Now, I will have a full day to go into much more detail, without having to hurry to cover everything. I will be using the SQL Server 2016 version of the diagnostic queries, which have even more useful information, including information about many new SQL Server 2016 features. If you are on an older version of SQL Server, most of the queries will still be relevant (depending on how old of a version of SQL Server you are using).

Based on past experience and feedback, Dr. DMV has always been a very popular session that people really seem to enjoy. This all-day, expanded version is going to be really fun and useful, and I hope to see you there!

Here is the abstract for the session:

Dr. DMV: How to Use DMVs to Diagnose Performance Problems

SQL Server 2005 introduced Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) that allow you to see exactly what is happening inside your SQL Server instances and databases with much more detail than ever before. SQL Server 2016 adds even more capability in this area. You can discover your top wait types, most CPU intensive stored procedures, find missing indexes, and identify unused indexes, to name just a few examples. This session (which is applicable to SQL 2005-2016), presents and explains over seventy DMV queries that you can quickly and easily use to detect and diagnose performance issues in your environment. If you have ever been responsible for a mission critical database, you have probably been faced with a high stress, emergency situation where a database issue is causing unacceptable application performance, resulting in angry users and hovering managers and executives. If this hasn’t happened to you yet, thank your lucky stars, but start getting prepared for your time in the hot seat. This session will show you how to use DMV queries to quickly detect and diagnose the problem, starting at the server and instance level, and then progressing down to the database and object level. This session will show you how to properly analyze and interpret the results of every single query in the set, along with lots of information on how to properly configure your instance and databases.

I wanted to share a unique discount code: PRE250GB for $250.00 off of a full, three day Summit registration and a pre-conference session. This is a pretty good deal for this late in the process! This code expires at midnight, Thursday, October 13, 2016. You can register here.

The PASS Summit is always a fun and very useful and educational event. It is a great way to get to know more people in the SQL Server community and to connect with people that you may only know online. I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible in Seattle for PASS Summit 2016!

People seemed to like the session, and I was answering questions  for about 30 minutes after the session was over (with some great assistance from my friend and co-worker Jonathan Kehayias).

I just want to thank everyone who attended, and showed so much interest!

You can get a zipped version of my deck and the demos that I used here.

Then, on Saturday morning, I’ll drive from Topeka to Kansas City to the event. Finally, I will drive back from Topeka to Parker on Sunday. I’ll be able to do this nearly 1200 mile round trip with no cost for gasoline or electricity, using the free Tesla SuperCharger Network. This trip would cost about $150-160 in a typical gasoline car that got around 30 mpg.

Tesla Superchargers represent the most advanced charging technology in the world, capable of charging the Model S 16x faster than most public charging stations. Many of the stations are capable of delivering up to 120 kW to a Tesla Model S, which can replenish half a charge in as little as 20 minutes, for free. It works by delivering DC power directly to the battery using special cables that bypass the regular onboard charging equipment that you would use at a public charger or when charging at home.

These Supercharger stations are spaced out about every 100-150 miles along many of the major Interstate highways in the United States. There are currently 112 Supercharger stations in the United States, with more being opened every week. They typically have four to eight charging bays at each Supercharger station, and they are usually located near restaurants and shopping areas. The idea is that you drive for two-three hours, then stop for 20-30 minutes to charge while you take a short break.

Normally, most Tesla Model S owners do the vast majority of their charging at home. You simply plug in when you come home, and your battery is fully charged when you leave. I use a common and inexpensive charging method, with a 240V, 50 amp NEMA 14-50 outlet in the garage that cost about $500 to have a licensed electrician install. This circuit can fully charge the Tesla Model S 85 kWH battery in about eight hours, but my charging time is usually much less, since I very rarely run my battery down very low.

It is also possible to use a Tesla High Power Wall Connector (HPWC) charger (if you have dual, onboard chargers) to fully charge a Tesla Model S 85 kWH battery in about four hours.

I will be hitting the following Tesla Superchargers on this trip:

2221 6th St, Limon, CO 80828

2631 Enterprise Rd, Goodland, KS 67735

4101 Vine St, Hays, KS 67601

755 W. Diamond Dr., Salina, KS 67401

Since the Supercharger in Topeka is not yet completed, I will be charging at my sister’s house in Topeka (using a NEMA 14-50 circuit) on Thursday night and on Saturday night.

I plan to blog about how the trip goes, which should be fun.

Here is the abstract:

Scaling SQL Server 2014

SQL Server implementations can quickly evolve and become more complex, forcing DBAs and developers to think about how they can scale their solution quickly and effectively. Scaling up is relatively easy (but can be expensive), while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem”, and if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or 3rd party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This session gives you concrete, practical advice on how to deal with this situation. Starting with your present workload, configuration and hardware, we will explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we will cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. Once that decision is made, you will learn how to scale up properly, with nearly zero down-time. If you decide to scale out, you will learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data dependent routing. We will also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

You can register for this pre-con here.

I will also be presenting one session during the actual SQLSaturday event. Here is the abstract for that session: 

Analyzing I/O Subsystem Performance

SQL Server is often I/O bound – but why? Do you feel lost when talking to your storage administrator? Are your storage subsystems like a mysterious black box where your databases live but you can’t go visit? This session will get you up to speed with the fundamentals of storage subsystems for SQL Server. You will learn about the different types of storage that are available, and how to decide what type of storage to use for different workload types. You will also learn useful tips and techniques for configuring your storage for the best performance and reliability. We’ll cover methods to effectively measure and monitor your storage performance so that you will have valuable information and evidence available the next time you have to discuss IO performance with your storage administrator. Come to this session to learn how to analyze I/Os as well as options to reduce the bottlenecks.

I hope to see and meet a lot of new people during these two days!

The second presentation will be a regular, 75-minute session about the basics of storage for the DBA.  The third presentation (which was added since another speaker had to cancel) will be another regular 75-minute session about how to use DMV queries to diagnose performance issues. If history is any guide, I will probably have more people attending my DMV session than the hardware session.

I think all three of these sessions will be a lot of fun!  Here are the abstracts for all three sessions:

Scaling SQL Server 2012

SQL Server implementations can rapidly evolve and become more complex, forcing DBAs and developers to think about how they can scale their solution quickly and effectively. Scaling up is relatively easy but can be expensive, while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades, you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem.” And if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or third-party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This comprehensive full-day session will give you concrete, practical advice about how to scale SQL Server. Starting with your current workload, configuration, and hardware, we’ll explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we’ll cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. For scale-up solutions, you’ll learn how to scale up properly with nearly zero down time. And for scale-out implementations, you’ll learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data-dependent routing. We’ll also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

Storage Subsystem Basics for the DBA

Do you feel lost when talking to your storage administrator? Are your storage subsystems like a mysterious black box where your databases live but you can’t go visit? This session will get you up to speed with the fundamentals of storage subsystems for SQL Server. You’ll learn about the different types of storage available and how to decide which to use for different workload types. You’ll also learn useful tips and techniques for configuring your storage for the best performance and reliability. We’ll then cover methods to effectively measure and monitor your storage performance so that you’ll have valuable information and evidence available the next time you have to discuss I/O performance with your storage administrator.

Professor DMV: How to Use DMVs to Diagnose Performance Issues

Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and functions let you easily see exactly what is happening inside your SQL Server instances and databases with a high level of detail. You can discover your top wait types and most CPU-intensive stored procedures, find missing indexes, and identify unused indexes – to name just a few examples. This session will present, explain, and demonstrate many DMV queries that you can quickly and easily use to detect and diagnose configuration and performance issues in your SQL Server instances and databases.

There will be a large presence at PASS Summit 2013 from SQLskills, with sessions from Paul Randal, Kimberly Tripp, Jonathan Kehayias, Glenn Berry, and Erin Stellato. The PASS Summit is always a good time, since it is an event where you can make a lot of valuable connections and friendships and learn a great deal of technical content during the week.

I will be doing a preview of my day-long pre-con session, called Scaling SQL Server 2012. Here is the abstract:

Scaling SQL Server 2012

SQL Server implementations can rapidly evolve and become more complex, forcing DBAs and developers to think about how they can scale their solution quickly and effectively. Scaling up is relatively easy but can be expensive, while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This 24 Hours of PASS session, a preview of the full-day PASS Summit pre-conference session, will give you concrete, practical advice about how to scale SQL Server. We’ll explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks and cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. We’ll also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

I also wanted to point out that Paul Randal just announced a special promotion for the upcoming September IEHW: Immersion Event on SQL Server Hardware and IE0: Immersion Event for Accidental/Junior DBAs, both in Bellevue, WA.

Just to sweeten the deal even further, all attendees of the inaugural session of IEHW will get a free copy of two of my books, SQL Server Hardware, and Professional SQL Server 2012: Internals and Troubleshooting. I’ll even autograph them, if you want to turn them into collector’s items!

Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Unfortunately, the DBA usually gets the blame for any performance issues that crop up later. Don’t let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD and gives you the tools and resources to make better hardware selection decisions to support SQL Server OLTP workloads.

Attendance was quite good for a hardware-related session, and there were a lot of interesting questions after the presentation.

Just in case this session whetted your appetite for a much deeper level of knowledge about SQL Server Hardware, you should consider attending the upcoming two-day IEHW: Immersion Event on SQL Server Hardware course that I will be teaching in Bellevue, WA on September 18-19, 2013.

Hardware 201: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Unfortunately, the DBA usually gets the blame for any performance issues that crop up later. Don’t let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD and gives you the tools and resources to make better hardware selection decisions to support SQL Server OLTP workloads.

Just in case you are curious, I will be driving my red Tesla Model S P85 to both meetings, so if you are interested in seeing and possibly riding in a Tesla, you might want to show up…

Regardless of that, both meetings should be a lot of fun, and I hope to see a lot of people there!

I am really excited to get the chance to teach the IEHW class, and I think it will be a lot of fun!  Here is the rundown on all three classes:

• IEHW: Immersion Event on SQL Server Hardware (two days, Sept 18-19) 
• Dates, logistics, and registration
• Detailed curriculum

My colleagues Jonathan Kehayias and Erin Stellato will be teaching the three day IE0 class on September 30-October 2.

• IE0: Immersion Event for the Accidental DBA (three days, Sept 30 – Oct 2)
• Dates, logistics, and registration
• Detailed curriculum

My colleague Bob Beauchemin will be teaching the four day advanced T-SQL class on September 30-October 3.

• IETS: Immersion Event on Advanced T-SQL (four days, Sept 30-Oct 3)
• Dates, logistics, and registration
• Detailed curriculum

These classes are all open for registration now.

Scaling SQL Server 2012

How can you scale SQL Server 2012? Scaling up is relatively easy (but can be expensive), while scaling out requires significant engineering time and effort. If you suggest hardware upgrades you may be accused of simply “throwing hardware at the problem”, and if you try to scale out, you may be thwarted by a lack of development resources or 3rd party software restrictions. As your database server nears its load capacity, what can you do? This session gives you concrete, practical advice on how to deal with this situation. Starting with your present workload, configuration and hardware, we will explore how to find and alleviate bottlenecks, whether they are workload related, configuration related, or hardware related. Next, we will cover how you can decide whether you should scale up or scale out your data tier. Once that decision is made, you will learn how to scale up properly, with nearly zero down-time. If you decide to scale out, you will learn about practical, production-ready techniques such as vertical partitioning, horizontal partitioning, and data dependent routing. We will also cover how to use middle-tier caching and other application techniques to increase your overall scalability.

You can get a copy of the flyer for both pre-cons here: SQL Saturday #197 Pre-Cons

Here is the session I will present on Saturday:

Hardware 201: Selecting Database Hardware

The foundation of database performance is the underlying server hardware and storage subsystem. Even the best designed and optimized database application can be crippled by an inadequate hardware and storage infrastructure. Recent advances in new processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process compared to the past. Many database professionals struggle to keep up with new technology and often simply let someone else make their hardware selection and sizing decisions. Don’t let this happen to you! This session covers current and upcoming hardware from both Intel and AMD.

My friend and SQLskills colleague, Joe Sack will also be speaking at SQLSaturday #197.  I hope to see a lot of people at this event!