PASS Archives - Page 4 of 6

February 1, 2012

Always Move Forward

Can you believe it’s February already? 2012 is flying by! I’m thankful that I’m crazy busy, and the partnership with Ben is going well (knock on wood). I’m really looking forward to the training class in March and psyched to have another Training Day at SQLBits X (have you registered yet? No? Go do it!). It’s been a fun travel year already. With one trip to Seattle and California under my belt already, I’ve got quite a few trips between now and April (including across the Atlantic to SQLBits in March) with a few more pending.At this rate, I’ll hit 50,000 miles in the air by mid-year. I know, first world problems – cry your crocodile tears for me.

Quite frankly, since late August when my friend Mike passed away (see Life Is Fragile and Fitting Tribute to a Hero for more info), things have been a blur. Last week (January 25 to be exact) would have been his 40th birthday. No wonder it’s been a somewhat “meh” couple of weeks for me. Considering I just had my 40th at the end of November, it’s all still very visceral for me. Little things remind me of him and probably always will. Rest in peace, my friend.

I also blogged a little about my substandard PASS scores. And no, they were not in the 2s, but certainly poor. To be perfectly honest, since I briefly looked at them back in December, I can’t bring myself to really look at them again. I remember some of the comments. Some were spot on. Looking back at the possible reasons for failure (at least in my eyes), like I said in that blog post – any problems fall squarely on my shoulders. I can’t blame anyone else, but I could certainly use some excuses such as:

I used a build that was not very old and I had just gotten clearance a few days before to use – and right before the holidays so I didn’t have much time to work with it. I knew the risk, and I bit the dirt on that one.
In retrospect, the death of my friend really impacted me more than I could have ever imagined. Even with killer material and solid demos, I probably still would have had a sub-par PASS by any stretch of the imagination. Again, not an excuse, but looking back I can see where that really weighed on me.
I was a bit far ahead of the curve. Since it’s not a stretch to say that SQL Server 2012 will RTM soon now that we’re at the Release Candidate and full adoption for many customers is months, if not a year or more away, doing all SQL Server 2012 material that early was a big risk.

So I went big, took risks, and failed. That’s OK – it’s a good learning exercise and I’d probably do it again. Why? Well, I didn’t get where I am today without taking some big leaps of faith in myself (and sometimes those around me) along with some risks along the way. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You can learn from both. If you never experience failure or disappointment (real disappointment, not the “Mommy didn’t buy me the stuffed animal at the toy store” kind), I’m not sure you can ever understand what success looks like. At least that’s how I feel on the matter.

Despite the fact I have done this for years, my PASS scores showed I may need to brush up on presenting, so I’m actually looking to improve my presentation skills. I’ve done a few things already (including getting a few books) that I hope will show some positive results. Last week at the SQL Bare Metal training in Redmond, I got up and did an impromptu 20 minute presentation that felt really good. No deck, just demos; and no preparation. That was a tough audience – all MCMs, MVPs, and other really smart folks who know SQL well. Easy to bomb there. I didn’t. Maybe it is working. You can let me know when you see me present at SQL Saturday in Mountain View or at SQLBits, and even the training class in March.

To be honest, even if I never score in the top 5 or 10 at a conference, I get more satisfaction from people that come up to me – be it 1 day or 2 years later – saying they took something from a talk I did and it helped them. Those are measurable results numbers won’t ever show.

The journey matters, not just the destination. A score is just a number. Having a positive impact on someone is much better than a score in the long term.

December 13, 2011

You Take The Good, You Take The Bad

Hello everyone! I’m waiting for my flight home after my vacation in Japan. It was exactly the break I hoped it would be. I was also glad I got to catch up with a good friend who has been living in Japan for awhile. It’s the little moments in life that make it all worth living. I spent the entire time in Tokyo and got to cross a few things off the proverbial bucket list. It was funny getting off the plane here at O’Hare. The USA has a different vibe – that’s the only way I can describe it. The people talking loudly on cel phones, not caring who hears you … those kinds of things. When you go abroad you get a different perspective on things. I love living here, but I wish a bit more civility would sometimes creep in back on these shores.

Believe it or not, I really didn’t work on vacation. Well, that’s not 100% true – I did answer a handful of e-mails, but that was it. And I looked at my scores from my two PASS sessions. I will just say I was disappointed in myself and leave it at that. It was definitely an off year. The last time I had an off year I believe was when PASS was at the Gaylord in Fort Worth, TX. I could sit and make excuses – like literally having less than a week (more like a few days) to get the demos up since I was using a later build and that the Jewish holiday was right in the middle of that – but I’m not. Any problems fall squarely on my own two feet, and I already know what I’d change in retrospect. All this proves is that no matter how long you’ve been doing it, you can take a lump.The only real comment that surprised me was one basically wondering why I was showing how to set up Windows Server Core when someone else would do it. That’s why many DBAs have issues – they have SQL blinders on. But that’s besides the point.

The question then becomes: how do you deal with that? For me, I’m going to just get over it and move on. No need to dwell on it. Take your knocks, read the feedback, and improve. Next year will be better, and I’m actually excited about a lot of stuff coming up in 2012. More on that in a few days.

In the meantime, I’m going to readjust to the time zone here and get back to work. Hope to see everyone on the Quest webcast this upcoming Thursday.

September 13, 2011

Windows vNext (8) Server Developer Preview Available

Unless you were living under a rock, you couldn’t miss Microsoft’s announcements today about the next version of Windows from the //build conference. It was announced you would be able to download the developer preview here as of tonight. However, that is just the client from what I can tell. What you may not know is that you can also download the Server version – and that is what I’m more interested in. It’s up on MSDN if you have a subscription. I didn’t see it on the TechNet subscription downloads (at least not yet).

Of course, there will be failover clustering enhancements revealed this week. Once they are public, I may address some of them as they relate to SQL. However, if you plan on attending my PASS pre-conference “A Deep Dive into AlwaysOn: Failover Clustering and Availability Groups” on October 11 (and if you haven’t registered, why not?), I should have some Windows 8-based demos (fingers crossed). I just finished downloading the Windows Server Developer Preview … here we go!

August 3, 2011

MVP Renewal, Schedule and Training Updates

With everything that’s been going on, I realized I haven’t updated anyone on what’s been going on and let you know of some great opportunities to take some training I’ll be delivering.

MVP Renewal
First and foremost, I was renewed on July 1st as a Cluster MVP for the period of 7/1/11 to 6/30/12. I’m very honored. Trust me when I say that I never assume that it will happen, and it’s definitely NOT automatic.

SQL Server Foundations – 2 Day Online eLearning Event August 30 and September 1
I’ll be delivering a six session, two day training webinar in conjunction with Penton Media and SQL Server Magazine to cover some of the basics folks need when dealing with SQL Server. I am very excited to do this, as I often just deliver training that is only cluster and/or high availability related. It won’t be death by PowerPoint – I promise! This will be a fun couple of days.

The sessions break down as follows (full abstracts at the link below):
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30
Session 1: Core SQL Server Engine Concepts, 11 am ET
Session 2: SQL Server High Availability Part 1, 1 pm ET
Session 3: SQL Server High Availability Part 2, 3 pm ET
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST:
Session 1: Implementation Strategies, 11 am ET
Session 2: Successful SQL Server Administration Techniques, 1 pm ET
Session 3: Practical Backup and Restore, 3 pm ET

The cost is a really good deal – $218 for all six sessions. With everyone having tight training budgets, this is a really economical way to get training without having to deal with a travel budget!

I believe it is like the others I have done with them in the past where you can view them later as well. You can ask Penton to make sure.

For full details and to register, click here.

24 Hours of PASS
Hot off the presses! Just announced today is the latest incarnation of 24 Hours of PASS, the Summit Preview version. I will be doing the session “Multi-Site Failover Clustering With SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Denali” at 19:00 (7PM) GMT/15:00 Eastern US (3PM)/12:00 Western US on September 7. Click here to register.

Pre-Conference Seminar at PASS Summit
I’m very psyched about this. I was flattered when PASS picked my abstract out of the many they received. – it’s a big deal! I will be doing DBA-499-P Deep Dive into AlwaysOn: Failover Clustering and Availability Groups (click on the link for a full abstract) on Tuesday, October 11. This will be a full day of Denali high availability training focusing on what’s new in failover clustering as well as talking about the new AlwaysOn availability groups feature. The day will have lots of demos and unlike the webinars, it will allow you to be more interactive instead of just a Q&A session at the end.

The lineup for the two days of pre-conference seminars at PASS is quite frankly awesome. Lots of good stuff, and I don’t envy the decisions people will have to make to choose what to go to. Of course, I recommend choosing mine for the second day and something else for the first. But I may be a bit biased …

The cost for the each pre-conference is $395 in addition to the cost of Summit itself. What are you waiting for? Go register!

PASS Summit Spotlight Session
Besides the pre-conference seminar, I’ll be doing a spotlight session (DBA-408-S) entitled “Implementing SQL Server Denali Using Windows Server Core” (click for the abstract). Windows Server Core is a variation of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 that allows you to have a GUI-less server. Denali is the first version of SQL Server to support this variant of the underlying OS. If things like command line and PowerShell get you excited, this is the session for you.

Whew! That’s a pretty action packed schedule for the next few months which doesn’t include any of the day-to-day work or private things that I deliver. I haven’t figured out what I will be doing after PASS Summit, so stay tuned. I am eying SQL Saturday 96 in Washington D.C. on November 5th, though.

Hope to see you at one or all of these!

May 10, 2011

Vote for (My) Sessions at PASS Summit 2011: The Power Is In Your Hands

Pass Summit 2011 is not that far away. Unlike years past where all the sessions were picked by PASS, this year, you can take an active part in what sessions may ultimately be chosen to be presented. PASS is asking you to vote for your preferred sessions by May 20, 2011 to help them decide. I think this is a great move. Of course, I hope you vote for all of my sessions, but vote nonetheless. I submitted five sessions: one precon, one of the new half day sessions, and three normal ones. This year, I decided to go big or go home (so to speak) with the topics and abstracts I submitted.

A Deep Dive into AlwaysOn: Failover Clustering and Availability Groups [400]
Session Category: Pre-conference Session (7 hours)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
When it comes to the availability landscape, Denali changes the game for SQL Server deployments. There many new enhancements and for traditional failover clustering deployments for instances such as flexible failover policies and multi-site clusters that can and will change the way you plan, deploy, and administer. In addition to the changes to failover clustering, there is a whole new feature: availability groups. Availability groups may enable some scenarios that you have had trouble with in the past, such as using a standby database for reporting and some maintenance. This full day will take a deep dive into these two features and tell you everything you need to know about not only the changes to failover clustering, but the proper way to plan, deploy, and administer availability groups to be successful from day one with Denali. If you do not want a basic “this is failover clustering” or a quick introduction to availability groups, nor do you want just a day of theory but want to see everything live (including combining clustered instances with availability groups to increase availability even more), this day is exactly what you need.

Deploying Highly Available Multi-Site SQL Server 2008 R2 or Denali Using Windows Server 2008 R2 [300]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
Planning a failover clustering implementation in a single data center is fairly straightforward, but what happens when you want to span data centers? Introducing distance complicates matters. What you have to do depends on the version of SQL Server you are deploying. Using the combination of Windows Server 2008 R2 with SQL Server Denali can potentially make things much easier. This session will discuss how to plan and deploy either a multi-site SQL Server 2008 R2 or a Denali failover clustering instance, the differences between the approaches, and introduce some new concepts like asymmetric storage and why you need to know about it. In addition to traditional instances, this session will also cover how to plan for a multi-site Denali AlwaysOn Availability Group implementation since it is based on Windows failover clustering even if you are not using a failover clustering instance. A real multi-site cluster will be demonstrated.

Implementing SQL Server Denali Using Windows Server Core [400]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
One of the most exciting new features in SQL Server Denali is support for Windows Server Core. Server Core is a minimal installation of Windows which has no GUI. For those who want to reduce patching and increase security, Server Core is the way to go. This session will cover the tips, tricks, and best practices for what you need to do to get SQL Server Denali up and running both for clusters and standalone implementations without any user interface.

Is That A Failover Cluster On Your Laptop? [300]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
Over the years, one of the most common questions I am asked is, “How can I configure a cluster on my machine?” Ask no more! Maybe you do not have a cluster anywhere other than production. Production should never be the first place you do certain tasks such as installing a service pack against a clustered instance of SQL Server. Or maybe you are looking to set up a development or QA environment, use such a configuration for demos while speaking, or you just want learn about clustering. This session is for you. Using virutalization gives you the ability to create a cluster without needing lots of expensive physical hardware and is something every DBA should have in their arsenal. This session will demystify the “magic” behind using configuring a cluster on your laptop or desktop using either Vmware or Hyper-V and discuss best practices, tips, and tracks. Demonstrations will include how to configure the virutal hardware via the virtual machines themselves, the domain controller, and the iSCSI storage solution. Note that this session will not be showing how to install SQL Server itself: it is focused on the things you would need to do at base level to be able to cluster both Windows and SQL Server. The discussion will cover multiple OSes and SQL Server versions (including Denali), and touch on how to approach simulating a “multi-site” failover cluster.

Windows Failover Clustering for the DBA [300]
Session Category: 1/2 Day Sessions (3.5 hours)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
While there are numerous resources to show you how to run through SQL Server Setup to deploy a clustered SQL Server instance, the most important thing DBAs must understand about the clustering process is absent: how to plan, deploy, and administer the underlying Windows failover cluster. It may be some other person’s job in your company to do this task, but it can make or break your installations. Starting from the ground up, this session is designed to get DBAs up to speed on all of the underlying components and concepts that will affect the performance, security, availability, and stability of their clustered SQL Server deployments up through SQL Server Denali. In addition to understanding and planning, how to properly administer and troubleshoot a Windows failover cluster from a SQL Server perspective will be covered. Did you ever want to know how to properly use the PowerShell cmdlets in Windows Server 2008 R2? Have a question on how to properly deploy DTC with Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2? Do you want to know how to properly configure Kerberos for clustered instances? Want to learn how to approach troubleshooting? Do you want to know why mount points matter and why things like CNOs and VCOs matter (and how to deal with them in different OUs)? These are just some of the questions that will be answered to help you demystify the Windows portion of clustering. Most things discussed will be demonstrated live.

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