Month: September 2009

Meet PASS Board Candidate Jeremiah Peschka

Last Updated February 12, 2017

The PASS Board of Directors election starts on October 12th, and we’ve got four really well-qualified candidates to choose from: Brian Moran Jeremiah Peschka (Blog – Twitter) Matt Morollo (Twitter) Tom LaRock (Blog – Twitter) You can read their bios at the PASS Candidate List, and they’re good, but I wanted more. I emailed each…

What’s On My Bookshelf?

Last Updated September 28, 2009

Brent Ozar

After I unpacked my new home office in Chicago, I was struck by the oddball contents of my bookshelf. You might get a kick out of the list of books I’ve kept around over the years despite moving from state to state. I’m merciless about discarding books as soon as I’m done reading them, so…

Using SQL Server Without Monitoring Software is Like Overdriving Your Headlights

Last Updated July 28, 2021

Brent Ozar

Monitoring, Wait Stats

The strength of your car’s headlights, the speed of your reactions, and the power of your brakes determine how fast you can drive safely at night. Likewise, in SQL Server, we need to see down the road before disaster strikes, and react as quickly as possible.

Another Giveaway: Keyboards and Mice

Last Updated September 29, 2009

Brent Ozar

Dayton Brown and Netster won themselves 120gb USB hard drives a couple of weeks ago in my Clean Brent’s Office Contest, but now that I’m settling into my new home office in Chicago, I’m finding even more unneeded gear lying around. If Only I Had Something Insightful to Type I have no clue how this…

How to Deliver a Killer Technical Presentation

Last Updated July 29, 2013

Brent Ozar

Writing and Presenting

Knock the audience out by knowing how to end the presentation, how to use your blog as resource material, why you should avoid sentences on slides, how to get the attendees involved, and how to fire yourself up with inspiration.

Why Are You Backing Up?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery

We focus so much on the fine-grained details of exactly when and where we’re backing up our servers. Sometimes it helps to take a quick step back and ask what we’re trying to protect ourselves, because it’ll help us do a better job of designing a recovery strategy. Dude, Where's My Datacenter? From small problem…

What Presentations Should I Give?

Last Updated September 16, 2009

Brent Ozar

I’m doing another Quest Day with the Experts on October 9th at the Quest Software home office in Aliso Viejo, California, and it’ll be simulcast over the intertubes. Which two of these presentations would you like to see? They’re all 200-300 level: [poll id=”4″] The poll will close on Friday, September 18th and I’ll pick…

Know When to Call Professionals For Help

Last Updated September 16, 2009

Brent Ozar

I used to have red-eared slider turtles, and I’ve got a few web pages about how to take care of them. Every now and then, I get a comment like this: My turtle is bleeding and he hasn’t eaten in a week. Should I be concerned? Credibility Fail Uh, hello. If the turtle was your…

Consulting Line: “You’ve got bats in the cave.”

Last Updated March 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Consulting Lines

When someone’s got boogers hanging out of their nose, they want to hear about it in the most subtle way possible. Here’s Your Sign Blurting out, “Hey, dude, you’ve got a booger hanging out of your nose!” won’t win you any friends. Sure, people will laugh, but they’re not just going to be laughing at…

What’s the Easiest IT Job to Get Without Experience?

Last Updated February 14, 2017

Brent Ozar

Professional Development

A reader left an interesting comment on one of my posts: “Can anyone please give me some suggestion? I am just graduated in IS/IT and don’t have work experience in IT field at all. I am thinking to get Oracle DBA training. Do you think having training will give more likelihood of getting a junior…

Laptop Virtualization Best Practices – And a Contest!

Last Updated February 14, 2017

Brent Ozar

Virtualization

Whether you’re using Windows or a Mac, if you’re thinking about using virtualization for the first time on your laptop to test out new operating systems like Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2, there’s a few things you should know. Get Another Hard Drive Drive Bay Laptop drives aren’t quick to begin with, and running…

Check All Your MSDB Cleanup Jobs With One Query

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery

Are all of your servers set up to clean out their backup history periodically? Are you sure? If you looked back at the monitor with “WTF?” written all over your face, I’ll bring you up to speed. Here’s the problem: SQL Server stores information about completed backups in the MSDB database. In older versions of…

Managing People Sucks, But You Should Try It Anyway

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

I just got asked for advice on what it takes for geeks to rise up through the ranks of your company and become a manager. I’m probably the worst person to ask. Check out my wacko career path: 1992 – Went to college determined to learn economics and preach capitalism to the newly freed Russian…

Links for 24 Hours of PASS #24hop

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

Having problems getting in with your links? Here’s the links for the rest of the day: 24 Hours of PASS: Session 17 (PD) – Building a Better Blog (Steve Jones) – Noon EST 24 Hours of PASS: Session 18 (Dev) – Building Flexible Data Services for the Web Using the ADO .NET Data Services Framework…

SQL Server 2008 R2 Frequently Asked Questions

Last Updated March 14, 2010

Brent Ozar

Got questions about the new features in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2? Can’t wait for R2’s release date? Here’s the answers I’ve been giving out most often to database administrators wondering about the changes in SQL Server 2008 R2 vs SQL Server 2008. What will be the SQL Server 2008 R2 release date? SQL Server…