GroupBy – Free SQL Server Training

Every time you see a Columnstore Index getting involved in the execution plan, do you realize that there are whole execution plans behind those Index Scans ? Did you ever ask yourself, what are those strange and weird HT_* waits stand for ? Why do we wait for seconds/minutes for something like HTBUILD while it seems that nothing happens ? Why do we have a ROWGROUP_VERSION wait on one server, while the other allows queries to run fa...

The optimizer has options.

Not every option is optimal.

Optimistic query tuners hope that the optimizer will make optimal choices.

Often, the optimizer will stick an optional operator in a plan that just doesn't belong.

Sorts, Spools, Lookups, Tops, Aggregates, and Bitmaps can all end up where they don't belong.

Opt out of bad powerpoint decks with this demo-only session!

Joe Obbish and Erik Darling will show you when the optimizer...

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a DBA, a teacher, a blogger, and a world-traveler. I'm living my dream.

In this session, we'll talk about how I got where I am, and how you can get to where you want to be. In addition to sharing my journey, I'll give some helpful tricks to getting your next job. You'll learn how to write a resume that gets you noticed, and how to avoid writing a resume that lands in the trash. ...

Whether you love or hate buzzwords, the big ones signify critical cultural changes. In this session, Kendra Little will explain what executives mean when they describe a 'digital transformation', why this transformation is happening across all industries, and how understanding this gives developers and database administrators an advantage in building their careers. You will learn what motivates CEOs to modify their business models ...

A new release of SQL Server is like a new season of your favorite TV show. Some releases in the past were lacking; I always felt like SQL Server 2008 R2 was about as exciting as the Seinfeld finale. But Microsoft hasn't disappointed in recent years, and SQL Server 2019 is no exception.

There are some really exciting features here. Some are big-ticket items, like support for Secure Enclaves, which provide all the benefits of Always ...

This mainly demo-based session will cover the following:

• An introduction to partitioning, core concepts, and benefits.
• Choosing a Partitioning Key
• Creating Partition Functions & Schemes
• Indexing Considerations
• Splitting, Merging & Switching Partitions
• Implementing Partition Sliding Windows
• Filegroup Restores with Partitioning

After the session, attendees will have an insight into partitioning and have a platform ...

Have you ever developed slowly running queries and wondered how to make your own SQL Server queries go faster? I know I did. It is how I stumbled into my career in performance tuning.  In this session, you will learn some T-SQL performance tuning tips that can be used in the office immediately. You will learn how to identify top offender queries, be able to benchmark queries. Finally, we will cover some coding patterns that ar...

There seems to be a common misconception that once you move from on premises SQL Server to Azure PaaS offerings a DBA is no longer required. This perception is wrong and in the session I'll show you why. As a business intelligence consultant I develop data platform solutions in Azure that once productionised need administration. As the title suggests, be my Azure DBA. Maybe not DB for database. Maybe in Azure I need a DSA, a Data S...

Creating indexes is one of the most powerful ways to improve performance in your SQL Servers. It's not easy to form indexes for a large and complicated query, and things only get more complicated when queries can come from vendor applications, ORM tools like LINQ, or any number of other sources.

When it's time to create the perfect index, there's guidelines and strategies to get it right, and then prove that it's helping. However, ...

I want to show you how just a little neater and tighter code can also run a lot faster. These are some of the instant performance improvements that won't change a lot of code, won't generate weeks of testing and validation for your colleagues and can be relatively quick to implement.

But most of all, they'll make the code prettier and easier to understand for the next person.

We'll look at common ways that null values, implicit dat...

As the DBA for an Agile, Sprint-based team, you may feel like the bottleneck at every turn. You've stuck with the existing processes and tools because it's what you know. After all, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"  Right?

I have good news!  With only a few new skills and free tools from Microsoft, you can join the Agile & DevOps revolution to help accelerate your team, product, and data infrastructure.

In this sess...

You've been writing T-SQL queries for a few years now, and when you have performance issues, you've been updating stats and using OPTION (RECOMPILE). It's served you well, but every now and then, you hit a problem you can't solve. Your data's been growing larger, your queries are taking longer to run, and you're starting to wonder: how can I start getting better query plans?

The secret is often comparing the query plan's estimated ...

You identified a query that is causing performance issues, and your mission is to optimize it and boost performance. You looked at the execution plan and created all the relevant indexes. You even updated statistics, but performance is still bad. Now what?

In this session we will analyze common use cases of poorly performing queries, such as improper use of scalar functions, inaccurate statistics and the impact of parameter sniffin...

Today's applications are not using monolithic approach anymore and evolving into micro-services architecture. Monitoring tools are also evolving, micro-services approach have stepped into this area as well.

What you should do if you have several technologies under your responsibility? SQL Server and MySQL? Maybe Hadoop or PostgreSql? Should you use separated tool for each product? Should you use the same tool for Monitorig and Aler...

The incredible Columnstore Indexes can increase your analytical query processing speed multiple times, they are updatable (Clustered from SQL Server 2014 and Nonclustered from SQL Server 2016 respectively), but they keep on supporting different sets of the functionalities – such as Change Data Capture (Nonclustered Columnstore) or LOBs (Clustered Columnstore), and this brings a great confusion onto the table.

This session will ligh...

Microsoft emphasizes use of containers for development and test on SQL Server 2017, and new solutions from Red Gate and Windocks add support for containers and SQL Server database cloning for the full range of the SQL Server family. We'll explore use of containers for delivery of container environments, and their pros and cons. We'll also look at SQL Server cloning, and how clones enable Dev and Test teams to work on large database...

This session will cover the pros and cons of four typical configurations of AlwaysOn Availability Groups; stand-alone instances, fail-over cluster instances, multi-subnet, and a hybrid approach that I call disaster-recovery-on-the-cheap. It will also include their exclusive features such as read-only routing and backup off-loading. In addition, you'll learn how to use the Availability Group Listener correctly and why you should be ...