I have wanted to go to PASS Summit for the last several years, but have yet to get an opportunity to attend. This year, I “reaaalllllllyyyyyy” want to attend now that the Pre-Cons and Spotlight sessions have been revealed to the public. PASS announced the Pre-Conference seminars and Spotlight sessions and let me tell you first hand of the all-star talent released so far! Community leaders such as Brian Knight, Grant Fritchey, Brent Ozar, Stacia Misner, Aaron Nelson and Adam Machanic (to name a f...
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Tomorrow (4/30/2011) is SQL Saturday #74 in Jacksonville Florida and once again, I am giving a talk with other well known SQL Server Guru’s. Register for the event right now…Pack up your computer tomorrow morning and head over to UNF Campus at 8:00 AM tomorrow. You will get some awesome free (YES I SAID FREE) training from well seasoned presenters like Andy Warren, Scott Gleason, Tim Radney, Kendall Van Dyke, Kevin Boles, Mike Mollenhour and nearly ALL of the Pragmatic Works team. My session tom...
If you're on twitter, follow the #SQLPass hash tag and @briankmcdonald for up-to-date information. You may have heard that PASS is introducing a new, regional conference this spring. It’s called PASS SQLRally, and it’s taking place May 11-13 in Orlando. I’m excited to be speaking, and I encourage you to register. PASS SQLRally provides high-quality, real-world SQL Server and BI technical training at one of the most affordable rates you’ll find. Why you should attend: Learn from some of the most ...
Here at Pragmatic Works, we are not just a bunch of great consultants! We create software too! Some that helps organizations with migrating packages from DTS to SSIS . We also have some pretty wicked software that saves time documenting packages, cubes and databases. Furthermore, we have components and tasks that add functionality to SSIS and a robust auditing and notification framework . All of which are great investments for any organization that uses the Microsoft BI stack of products, but ch...
Problem A post was recently added to one of the forums that I monitor so that I can help users in the SQL Server community with their issues. In this problem/solution blog post I am referencing a user trying aggregate Category and Subcategory Sales values. Not to tricky so far right? One of the other requirements was that he didn’t want to show any results where the total of the subcategory sales were less than a threshold of 20K. I personally wouldn’t want a report to filter out this data, but ...
As your database grows in size, Analysis Services cubes that use that database grow along with it. As such, one thing that can improve performance of your cube is partitioning (splitting up) your measures. In this post, I am going to quickly show you how to switch from a table binding partition (default) to a query binding partition using a cube that I have built off of the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database. In the end, you’ll know how to split your large measure groups into smaller chunks of data...
In a previous blogs, I discussed what shared schedules were and walked you through step by step instructions on how to create shared schedules . Then I showed you how to create a standard subscription using the shared schedule. In this final post of the series, I am going to show you two ways to determine what reports are using the shared schedule. If you missed my previous posts or need a refresher on how to create them, you can read them by navigating to the links above. Since this blog is par...
SQL Saturday #70 (Twitter: #SQLSat70) was another successful event! And...I had yet another full house (some even left due to space constraints) and others even sat on the floor (Jessica Moss Twitter: @jessicammoss ). Although I'm not sure why someone didn't give up their seat for her. At any rate though, the point of this post is to supply my slide deck, test solution and misc scripts and text files. You can download them here . I want to thank all of those who tweeted about my session and thos...
W hile flipping through this month’s SQL Server Magazine (December 2010 ), I came across what I thought was a very interesting top 10 list of “ Favorite Go-To Websites for SQL Server Solutions ”. I could not find the list on the website, but if you have the December 2010 magazine, you can find it on page 21 in the Editors’ Best and Community Choice Awards. Here is the list provided by SQL Server Magazine: www.sqlservercentral.com – you can follow me here www.bidn.com – here www.sqlserverpedia.co...
If you are anywhere within driving distance to Columbia, South Carolina, register NOW and then hop in your car Friday evening (3/18/2011) or early Saturday morning (3/19/2011) and get some free training. This is going to be another great SQL Saturday event. You can find out more details at the SQL Saturday website, but I am slated to talk on my ever so popular Reporting Services Deep Dive. Make no mistake in arriving late! This session is always jammed packed with people’s heads in the doorways....
This site really is about business intelligence, but it is good to mix things up a bit every now and then. Also, I was told by my boss that blogs should be a way for people to get to know who we are. And sure…I work a ton, and as such I increase my skills in all aspects of my career, but I am also a family man. I have an awesome wife and two wonderful children that I would do whatever I could to change the World to help them have a better future. In college, we called ourselves “World Changers”....
While in Cincinnati for the first time since September of 2007, I heard on several occasions that I work too much and need to slow down to "smell the roses" or "enjoy the fruits of my labor". In fact, I've even heard that quite a few times from others as well, but I thought what a great way to see how much I do by writing a blog to review my work over the last year. As such, this blog is solely meant as a year in review of my presentations, articles and blogs that I have provided to the SQL Serv...
I just wanted to take a moment to thank Kevin Kline , Brent Ozar , Christian Bolton, Bob Ward, Rod Colledge and Raoul Illyaos for creating the SQL Server PerfMon Counters of Interest PDF file available for download on Quest.com. If you ever have to dig into some serious performance monitoring, this pdf will definitely help you. It tells all kinds of great values to look for and even gives you some good benchmark values that you want. I only wish they would have released this back in September wh...
In my two previous blogs in this series, I discussed shared schedules and walked you through step by step instructions on how to create shared them . In this post, I am going to show you how you can create a subscription using the new shared schedule. If you missed my previous posts or need a refresher on how to create them, you can read them by navigating to the links above. Since this blog is part 3 of a series, if you want to follow along, I encourage you to do so. J I will be continuing on w...
I can’t tell you that all of your dreams will come true. I won’t tell you that you will make it halfway there! However, I will go out on a limb and make this statement. If you don’t make a goal and make a conscious effort to do what it takes to reach that goal, you will never reach it! Some of you might think to yourselves…What is this geek talking about? If you re-read what my statement I bold above and it is still unclear, you are probably having trouble reaching your true potential. Maybe it ...
In my previous post, I discussed what shared schedules were and how you could use them. With that knowledge under your belt, I can now show you how to create one using the enhanced report manager released with 2008 R2. Step By Step Fire up your internet browser and connect to your report manager (http://servername/reports) and navigate to Site Settings as shown in figure 4. Figure 4: Report Manager - Site Settings Select the Schedules tab as shown below in figure 5. If you do not have any shared...
As you will see by the dates in my screenshots, I wrote them quite a while back while touring the world mastering the art of Ultimate Fighting. Yes, I consider it a form of art. Maybe that is why I forgot about this in my blog pile. One too many hits to my skull that is! :) At any rate, my beautiful wife, (who was going to be training some people in TSQL and SSRS this week) asked me if I had any blogs or articles about it and I said that I did. Only to find out that I never actually posted them!...
Most of my examples utilize either adhoc type of data samples or one of the versions of AdventureWorks. I do this so that the reader (you) can see and duplicate my efforts. In working with the various versions of the AW databases, I’ve often completed web searches to look for a database diagram. Not only to make it easier for me to find them, but also anyone else out there digging for them; I have a zipped up file containing the below files. AdventureWorks.pdf AdventureWorks2008R2.pdf AdventureW...
Tomorrow, I will be presenting at the Jacksonville SQL Server Users Group (JSSUG) meeting. Please join me for my talk on SQL Server Reporting Services, as I will be showing you pretty much everything that you need to get started using Reporting Services 2008/2008 R2. This talk will be jammed pack with demonstrations, so please come and be ready to learn. Meeting Time, Location and Details: In an ongoing attempt to make the content presented useful to our members we start each meeting with a shor...
I have been using this tool for quite a while and just remembered that I haven’t written a blog about it! I believe it to be an extremely useful tool for anyone who uses SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and it is a must have for any hard core DBA or Database Developer. Not only is “it” a great tool, it is completely FREE! Yes… I said completely FREE!!! The tool is called SQL Search and is provided by Redgate! If you go to their website , you’ll see the below three bullet points that basically...
First and foremost, I would like to send a sincere thank you to everyone who voted for my Reporting Services Boot Camp session for SQL Rally. And in case you haven't heard, I have won the category and will be presenting. There were a lot of great sessions submitted and I am honored that you (the SQL Community) has voted for my session. I am so thankful for the opportunity and am looking forward to the event. Below is a list of the winning sessions for the BI Track: Administration: The BI DBA (Ra...
All, ** 2/6/2011 updated link below ** Since SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 came out, I have been working very close within the BIDS environment and every other aspect of Reporting Services to include the architecture. With the many changes that we saw between 2005 and 2008 R2, I have compiled a boot camp style presentation and have delivered it many times to completely filled (and some even hanging out along the sides, backs and the doorways of many) SQL Server community events. I have poli...
This past weekend, I had a talk on SQL Server Reporting Services down in Tampa Florida for SQL Saturday 62. It was a great event organized by Pam Shaw. My talk was right after lunch and the lunch sessions were running a little bit late, so when I arrived, I was setting up quickly while people were still piling into the room. Before I was even done setting up, all of the seats (approx 50) were taken up and about 20-25 more were along the sides and back of the room. It was packed! :) The session w...
Indexes play a huge role in the performance of a query. Without indexes, your very simple query to get the last 100 records from a table could take forever to return. Well, maybe not forever, but you get the point. For example, I have a query and its results of the Execution Plan shown in figure 1. As you can see, it took 1 minute and 36 seconds to complete. Not very acceptable in my eyes! In this quick and dirty blog, I just want to show you an example of what results one might see by creating ...
Yesterday, I posted a blog about my year in review for 2010 . So, I thought that it would be a good idea to post my aspirations for 2011. If at the very least to keep myself motivated and focused on my personal goals. J Writings Since I wrote so many blogs and articles in 2010, this year may be a little tough to keep up with 2011. Even with 4 extra months to blog, I don’t think that I will be able to hit 100 this year. However, I will definitely shoot for 75 postings, but will save some of my ti...