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Posts by Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar
2446 posts
https://www.brentozar.com
I make Microsoft SQL Server go faster. I love teaching, travel, cars, and laughing. I'm based out of Las Vegas. He/him.

No, I’m not an MVP.

Brent Ozar
4 Comments
I ran an April Fool’s post about becoming a Microsoft Natural Keyboard MVP, and things spun a little out of control.  The MVP announcements actually did come out on April 1, so some folks saw the blog post (“I’m Finally a Microsoft MVP!”) and congratulated me without actually reading the article.  I think I caught…
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Latest Quiz: Great Leaders in My Career

Brent Ozar
2 Comments
Chris Shaw tagged SQL Server DBA bloggers and asked, “Who has been a great leader in your career and what made them a great leader?” I’ve been fortunate to work for a stream of really, really good managers, but “leader” means something else, as Chris explained.  I even had to hit the dictionary because I…
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Virtualization Survey

Brent Ozar
2 Comments
Are you devoted to virtualization?  Are you avoiding it like the plague?  Or somewhere in the middle? Jay Grieves, the author of Big Swinging Developer and one of the uber-cool Houstonians I met back at the Caroline Collective, emailed me about doing a survey to find out some truths from people who’ve been managing large…
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Getting the most recent record

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
25 Comments
Sounds simple, right?  Just grab the max.  But what if you want to use a single T-SQL operation to fetch the most recent record and some of its attributes? StorminSpank asked: @BrentO SQL Question. 4 columns, ID, Date, Info1, Info2. ID has multiple entries. Want Latest Date for Distinct ID, but also info1 and 2.…
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What Is A CMDB?

Brent Ozar
9 Comments
Big enterprise shops aspire to build a Configuration Management DataBase that will track their IT assets, how they’re configured, who relies on them, what applications live on them, and so on. Let’s take a simple web application as an example: what would it take to document its components and configuration?  We would want to know:…
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Best Practices are Meaningless to Your Manager

Brent Ozar
6 Comments
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

Brent Ozar
11 Comments
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

Brent Ozar
0
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

Brent Ozar
0
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.

Brent Ozar
12 Comments
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

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
2 Comments
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

Brent Ozar
0
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

Brent Ozar
2 Comments
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!

Brent Ozar
12 Comments
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

Brent Ozar
#SQLPass
0
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

Brent Ozar
Virtualization
100 Comments
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?

Brent Ozar
Virtualization
16 Comments
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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