SQL Server Radio

We're currently at PASS Summit, and things are pretty busy here, so we didn't manage to record a new show.

Instead, we republish an episode which features interviews with 3 of the top experts in the industry: Brent Ozar, Denny Cherry and Adam Machanic. They were recorded a year ago at SQLRally Amsterdam for our Hebrew version (of course the interviews were conducted in English).

The interviews cover a lot of topics. Among them are professional development, the future of DBA work, SQL Server 2014, storage, parallelism, virtualization and SQLCLR. If you missed it, it's an opportunity to catch up.

After we return home, we have a lot of exciting stuff to talk about on the next shows.

Items mentioned in the show:

• Brent Ozar – Rock Stars, Normal People, and You
• Brent Ozar – Why Index Fragmentation Doesn't Matter (Video)
• Denny Cherry's Podcast – People Talking Tech
• Adam Machanic – Next-Level Parallel Plan Forcing: An Alternative to 8649
• Adam Machanic – Query Tuning Mastery: The Art and Science of Manhandling Paralellism
• Adam Machcnic – Data, Faster: Microsoft SQL Server Performance Techniques with SQLCLR
• T-SQL Tuesday

Download Episode (mp3)

On this in-depth show, we take a deep dive into the two biggest features of SQL Server 2014: In-Memory OLTP (aka Hektaon) and Clustered Columnstore Indexes.

We talk about the data structures of the two features, how they differ from the traditional data structures, and why they allow such staggering performance boosts.

We also talk about things you need to take into account and watch out for when working with them, and about the types of workloads that can benefit from them.

Items mentioned in the show:

* What's New in SQL Server 2014 Course

* SQL Down Under Show 62 with Paul Larson

On this in-depth show, we take a deep dive into the two biggest features of SQL Server 2014: In-Memory OLTP (aka Hektaon) and Clustered Columnstore Indexes.

We talk about the data structures of the two features, how they differ from the traditional data structures, and why they allow such staggering performance boosts.

We also talk about things you need to take into account and watch out for when working with them, and about the types of workloads that can benefit from them.

Items mentioned in the show:

• What's New in SQL Server 2014 Course
• SQL Down Under Show 62 with Paul Larson

Download Episode (mp3)

It's the monthly all-over-the-place version of the show, and this time we have a mix of various topics like the cloud, T-SQL development, performance, SQL Server 2014, events and presentation skills.

We also have some more mystery around the Non-Blocking Sort issue from earlier shows.

More specifically, we talk about:

* Is the cloud a threat or opportunity for DBAs?

* The ways to pass a list of values to a Stored Procedure

* The distribution of installations between SQL Server versions

* Non-Blocking Sort - Is there a hidden Iterator that helps it?

* Various presentations worth watching

* The new SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator

* And more..

 

Items mentioned in the show:

* Guy Glantser - DBA in the Cloud: Threat or Opportunity?

* Adam Machanic - SQLCLR String Splitting Part 2: Even Faster, Even More Scalable

* Erland Sommarskog - Arrays and Lists in SQL Server

* 24 Hours of Pass Summit Preview Edition

* Julie Koesmarno - "I Want It NOW!" Data Visualization with Power View

* Kalen Delaney - In-Memory OLTP Internals: How is a 30x Performance Boost Possible?

* 24 Hours of Pass Portuguese Edition

* 24 Hours of Pass SQL Server 2014 Edition

* Sunil Agarwal - SQL Server 2014: In-Memory OLTP for Database Administrators

* Sunil Agarwal - Columnstore Technical Deep Dive

* Jimmy May - Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2014: Flipping the DW Faster Bit

* SQLSaturday Israel

* Aaron Bertrand - Tricks to play on your DBA

* Madeira Course - What’s New in SQL Server 2014?

It's the monthly all-over-the-place version of the show, and this time we have a mix of various topics like the cloud, T-SQL development, performance, SQL Server 2014, events and presentation skills.

We also have some more mystery around the Non-Blocking Sort issue from earlier shows.

More specifically, we talk about:

• Is the cloud a threat or opportunity for DBAs?
• The ways to pass a list of values to a Stored Procedure
• The distribution of installations between SQL Server versions
• Non-Blocking Sort – Is there a hidden Iterator that helps it?
• Various presentations worth watching
• The new SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator
• And more..

Items mentioned in the show:

• Guy Glantser – DBA in the Cloud: Threat or Opportunity?
• Adam Machanic – SQLCLR String Splitting Part 2: Even Faster, Even More Scalable
• Erland Sommarskog – Arrays and Lists in SQL Server
• 24 Hours of Pass Summit Preview Edition
• Julie Koesmarno – "I Want It NOW!" Data Visualization with Power View
• Kalen Delaney – In-Memory OLTP Internals: How is a 30x Performance Boost Possible?
• 24 Hours of Pass Portuguese Edition
• 24 Hours of Pass SQL Server 2014 Edition
• Sunil Agarwal – SQL Server 2014: In-Memory OLTP for Database Administrators
• Sunil Agarwal – Columnstore Technical Deep Dive
• Jimmy May – Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2014: Flipping the DW Faster Bit
• SQLSaturday Israel
• Aaron Bertrand – Tricks to play on your DBA
• Madeira Course – What's New in SQL Server 2014?

Download Episode (mp3)

On show 5, we have our first guest - Kevin Kline!

We talk with Kevin about various topics, covering professional development, the direction of Microsoft, SQL Server 2014, the role of the DBA, and more. Specifically, we cover:

* How well Microsoft is keeping up with the competition

* What Kevin thinks about SQL Server 2014 and where Microsoft going in the database market

* How to take the leap from being a good DBA to being a manager

* Why it's important to have a mentor

* His history at PASS, how he and the other founders envisioned it when they founded it, and what he wants to see PASS doing today

* How the DBA role is going to change in the next few years

* DBAs and Chauffeurs

* Kevin's biggest mistake

* And more..

About Kevin:

Kevin is a renowned database expert and software industry veteran, a long-time Microsoft SQL Server MVP and noted leader in the IT industry. Kevin is a founder and former president of PASS and the author of popular IT books like SQL in a Nutshell. Kevin is also a top-rated speaker at industry trade shows worldwide.

Items mentioned in the show:

* Kevin Kline's Blog

* Kevin Kline - Top 10 DBA Mistakes on SQL Server

* Kevin and the Ice Bucket Challenge

On show 5, we have our first guest – Kevin Kline!

We talk with Kevin about various topics, covering professional development, the direction of Microsoft, SQL Server 2014, the role of the DBA, and more. Specifically, we cover:

• How well Microsoft is keeping up with the competition
• What Kevin thinks about SQL Server 2014 and where Microsoft going in the database market
• How to take the leap from being a good DBA to being a manager
• Why it's important to have a mentor
• His history at PASS, how he and the other founders envisioned it when they founded it, and what he wants to see PASS doing today
• How the DBA role is going to change in the next few years
• DBAs and Chauffeurs
• Kevin's biggest mistake
• And more..

About Kevin:

Kevin is a renowned database expert and software industry veteran, a long-time Microsoft SQL Server MVP and noted leader in the IT industry. Kevin is a founder and former president of PASS and the author of popular IT books like SQL in a Nutshell. Kevin is also a top-rated speaker at industry trade shows worldwide.

Items mentioned in the show:

• Kevin Kline's Blog
• Kevin Kline – Top 10 DBA Mistakes on SQL Server
• Kevin and the Ice Bucket Challenge

Download Episode (mp3)

Two weeks have passed, and it's time for our 4th show.

As always, we have a mix of interesting stuff covering performance, data architecture, new services, tips, tricks, and much more. Among other topics, we talk about:

* Why pulling from a Linked Server is A LOT faster than pushing

* The effect of new hardware on Writelog waits

* Ways to improve the throughput of your data loading processes

* The architecture of Transaction Replication

* A weird bug with sequence

* DocumentDB, Microsoft's new NoSQL database service

* String search solutions in SQL Server

* Why you should wear the Database Architect hat from time to time

* How Paul Simon is related to SQL Server

Items mentioned in the show:

* Guy Glantser - Parameterization Series

* Linchi Shea - Linked servers and performance impact: Direction matters!

* Maria Zakourdaev - Choosing SEQUENCE instead of IDENTITY? Watch your step

* SQLBits Session Recordings

* Klaus Aschenbrenner - Latches, Spinlocks, and Lock Free Data Structures

* 24 Hours of Pass

* Denny Cherry - PASS Summit 2014 Speaker Idol Competition

* SQL Server Days

* Microsoft NoSQL database and full-text search service previews available on Azure

* Bob Beauchemin - New Azure services and evolution of the Service/SQL Server relationship

* Stuart Ainsworth - From DBA to Data Architect: Changing Your Game (zip file for download)

Two weeks have passed, and it's time for our 4th show.

As always, we have a mix of interesting stuff covering performance, data architecture, new services, tips, tricks, and much more. Among other topics, we talk about:

• Why pulling from a Linked Server is A LOT faster than pushing
• The effect of new hardware on Writelog waits
• Ways to improve the throughput of your data loading processes
• The architecture of Transaction Replication
• A weird bug with sequence
• DocumentDB, Microsoft's new NoSQL database service
• String search solutions in SQL Server
• Why you should wear the Database Architect hat from time to time
• How Paul Simon is related to SQL Server

Items mentioned in the show:

• Guy Glantser – Parameterization Series
• Linchi Shea – Linked servers and performance impact: Direction matters!
• Maria Zakourdaev – Choosing SEQUENCE instead of IDENTITY? Watch your step
• SQLBits Session Recordings
• Klaus Aschenbrenner – Latches, Spinlocks, and Lock Free Data Structures
• 24 Hours of Pass
• Denny Cherry – PASS Summit 2014 Speaker Idol Competition
• SQL Server Days
• Microsoft NoSQL database and full-text search service previews available on Azure
• Bob Beauchemin – New Azure services and evolution of the Service/SQL Server relationship
• Stuart Ainsworth – From DBA to Data Architect: Changing Your Game (zip file for download)

Download Episode (mp3)

You know you have a performance problem in your server, but where do you start looking in order to find what that problem is?

On our 3rd show, we take a deep dive into performance tuning and talk about:

* The Top-Down and Bottom-Up methods and when to use which

* The various tools SQL Server gives us for performance tuning

* How to pinpoint the problem in any of the methods

* What to look for when tuning a slow running query or process

* What to look for when analyzing execution plans

* Why you should always blame the network :)

* And more..

What's your method for performance tuning? What are the tools that you use? Tell us in the comments..