour.

7:13AM Slight network issue, my laptop can’t get it going with the WiFi, but the iMac has no trouble making my life easier. Thank you, Mr. Jobs. And the bacon is prepped and ready to be deployed.

7:36AM Prepping the UStream and grabbing my bacon from the oven. Oh, and redirecting people from the overflow session to the actual session.

7:47AM Bacon is done, but I forgot the cracked pepper. Rookie mistake and I’ll blame the rush of activity here at SQLRockstar central.

7:55AM Debating if I should open my work email, or just use the blackberry all day (and night). I’m going to open it up, just in case someone needs my help.

8:28AM This is crazy, about 400 people in the meeting, a handful of which have audio issues (not sure they are using the right version of the LiveMeeting client), I haven’t eaten my bacon yet, and people keep sending me private chat messages. I haven’t been able to interact much on Ustream yet.

8:49AM Starting to get more control over things, we have over 440 people inside this meeting right now.

9:07AM OK, I have had my first slice of bacon for the day and everything is looking good. We are climbing up to 500 people already for this session.

9:13AM Just found out that @AndyLeonard uses schemas. Somewhere, @BrentO is weeping.

9:27AM Andy just posted this quote “You should build as many tables as you need, but no more.” True dat.

1:13PM Forgot I had the diary. Since my last post we have had a LOT of activity including Rushabh not being able to do his session and needing to switch with Jacob at the very last minute. @AdamMachanic just declared tempdb as “the single biggest bottleneck in SQL Server”.

1:32PM Adam just broke the 800 barrier and set a new high water mark for attendees. I’m wondering if we can crack 1,000 today. LiveMeeting will break at 1,250.

2:00PM Adam just finished up a great presentation and topped out at 814 attendees. I’m excited for the next talk as well by Don Vilen.

2:20PM I am very interested in using filtered indexes.

2:29PM So, the DTA can suggest a filtered index, but the missing indexes functionality will not flag them as missing. Great info right there.

2:55PM Don is done, and up next is the Donald, @donalddotfarmer.

3:26PM Donald always has wonderful slides, and great demos. It is clear to me the PowerPivot will be for the power users first, and I am wondering how long before it trickles down to casual users.

4:13PM Don just lays this gem “sometimes the best way to protect data is to never put it in a database.” Agreed, it should be left in various office products like MS Access and Excel, and then store those files inside of Sharepoint.

4:30PM Don Kiely has omnipotent powers over his schemas, or something like that.

5:13PM Maciej is diving into data compression, he just mentioned how vardecimal was introduced with SQL 2005 SP2 and deprecated by the time SQL 2008 RTM came out, setting the record for the shortest lived feature in the history of SQL Server.

6:10PM Jessica just tells us that LOOKUPSET does not mean what you think it means; think ‘lookup’ and ‘set’, not ‘look’ and ‘upset’.

7:48PM Had to drop off to take a phone call but got back in time to swap the audio to Simon’s session. I always enjoy seeing the differences in how T-SQL functions can perform. Liked linked servers, functions are one of those things that can work well in one circumstance and horribly in another and all too often get misused (or abused).

8:24PM Brad always has such great professional advice. I love the fact that he talks about writing down your goals, that is such an important things to do. Getting your thoughts and dreams on paper always make them seem more attainable.

9:24PM Got started a little late, but @kekline is finally in the house to talk about the top ten mistakes in SQL Server. Here’s number one: showing up late for your own presentation.

10:11PM Kevin finished up strong and not Peter Myers is up to talk about PerformancePoint. Which made me realize that Microsoft currently has PerformancePoint, PowerPivot, and PowerPoint. Where’s the PerformancePivot? Or PivotPerformance? My guess is we will see one (or both) of them with SQL11.

11:11PM Shutting things down for a few hours so that my family (including me) can get a little sleep. My streak comes to an end for now. I’ll pick this back up in the morning, should be online for @BrentO.

3:45AM OK, I am back, and just in time to listen to the end of @rob_farley, who stepped in at the very last minute to cover an open spot. Sounds like his presentation was a good one and I am sorry to have missed it live. Here’s hoping I get a chance to meet him at the PASS Summit later this year.

5:13AM Rushabh gave a great overview of Master Data Services and we are now getting an overview of CPU’s from Thomas Grohser. My favorite part so far? That would be when he said “If snapping your finger once a second is memory access, doing it once every 11 days is disk access.” A wonderful way to conceptualize what is happening inside that black box known as a server.

5:46AM Thomas’ phone just rang (at least I think it was his phone) and it reminded me how the US is always behind when it comes to things like polyphonic ringtones.

6:06AM @drsql gets us into the right frame of mind by giving his talk the sub-title of “Things that had the people who designed some of your databases considered then you could be upgrading to sql 2008 r2 without a lot of work”. If you look up the phrase “liquid awesome” you will see that sub-title as one of the definitions.

6:07AM Louis now just claimed that chess is also a pie. This could be the most confusing session I have ever attended and I once listened to Jerry Tarkanian talk to me for 45 minutes about how the best thing you can do for your basketball team is to have an Armenian as your 12th man.

6:26AM Funny, but Louis just described all the ways you don’t want to design a database and he ended up also describing Sharepoint.

6:45AM And now Louis just told us to find a new career. Wait, it might have been just me that needs a new career. Still not sure, but I think there was a double negative in that slide or in his answer. But to cover myself I re-enabled my account on Monster.

7:01AM And we made it to the last session, @BrentO is ready to take us home.

7:06AM Apparently Brent has money to burn, and he smokes cigars by lighting them with hundred-dollar bills. And he names his servers after the stations on Lost.

7:26AM Brent just showed us how to check to make certain that a DBCC CHECKDB has been run against a particular database. I never thought about checking for that, and I am now thinking of a new custom monitor for OpsMgr. But I am also thinking about how I want some pumpkin pie, thanks to @datachick.

7:53AM Brent just showed no fewer than six tips on how to hack into your database server, including “Devious Dave” who created a trigger to delete data after they have left the company. I am thinking Brent is looking for a side job with a security firm.

8:00AM And we’re done, just like that another 24 hours of my life has passed. It seems like only yesterday.

Fortunately we have something that all of those movies were lacking: a reason to watch. With SQL Server 2008 R2 having been recently launched we were able to structure our event to include a heapin’ helpin’ of R2 along with sessions on SQL 2008, Episode 10. And with the early reviews of R2 just starting to come in, I am looking forward to attending as many sessions as possible, especially the R2 sessions.

With all that in mind, I am going to use quotes from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back to give you a preview of what is to come this Wednesday. Empire is one of the most successful movies of all time, and is one of those rare sequels to be even more successful than the original, which only seems fitting right now.

“Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder! [pause] Who’s scruffy-looking?”

This quote reminds me about the comments I received regarding my beard growth during the event last year when I attended all 24 sessions and broadcast myself on UStream. I will be broadcasting myself again this time, but I am not guaranteeing that I will be attending all the sessions due to the start and end time being at 8AM for me and the fact that I need to be at work the next day, otherwise I would have to take two vacation days for the event. I love PASS and all, but I love taking vacations with my family as well.

“Control, control, you must learn control!”

Have you heard about the new feature in R2 called the Utility Control Point? Do you want to hear about this new feature? Then you will want to register for Glenn Berry’s session. Glenn is an expert in this area and was one of the first people to contact me to tell me that Microsoft was going to be updating the UCP in the near future to allow for monitoring SQL 2008 instances that have had SP2 applied. When Glenn contacted me I felt like I was in on a secret, similar to when the name of this movie was leaked over thirty years ago. I remember telling my friends that I knew the name to the movie and how excited we all were and…OK, I’ll stop now, because I have learned control.

“All right, I’ll give it a try…  No! Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

This is for all of the people and all of the effort it takes in order for this event to run smoothly. There are 24 presenters, there are 24 hosts for those presenters, and there are four event coordinators that help to oversee the sessions as well. That’s over fifty people and we haven’t even talked about the people behind the scenes involved in marketing and community coordination. Last year my role in this event was to show up and smile for the camera. This year I was asked to take on more responsibilities and my first thought was “I’ll try.” As the quote suggests, there is no try, it really is do…or do not.

“What is thy bidding, my master?”

Who else would this quote be for but Brent Ozar, MCM? No one, that’s who. Brent is presenting a session titled “Blitz! 60 Minute Server Takeovers“, where he will tell you what to do when someone dumps a server in your lap that you never knew existed, kinda like when some hologram of an old man shows up and tells you that your son is still alive and is coming to kill the both of you.

“Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1. Never tell me the odds.“

This is how I feel when it comes to navigating the field of Master Data Management. It seems so overwhelming, like having a thousand pieces of rock flying at you from all directions. Fortunately we have our own Rushabh Mehta to help us navigate through the Master Data Services feature of SQL Server 2008 R2. And just how awesome is Indiana Jones that he can kick ass in two different galaxies in two different time periods?

“Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well.”

If you are looking for something impressive you need only to examine the sessions list. Check out the names. Read the session titles. Pick any session to attend, set aside an hour of your time, and when it is done you will feel as if Obi-Wan himself has taught you something, and taught you well.

“If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.  He told me enough! He told me *you* killed him!  No. *I* am your father. No. No. That’s not true. That’s impossible!”

The movie’s signature moment is reserved for our signature format: 24 continuous sessions, broadcast live, with 24 different speakers located throughout the globe. Impossible? Not as impossible as finding out your father is Darth Vader, that you have a twin sister, or that 30 years of bloodshed is going to be brought to an end by a band of muppets named Ewoks. Seriously, how could the Emperor not see that coming? Where’s the “power of the dark side” when you need it?

“Sir, rebel ships are coming into our sector.  Good, our first catch of the day.”

The first catch of our day will be “Introduction to PowerPivot” by Brian Knight. I was very excited to be able to secure Brian in the lead off spot for this event particularly when he told me he wanted to speak on PowerPivot, an instrumental piece to the entire SQL 2008 R2 launch. How excited? About as excited as I was to join the Bacon of the Month club.

“Lord Vader, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we’re preparing to… [Ozzel stops, and suddenly begins to choke, clutching at his throat] You have failed me for the last time, Admiral. Captain Piett? Yes, my lord? Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy field, and deploy the fleet, so that nothing gets off the system. [beside Piett, Admiral Ozzel utters one last strangled gasp, and falls over dead] You are in command now, Admiral Piett. Thank you, Lord Vader. “

There is nothing quite like a battlefield promotion, and Lord Vader shows us one way to get the job done here. Many of us, myself included, became a DBA by similar circumstances; there was a vacancy that we were asked to fill. I often hear people refer to us as “involuntary” or “accidental” DBAs, kinda how Admiral Piett took over that Star Destroyer. I have no idea if Admiral Piett was able to get 24 hours of free training on how to operate that Star Destroyer, but I do know where to go for free training for SQL Server.

I hope that you will be able to take part in this wonderful event this Wednesday and Thursday. See you there!

http://sqlpass.eventpoint.com/cft

There are five tracks for this year’s Summit:

• Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
• Application and Database Development
• BI Platform Architecture, Development and Administration
• BI Information Delivery
• Professional Development

I am thinking of submitting 2-3 abstracts myself and I have until June 5th to get them done!

1. PowerPivot
2. PerformancePoint
3. Utility Control Point
4. Parallel Data Warehouse
5. StreamInsight
6. Master Data Management
7. Multi-Server Management
8. Report Builder
9. Data Tier Applications

And who are the speakers we have lined up to present during the event? Why, check out these names (listed alphabetically by height):

Adam Machanic, Andy Leonard, Brad McGehee, Brent Ozar, Brian Knight, Chuck Heinzelman, Dean Richards, Don Kiely, Don Vilen, Donald Farmer, Glenn Berry, Greg Low, Jacob Sebastian, Jessica Moss, Kevin Cox, Kevin Kline, Louis Davidson, Maciej Pilecki, Peter Myers, Peter Ward, Rushabh Mehta, Sean McCown, Simon Sabin, and Thomas Grohser!

Thanks Tom, How Can I Participate?

Well, why not register for the event? What are you waiting for?

And just like last time, I will be on UStream live during the event. Did you not register yet?

At this point, May 19th is like a cross between Cinco de Mayo and Bastille Day for me. I can hardly wait for them to arrive.

See you there!