SQL Server Radio

In this show, you'll hear lots of stories about time zones, time machines, paradoxes, and what makes humans happy. We also talk about: What is the Max Worker Threads option and when you should change it SQL Server 2016 AlwaysEncrypted limitation More SQL Server setup tips Quoted Identifiers What is Optimize for ad hoc workloads Items mentioned in the show: * Rob Volk at Speaker Idol * The Five Minute Journal * Smart Passive Income

Download Episode (mp3) While at PASS Summit a few weeks ago, we sat together with a few other podcasters for a talk about mentors, speaking, podcasting and community. The participants where: Carlos L. Chacon from the SQL Data Partners podcast Richie Rump from the Away from the Keyboard podcast Chris Bell from the WoxPod podcast Us, Guy and Matan, the SQL Server Radio guys Among other topics, we talked about: Who are our mentors and how have they helped us? What are the qualities of a good mentor? How we started speaking and sharing with the community What should you do when you become a mentor yourself? Why a little bit of guts almost always helps Why it's important to meet new people How SQL Server Radio was started Items mentioned in the show: SQL Data Partners Podcast Away from the Keyboard Podcast WoxPod Podcast Guy entering as Superman at PASS Summit Statistics Parser SQL Server Radio show 8 - SQLRally Inteviews

Download Episode (mp3) In this show, we talk about: * Our experience from PASS Summit and MVP Summit * Sorting by multiple languages in SQL Server * Service Broker enhancements in SQL Server 2016 * Policy Based Management terminology - what are Facets? * Extended Stored Procedures * And of course, what the hell is DPM? We also start a small tradition of giving a few SQL Server setup tips in each show. Items mentioned in the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQItkURnY0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54w4IyGQeJ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNANwv7j5TI * The Data Loading Performance Guide * Ronen Ariely - T-SQL: Sort Data by Multiple Languages * Aaron Bertrand - Service Broker Enhancements in SQL Server 2016  

Download Episode (mp3) In this (rather old) episode, we talk about: * Analyzing real time data with Azure Event Hub and Stream Analytics * What is Agile * Text manipulation in SQL Server * Reading deleted data out of SQL Server * Identifying problems with the new SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator * What is Trace Flag 4199 * Lock Escalation * And more.. Items mentioned in the show: * Identifying SQL Server 2014 New Cardinality Estimator issues and Service Pack 1 improvement * Robert Sheldon - Microsoft Azure Stream Analytics * Rob Sewell - Setting Up and Using Azure VM SQL Automated Backup (and Restore)

Download Episode (mp3) In this show: * We congratulated Matan for being awarded as a SQL Server MVP. Go Matan! * Just around the corner: PASS Summit and MVP Summit. * Think you can catch errors in a remote servers within a distributed transaction? Think again… * How Netflix survived AWS disruption last month by using chaos… * Differences between on-premises and cloud applications * What Google and Facebook know about you… * How fast is technology going to advance one year from now? * One Big RAID 10: The new standard in server storage * Why do we need right outer joins?

Download Episode (mp3) The PASS Summit interview series continues, and today we talk to Pieter Vanhove (Blog | Twitter). Pieter is a Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft, and we talk to him about his experience from Microsoft and his previous job. Among other topics, we talk to Pieter about: * Why you need a morning checklist * How can you do it better with Policy Based Management and a Central Management Server * Migrating SQL Server to Azure * Automation in Azure Pieter was also the first winner of Speaker Idol and therefore won the prize of presenting a session on this year's PASS Summit. We talk about how he won the contest, and also about how he prepared for presenting a session with another presenter that lives more than 5000 kilometers from him. Items mentioned in the show: * Pieter's PASS Summit Session: Run Your DBA Morning Checklist with Policy-Based Management * Pieter Vanhove - How to perform index maintenance on Azure SQL Database About Pieter Pieter Vanhove is a Microsoft Premier Field Engineer in Belgium and has been working with SQL Server since 2000. Performance tuning, SQL audits, migrations and training are part of the job. Pieter has also a profound knowledge in implementing high availability and disaster recovery solutions. Together with the SQLUG in Belgium, he helps organizing SQL Server Days and is also a regular speaker at Belgian and international events.

Download Episode (mp3) We continue our PASS Summit interview series, and today we talk to Carlos Bossy (Blog | Twitter) about Hadoop, Hive and the Hadoop ecosystem in general. There are many technologies in the Hadoop zoo, and we explain what those technologies do, how they work compared to SQL Server tools, and when to use which technology. We also compare R to T-SQL, and even talk a tiny bit about MongoDB. Items mentioned in the show: Carlos' PASS Summit Session: Use Hive and Hadoop for High-Performance Data Warehousing Feodor Georgiev - Using R to Explore Data by Analysis - for SQL Professionals About Carlos Carlos Bossy (MCTS, MCP BI, CBIP) is a data and BI architect with 25 years of experience in software and database development. As principal consultant of his company, Carlos focuses on developing BI solutions, including modeling data warehouses and delivering predictive analytics, integration, and reporting. He has developed warehouses and BI solutions for a variety of industries and state agencies, including health insurance, solar energy, foster care, telecom, and manufacturing.

Download Episode (mp3) Do you know what FOMO means? It means "Fear of Missing Out", and it's a term used in the startup and venture capital fields. However, it's also relevant for us as DBAs, and we start the show explaining why. Other than that, we talk about: * Why you should be careful when using SQL Server's Row Level Security * Duplicate indexes * The dangers of Indexed Views * An important thing you need to know about Filtered Indexes * Lots of ways to improve your productivity with Management Studio * Allow Snapshot Isolation and Read Committed Snapshot Items mentioned in the show: * Startup podcast * 356labs * Matan Yungman - 5 Ways to Improve Your Productivity with SSMS * Forum discussion: ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION and READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT * MCM readiness videos

Download Episode (mp3) We start to warm up the engines towards PASS Summit, which will take place in Seattle at the end of October. Before the summit, we will host a few speakers to talk about their sessions and share some of the stuff you can expect to hear. In this show, we have Bradley Ball (blog | twitter), Data Platform Management Lead at Pragmatic Works. Among other topics, we talk to Bradley about: * What you can expect to hear in Bradley's PASS Summit precon and session * Data architecture * What is Microsoft APS and what's important when working with it * How Azure SQL Datawarehouse took the APS idea a step further * Message queuing * Bradley's military career Items mentioned in the show: * Bradley's PASS Summit session: Indexing Internals for Developers and DBAs * Bradley's PASS Summit precon: Optimize “All Data” with a Modern Data Warehouse Solution * Jason Strate - sp_IndexAnalysis We also talk about some weird meanings of the acronym "APS". About Bradley Bradley Ball is a SQL Server MVP with about 15 years of IT experience. Bradley spent 8 years working as a defense contractor for clients such as the U.S. Army and The Executive Office of the President of the United States. He is the data platform management lead with Pragmatic Works and a Microsoft VTSP. He has presented at SQLSaturday, SSUGs, SQLRally, DevConnections, SQLBits, SQL Live 360, and PASS Summit. Bradley can be found blogging at http://www.SQLBalls.com.  

Download Episode (mp3)   A few months ago we hosted Sean McCown for a talk about indexing tips and backup performance. On this show, we have Sean again. Sean reveals tons of backup tips and tricks while talking about his new free product, Minion Backup. Among other topics, we talk about: * What are VLF's and why it's not good to have many of them * When you SHOULD use shrink * Why Sean doesn't like Policy Based Management * How to monitor backup progress * Regular Expressions in SSMS And as always with our guests, we play Scattergories, and Sean tells a VERY interesting story about cluster configuration. Items mentioned in the show: * Minion Backup * Sean's PASS Summit session - Monster Text Manipulation: Regular Expressions for the DBA * Sean's PASS Summit precon - The Enterprise Scripting Workshop   About Sean: Sean McCown is a Microsoft Certified Master in SQL Server 2008. He is also a SQL Server MVP with over 20 years experience in databases. Sean is also founder and co-owner of the renowned website MidnightDBA.com where he records free SQL Server training videos and co-hosts the popular webshow, DBAs@Midnight.

Download Episode (mp3) We tried something new this time, and broadcast the show live on Persicope. Periscope is a service by Twitter that allows each one to start a live broadcast anywhere and anytime from his phone or tablet. We will try it out a few more times, so watch for our announcements about future broadcasts on Twitter. As for SQL Server stuff, among other topics, we talk about: SQL Server Developer Edition vs. Enterprise Edition Benchmarking Columnstore Indexes and Columnstore in SQL Server 2016 Restoring transaction logs on Amazon RDS Log Shipping on disconnected servers Amazon RDS vs. Azure SQL Database Amazon Aurora Denormalization Foreign Keys Links mentioned in the show: * Matan Yungman - Columnstore Indexes: Questions and Answers * Kendra Little - The Easiest Way to Restore Transaction Logs to a Point in Time * Matan Yungman - Can Log Shipping Work Without Shipping the Log?

Download Episode (mp3) On this show, we host a good friend of both of us - Boris Hristov! Boris (blog | twitter) is a SQL Server MVP from Bulgaria and a really passionate and efficient guy. He delivers a lot of technical training and also talks a lot about presentation design. We talk to Boris about those things and also about travelling, sports, work-life balance, and more. Among other topics, we talk to Boris about: * Boris' community initiative, SQL Hangouts * What is Policy Based Management and why is it so important? * How can you use Distributed Replay in your environment? * The importance of presentation design * Data corruption * Efficiency * What is Tapout XT Items mentioned in the show: * SQL Hangouts * Guy Glantser on SQL Hangouts about founding a company and work-life balance * Matan Yungman (with William Durkin) on SQL Hangouts about transitioning from DBA to consultant * Boris Hristov - Presentation Design - Why You Should Care? * Boris Hristov courses on Pluralsight About Boris Boris is a SQL Server Consultant and Pluralsight Author from Bulgaria who you can regularly see speaking at conferences all across Europe. He is also training companies and students in the “Art of SQL Server” and loves to share his knowledge online as part of podcasts, webcasts or on his blog – http://borishristov.com/blog/. The fastest way you can reach him is on twitter where he writes under @BorisHristov and you can even join him for a SQLHangout which are video conversations that he hosts with people from the SQL Server community.

Download Episode (mp3) Two weeks have passed, and another show is here! We start by talking about scary DBA sentences We continue with PASS Summit 2015 and about the sessions we'll deliver at the summit. We then talk about: * T-SQL code patterns * interesting scenarios with small but very active SQL Server tables * jobs that will be replaced by machines * Tempdb Contention and improvements in SQL Server 2016 * The power of SQL for other data solutions like Couchbase and Azure Stream Analytics * And more.. Items mentioned in the show: * Kendra Little - Contest: Write the Scariest DBA Sentence * PASS Summit 2015 * Matan Yungman - The Data Loading Performance Presentation (from 24 Hours of PASS) * Dwain Camps - High Performance T-SQL using Code Patterns * Matan Yungman - Can a SQL Server Table be Too Small? * Will Your Job Be Done By a Machine? * The Azure Stream Analytics Query Language * Couchbase N1QL  

Download Episode (mp3) A few shows ago, we talked briefly about Virtualization and mentioned it would be a good idea to have a Virtualization expert on the show. In this show, we have David Klee (Blog | Twitter), one of the top Virtualization experts in the SQL Server space. We talk to David about: * What's important to know when virtualizing SQL Server * How to properly size your VM * What metrics to monitor when virtualizing * When to use SQL Server High Availability features and when to use them at the virtualization side * When NOT to virtualize * Some of David's most challenging projects In addition, we talk to David about starting a company and the life of an independent consultant. About David David is a technologist that is lucky enough to have a job doing that which he enjoys – working in high technology, using cutting edge technology to make businesses more efficient. He is the Founder and Chief Architect of Heraflux Technologies, and travels around the country working with companies to reduce risk, improve performance, and virtualize their business-critical SQL Server infrastructures. David regularly contributes to the PASS Virtualization, Performance, and High Availability and Disaster Recovery virtual chapters. David also helps to run and coordinate the Omaha SQL Server Users Group. David is also a member of the PASS High Availability and Disaster Recovery Virtual Chapter board. The virtual chapter meets the second Tuesday of each month for a one hour technical presentation on high availability and disaster recovery topics.

Download Episode (mp3) We have a different show this time - in which we play a game! On each round, as in the famous Scattergories game, we draw a SQL Server-related term and have to tell an interesting story about it. Along the way, we cover quite a few topics and situations we've been to in our careers, like the time a job ran for 14 hours, and the time a job didn't finish at all. At the end, both of us got 1 million points. Listen to know how.