SBI408: Add It Up: Analysis Services Aggregations
Craig Utley
Are you looking to maximize the performance of your Analysis Services queries? This session explains what aggregations are and how they work. You’ll learn how to create aggregations, tune the aggregations based on actual usage, and design custom aggregations when necessary. You’ll discover the benefits and pitfalls of flexible aggregations, when to use rigid aggregations, and the meaning of lazy aggregation processing. You’ll dive into queries to see if aggregations are being used and learn when aggregations aren’t useful. If you thought aggregation design began and ended with the aggregation wizard, you owe it to yourself (and your cubes) to attend this session.

SBI204: Creating Report Subscriptions in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
Paul Litwin
In this session, learn how to set up standard and data-driven subscriptions using Report Manager. We discuss creating file-share, email, and null subscriptions; and how to deal with potential issues with parameters and security. We also demonstrate a sophisticated Microsoft ASP.NET-based application that creates subscriptions by calling the SSRS Web Services API.

SBI201: Data Warehouse ETL with Integration Services
Todd McDermid
Microsoft designed Integration Services with ETL processing for Data Warehouses in mind, so loading one should be pretty easy. It’s not that bad, but there are a few things you should avoid and non-obvious best practices to use to make that ETL faster and more reliable. Assuming attendees have a basic level of familiarity with Kimball Data Warehousing methodology, this session will explain how to accomplish Kimball-style ETL using SQL Server Integration Services. We’ll review the SCD Wizard and how it works for processing your dimension tables – what it’s good for, what it’s not, and what alternatives you have to it. We’ll also examine fact table loading using a surrogate key replacement pipeline, especially using the Lookup component efficiently. Finally, we’ll look at specific and easy performance tweaks, techniques and best practices that apply directly to DW loads. This includes exposing which Data Flow components to avoid, how to still get your work done without them, as well as tuning inserts and updates.

SBI307: Do It Right: Best Practices for Analysis Services
Craig Utley
Are you seeking practical, in-depth technical advice for building a BI solution using SSAS? Analysis Services changed tremendously with the advent of SQL Server 2005. It introduced a new way of building dimensions and cubes that required a new way of modeling the solution. This session examines the best practices for properly designing cubes for performance and usability. It discusses some high-level topics but also looks at advanced topics such as alternative approaches to many-to-many dimensions, SCOPE statements, aggregation design, scalability issues, processing techniques, server properties, and more. Craig Utley has been working with Microsoft’s BI products for 11 years and is a former Program Manager with the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (SQLCAT), where he worked with some of the largest Analysis Services installations worldwide. In this session, he brings his real-world experience with large, complex SSAS projects and presents best practices uncovered as companies deploy and use Analysis Services.

SBI406: In-Depth with the SSIS Script Component
Todd McDermid
The Script component is the Swiss Army knife of data transformation in Integration Services. If there isn’t a built-in transformation that will parse, reformat, restructure, or otherwise mash your data the way you need, then you should look to the Script transform. The Script component has access to SSIS variables, connections, and all of the columns in the data flow. It can act as a data source (perhaps reading information from a web service), a destination (maybe writing to an EDI text file), or a transformation (possibly encrypting a column’s contents). The Script component has full access to the .NET Framework, so the possibilities are endless. But there are a lot of ground rules a .NET developer or SSIS package developer needs to know before they can effectively solve problems with the Script. Learn what you need to know to add the Script component to your ETL toolbox.

SBI302: In-Depth with the SSIS Script Task
Todd McDermid
The Script Task is the Swiss Army knife of Integration Services process orchestration. It’s rare to be able to construct a real-world ETL solution with only the tools provided with the built-in SSIS tasks. When no task in the toolbox can accomplish what you need, then the Script Task is a powerful alternative. Scripts have easy access to SSIS variables and connections, and have the full power of the .NET Framework behind them. But scripting in Integration Services isn’t all unicorns and rainbows. Knowledge of C# or Visual Basic is essential even for very basic operations, and restrictions placed on the Script for the privilege of operating within the SSIS control flow must be understood. This session will educate attendees on how to get results quickly with the Script Task, focusing on common problems it’s being used to solve in the real-world.

SBI203: PowerPivot: Delivering Self-Serve BI
Craig Utley
If you are always looking for better ways to deliver value to the business as part of a BI project, make sure you examine the capabilities of Gemini. Using existing data and tools, users now have the ability to analyze vast quantities of data without first designing dimensions and measure groups. Users can explore the data and optionally share their analysis with others. See how Gemini opens the power of Analysis Services to non-technical users while still allowing the IT organization to administer and secure the data.

SBI305: Programming SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
Paul Litwin
In this session, you’ll learn how to programmatically manipulate SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) (and SSRS 2008 R2) and integrate SSRS into your ASP.NET, Windows Forms, and Silverlight applications by employing URL Access, Report Viewer controls, and the Reporting Services Web Services. Finally, you’ll learn how to extend reporting services by calling custom .NET assemblies from your SSRS reports.

DEVELOPER

SDV302: Aggregating Data in SQL Server 2008 Using Grouping Sets
Itzik Ben-Gan
A grouping set is a set of attributes that you group your rows by. SQL Server 2008 introduces several features that allow you to easily and efficiently calculate aggregates for multiple grouping sets. With the new features you can address the need to dynamically analyze aggregated data from the relational data warehouse. This session introduces the new features, the need that they serve, and how to use them to implement solutions that calculate, store, and incrementally update aggregated information.

SDV304: Best Practices for Working with Date and Time Data in SQL Server 2008
Itzik Ben-Gan
Working with date and time involves many challenges. If you don’t follow some important best practices, your code can work incorrectly and perform poorly. This session introduces the challenges involved in working with date and time, provides best practices, and helps you develop robust and efficient applications. This session also covers date and time related enhancements in SQL Server 2008, including support for new data types, as well as new and enhanced functions.

SDV309: Building, Deploying, and Monitoring StreamInsight Applications
Bob Beauchemin
While typical relational database applications are query-driven, event-driven applications have become increasingly important. Event-driven applications are characterized by high event data rates, standing queries, and millisecond latency requirements requiring the data to be queried (and possibly summarized) while it’s in-flight. These requirements are shared by various scenarios across verticals such as manufacturing, oil and gas, power utilities, financial services as well as IT and data center monitoring. In this session, I’ll discuss building, deploying, and monitoring a StreamInsight application, concentrating on the features that surfaced in SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight RTM version.

SDV305: GUIDs: Use, Abuse, and How to Move Forward
Kimberly L. Tripp
Since the addition of the GUID (Microsoft’s implementation of the UUID), my life as a consultant and "tuner" has been busy. I’ve seen databases designed with GUID keys run fairly well with small workloads but completely fall over and fail because they just cannot scale. And, I know why GUIDs are chosen – it simplifies the handling of parent/child rows in your batches so you can reduce round-trips or avoid dealing with identity values. And, yes, sometimes it’s even for distributed databases and/or security that GUIDs are chosen. I’m not entirely against ever using a GUID but overusing and abusing GUIDs just has to be stopped! Please, please, please let me give you better solutions and explanations on how to deal with your parent/child rows, round-trips and clustering keys!

SDV306: Index Internals: What You Really Need to Know!
Kimberly L. Tripp
Constraints, identity, GUIDs, the clustered index, nonclustered indexes… there are quite a few very-related structures within the database. If you don’t make good decisions early, you may have both performance problems as well as availability problems. And, changing these later may be very challenging. But, what do you need to know and what are the best starting points for indexing? In this session, we will look at index internals, the clustered index and constraints to unravel what really makes a good base table strategy for indexing. This session is a must if you plan to attend the post-conference workshop as there will be no overlap. This session is a must for all developers.

SDV207: Mitigating AdHoc Query Issues in SQL Server 2008
Ronald Yenko
One of the areas where there is much conversation (and sometimes a little stress) between developers and DBAs is around ad-hoc queries. While they give the most flexibility to an application, they often are very expensive to the database engine and open security gaps in the infrastructure (e.g. SQL injection, etc.). With a little advance communication and some basic design guidelines, we can engineer a solution that gives a majority of the flexibility to the developer and reduce/eliminate extra expense and security issues at the database. By working together, we can give the best overall solution to our customers (who usually don’t care how it is done as long as it runs as fast as possible while keeping their data secure). This session focuses on SQL Server 2008, but many of the techniques are applicable in earlier versions.

SDV308: Programming Filestreams and RBS in SQL Server 2008 R2
Bob Beauchemin
SQL Server 2008 provides a new storage model called filestream storage, as well as a system for storing blobs on remote blob stores called Remote Blob Storage. Using filestream storage, a large value (blob) in a table is stored as a file on the file system, rather than in the database directly. Accessing the blob can be accomplished by using Transact-SQL or by using transactionally-consistant, optimized streaming-style APIs. This session covers the aspects of defining and programming filestreams in SQL Server using Transact-SQL, ADO.NET, OLE DB, and ODBC. This session includes information about new filestream and remote blob services features supported in SQL Server 2008 R2.

SDV301: Query Tuning Tips
Itzik Ben-Gan
Given a SQL Server querying problem there’s much that you can do to enable a good performing solution. Tuning involves arranging an optimal physical environment, e.g., by creating supporting indexes, as well as writing the query in a way that it would get an optimal execution plan. Many factors can affect the efficiency of the solution including the availability of indexes, data distribution and density, and others. In different scenarios, a different solution could be the most efficient for the same querying problem. Query tuning could be considered an art. This session will provide various tips to do efficient query tuning and demonstrate those through specific tuning examples.

SDV303: Using the SQL Server Service Broker in the Real World
Denny Cherry
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 include a fantastic feature that few people understand or use – the Microsoft SQL Server Service Broker. The SQL Service Broker is one of the least used features within the database engine, and that lack of use is simply from lack of knowledge about the feature. In this session, we’ll dig into how to configure the service broker for not only intra-database message queuing, but database to database queuing as well as server to server database queuing. We will also dig into a real-life scenario where the SQL Server Service Broker was used to do ETL from an OLTP database to an OLAP database in near real time for near real time reporting. By the end of this session, you’ll understand where SQL Service Broker is the right fit to be used, and you'll hopefully be ready to deploy it within your environment.

KEYNOTE SESSION

SQLKEY: SQL Server – Mission Critical Information Platform
Quentin Clark
SQL Server 2008 R2 provides businesses with a high performance database platform that’s reliable, scalable, available, easy to manage and provides a variety of data types and technologies to enable the most critical applications. SQL Server 2008 R2 builds on the 2008 release to help IT departments provide even more cost-effective scalability on today’s most advanced hardware platforms using familiar SQL Server administration tools and enable highly scalable and well managed Business Intelligence on a self-service basis to end users. In this session, Quentin Clark will go over the vision for the data platform, discuss capabilities of SQL Server 2008 R2 and how they’re being used by customers to provide the best value at lowest TCO. He will provide insight into where the industry is moving and the investments Microsoft SQL Server will be making to help achieve a reality where every application can achieve highest degree of scalability, availability and security regardless of whether it is deployed on premises or in the cloud with SQL Azure and the Windows Azure Platform.

DBA

SDB410: Auditing and Compliance Features in SQL Server 2008
Bob Beauchemin
A hot topic of study in today’s IT shops is compliance with regulations such as PCI-DSS, the Data Protection Act, SOX, and HIPAA. In this session, I’ll look into SQL Server 2008’s new security facilities including built-in granular auditing, transparent data encryption (including encrypted backups), external key management, and show how they assist in compliance. You can use these features in conjunction with Policy-Based Management to ensure a consistent security policy throughout the organization.

SDB301: Clustering in SQL Server
Ronald Yenko
Have you always wanted to set up a high availability SQL Server cluster but thought it was too expensive or complicated? In this session, we’ll take a look at where clustering makes sense (and maybe where another approach might fit better). We’ll go through a methodology on how to design and set up a cluster (from the relatively economical to mega-powerful). The session will include gotcha’s and workarounds for smoothly clustering SQL Server Integration Services. We’ll also cover some tips & tricks that will keep your clusters running smoothly without constant attention from you. The session will focus on Windows Server 2008 & SQL Server 2008 functionality, but many of the features are available in previous versions.

SDB302: Database Mirroring: Even More Robust in SQL Server 2008
Ronald Yenko
Database Mirroring introduced in SQL Server 2005 offers fast failover with no loss of committed data, does not require specialized hardware like a cluster and is easy to configure and manage. SQL Server 2008 brings even more reliability, supportability and performance. We’ll take a look at how to set up various SQL Server mirroring configurations in a variety of production environments. The session and demos will cover tips and tricks to handle some of the details that become important when you mirror (e.g. server level scheduled jobs, SQL Server Integration Services packages, etc).

SDB305: DBA Mythbusters
Paul Randal
It’s amazing how many myths and misconceptions have sprung up and persisted over the years about SQL Server – after 10 years helping people out on forums, newsgroups, and customer engagements, Paul has heard it all. Are there really non-logged operations? Can interrupting shrinks or rebuilds cause corruption? Can you override the server’s MAXDOP setting? Will the server always do a table-scan to get a row count? These are just a few of many, many myths that Paul will debunk in this fast-paced session on how SQL Server operates and should be managed and maintained.

SDB308: Follow the Rabbit: Wrap-up Q&A
Paul Randal
Kimberly L. Tripp
Now a conference staple, Kimberly and Paul come loaded with slides and highlights from all of their sessions of the conference. If you don’t ask questions, they’ll start adding to the content discussed previously by diving deeper and tying in discussions they’ve had in breaks, after their sessions and with your questions. This is really YOUR time to ask questions! This session seems unfocused but is often not only informative but highly interactive and fun.

SDB309: How to Decide if Your Database Is a Good Candidate for Virtualization
Denny Cherry
We’ll be looking into the pros and cons of moving SQL Servers into a virtual server environment. Specifically, we’ll be looking into when it’s a good idea and when it’s probably not a good idea. Like all problems in the database world there are no hard set answers as to if virtualization is a good idea, but there are some times when virtualizing a SQL Server is a good idea and can save you some money. There are some other times when you will be shooting yourself in the foot and shouldn’t. We’ll be focusing on when to make this decision, and how to gather the metrics that you need in order to come to this decision.

SDB306: Index Fragmentation: The Hidden Menace
Paul Randal
As soon as you have more than one index on a table, you’re going to start seeing fragmentation. Many people know that fragmentation is bad, but why is it bad? And what is the best way to get rid of it? Paul knows everything there is to know about fragmentation, having written the original DBCC SHOWCONTIG and DBCC INDEXDEFRAG. In this session, he will explain how fragmentation occurs and why the process that leads to fragmentation can often be as damaging to performance as the fragmentation itself. He’ll explain how to test for fragmentation and show why some of the tools cannot be trusted to give an accurate measure. Finally, Paul will explain the different methods of removing fragmentation and everything you need to consider when putting together an appropriate fragmentation-management strategy.

SDB304: Storage for the DBA
Denny Cherry
One of the biggest issues in database performance centers around storage. It’s also one of the hardest places to troubleshoot performance issues because storage engineers and database administrators often do not speak the same language. In this session, we’ll be looking at storage from both the database and storage perspectives. We’ll be digging into LUNs, HBAs, the fabric, as well as RAID Groups. In addition to theory, we’ll be looking at an actual EMC SAN so that we can translate what we see in the Storage Array with what we see on the actual server.

SDB407: Undocumented Tools and Trace Flags
Paul Randal
How do you figure out lock collisions? How do you look in the transaction log? SQL Server has all kinds of hidden, undocumented functionality – trace flags, functions, DBCC commands and more. Some of them are hidden for a reason – they’re only useful for Product Support or the development team, but there are quite a few that can be really useful for DBAs to know and use. In this session, Paul will run through a plethora of undocumented gems that you’ll find useful to know about and some that might just save you hours of debugging pain!

SDB303: VLDB: Recovering from Isolated Disasters
Kimberly L. Tripp
SQL Server provides a few key features that allow VLDBs to survive – and keep processing – after isolated disasters: table and index partitioning, partial database availability, and online piecemeal restore. In this demo-packed session, Kimberly will show you some of the key things to know when architecting your solution as well as recovering from disaster. If your databases have varying access patterns and you’re required to keep more and more data online and available – this session is a must.

MICROSOFT DAY - SQL SERVER

SMS09: A Lap Around Microsoft SQL Azure and a Discussion of What’s New
 Microsoft
SQL Azure provides a highly available and scalable relational database engine in the cloud. In this demo-intensive and interactive session, learn how to quickly build Web applications with SQL Azure databases and familiar Web technologies. We demonstrate several new enhancements we have added to SQL Azure based on the feedback we’ve received from the community since launching the service earlier this year.

SMS07: All SQL Server Apps Need SQL Server Spatial
 Microsoft
Abstract not available.

SMS11: Building Sophisticated BI Applications Using PowerPivot for Excel
 Microsoft
PowerPivot for Excel (and SharePoint) is a breakthrough technology that enables end users to build BI solutions and collaborate with their peers. This session will dive deep into the capabilities of PowerPivot for Excel and show how end users can build sophisticated BI applications using an intuitive and seamless user experience. This session will almost entirely consist of demos and will assume some basic knowledge of PowerPivot and its value proposition.

SMS06: Deep Dive into OData
Mike Flasko
Data has become a first-class element of the web. The Open Data Protocol (OData) applies web technologies such as HTTP, AtomPub and JSON to enable a wide range of data sources to be exposed on the web in a simple, secure and interoperable way. Whether you have a simple collection of reference data, building a Rich Internet Application or are building the data platform for a high-end website, this code-heavy session walks through the key technologies and practices available to expose your data and its associated logic as an OData feed. This session covers the basics and quickly progresses to the nuts and bolts of OData and WCF Data Services. Once your data is available as an OData feed it can be consumed by any of the available OData libraries/tools for Microsoft .NET, Silverlight, AJAX, Java, PHP and Excel.

SMS05: Developing Enterprise Ready and Mission Critical Java Applications with SQL Server
 Microsoft
If you are interested in or currently developing a Java application for SQL Server 2008 and R2, then find out how the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver can help you utilize the features of SQL Server. The JDBC Driver provides access to SQL Server 2008 and R2 from any Java application, application server, or Java-enabled applet as a Type 4 JDBC driver. The JDBC Driver provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform Enterprise Edition 5 (Java EE 5). Version 3.0, the current version of the JDBC Driver, is JDBC 4.0 compliant and runs on the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 or later providing cross-platform support. During this session you will hear about the enterprise-readiness and major features of the JDBC Driver that will enable you to harness the power of SQL Server. We will showcase new features like date & time and Sparse columns. We will also talk about the future direction of Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver and support LifeCycle.

SMS12: Getting the Most Out of Data Visualization in SQL Server Reporting Services
 Microsoft
This session will cover the new enhancements to SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 related to data visualization including Maps, Data Bars, Sparklines and Indicators, and best practices for their use. The session will be demo intensive.

SMS04: Large Scale Data Warehouses with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse
Christian Kleinerman
This session provides an overview of the new Data Warehousing capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse Edition. This new edition implements a Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) architecture on top of the robust scale-up capabilities of SQL Server to enable massive scale-out, into the tens and hundreds of terabytes, for the same low TCO SQL Server delivers. In collaboration with several hardware partners, SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse will provide an appliance-like solution that lets customers customize the system to conform to their existing hardware environment.

SMS03: Largest Mission Critical Deployment of Microsoft SQL Server Around the World – Who Are They? How Do They Do It?
Srik Raghavan
How do they scale; do they scale up or scale out? How are High Availabilty and Disaster Recovery architected? Are there any common techniques that bring the largest gain in scalability?
This session is intended for people interested in learning how we have solved some very hard problems in the database tier. Take the lessons we have learned back to your business to improve your solutions.

SMS10: Migrating and Authoring Applications to Microsoft SQL Azure
 Microsoft
Are you looking to migrate your on-premise applications and database from MySql or other RDBMs to SQL Azure? Or are you simply focused on the easiest ways to get your SQL Server database up to SQL Azure? Then this session is for you. We cover two fundamental areas in this session: application data access tier and the database schema+data. In Part 1, we dive into application data-access tier, covering common migration issues as well as best practices that will help make your data-access tier more resilient in the cloud and on SQL Azure. In Part 2, the focus is on database migration. We go through migrating schema and data, taking a look at tools and techniques for efficient transfer of schema through Management Studio and Data-Tier Application (DAC). Then, we discover efficient ways of moving small and large data into SQL Azure through tools like SSIS and BCP. We close the session with a glimpse into what is in store in future for easing migration of applications into SQL Azure.

SMS02: Planning, Implementing and Supporting SQL Server Virtualization
Ross Mistry
This session will provide prescriptive guidance and detailed steps for planning and implementing a SQL Server virtualization strategy with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V. You will learn how to conduct a SQL Server inventory of your existing environment, determine which SQL Server workloads to virtualize, and how to choose the appropriate high availability, security and isolation strategies. The session will also communicate strategies for managing and backing up a SQL Server virtual environment with System Center products such as Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) R2, Operations Manager 2007 R2 and Data Protection Manager 2010. Best Practices learned from the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC), SQL Server CAT Team and the SQL Server Product Group will be shared.

SMS01: SQL Server-based Hardware Appliances
Mark Mortimore
D. Britton Johnston
Integrated hardware/software appliances promise to deliver optimized and balanced performance, faster time-to-value, and significant TCO advantages. For hardware partners; this creates an opportunity to collaborate on developing and delivering tuned solutions that address specific workloads including data warehousing, OLTP, BI, and consolidation scenarios. For services partners; integrated solutions can reduce time spent on infrastructure design, evaluation, and installation - allowing focus on higher-value deliverables including ETL, data integration, and OLAP/BI Services. Fast Track data warehouse reference architectures, and Parallel Data Warehouse appliance model illustrate the power associated with integrated HW/SW solutions. This presentation will share our current plans so you can understand what we are targeting to ship in FY11.

SMS08: T-SQL Features from a Solution Perspective
 Microsoft
There are many great developer features in SQL Server with a large number of them added in the SQL Server 2005 & 2008 timeframe. So, these are new and great features, but what actual application problems get easier to solve with these features? In this session we will look at a few often overlooked programmability features in T-SQL and how you can use them to solve both business and performance problems.

SQLServerCentral.com TRACK

SDB204: Automating Policy-Based Management using PowerShell
Allen White
Policy-Based Management in SQL Server 2008 provides a great way to ensure your systems are configured consistently and correctly, but it can be tedious to manually implement it on every server in your environment. On the other hand, PowerShell scripts allow you to automate the implementation of Policy-Based Management on all your SQL Server instances, saving you a great deal of time. This session walks you through how Policy-Based Management works, how to define policies in PowerShell, and how to set up SQL Agent jobs to regularly evaluate policies to let you know when corrective action needs to be taken.

SDB201: Database Design - The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
Buck Woody
Come hear Buck Woody, Microsoft’s "Real World DBA", speak about the database design process. Buck will explain how proper (and improper) database design affects everything from data integrity and business rules, all the way to performance. You’ll learn a simple, foolproof five-step process for designing a database from business requirements through implementation, and Buck will even demonstrate a simple example of the process. You’ll also learn what tools you have available to communicate your design to your team, and he’ll touch on the new design features in .NET programming that affect this design process.

SDB310: Dr. DMV: How to Use Dynamic Management Views to Monitor and Diagnose Performance Issues with High Volume OLTP Workloads
Glenn Berry
Originally introduced in SQL Server 2005, and enhanced in SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) allow you to take an in-depth look at exactly what is happening inside your SQL Server instances and databases. In this session, you will learn over 30 different DMV queries you can execute to quickly and easily to detect and diagnose performance issues in your OLTP environment. For example, you will learn how to identify top wait states, most CPU intensive stored procedures, find missing and unused indexes, and many more. The scripts will be available for download so you can put them to immediate use.

SDB206: How to Analyze Performance Monitor Data Using PAL
Brad McGehee
Analyzing Performance Monitor data is not always an easy task. It often involves viewing Performance Monitor logs in graph view, seeing what has been happening, and hoping that your knowledge and background in SQL Server and the Windows OS provides you with enough information to help you to be able to pinpoint specific performance-related issues. One way to make this job easier is by using a free tool from Microsoft called "Performance Analysis of Logs," or "PAL", for short. In brief, this tool takes a Performance Monitor log file (.blg), analyzes it, and provides you with an HTML report that presents a graphical analysis of the performance counter data, including alerts for those counters that exceed a specified threshold. In this session, you will learn how to use this tool, including how to customize it for your specific needs. You will also learn how to analyze the output so you can better understand what performance problems your SQL Server instances may be having. This session is filled with demonstrations, and assumes attendees have a basic understanding of how to use Performance Monitor.

SDB311: Identifying SQL Server Performance Problems Using SQL Trace
Brad McGehee
While most DBAs are familiar with SQL Server Profiler, many are not familiar with SQL Trace. Very briefly, SQL Trace allows you to capture Profiler traces using system stored procedures, without the extra overhead of using the Profiler GUI, helping to minimize the amount of resources used for capturing traces. In this session you will learn:

• What is SQL Trace?
• The pros and cons of using SQL Trace
• How SQL Trace works
• What are the SQL Trace system stored procedures?
• How to create your own SQL Trace script
• How to query Trace data directly from a Trace file
• How to use the SQL Server Profiler GUI to automatically write SQL Trace scripts.

This session is filled with demonstrations, and assumes attendees have a basic understanding of how to use SQL Server Profiler.

SDB203: Managing SQL Server System and Performance Data with PowerShell
Allen White
Building and maintaining a baseline of your server’s state and performance is critical when diagnosing existing SQL Server problems, as the collected metrics can be used to trace down and fix many problems. In addition, this historical data can be used to identify potential performance problems before they occur, hopefully before your users notice them. This session walks you through a series of PowerShell scripts you can schedule using SQL Agent to capture the most important data from your SQL Server instances and shows how you can produce a set of reports you can use to help keep your servers running smoothly.

SDB205: Selecting and Sizing Database Hardware for OLTP Performance
Glenn Berry
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 processors and chipsets, along with improvements in magnetic and SSD storage, have dramatically changed the evaluation and selection process as compared to the past. Many DBAs 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, so 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.

SDB202: SQL Server for the Oracle Professional
Buck Woody
Come hear Buck Woody, Microsoft’s "Real World DBA", give a marketing-free overview of SQL Server for the Oracle Professional. You already know Oracle – so Buck will take you through what you need to know to manage a SQL Server installation; from the differences in terminology and architecture; to the steps you need to take to install, configure, operate and maintain a SQL Server instance. You’ll gain valuable insight into lots of free resources to make the task simple, and take home real world knowledge on how to leverage your database platform knowledge on Microsoft’s flagship information system. And who wouldn’t want another platform notch in their belt?