In the rest of my Fundamentals classes, I use a small Stack Overflow database, but that doesn’t cut it for Fundamentals of Columnstore. Columnstore indexes are all about big data, so for this class, I use the same setup as my Mastering classes.

If you want to run this class’s labs on your own (either during class, or later), you’re going to need:

• A fast SQL Server
• The right large Stack Overflow database
• An Agent job to rapidly restore the database between labs
• SQLQueryStress

To get set up, read the setup instructions for Mastering Index Tuning. This class uses exactly that same setup (as do the rest of my Mastering classes, so once you’re set up for this one, you’re good to go for the entire Mastering series.)

During modules 7 and 8, we’re going to be working with very large columnstore objects that take 5-20 minutes to create. You can create them ahead of time if you like by running the 7a and 8a SQL files in your slides & scripts download, which build the new tables. You can just hit execute on those without reading through them.