Overview
SQL Server 2005 introduced the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to the SQL world with the ability to create stored procedures, triggers etc using a number of .Net languages and have it run inside the database server.
Most people ask the following questions,
- Why do I need to use .Net?
- Doesn’t it make my system unstable?
- Doesn’t TSQL perform better?
- How do I support it?
- How secure is it?
- When should I use CLR over TSQL?
We will answer these questions by looking at real world uses of the CLR in your database.
We will see how the code you write can be simpler than TSQL and perform better than TSQL, whilst not impacting on the stability of your system. We will also look at scenarios that aren’t possible using TSQL and how we can solve easily them using CLR objects.
Topics
During the seminar we will cover the following,
- How CLR is hosted in SQL Server
- Creating CLR objects using a .Net language
- Comparing the performance with TSQL and other options
- Providing guidance on when to use CLR objects and when not to
- Getting the best performance from your CLR objects
Getting the most out of any situation is all about understanding which tool is best suited to what situation.
If you want to get the most out of your database then you need to understand how and when you CLR objects are the best tools for the job.
Presenters
Simon Sabin is an independant consultant and trainer. He has worked with SQL Server since SQL Server 6.5, on many large scale systems built using the Microsoft architecture. He was awarded the Most Valuable Professional award in 2006 and is a leader in the SQL Server community in the UK. He has written and delivered the developer track of the SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart training for Microsoft alongside Bob Beauchemin. Alongside Allan Mitchell, Darren Green and Tony Rogerson he has setup SQL Know How, a company for providing SQL Server Consultancy and training based on real world experience.
Advanced troubleshooting tools, techniques and best practices for SQL Server 2005
The Advanced Troubleshooting Workshop for SQL Server 2005 provides attendees with SQL Server internals knowledge, practical troubleshooting skills and a proven methodical approach to problem solving. The workshop will enable attendees to tackle complex SQL Server problems with confidence.
Target Audience
This is an advanced workshop designed for IT Professionals who design, administer or maintain critical platforms based on SQL Server 2005. Participants should be spending or planning to spend most of their time working with SQL Server.
Technical depth
300/400
Overview
This full-day workshop provides participants with the opportunity to learn about advanced SQL erver support topics in a very approachable way. Low-level SQL Server components are illustrated by following the “life of a query”. This helps to consolidate understanding of the architecture and provides a context from which to delve further. An iterative methodology is presented to help structure advanced concepts including:
- Memory grants and cache usage
- I/O considerations and diagnosing problems
- SQL Server waits and wait types
- Troubleshooting latch waits
- Query plan optimisation and execution
Two tools are demonstrated throughout the workshop that are key to fast analysis and resolution:
- PSSDiag for data collection
- SQLNexus for data analysis
Full instruction is given in how to configure and run these tools in your own environment.
Key Benefits
The Advanced Troubleshooting workshop provides attendees with a comprehensive understanding of key troubleshooting tools and methods. Attendees will benefit from:
- Reduce time to resolution for production SQL Server problems
- educed occurrences of issues through proactive troubleshooting
- •Established troubleshooting methodology
Presenters
Coeo is an expert SQL Server Systems Integrator delivering Consulting, Remote DBA and Dedicated Engineering to large and medium sized businessesin the UK and mainland Europe.
Overview
Companies today are drowning under a sea of data, but very rarely have the tools that would allow them to do anything useful with it. In this one day seminar, suitable for DBAs, business analysts and developers, Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb will give you an insight into what's possible with Business Intelligence tools that Microsoft offers. They have implemented BI solutions for companies large and small throughout the world. Let them show you the power of your data!
Abstract
Over the course of the day Allan and Chris will run through the process of building a complete Business Intelligence solution using all the tools in the Microsoft SQL Server suite. We'll start off by taking raw transactional data and show you how to clean, transform and remodel it, and then load it into reporting and analysis tools that will let your end users gain the maximum business benefit from it. The breakdown of the day will be as follows:
What is BI?
Business Intelligence, or BI for short, is a term bandied around a lot today but what does it actually mean? We'll discuss some possible definitions and the kind of Business Intelligence solutions that companies are really building and using today.
Dimensional Modelling
The technique of dimensional modelling is meant to solve the problems that you encounter when trying to perform reporting directly from an OLTP database. In this part of the day we will look at: * What issues dimensional modelling is trying to solve * The theory of dimensional modelling * What structures you see in a dimensional model
ETL with Integration Services
ETL stands for 'Extract, Transform and Load', and it refers to the process of extracting data from your transactional systems, cleaning it, validating it, integrating it and then loading it into your dimensional model. It's probably the most important and the most lengthy part of a project because invariably the data you want to work with has a lot of problems, but if you give junk data to your end users they will not be able to do anything useful with it. In this section we'll take a look at how you can use Integration Services to:
- Extract data from many different sources,
- Clean, transform and conform it,
- Use its advanced functionality to uncover useful information that you might not have known was there, and
- Load it into your dimensional model
Advanced Analysis and Querying with Analysis Services
If you and your users need to be able to query your data easily, perform advanced analysis and calculations and get super-quick performance then you may want to consider using Analysis Services. In this section we'll discuss:
- What Analysis Services is and what advantages it has over a relational database for BI
- How to build cubes
- How the MDX query language allows you to create queries and calculations that would be very difficult in SQL
Reporting with Reporting Services
While some users will want the powerful ad hoc querying that Analysis Services offers, most will just be happy with straightforward reports. Reporting Services allows you to create pixel-perfect reports from a variety of data sources and render them in a number of formats such as over the web, pdf and Excel. In this section we'll show:
- How to build reports using Reporting Services
- How to report from a relational data source
- How to report from an Analysis Services cube
Data Mining
All kinds of patterns and trends are hidden in your data that you may not know about, and they can be found using the data mining functionality in Analysis Services. In the final part of the day we'll show you how to: * How to build data mining models that will allow you discover patterns in and make predictions from your data * Let your end users do this within Excel 2007
Presenters:
Allan Mitchell and Chris Webb are consultants with many years of experience of implementing BI solutions on the Microsoft BI platform and delivering training on this subject. They are both holders of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award.
This one day seminar will first familiarise the person new to SQL Server to the product itself and what comes with it and the tools used to manage and develop against SQL Server. We will also look at best practices in the area of setting up SQL Server and configuring the hardware and also building a simple but effective and manageable High Available installation.
Introduction to SQL Server
- What is a relational database?
- What is SQL?
- What offerings ship with the product and how can they be used?
Introduction to SQL
- A basic understanding of querying
Configuring SQL Server
- Understanding what is required in order to build and implement a secure, stable and scalable SQL Server environment
- Building High Availability through Database Mirroring, Log Shipping and the backup strategy associated with that, also – consistency checks.