Pragmatic Works has now released version 3.5 of the award-winning BIxPress software ! For those not familiar with BIxPress it’s a tool that helps you develop SSIS/SSAS solutions faster, easily/quickly deploy SSIS packages, monitor performance SSIS packages and much, much more ! So what’s new with 3.5 ? In addition to now having SQL Server 2012 support (SSIS), you may have noticed in previous released that Reporting Services didn’t get much love. That all changes with this relea...
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Now that SQL Server 2012 is generally available to the public , many companies are looking the new platform and trying to figure out how to move to it and take advantage of all the new cool features. Unfortunately, some folks haven’t noticed/been aware of some of the fine print that came along with this release. I think at this point, it’s safe to say, mostly everyone knows about the change to a core-based licensing model . The part that is now causing major heartache with folks is a...
This is just a quick post to remind folks who are current Microsoft MVP s that Pragmatic Works offers NFR licenses of its software ! This NFR offer includes: BIxPress - Audit, Notify, Deploy and Manage SSIS Packages BIDocumenter - One Stop Documentation Solution for SQL Server, SSAS, SSRS and SSIS Task Factory - Collection of high performance SSIS components DTSxChange (10-pack) - Profile, Convert and Monitor. One stop DTS to SSIS Migration Solution To get your licenses simply email our Sales fo...
I just wrapped up my 24 Hours of PASS session on consolidation. A big THANK YOU again to everyone in attendance, who kindly put up with my horrendous rapping "skills"! As promised, below is the link to the slide deck. In the presenter's notes you'll find some good links and resources for consolidation. Download link: STOP_Consolidate_and_Listen_24HOP (ZIP file) If you have any additional questions around consolidation, virtualization or my general sanity feel free to leave them in the comments s...
I work for a very large company where divisions are spread out literally all over the world. There are many times where I have to confer with someone else remotely in order to get something done or figure out an issue. When working on a server we all know and love using Remote Desktop to connect but did you know there's a way to share your session so both parties can interact? Well did you know it's built in to Windows 2003/2008? To do this is actually quite simple and I'm surprised it's not mor...
Expressions in SISS are great. They allow you to create dynamic values for all sorts of stuff like variables, connection strings, properties for almost anything, etc. One huge issue that tends to trip up a lot of folks, especially those new to SSIS, is the evaluation of those expressions when using variables. Issue: You create an SSIS variable with an expression but at runtime the expression is not evaluating as expected. Instead the expression value is using the default/static value of the vari...
Inspired by common emails and questions I see, I figured I’d do a series of blog posts on common mistakes folks make with SQL Server called Monday Morning Mistakes (or #sqlM3 for short, since we all love quick hashtags these days). These are meant as quick fixes, nothing too comprehensive. Also since I just made up a hashtag, feel free to share your own #sqlM3 tips on Twitter anytime! Without further ado… Today’s quick issue: Can connect to SQL Server locally but can’t c...
Welcome back to another addition of Monday Morning Mistakes series. Today’s issue is one I tend to run into quite often with clients and is an important topic to know about as a database administrator. Without further ado, let’s get to our issue Issue You have SQL Server database engine installed on a system with other services such as Analysis Services, Reporting Services and/ or Integration Services and you constantly seem to run out of memory. Restarting service seems to fix the i...
I’m in the middle of a database migration and thought I’d quickly share a script I threw together to show estimated time of completion for a database restore in progress on SQL Server. The script will also show you estimated time for database backups to complete as well. Please don't take this script as gospel, the best way to truly know how long restores will take is to actually perform a restore! Remember folks: Backups are worthless, restores are pricess SELECT session_id, start_t...
This week we’re going to talk about a topic that has been gaining steam in the last few years and as it has it has started impacting database administrator’s worlds more and more: virtualization. Why do I make this statement? Well since the economy currently sucks, shops are finding ways to consolidate and make their dollars stretch a little further. Back in the day when you had a new application you pretty much went out and bought yourself some new servers and went on your merry way...
Well this was quite the little surprise this morning. Microsoft announced a new edition to the SQL Server lineup for 2012 – Business Intelligence edition. In addition to a new edition (funnily I don’t see Datacenter in that lineup) we also have a new licensing scheme for SQL Server. In SQL 2012 it looks like Microsoft is finally moving to the core-based licensing model. Ladies and gentlemen, start your grumbling! Okay, seriously, the new licensing scheme shouldn’t be that big o...
Same functionality but obvious differences If you’ve worked with SSIS for any amount of time, you may quickly come to find that the native way of deploying packages can be…cumbersome. The native tools, while helpful, aren’t exactly the most intuitive to setup or use. This post will show you how you can quickly and easily deploy and configure packages using BIxPress. Old and Busted Before I show you how to deploy packages, I should probably quickly explain how to deploy package...
Today on Twitter my friend Jes “Run Forrest Run” Schultz Borland ( Blog | Twitter ) asked the Community “How do you clean up your dev environments? Let DBs sit out there forever? Delete after X months? Other? This seemed like an interesting issue to tackle and me being the PBM freak that I am, immediately I had a light bulb moment for a policy. In this post I’ll show you a policy you can run against your databases (can work in dev or whatever environment suits you) and wi...
[NOTE] My blog post scheduling-fu is weak, so this post didn’t go out Friday as planned. My apologies. This is the final installment of our Small Business series. So far we talked about how to get the software , and we’ve talked about the different options of SQL Server available to you. Today we’re going to talk about what hardware you’ll need as a small business to setup your database environment for success. Backups, Backups, BACKUPS! Before we even start getting into ...
In our last session we talked a little bit about the different options you have in regards to SQL Server in your environment. We talked about HOW to get the software but now we’re going to talk about what the different editions are and what they offer you. For a quick comparison between editions you can use the Edition Comparison page at the Microsoft site. As a small business you’re looking to get the best bang for your buck. You also want to make sure that whatever decision you go ...
Welcome back to SQL University! This week we’re going to be discussing architecture. In previous weeks we’ve discussed architecture at a high level ( Capacity Planning Week ) but this week we’re going to get a little more focused. SQL Server is used by businesses of all sizes from local grocery stores to large-scale sites like MySpace (Case Study) or GoDaddy (Case Study). So why are we focusing on architecture for small businesses? The reason is that if you’re expecting f...
I’m very proud to announce that Pragmatic Works will be presenting a Business Intelligence Workshop pre-con for SQLSaturday #85 in Orlando on Friday September 23rd! In this session you’ll have not one, not two, not three but FOUR Pragmatic Works consultants walking you through how to develop a full business intelligence solution from the ground up! Your instructors for this awesome pre-con are: Jorge Segarra ( Twitter | Blog ) I'm a BI Consultant for Pragmatic Works and a SQL Server MVP. In addi...
I can’t believe it, but I can finally say that I’m now officially a Microsoft SQL Server MVP ! Last week I got the great news from my MVP lead, Ryan Bolz ( Twitter ) in…a peculiar way. Allow me to explain. Typically MVP renewals and new awardees are notified four times a year, once every quarter. This past quarter’s notifications went out on July 1st. Like so many in the community, when the quarterly MVP day rolled around I was guilty of refreshing my inbox every 5 minutes for 24 hours hoping fo...
Recently I found out that my PASS presentation submission 'Policy-Based Management' has a second chance to be accepted for the conference (which I'm really grateful for!) but I need your help! Please take a minute to head over to the Community Choice Sessions page and cast your vote (up to 5 selections). As long as I'm pandering for votes, please cast a check for some of my fellow co-workers as well! Give Robert Cain ( Blog | Twitter ) a birthday gift and vote for him and his "Project Juneau" se...
At work recently, I explained to a coworker the reasons and benefits of having databases in Simple mode in your development environment. Funnily enough, a few hours later, I see my friend Andie Letourneau ( Blog | Twitter ) posted a blog on how to adjust your recovery modes in development . While Andie's homework assignment is to substitute it with a WHILE loop, I have MUCH simpler solution using Policy-Based Management! First, let’s create the condition and policy. As always you can either use ...
Whether you know it or not, Policy-Based Management is an integral part of the new release of SQL Server "Denali". Did you know that the HADR feature actually leverages PBM for checks? Yup, that's right folks. If you're an administrator and you're NOT using Policy-Based Management yet, I highly recommend you pick up a book and check it out ! So what's new in SQL Server "Denali" CTP3 for Policy-Based Management? I just got the shrink wrap off of it (I'm not quite the go-getter that Aaron Nelson i...
This is just a quick note to let everyone know I've uploaded the project files from my Pragmatic Works webinar on Automating Web Application Deployments with SSIS. You can find the link on my Presentations page . If you missed the presentation you can view the recording of it here . The zip file includes a readme document that highlights some of the important things to setup for project as well as an explanation of the different solution files inside the zip file. If you have any questions or pr...
Updating Resume is NOT Lulz Wow, it's been a crazy last couple of months with LulzSec running around doing what they do. Oh, what's that? You've never heard of them ? Well for many outside of IT this is probably the case. For those of us who ARE in IT have more than likely heard of them as well as their high-profile hacking exploits over the last couple of months. This weekend TechCrunch posted a pretty good discussion piece on how the media has handled LulzSec's exploits. To summarize in my own...
Ah DTS packages...they suck. Seriously, it's 2011. It's been over a decade and we still have SQL 2000 and DTS packages lingering around our shops...sitting there...taunting us...asking to be upgraded but HOW? There's SO much work having to learn SSIS, figure out what the current DTS package even does, figure out what shiny new components in SSIS are equivalent to that legacy crap we created a decade ago and recreate it on the new platform! Well fret not, we at Pragmatic Works got you covered wit...
Prayer Cat Prays Well not THE Bible, but rather the SQL Server Bible ! I'm incredibly excited and proud to say I'll be one of the primary authors on the 2011 edition (aka "Denali"). Who are the rest of the folks involved on this venture? Check out this great list of authors: Primary Authors Adam Jorgensen ( Blog | Twitter ) Patrick LeBlanc ( Blog | Twitter ) Aaron Nelson ( Blog | Twitter ) Denny Cherry ( Blog | Twitter ) Contributing Authors Audrey Hammonds ( Blog | Twitter ) Julie Smith ( Blog ...