Posts by Brent Ozar

Best Practices are Meaningless to Your Manager

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That’s right, you heard me. Your manager doesn’t care about best practices.  You can beat your chest and wail about putting the SQL Server data and log files on separate arrays, and your manager doesn’t care.  The instant you’re out of earshot, your manager starts complaining to his manager about how you won’t shut up…
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Using aliases in multi-table queries

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When joining multiple tables together in a query, use aliases every time on every field. Say we’ve got two tables, Customers and Salespersons.  The Customers table has a PreferredSalespersonID field that identifies who their normal sales rep is, and that lets us quickly grab the right salesperson when a customer calls in.  We want to…
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SQL Server 2008 SP1 Download Available

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It’s alive!  You can download SQL 2008 SP1 here.  If you get a 404 error, come back and try it again.  Seems that the download servers aren’t all synced up. The April 2009 update to the SQL Server 2008 Feature Packs is also available today.
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SSWUG V-Conference Preview Videos

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The SSWUG Virtual Conference has posted free 10-minute samples of each speaker’s videos.  You can get a 10-minute intro to several presentations to get a feel for the quality of the videos, the speakers and the material.  The videos take 10-15 seconds to start, so hang in there. Log Shipping 101 SQL Server V-Conference Samples…
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Recruiters are not your friends or your enemies.

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Recruiters are everyday people just like you and me.  They have feelings, dreams, families and jobs. What Recruiters Do Their job is to fill empty positions. Notice that I didn’t say that their job is to find YOU a job.  It’s not. There’s a separate group of people out there who work as your agent,…
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How to Pick Blog & Presentation Topics

SQL Server
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Stumped about what to write about?  Not sure what to talk about to your local user group? I bet you’re focusing on the presentations you would ATTEND, instead of the presentations you would GIVE. When I start to think about presentations and blogs, I tend to think about things that I would personally find interesting. …
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Day with the Experts Seminar in Atlanta on April 10

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In Atlanta? Want to get some free SQL Server training?  Want some free food on April 10th? Jason Hall and I will be doing a day-long Day with the Experts session in Atlanta where we’ll be covering performance tuning topics to help you get more performance out of your existing hardware.  My presentations will be:…
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What I Do at Quest Software

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At Quest Software, my official job title is Domain Expert.  That means I’m supposed to be the master of my domain – my domain being SQL Server, storage area networks, and virtualization.  Ideally, I’m also supposed to be pretty good at the Quest products for that stuff, too. I don’t have a written job description…
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I’m Finally a Microsoft MVP!

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I’ve been working with the community for years, spreading the good word about Microsoft products and helping the community, and it’s finally paid off: I’m an MVP! I’ve been recognized for the work with the Microsoft product that’s closest to me – literally.  Check out these pictures of my office over time: My Office in…
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SQL Server DBA Interview: Kendal Van Dyke

#SQLPass
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Kendal Van Dyke is a Senior SQL Server DBA from Florida, and he’s been blogging since last year.  He’s syndicated at SQLServerPedia, and his recent series on RAID performance is a must-read.  I’ve talked back and forth with him a lot lately, and I figured I’d try something new: a virtual interview.  I emailed Kendal…
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Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Virtualize SQL Server

Virtualization
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I’ve blogged about why you should virtualize SQL Server, but it’s not all unicorns and rainbows.  Today we’re going to talk about some of the pitfalls and problems. When Virtualization Goes Right It’s Tougher to Get More Storage Throughput Servers connect to Storage Area Networks (SANs) with Host Bus Adapters (HBAs).  They’re like fancypants network…
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Why Would You Virtualize SQL Server?

Virtualization
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I talked about why sysadmins want to virtualize servers, and today it’s time to talk about why you as a DBA or developer might want to virtualize some of your SQL Servers. Virtualization Means Cheap High Availability Yo momma was an early adopter. That’s right – you’re adopted. In a perfect world, every SQL Server…
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New PASS 2009 Summit Site Unveiled – #SQLPass

#SQLPass
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PASS is on the ball this year!  They’ve got the web site and spiffy logo up and running for the 2009 Summit in Seattle. PASS Summit 2009 Logo Looking through the site, one change jumps out at me: the schedule this year will be Tuesday through Thursday, with pre-conferences running on Monday and Friday.  In…
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Why Your Sysadmin Wants To Virtualize Your Servers

Virtualization
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DBAs and developers: right now, your Windows admin is talking to management about all the time, money and hardware he can save by virtualizing servers. He might not start with SQL Servers first, because frankly, he’s scared of database administrators.  DBAs only have one answer: “No.” Your sysadmin knows how you roll. Thing is, though,…
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Getting me to speak at your user group

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I just updated my Upcoming Events page to include: More upcoming events How to get me to speak at your local user group meeting Links to video archives of my past events To quote Abraham Lincoln, for those who like that sort of thing, I should think it is just about the sort of thing…
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Another backup failure: Carbonite

Backup and Recovery
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TechCrunch reports that Carbonite, an online backup company, lost customer data. But wait, this is different: it’s not their fault.  They’re suing Promise Technology, makers of popular storage gear, for selling them bogus equipment.  Bogus equipment?  You mean, like hard drives that fail?  That’s horrible!  Who could expect something like that?  Who could know about…
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