SQL Server, PASS, and other data mishaps
Posts tagged SQL Server
April Houston SQL Server Users group meeting
Apr 13th
In Houston? Hungry for lunch? Want to learn SQL Server from an expert? Head over to the Microsoft office and learn the top SQL mistakes and how to avoid them from Kevin Kline
Not in Houston? or hungry? there’s always the live meeting option!
Here are the details from the HASSUG Site:
Houston Area SQL Server User Group Monthly Meeting Reminder
When: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 – 11:30am-1:00pm
Where: Microsoft Houston Office
2000 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S. #350
Houston, Texas 77042-3615
Pizza and drinks provided by Idera.
LiveMeeting Link:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=HASSUG_APR2010&role=attend
Conference Call for audio – 1-888-320-3585 (passcode 76027128)
Topic: Top 10 Mistakes on SQL Server
Speaker: Kevin Kline, Technical Strategy Manager, Quest; Immediate Past President of PASS (blog | twitter)
Whose got my DAC?
Mar 4th
What is the DAC?
The Dedicated Admin Connection, Commonly called the DAC is used to manage SQL Server when a regular connection wont succeed. Here’s what SQL Books Online (BOL) has to say about the DAC “This diagnostic connection allows an administrator to access SQL Server to execute diagnostic queries and troubleshoot problems even when SQL Server is not responding to standard connection requests.”
DAC Errors
Occasionally, while troubleshooting SQL servers in a large environment, especially one thats managed from many different geographic locations you could come up with this error, if more than 1 person is using the DAC. It should also be noted this only happens if you have remote DAC enabled in your environment
Error 17810
Could not connect because the maximum number of ’1′ dedicated administrator connections already exists. Before a new connection can be made, the existing dedicated administrator connection must be dropped, either by logging off or ending the process. [CLIENT: 127.0.0.1]
Since I could still connect with a regular connection currently, I set out looking for a query to determine who was using the DAC connection. I whipped this up, and since I couldnt find anything in search, I thought id blog it
select conn.session_id, sess.login_name, sess.nt_domain, sess.nt_user_name, conn.connect_time, conn.last_read, conn.last_write, sess.host_name, conn.client_net_address
from sys.dm_exec_connections conn
join sys.endpoints edp
on conn.endpoint_id = edp.endpoint_id
join sys.dm_exec_sessions sess
on sess.session_id = conn.session_id
where edp.is_admin_endpoint = 1
This should return everything you need to know about who is using your DAC connection so you can ask them to disconnect, or KILL their connection.
Convincing your boss to pay for your training
Mar 1st
Things are tight
It seems like budgets are being cut everywhere, and IT training seems to be one of the first places cut. In an earlier post I outlined where you could get a lot of valuable training for relatively little cost. In this post I will explore a few methods that have worked for me over the years to get your boss to say YES to paying for you to refresh your fountain of knowledge.
The direct approach
It may seem obvious but, if you don’t ask your employer, they cant agree to send you to a SQLSaturday, or to the annual SQLPASS Summit. So sometimes its just as simple as broaching the subject with your boss. But before you try that continue reading!
Explain the ROI
Many times the people who make the final decisions about training forget what a struggle it can be to not only stay current on technology but to actually excel with it. Last year PASS put together a very good list of ROI points This could be used for any SQL event, make it work for you.
Volunteer
If you volunteer for SQLPASS (at the local or national level) you may be eligible for a discount admission to the annual summit. This discount can range anywhere from 100$ all the way up to a full comp (free) admission. Armed with the discount, and your ROI documentation it can be quite a bit easier to convince your boss to send you to a weeks worth of invaluable training that they perceive to be discounted.
Offer to partner
A few years back this might have been unheard of but, I’ve recently decided to start trying this method to get approval for some training. Try to combine the ROI documentation with an offer to pick up 1/2 the tab for the training. For instance, split the cost, ask them to pay the airfare to a SQL Saturday, while you pick up the hotel, food and ground transportation. Another idea, offer to pay the airfare/conference registration(Free if you volunteer enough) and let them pick up the rest to send you to the SQLPASS Summit. Either way its a win-win for both parties, you get to make a small investment in your career, and it shows your employer your serious about that career.
Mix and Match
Hopefully you can take a few of these ideas and mix-n-match them to reach the ultimate goal of getting your desired education.
Accessing Top Quality Training
Feb 24th
Where did the Training go?
With the economy being what it is, many companies are cutting back on training budgets yet our need for knowledge as database professionals never stops. Luckily the SQL Server community is one of the liveliest around and there are solutions.
Online
I’d estimate that almost everyday of the week you can find live webcasts about various subjects in the SQL Server arena, the problem here is that many of these top quality training events aren’t well publicized. I never knew about them until joining Twitter a few years back. As it turns out, many SQL user groups around the world stream their meetings online via live meeting, there are PASS VC’s webcasts, Vendor sponsored webcasts, and the list goes on and on.
Local Events
Local events usually put on by your Local PASS Chapter, these are usually monthly events put on by your local PASS Chapter. The added bonus is that these events provide networking opportunities.
Regional Events
For the time being these usually are SQL Saturdays. Held at various metropolitan areas across the US these are currently one of the best bets going for very cheap, very good, education. I would highly recommend that you consider traveling to one of these if they are within a reasonable drive, or better still, a cheap flight
National Events
Generally speaking these are SQLPASS and SQL Connections. I’ll just say that these are topflight, all in wonderful opportunities, and if you have the chance Id highly recommend that you attend, everything I said about the other training events, is 10 fold when dealing with a week long immersive opportunity.
SQL/Windows Clustering Stupidity
Feb 18th
When is high availibility not?
When its any version of SQL running on a clustered Windows 2003 Server or sql 2005 running on clustered Windows 2008 Server. Seems that while you can dynamically add a disk and use it in SQL when your running a standalone server, if your running in a “highly availiable” cluster configuration you have to take SQL offline to add the disk as a dependency in order to be able to use it within SQL. Here’s the proof right from SQL books online.
Im sure there was a good reason to require this at the time but clearly this wasnt thought out in the grand scheme of taking 0 downtime. Anytime a single server has a more highly availiable architecture than your system that is designed for high availibility –>youre doing it wrong, Sorry someone had to say it
