Cost for this event is £199 (ex VAT) and will include seminar materials, refreshments including a light lunch.

Click here to register for this event.

Crucial Database Maintenance Techniques for Databases of All Sizes
Kimberly L. Tripp; Founder, SQLskills.com
Paul S. Randal; Principal Lead Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.

Often databases are designed to handle complex business logic and to hold critical data. Once built, they're put into production and often perform well... for a while. When the load increases and the data volume becomes larger and larger, performance degrades and problems ensue. What can be done to ensure smooth operations? How can you minimize data loss in the event of a disaster? What are the most crucial maintenance operations to automate, how do they work and why are they important, what are the best practices for running them and how can you ensure they're working correctly? Maintenance is the key to having a system that's healthy, recoverable and performant. There are lots of areas to cover but here are the most important features: Database files (shrink, grow, virtual log files, log size/management), consistency checks (what to run, when to run them, what to do about the results), fragmentation (when to defrag, how to defrag), Statistics (create and update) and Backup/Restore (recovery models, options/granularity, strategies). This workshop is targeting the best practices and goals for Database Administrators who are wearing many hats or full-time System Administrators. The workshop will vary from 200-400 level covering ALL of the key concepts what the feature is, how it works, why it's important and best practices in how and when to run.

Why you should attend this workshop? Learn from industry expert Kimberly L. Tripp as well as a key source on the SQL Server Development Team; Paul S. Randal. Paul is the former Storage Engine Access Methods Team Lead for SQL Server 2005 and the developer who wrote DBCC SHOWCONTIG (2000), DBCC INDEXDEFRAG (2000) and DBCC CHECKDB/repair for SQL Server 2005. Currently, Paul runs the Program Management team that controls the Core Storage Engine but part of his role includes directly interfacing with customers to help understand their needs and challenges. If you're interested in getting more details from and about Paul, check out his content on the SQL Server Storage Engine Team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverstorageengine/default.aspx.

Agenda
Part I: Database Creation/Space Management Best Practices

Part II: Table Structures, Fragmentation and Statistics

Part III: Designing a Backup Strategy for Effective Disaster Recovery

Part IV: Secrets of Fast Detection and Recovery from Database Corruptions

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Paul S. Randal

Principal Lead Program Manager, Microsoft Corp.

Paul started in the industry in 1994 working for DEC on the VMS file system and check/repair tools. In 1999 he moved to Microsoft to work on SQL Server, specifically on DBCC.

For SQL Server 2000, he concentrated on index fragmentation (writing DBCC INDEXDEFRAG, DBCC SHOWCONTIG) and various algorithms in DBCC CHECKDB. During SQL Server 2005 development was the lead developer/manager of one the core dev teams in the Storage Engine, responsible for data access and storage (DBCC, allocation, indexes & heaps, pages/records, text/LOB storage, snapshot isolation, etc). He also spent several years rewriting DBCC CHECKDB/repair.

Since SQL Server 2005 shipped, Paul has managed the Program Management team for the core Storage Engine to become more focused on customer/partner engagement and feature set definition. Paul regularly presents at conferences around the world on high-availability, disaster recovery and Storage Engine internals. His popular blog is at http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverstorageengine.

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Kimberly L. Tripp

Founder, SQLskills.com
Kimberly L. Tripp is a SQL Server MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director and has worked with SQL Server since 1990. Since 1995, Kimberly has worked as a Speaker, Writer, Trainer and Consultant for her own company SYSolutions, Inc. (www.SQLskills.com). In consulting, Kimberly tackles real world problems focused on performance, tuning, system availability and minimizing data loss. In writing, Kimberly contributes regularly for MSDN and SQL Server Magazine, and co-authored the MSPress title SQL Server 2000 High Availability. In speaking, Kimberly’s comments usually include that she has a gift of being able to discuss complex technical topics with ease and humor. Prior to starting SYSolutions, Kimberly held positions at Microsoft including Subject Matter Expert/Trainer for Microsoft University and Technical Writer for the SQL Server Development Team. You can get more details about Kimberly on SQLskills.com and her blog: www.SQLskills.com/blogs/Kimberly.