Come and join us for this great evening of DBA focused content.

These meetings are great opportunities to meet other SQL Server professionals, get your burning issues solved.

Agenda

6:00 - 6:30 Meet & Greet

6:30 - 6:40 Intro, what’s in the news, Q&A.

6:40 - 6:50 Nuggets - "Compression in Database Mirroring... Are you Kidding?" - Chirag Roy

6:50 - 7:00 Nuggets - TBA

7:00 - 7:55 Managing SQL Server patches etc -  Ed Vassie

Installing and configuring all of the components of SQL Server is time consuming. Most experienced DBAs know what should be done, but often do not have the time to do it all. For others, lack of experience can result in a shaky foundation with security holes and poor configuration.

This seminar shows how FineBuild gives a rock-solid base for you to exploit SQL Server. Items such as Service Packs, Cumulative Updates, community tools and best-practice configuration are swallowed whole in an automated 'Gold Build' process that gives consistent results. FineBuild truly raises the standard that anybody can achieve, and eliminates much of the drudgery even experienced staff face when installing SQL Server multiple times.

FineBuild can be downloaded from Codeplex, and this seminar will be of interest to all skill levels. The agenda covers:

1. Introduction to SQL Server FineBuild
   • FineBuild Overview
   • FineBuild Download
2. Running FineBuild for the first time
   • Preparing the Install Media
   • The Workstation install
   • Reviewing the Log Files
3. Configuring FineBuild for site standards
   • Drive and Folder names
   • Component selection
   • Other Configuration options
4. Running FineBuild for the next 1000 SQL Server instances
   • Deployment Library
   • Deployment with Altiris (or similar)
5. Advanced features of FineBuild
   • Site-specific tools
   • Clustering
   • Upgrade from previous SQL Server version

Ed Vassie has enjoyed working in computing for over 30 years on many different platforms covering application design and DBA work in various countries and cultures.  After developing an international reputation in DB2, he now majors on SQL Server.  He prefers being a techie and is now a Database Architect at Totaljobs Group, a leading provider of online recruitment sites.  Skilled at identifying the key cost, benefit and risk factors, Ed delivers by interpreting the business vision to innovate E2E solutions that give real commercial advantages.

7:55 - 8:20 Networking with Beer and Pizza (sponsored by Microsoft)

8:15 – 9:00 SQL Server and Storage – Christian Bolton - COEO

SQL Server is obviously heavily dependent on storage but as requirements and technology become more complex the DBA role starts to become distant from the implementation as people in dedicated storage roles get involved due to the complexity and tell them they "don't need to worry about the details". Having a storage "black box" is great but it can lead to assumptions on both sides about configuration responsibilities that can end up not getting done.

In this presentation I'm going to cover some basic hard disk concepts like SATA and SCSI as well as look at RAID level performance differences, Direct Attached Storage versus SAN's, performance tuning tips like HBA Queue Depth and Sector Alignment and some of the most popular Windows and SQL Server storage configuration options like Allocation Unit size and database file placement.

Christian Bolton has been working with SQL Server since 1999 and in 2007 became a Director and Database Architect for Coeo Ltd, a Microsoft Certified Partner focused on large scale and complex SQL Server projects in the UK. Prior to this, Christian worked for 5 years as a Senior Premier Field Engineer for Microsoft UK working with some of Microsoft’s biggest customers across EMEA. His specialist areas are High Availability, Scalabilility, and Performance Tuning and he is co-author of Professional SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning published by Wrox. He works out of London and lives in the south of England with his wife and daughter and can be contacted at http://coeo.com  or through his blog at http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/christian .