Bible to start

You need to always start with preparation phase. This phase involves multiple steps and here are some of them for you to start.

1. Keep the SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide handy with you always. This is a very long document to read but it is worth the reference. I am outlining this as the FIRST reference because I will refrain from what this document covers as content. It is exhaustive and as I said with ~450 pages has a lot of material on how to upgrade. Also for reference SQL Server 2005 to 2008 Upgrade Whitepaper.
2. If you still want to know WHY UPGRADE? I am attaching a link to some of the new features document for your reference. Knowing the new features is an important step before you upgrade. Later, you must be looking at how you can start maximizing the new features introduced with the new version.

Just upgrading by keeping the compatibility level at a older version is not real upgrade. Evaluate at using some of the new features to increase productivity, performance, maintainability and scalability.

As management takes the decisions for upgrade, DBA’s and developers need to also get themselves set for this task. Any upgrade process cannot be a simple overnight activity but more of a calculated informed step as line-of-business applications are at stake and it can bring down the efficiency of the teams working inside the organizations.

1. Take a BACKUP of your databases. This is the first step irrespective of what you do next. A backup is required to make sure we have a fallback mechanism if things go wrong. Also make sure if you are using any specific system databases and objects in those DB, these are appropriately backed-up or scripted out.
   1. Take FULL Backups
   2. Transaction Log Backups
   3. Backup Database Master Keys
   4. Backup Service Master Keys
   5. Backup any external resource used (CLR DLLs, Extended SP) and anything that is required for the application outside the database for proper functioning.
2. Before the backup process, just run a DBCC CHECKDB across the databases to make sure there is no corruption before the backup and they are consistent. This step can reduce any heartburns at a later point in time post upgrade :).
3. As the upgrade talks happens, get started with tracking if any deprecated features are being used. There are multiple ways to do this – I highly recommend using the “SQL Server: Deprecated Features” Perfmon counter to track it like a background task. As your application runs, this gives you a rough idea of how many deprecated features you might be using inside your application that might have an impact to your upgrade process. There is also a Trace Event for capturing Deprecated features with SQL Server Profiler which you can use but that will be to nail down which code is causing that perfmon spike.
4. Before initializing the upgrade process, please start by running the Upgrade Advisor as a first step. This surely guides you of potential problems upfront and is one of the essential step too for any SQL Server upgrade process.
5. Keep track of the Supported Versions and Editions as you plan for Upgrades. With changes in licensing plans, LPIM (lock pages in memory), AWE gone etc. It is critical to keep track of how we upgrade between environments.
6. Take a typical workload using profiler and keep it handy for a later test. Create a separate environment, bring the databases via a backup / restore operation to the new edition. Look for warnings, errors, changes in functionality and performance bottlenecks. Make sure to replay the workload collected before to see if anything unusual behaviors or errors. Document and then make sure these are mitigates during the actual run.
7. Also, review the KB article that talks about “How to move databases between computers running SQL Server”. Especially, when we move between servers during upgrades we might need to change the location of files and hence have to account for the same. Also on a new setup, make sure the drivers for SAN or other hardware components are done properly and are the latest as suggested by the vendor.
   1. There are interesting ways to install as we move forward with SQL Server 2012 like, you can install SQL Server with SMB Fileshares as storage options.
   2. Another, is to install it on a Windows Server Core. This is interesting because now you don’t have an UI to manage SQL Server and it also reduces the surface area of attack and patch management is easy too.
   3. Considerations for SysPrep install for SQL Server – read documentation.
8. Also, since this is an upgrade to a new box, make sure you are having enough space allocated for atleast 2-3 years of growth in mind for the database locations. Now is a good time for you to reassess some of the values defined for the auto-growth settings. Ideally, I suggest never allow SQL Server to grow but you pre-allocate it as part of your administration window cycle by properly monitoring SQL Server Data file free space.
9. Before you install the Database on a new server, make a note of the Collation requirements for your applications. This is an important step and you don’t want get into a server which is Case-Sensitive while the application is built assuming case-insensitive.
10. Don’t forget some of the critical addendum functions that you might have configured like replication, mirroring, clustering, service broker, maintenance plans, local user accounts, SQL Server Logins, service accounts, Linked servers, common backup path locations, configuration settings, DR strategies etc. All these need to be accounted and have to be changed accordingly.
11. Whatever step you take, document them meticulously and run the document through a junior tester on a fresh SQL Server environment. This will test your upgrade process documentation and at the same time make sure that you are not missing any step to avoid last minute glitches. Document every single error encountered and the solution for the same – it is better to be prepared than to fail not being prepared.
12. When I call out documentation, look out for hidden gems in your process like – Startup Processes, SQL Server Trace Flags that were enabled, Error Log settings, External DLL / CLR assemblies used, powershell scripts, any application Windows services that have been installed, external third party backup tools etc. Also make sure the server is secure by default and make sure any unnecessary services (SQL Browser, IIS, virus scanners, spooler etc) if running have been stopped.
13. If you are planning to move into Virtualized environment, know what does it take to run SQL Server in Hyper-V Environment (though little outdated, is a worthy read). Also, read about running SQL Server with Dynamic Memory in HyperV Environments. I saw a session video in NA TechEd on this very topic which can be a good watch: Microsoft SQL Server Consolidation and Virtualization: Myths and Realities.
14. More documents worthy for reading on the Virtualization subject are: Hyper-V is the Best Virtualization Solution for SQL Server, High Performance SQL Server Workloads on Hyper-V, Planning, Implementing, and Supporting SQL Server Virtualization with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Live Migration and Support Policy for SQL Server Virtualization.
15. What are your plans for upgrade: in-place upgrade, side-by-side on the same box or side-by-side on a different box? Irrespective of the method used Keep in mind Point 1 :).
16. Have a small test-stub workload where you are aware of the parameters and the expected results from the server. Make sure you run this pre and then post the upgrade and debug any anomalies based on the output. If you have automated test scripts, these are the best to be run against the server for a quick test with expected values.
17. Have a failsafe strategy if things don’t go as per the plan. Your backup can come handy here and be careful especially if you plan to do a in-place upgrade as there is not much choice to come back other than using the backup route.

Know the fine prints

Please make sure you are aware of the specific call-outs mentioned in the Upgrade Technical reference mentioned above. During upgrade there can be specific features or settings that might need special attention. I am calling out some of them as I have seen at multiple customer upgrade process.

1. The default setting for max worker threads in SQL Server 2000 is 255. When you upgrade from an instance of SQL Server 2000, the database engine keeps setting the value of max worker threads. However, it is recommended you change the value of max worker threads to 0 before the migration, to allow the Database Engine calculates the optimal number of threads.
2. Changing the Compatibility Level while users are connected to the database can generate incorrect results for sets of active queries. To avoid inaccurate results, it is recommended to change the Compatibility Level with the database in order to a SINGLE_USER mode and then back to MULTI_USER. Do this post the upgrade activity.
3. Look at server side settings from the older version, as you plan to move to new hardware’s some of these old values doesn’t make sense. Keep special note to MAXDOP settings, number of TempDB files etc.
4. Just like the recommendation on Server Core, I highly recommend not to install any new components that you may not be planning to use in the immediate future like – Data Quality Services, PowerPivot, Master Data Services, Analysis Services etc.
5. Look at the Security considerations and the protocols used for communication as part of upgrade. Each new version there are some changes and analyze the ports you have as standards open at the new environment. Security considerations during Install is documented and worth reading for every version upgrade.
6. In earlier versions of SQL Server, the values ​​for the table and index row counts and page may be incorrect. Thus, databases that were created in versions prior to SQL Server 2005 may contain incorrect counts. After you upgrade a database from SQL Server 2000, it is recommended that you perform the DBCC UPDATEUSAGE to correct any invalid counts. This DBCC statement corrects the count of rows, used pages, reserved pages, leaf pages and data for each partition in a table or index.
7. Update statistics for all Indexes after the Upgrade process. This is one of the most important step. Keep in mind also the Plan guides and hints that you have used in your application. Test these sections for any potential performance problems. Given the upgrade, SQL Server engine would have also changed and hence testing them matters. In case of Full-text catalogs, make sure these are also updated.
8. As a sanity check, make sure to run a DBCC CHECKDB on each of the databases which have been part of the upgrade process.
9. Over and above this, I also recommend checking each of the database properties which are critical. Check the recovery models, Auto-Close, Auto-Create-Statistics, Auto-Shrink, Auto-Update-Statistics and Auto-Update-statistics-Asynchronously. Also in this list, I highly recommend setting value of CHECKSUM for the Page Verify property at the DB properties level.
10. Know and document the changes that need to be done on the application to start pointing to the new upgraded server. This might sometimes involve Connection String changes in Web Server deployment. Also, track if any reporting server and Sharepoint installations are pointing to the old servers as data sources. Even these need to be changed as part of movement.
11. After all this, don’t forget to take a Backup of your system. You don’t want to do all the hard work and find out the HDD crashed the next day :). Backup and secure on a different media and location.

I think this very much sums-up what I had in mind based on various implementations that I have seen. These steps are very much towards migration of the SQL Server Relational engine but doesn’t talk about the SSAS, SSIS, SSRS workloads. I would again reiterate to look at the Upgrade Reference Guide mentioned above as a good guide to start.

A successful upgrade uses a cycle of: Plan, Document process, Test, Refine process, Test, Plan upgrade window, execute, verify upgrade and then opens for business.

Now that we have upgraded into the next version of SQL Server, now start looking actively at how we can start using the new capabilities available inside the next new release. I am just calling out some of them that are worth mentioning here for SQL Server 2012 release:

SQL Server: AlwaysOn Technologies

xVelocity in-memory technologies of PowerView and PowerPivot

BI Sematic Model

File Tables

SQL Server 2012: Express LocalDB

SQL Server ColumnStore Index

Data Quality Services

Security Enhancements – Contained Databases

Big Data Analytics and Hadoop Connectors

Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0

Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for SQL Server for PHP

Links worth keeping track as you upgrade:

Deprecated features: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707789

Discontinued features: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707782

Breaking changes in 2012: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707784

Behavior changes in 2012: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707785

Full-Text Search Backward Compatibility in SQL 2012: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143544

Hope these links and resources will be of help for you as you plan your upgrade and movement to yet another version of SQL Server. I would love to get your inputs and understand if there are any glaring steps that I would have missed mentioning as part of the checklist mentioned above.

I am not here to say this is a bad idea, but though a big time supporter of this concept – don’t want people to abuse the flexibility offered. Understand, for working mom’s these are great benefits. But at the same time to balance this life, there needs to be some method to the madness and I am here to call out some of them.

Juggling your time

The #No:1 thing that comes to my mind in this subject is – how should you be managing your time? This step includes to start the day looking at the work in hand and how the schedules are for you to play the whole day. Yes, you are taking a chance of staying at home to complete one-two tasks like pickup kids, get that plumbing work done, goto a bank maybe etc. So keeping that back of your mind – look how are the meetings lined up, how will you track your projects, when are you going to email, what are the background tasks that got assigned to you etc. Now keep blocking your time appropriately to make sure there are lesser distractions of emails, facebook, twitter or anything else at home. Make sure the reason why you decided to stay at home doesn’t interfere anywhere in the middle of the schedule you have in mind. If that being the case, you are better off taking the day off and giving that much needed time to family and sort things off.

Being Organized

I think this is very much in-line to the same point made above. But think – as freelancers or managers for projects, your time at home is crucial too because you get paid by the hour. I am a big time supporter that you need to have that critical TODO list. Do you track what you do during the day? Have you had a chance to see this tool? I had used it long time back RescueTime – it tracks how much time you spend on various applications and what are your patterns. Based on this it gives you an indicator to what are your trends. This can be your background tool to monitor yourself.

Use the Sticky Notes or I am more comfortable in writing the activity list and love to tick through the day. I know it is old style but it has worked for me over the years like a charm. You can use any method that works – the idea is to do it :).

Prioritize your job functions

A lot of them have asked me in the past, how I manage doing a number of things. Well, it is about the previous two points and finally about making time for everything that I want to do – work, blogging, time with family, shopping, entertainment etc. So there are ways and time when everything gets the much needed time slice from life. I call this out explicitly because if you are a developer then you need to write the code than troubleshooting some bug, if you are a freelancer then you shouldn’t be getting swamped into just the financial closure when you must be out there training / consulting / coding, if you are a manager then you should be looking at the project planning and alerts rather than building some random reports. So there are so many of these side activities that sometimes drain you away of the much need time for the important things. So this is what I call prioritize and deliver – delegate if required and have an appetite for NO if that must be used as extreme measure.

Final words

These principles are not specific to Working from Home but are critical for such tasks. I use these techniques irrespective of the situation and you will find a note or sticky note beside me when there are too many activities to complete in a given day. Prepare, plan, execute and track on progress. The cycle can be as simple as this for everything we do. The same can be also said for preparing presentations :).

What are your methods? Do share them so that we can learn from each other :). Happy working …

Columnstore indexes group and store data for each column and then join all the columns to complete the whole index. These differ from traditional indexes that group and store data for each row and then join all the rows to complete the whole index. For some types of queries, the SQL Server query processor can take advantage of the columnstore layout to significantly improve query execution times. Columnstore indexes in SQL Server have key characteristics that differentiate it from a traditional row-based store. Let me list a few here, these are simple and good to know information:

1. Just like the explanation I did above, unlike the traditional row-based organization of data (called rowstore format), in columnar database systems such as SQL Server with columnstore indexes, data is grouped and stored one column at a time. SQL Server query processing can take advantage of the new data layout and significantly improve query execution time. In this context you will hear the term xVelocity to describe the columnstore indexing engine.
2. There is no concept of key columns in a columnstore index, so the limitation on the number of key columns in an index of 16 does not apply to columnstore indexes. But it cannot have more than 1024 columns.
3. The index cannot be clustered index for columnstore. If a base table is a clustered index, all columns in the clustering key must be present in the non-clustered columnstore index. If a column in the clustering key is not listed in the create index statement, it will be added to the columnstore index automatically.
4. It can neither be a primary key or foreign key and cannot have the INCLUDE keyword for adding columns.
5. Columnstore indexes work with table partitioning. No change to the table partitioning syntax is required. A columnstore index on a partitioned table must be partition-aligned with the base table. Therefore, a non-clustered columnstore index can only be created on a partitioned table if the partitioning column is one of the columns in the columnstore index.
6. The index key record size limitation of 900 bytes also does not apply to columnstore indexes. It cannot be unique Index and cannot include sparse columns. You cannot also include the ASC or DESC keyword as part of the index.
7. Along with the columnstore index, SQL Server introduces batch processing to take advantage of the columnar orientation of the data. This can be seen in the Logical step of a Execution Plan called “Batch”.
8. Only the columns needed must be read. Therefore, less data is read from disk to memory and later moved from memory to processor cache.
9. Most queries do not touch all columns of the table to satisfy a query. Therefore, many columns will never be brought into memory. This, combined with excellent compression, improves buffer pool usage, which reduces total I/O.
10. In this version of SQL Server 2012, the ColumnStore Index makes the table into ReadOnly mode. And it cannot be combined with Compression, replication, Change tracking, Change data capture and Filestreams.
    For Updates, there are always workarounds as discussed on MSDN.

DMV’s to keep track

sys.column_store_dictionaries: Contains a row for each column in a ColumnStore index.

sys.column_store_index_stats: Contains a row for each ColumnStore index.

Update: Seems like the this DMV will get deprecated, Pinal wrote about this.

sys.column_store_segments: Contains a row for each column in a ColumnStore index.

INDEXPROPERTY – Adds a property IsColumnstore to identify xVelocity columnstore.

This feature is strongly geared towards DW workloads and I had an opportunity to meet customers with TB’s of data to process in short time. And this feature was something they just loved using even given the restrictions. Some of the restrictions may be eliminated in future versions but this xVelocity concept is quite powerful to be ignored. If you do use this, drop a line !!!

Often when I meet the new generation of kids with 2-4 years experience they come and tell me – “I am not going anywhere in my career”. Kids, don’t get me wrong here – “You are yet to have a career”.

It’s not what you achieve, it’s what you overcome. That’s what defines your career.

There are some things that will ensure you go no where in your career, and this is not possible without your consent. Let me call out some of the traits that will need to be changed if you want your career to go somewhere:

1. Passing the buck: Please don’t stuck to this thought and don’t get rigid in your communication. I understand it is not your job, but are your trying to be helpful and making an attempt? It is this positive attitude in life that will help. Don’t avoid work (any work) and your chances to take responsibilities.
2. We are not genius: I understand we don’t know everything that is put in front of us. It is fine to say – “I don’t know”. But that is not what you should be doing. If you make genuine efforts and add saying “yet let me find out for you”. Same as point 1, be helpful and get / give / find answers – not blank faces.
3. Blame game: Stop doing a blame game. You need to stand up and stand tall if you want to in front of your colleagues. You don’t impress anyone by putting down someone else in front of all. If you are a manager, well accept in public but blame in private 1:1 – be a leader not a mere manager.
4. Make time: If someone has come for help to you, acknowledge their existence and lend an helping hand. Don’t try to focus on the gossips but move on to help with the burning fire in front of someone. In a team everyone wins – not just the individual. Learning and sharing is a journey and make it memorable with people around you.
5. Come in early, don’t call in sick: Exceptions are there to this rule. But if you made a commitment – make it happen no matter what. I am off the school of thought that if committed it is done with no compromises. If you constantly try to evade off then don’t think no one is noticing. In an organization you don’t (mostly) get a choice to pick the tasks which you like to do, if you don’t do it – someone will step up or will eventually do it.
6. Improvise and innovate: I cant iterate on this very point. You don’t want to get step by step instruction on how to get things done. Innovate and don’t get stuck to the process boundaries that exist. It is always easier to think and do it our way rather than getting bogged down by our micro-manager to how it has to be done.
7. Communicate clearly: Clarity of thoughts and clarity in communication will lead you a long way and I love to iterate it here.

If you know where you are going, then you don’t need a GPS or compass. You will make your own new way.

If you want to make merry of where you will be in your career, well know where you want to go. Make positive strides and keep working on the learning hunger of your’s. I have advised many with a simple question – “Where do you want to go?”. So this blog is to again  make that statement even more bold :). Do pass me your comments and what you think about it.

Textually the error is something like:

TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
——————————

Attach database failed for Server ‘xxxxxx’.  (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

——————————

Unable to open the physical file "C:\SQLSamples\AdventureWorks2008R2_Data.mdf". Operating system error 5: "5(Access is denied.)". (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5120)

——————————

Worst was, the link for help from SSMS was also not getting him anywhere. Here are the sequence of things that I asked:

1. Which OS are you running Windows 7 or Windows 8? Ans: Windows 8
2. Has UAC been turned off or on? Ans: Off (asked why … but that is a different discussion)
3. Great, did you start SSMS in Administrator mode and try? Ans: Well, UAC is off right? Then why should I.
4. Me: Trust me :)
5. Ans: Woala, it is now working.

The solution is not specific to Windows 8 but can be on Windows 7 too, tough it will be interesting to see how we have made “Security by default” more restrictive on Windows 8. Simple solutions for simple tasks :)

Do tell me if you have encountered this. Hope this helps.

As part of my day job, I solve lot of interesting customer problems and recently one of our customers had an interesting question to stump me. It got me really thinking hard and I wanted to share some of the solutions I shared with them. Though these solutions were given, want to also see if you have a better way to solve this question.

The Enterprise I was talking to was on more than 70+ SQL Server server installations and had close to 500+ databases running in their datacenters for various businesses. The CIO asked the datacenter administrator how many of these databases are actually used by the business and how many were stale and not used but just there because of legacy reasons. And as a database expert in the room the datacenter Administrator just turned to me and asked – “Why don’t you answer this Vinod?”

Simple solution

For every complex problems there always is a simple solution in hand. I just thought over and gave them a method almost that was convincing enough for the team. My suggestion was simple, just query the index_usage_stats DMV for some stats and then use the same to decide if the database was used or not. I just gave a simple script to the DBA like below:

Sp_msforeachdb 

‘Select @@Servername As Servername, ”?” AS DBName,

IsSystemDatabase,     

MAX(last_user_lookup) last_user_lookup,      

MAX(last_user_scan) last_user_scan,      

MAX(last_user_seek) last_user_seek,      

MAX(last_user_update) last_user_update

from [?].sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats

INNER JOIN  (      

SELECT dtb.name,

CAST(case

when dtb.name in (”master”,”model”,”msdb”,”tempdb”)

then 1

else dtb.is_distributor end AS bit) IsSystemDatabase      

FROM master.sys.databases AS dtb ) systemdatabases

ON systemdatabases.name = ”?”

GROUP BY IsSystemDatabase’ 

At least this is giving you a great starting point for discussion with the stakeholders that the database has not been accessed for the past 5+ months and if there is still business justification. The Administrator did call me back after a month that this script (simple yet powerful) was really useful. Thought to share with you all today.

PS: Remember, the statistics values can get reset if SQL Server is restarted hence this is not 100% foolproof implementation though.

What are the other options?

There are obviously other solutions that can be tried out:

1. Auditing is one of the most precise and obviously a deterministic solution.
2. Can even use Logon-triggers (but remember the user can switch context of the database hence will be difficult).
3. The above Usage_Stats is great for databases of version higher than SQL Server 2005+. BTW, are you still running SQL Server 2000 versions?

Tell me your story and options to answer such situations. Would love to learn from you too.

SqlErrorLogFile: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff963576.aspx

SqlErrorLogEvent: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff963582.aspx

Suddenly this got my attention and this blog post gets inspired because of the above events. These WMI classes are used inside SSMS’s Log Viewer when SQL Server is offline or is not responding. If the Log Viewer determines that the connection to a SQL Server instance could not be established, it will fall back to using WMI to enumerate and read the SQL error logs.

Since WMI classes are used for log viewing, it requires the WMI Service be started and only privileged Windows users with access to SQL Server logs can view the log data. By default the privileges are given only to the Administrators group of the machine by the SQL Server setup. As a result, SSMS must be launched using the Run as administrator option.

Offline Log Viewer can read error logs from SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 versions.

How to use SSMS

With Microsoft SQL Server 2012, you can view SQL Server log files from a local or remote instance of SQL Server when the target instance is offline or cannot start. Steps to get this is:

1. Start by opening SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as an Administrator.
2. Register a SQL Server 2012 instance from Registered Servers (more about Registered Server on MSDN)
3. Make sure the instance is stopped or offline.
4. Once the SQL Server instance is registered, right-clicking on a registered SQL Server instance displays the following context menu to “View SQL Server Log”
   
5. The SQL Server ErrorLog is displayed like it normally would with an online instance.

Some of the things to consider before using the offline viewing capability are:

1. The instance of SQL Server that you want to connect to should be registered in Registered Servers.
2. The account that you use to connect must have the required permissions.

Final words

I found this feature quite helpful and for DBA’s this will be a great addition. You can access the offline log files from Registered Servers in SSMS (as in example above) or programmatically through WMI with WQL (WMI Query Language) queries. PowerShell can also leverage these WMI components to programmatically read the error log files. The other methods for access will be for a different blog post.

Feel free to drop your comments.

As you start growing in the organizational ladder it is important to have the very best relationship with your peers, managers and leaders. This is very critical because in case you run into giving your boss a candid feedback, you shouldn’t get intimidated with the situation – just because he/she is your boss. Hence investing upfront time in building a rapport is crucial.

Receive feedbacks like a generous gift that you will richly benefit from. This is a foundation for your own future !!!

I know it is tough to accept everything that is thrown in front of you. But I just want to give you a different dimension / perspective to take it positively and introspect later based on the conversation. I know it is doable, just that we need to be prepared for this. Here are my Top 3 feedbacks accepting tactics:

Accept it

What ever be the feedback, it is critical that you accept it as it comes (unfiltered). Understand someone is making time to give you that feedback. People feel encouraged when they feel you appreciate them without any risk of taking them the wrong way – most importantly without any consequences. Keeping an open mind and receiving doesn’t really hurt.

Don’t jump to conclusions

The feedbacks are best absorbed without debate. There is no point in arguing and reasoning about what you are being told as it will be counter-productive. If required, ask for details and examples – this makes sure that you are indeed having a open mind and listening to them carefully. Make them feel that you truly and sincerely value their input and are making efforts to improve.

Make an environment where both the parties (giver/seeker) feel there is a value in the discussion.

Act on your feedbacks

As we called out before, receiving feedbacks doesn’t mean you jump onto every thing that is said to you. The art here is to understand, verify (with actions mentioned), internalize the feedback and make the right change where appropriate. You don’t change yourself completely just because you got a feedback.

Being yourself is an identity, don’t make a mess of that.

Final words

If you personally feel getting constructive feedbacks are adding value don’t miss the opportunity to thank the person. Accepting feedbacks and acknowledging encourages the relation you have with the other person. Best part is you are the beneficiary of having such people around.

Constructive feedback is one that enables you to feed-forward in life.

Don’t think I am painting only one side of the coin – remember how you receive and perceive the feedbacks is something within our control and hence the emphasis is on that. Do tell me your perspectives and experiences.

TechEd India 2012

BDotNet.in and BITPro.in Brings you

The Bangalore Usergroups are a bunch of bubbling individuals who bring so much joy to the members by conducting regular Usergroup meets. If you are in Bangalore then I strongly urge you to join these groups to get an update on an constant basis.

1. BDotNet.in – Bangalore .NET Usergroup
2. BITPro.in – Bangalore ITPro Usergroup

Not strange, being in this city for close to 12 years, I have had the opportunity to talk and be part of both the UG’s since they started. Still nostalgic !!!

Reliving TechEd Sessions

Switching gears, yes – if you want to hear to my sessions delivered at #TechEdIn now in a much more relaxed manner. This is the chance again. For folks who are wondering when it will happen in their UG – don’t worry. If I travel to your town, I promise to do them for sure. This UG meeting we plan to have 2 sessions (back-to-back) on Internals.

1. Understanding Windows with SysInternals Tools 
2. Peeling the Onion: SQL Server Internals Demystified

I can assure you one thing for sure – it will be a learning and sharing experience for me in a free flow format :).

Feel free to comment if you want any specific area to be covered as part of the UG event. I will be more than happy to expand the scope to include them :). For it is reliving the experience and get great content – right?

Venue: Microsoft Corporation, Krishna Hall, Embassy Building, 3rd Floor, Domlur.

Register at our FB page : http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/139444029517882/

PS: Feel free to walk in too – it is your group and the session is completely FREE. Entry on a first-come-first-serve basis only.

Community talk: Manas Blogged on this event. Wonderful Community Networking opportunity. Track us via #ReLiveTechEdIn over twitter.

An effective time management revolves around understanding and implementing the right principles of personal management. As avid readers, workers, employers, parent, spouse, explorer etc – do we really understand the fundamental difference between being busy VS being productive?

I am a big fan of writing English quotes, but this time I couldn’t resist myself from sharing this Kabir’s Dhohe which I learnt when I was a kid at school. And this applies to our lives even today and so relevant too. Translating the above verse:

Tomorrows work do today, today’s work now
If the moment is lost, the work be done how?

Apply the 80/20 rule

This is a commonly used phenomenon, 20% of the tasks that you do bring 80% of the business. Hence it is imperative to go attack this in this way. So keep constantly asking – am I doing the right thing at work NOW? Will it affect the 80% of business we do? How productive am I.

Plan Ahead

Plan your day, week and if possible a roadmap on the month. I completely agree this is not possible 20% of the time (read the rule above :)). So given all variations in life, it is quite possible to plan, prepare and organize atleast 80% of the time you have at work. I understand a lot of you will say – “Well change is the ONLY constant and this is the very reason not to do too much on planning in this chaotic organization”

I hear you loud and clear – but remember if you don’t plan, you are forced to work in an adhoc way without any plan. So you choose it – hence don’t complain.

If this needs to be done NOW, there is no better time than to start NOW.

Make a note

I am a big believer of this. Generally I have a note that has a set of bullets that needs to be done. It is very easy to get sidelined by getting into too many chaotic work that eats away 80% of your time. Organize, plan and execute (rule #2 above).

Stop procrastination and eliminate one at a time. The sculpture is made by chipping the rock not by any explosion.

How to handle interruptions

Well, let me take a step back to solicit some feedbacks. So how do you handle interruptions. Drop me a line over comments. How do you differ or delegate the interruptions that come at work. I think there is loads to learn from each other.

Please share your experiences and thanks for reading this far !!!

With exactly one week gone past, I am yet to recover from the mega event TechEd India 2012. Same time last week, we were partying after a successful event and the very thought we pulled it off yet another year is so refreshing. My TechEd journey started in the Year 2003 and there has been no turning back since then. The fact remains, the way TechEd is run has changed quite a bit and the content selection process is also more stringent when compared to what we had 8 years back. Just the availability of the resources on the internet makes speakers run for the money. Personally, it is close to 2+ months for nailing the session content – not to forget the reviews, rehearsals and more.

These are my perspectives – For me Microsoft TechEd is such a premier event and privilege that I want to give my best and prepare something nice and interesting that is so difficult to get via any search engines. Doing so, we add value to the event and in the process learn a lot. This year has been no different and I think people who attended my session will vouch for the same.

SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolutions

Pinal Dave has been pushing me hard every year to have this kind of session and I have resisted personally. Any two-speaker session requires tons of preparation and that has to land perfectly. The content for this session went to-and-fro for close to 20 days between us. We add a demo and scrap it immediately. We had to balance out simple concepts with compelling demo’s to our Misconceptions sessions. I think it landed well finally. We still await the final verdict (via feedbacks) from the audience but were confident we pulled this off with all the preparations behind us.

I will not try to rehash the content here. But Dhananjay Kumar did a live blogging of this session here. That gives you a quick list of what we discussed.

Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified

Personally, this was the toughest session for me to prepare – trust me. I wrote a teaser on what to expect from the session before. As the name suggests it is tough to talk about the internals (as theory) with almost no demo’s around the concepts. The audiences were surely in for a surprise and the hall started to fill in from 10:30AM while the keynote was still going on – and the session scheduled for 11:15. I talked about Advanced Disk formats, SQL Server 2012 Security changes, Memory changes, Indirect CheckPoint and more.

Again the community notes were awesome, atleast it is saving me time to write all of them :). Sahal did a great job on his blog in summary.

Again, I look forward for some serious feedbacks if you want these kinda session in the future TechEd’s too? Or you don’t want these internals session and more practical sessions? Based on your shout I will plan accordingly for next year. Each and every vote count :).

Tools to manage, troubleshoot and diagnose your Windows systems

This was an unconventional session for me. I generally have a tendency to play around with OS, Office, IIS, Azure and other tools and learn some of the fundamentals. So in this session my task was simple – show people how you can use SysInternals tools and learn Windows better. From usage of Memory, x86 architecture, x64, WOW mode, Page faults, Virtual Memory mapping, OOM scenario, Perf Tool, PAL tool, Logman and more. About 10 mins into the talk, realized the session had so much of theory that it is better to showcase the same via tools rather than talk in an abstract manner. This was my first time at TechEd to talk on a topic other than SQL Server.

If you have feedbacks to give me on this very session, I will be more than happy to get them. I would love to bring more of these maybe for next year too. Keep those comments flowing.

Apart from these, there were couple of other sessions in which I had my participation. But that was under the Architect Track. Will write on it separately some other time. The full roster of sessions we had in that track is available on my previous blog post.

There is also an event on April 7th in Bangalore which the Bangalore .NET Usergroup and the Bangalore ITPro Usergroup are hosting where I will talk two of the above sessions. Here is the Facebook page which you can use to come to the event.

If you did attend any of my sessions at TechEd, please take a moment to comment on your feedbacks.

MTC @ TechEd – Architecture Track

One of the primary motto around which MTC operates is to be a trusted advisors to our customers and partners. And we give them solution with choices in making the right direction in their organizations as far as technology. At TechEd we have not shied away from keeping the same mantra for our audience too.

Look at the Architecture Track, we have tried to bring the best and the right content from the right speakers in this whole track. I am highlighting them here for a quick reference, more about the speakers and the exact abstract can be got from the TechEd India 2012 site:

1. Windows 8 Application Design – With the trend and the emphasis on the Windows 8 platform it is critical for architects to understand why, how, options, choices and most importantly what not to do while designing Win8 is critical.
2. Beyond Scrum – The concept imported from Japan manufacturing, Kanban is an agile methodology and Stephen Forte (a great friend) comes all the way from Hong Kong to deliver this session for us.
3. Windows Azure – Architecture Patterns – Taking off from the various Architecture patterns, there are critical aspects around data management, migration, scaleout, storage principles etc that the session will unleash. I have seem Ramkumar’s many sessions at TechEd and this one will be something not to be missed.
4. Things that your Virtualization guys didn’t tell you – Coming from the house of MTC, Infra Architect MS Anand will be doing the honors here. I have had the opportunity to sit in many sessions of his with customers and end of the session, it will be such an information overload. And this session will be no less in that aspect with deep content.
5. Next Generation IT Portfolio – From the heart of MCS (Microsoft Consulting Services) team. Srini and Vikas plan to share some of the roadmaps as organizations plan for their IT infrastructure and what are some of the trends to watch out for.

   On Day 2, it will be loaded with Data Centric content. This is my personal favorite and I spent quite sometime ironing out this with my team.

6. Big Data and Elastic Cloud – We are getting Ram back for this session from Day 1 to introduce what is Big Data, where is the Microsoft investments and how to prepare Big Data on Azure. Architecture, patterns and pitfalls.
7. Big Data Best practices applied to Market risk analysis usage – As much as the title makes one scary about the whole session, this is one session coming directly from the field. Session talks about Hadoop Map-Reduce architecture based best practices, Big Data patterns viz. Record Aggregation, Compact Object Serializations, Map-Sort-Reduce. Also Sunil and Abinasha plan to talk about configuration tuning of a typical Hadoop architecture such as Maximum Map Tasks, HDFS Block Size, Compression, Sort heap size, File system type, Disk mounting options, Disk Extent size.
8. Infuse agility into your ERP – The Microsoft Surround Story –This comes from the house of MTC, Architect Abhisek will talk about how Enterprises have the problem of heterogeneous systems and how these data can come under one roof when it comes to BI practices. In a typical scenario of consuming SAP data from the various Microsoft BI tools and what are some of the best practices around the same.
9. Performance, Scalability Patterns – Do we scale-out, scale-up or mix-match on Data Architecture?  – This session comes from our two senior MTC Directors with vast amount of real world architecture design knowledge. I plan to quiz them around a number of scenario from – Distributed Cache, Scaleout Biz layers, When not to think Cloud, Network Optimizations, Passing data across layers, Designing for mobile, Database scaleout etc. So don’t miss this action packed session.
10. Designing secure enterprise application using on-premise SQL Server – Well, this session also comes from the MTC house from your’s truly :). What I plan to cover in this session is purely based on a practical Separation of duties understanding of SQL Server and various Security enhancements.

    Day 3 –is much more of a free flow Architecture track with topics ranging from technical to soft skills.

11. Applying Concept Visual principles to designing mobile UX and aesthetics – For this session we are bringing exclusively Sanjay Vyas for the session to talk about the principle of visualization and how we can apply it to the UX and aesthetics of mobile apps such that user can interact with the application on the run.
12. Using JavaScript in today’s world – This is a different session of a kind where as architects we are seeing a trend of using Java scripts as front-end across many devices and form factors. This session will demystify the frameworks and alternatives of frontend programming with JS and reasons to use Nodes.js at the backend.
13. Architecting and Maintaining a Polyglot environment – We get the expert Dhananjay here to explain Polygot systems. Polyglotism also helps programmers better understand different paradigms and perspectives and be able to sometimes even simulate the idioms of another language when appropriate. Heterogeneous environments are not accident, but a choice enterprises make. This session explains the experiences and learnings from such systems.
14. Architecting your life –This is a softskills part, where we bring Ranganathan S again into the Architect track. Consistently the highest rated speaker at TechEd in the past, this topic was something different and unique for everyone. You need to be in person to experience the thoughts that this session will unleash.
15. Panel Discussion –There is so much to share and with just 60 mins, we don’t think we will be able to answer every single query. Hence we set aside some time for discussion on all the above topics and anything related to architecture.

Phew – that is quite a lineup of content to expect at TechEd Architecture Track. I know we missed some of the area’s but we have made the best attempt to give the best from the best people in the industry.

MTC – Architects @ TechEd

Apart from this, you will find MTC Architects doing other sessions too.

1. Choosing non-relational data stores – We get Govind Kanshi our MTC – Technology Director doing this talk on Day 3. I had the opportunity to see the content and it is like – “NoSQL for the SQL guys”. Search store, Key store, Distributed store etc etc, the content is loaded with tons of best practices and simple yet compelling demo’s.
2. Tools to manage, troubleshoot and diagnose your Windows systems – Under the Windows Client track, I will be doing this session. The session takes simple 3 tasks around monitoring CPU, Memory, Storage and Network on Windows systems. I will talk also about using some of the SysInternals tools to understand the concept.
3. Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified – I will be doing this session on Day 3 under the SQL Server Administration Track. Since I wrote a blog post around this before,I will refrain from rehashing the content again here.

Exclusive MTC @ TechEd Lounge (Get Solutions)

If you get to the Events Tab –> Other Events category, we have a tab called as MTC @ TechEd. This is an exclusive MTC area that we plan to have and you will have the MTC Architects hanging around to answer your critical architectural doubts. There will be a pattern to who will be around at what timings.

Keep track of activities from #TechEdIn (hashtag) or follow me on @vinodk_sql handle.

1. This is invite ONLY engagement / time you get with the concerned MTC Architects.
2. Your architecture problems can be around

1. Front end systems design
2. Business layer or Service layering
3. Performance tuning or Scalability
4. Data Architecture
5. Network or Infrastructure Architecture

One of the important premise of MTC Architects will be to help you with your architectural problems when you are at the TechEd India 2012 Venue in the quickest possible way. This is your best time to block some exclusive time with the architects and get the best out of the event. We are here to help and solve real world problems.

We also have a Data Track under the Architecture track and we will talk about it little later blog post. A teaser about the Architecture track session from MTC is available here.

What to expect?

In this post, let me walk you through some of the sessions lined up around SQL Server as the content is getting rehearsed and frozen the speakers are doing really a great job. Don’t miss the opportunity.

1. T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012 – This session is going to bring some of the lesser known enhancements that were brought with SQL Server 2012. Can tell you with confidence that the session is loaded with tons of interesting Demo’s.
2. Catapult your data with SQL Server 2012 Integration Services – Some of the content covered will be as per the Books-Online, but knowing Praveen for close to a decade, he is surely going to mesmerize you with some interesting insights on SSIS performance too.
3. Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop – Stephen known for his mind blowing demo’s and on a content that is lesser known, this is going to be bring out the nuances of why “big-data” and show you some practical usages of these concepts. I wrote about Big Data and MS story in a blog post.
4. SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolutions – This is a session I am truly looking forward to meet you folks in-person. We plan to show close to 10+ misconceptions and showcase with demo in this session with Pinal Dave. If time permits, we are going to show you more content. I will be the time keeper to make sure none of the misconception takes more than 5 mins – we are setting aggressive deadlines to keep the content crisp, interesting and interactive.
5. Securing with ContainedDB in SQL Server 2012 – Contained databasesare an interesting addition to SQL Server 2012 and it opens up some interesting scenario’s for application deployment administrators need to know while developing applications. We will show how to move databases and the related artifacts across servers and Contained Databases enable this option.Now to look at what is lined up under the SQL Server – Administration track lined up on Day 3. This lineup is going to be fun and power-packed in my opinion.
6. Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified – I have writing about this extensively on my other blog post and will not try to repeat it here. But I am super excited about this session content where I talk about some Memory Internals at length.
7. Speed Up – Parallel Processes and unparalleled Performance – This session is done by Pinal Dave and I just got a chance to review the content to see an amazed 40+ slides and 7 rocking demo about parallelism. Pinal has blogged about a teaser for this session over his blog.
8. Keep your database available – AlwaysOn – Balmukund will be doing this session and will show this new addition to SQL Server 2012 arsenal. You can see some really solid content from the CSS team on their blog too. Availability groups, Listener, Clustering, Failover, Read-Only replica etc all will be demo’ed in this session. This is really heavy content not to be missed.
9. Lesser known facts about SQL Server Backup and restore – This session will be done none other than Amit Banerjee. He has already blogged about this and this topic is going to be interesting. A successful restore strategy for applications is as good as their last good known backup. Amit will demystify some of the common myths and demonstrate some interesting demo.
10. Top 5 reasons why you want SQL Server 2012 BI – Business Insights with SQL Server is a critical building block and this version of SQL Server is no exception. Praveen plans to take a tour of some of the BI enhancements introduced in the new version. A truck load of content to get compressed inside a 60 minutes window.

Also to get to know from the SQL Server Track Owner Pinal Dave – Also visit his blog where he talks about the Misconceptions session.

Also TechEd India 2012 has a Live streaming of some content and this can be watched here. The TechEd Team is planning to have some really good exclusive content in this channel as well.

Also worth mentioning is one of our latest video based course for your reference. There are tons of basic concepts that we made it happen into that course and drop me a note via comments if you want to watch the same. All feedbacks and mutual learning helps us get better.

Now with TechEd India 2012 count down started, we have a session lined up around “SQL Server Misconceptions and resolutions”. And this session has tons of interesting demo around Indexing concepts. So don’t miss to attend, if you are at TechEd India 2012.

SQL Server 2012 Online Indexing

Online re-indexing operation was introduced in SQL Server 2005 as a way to improve the re-indexing functionality for those environments which cannot afford downtimes on regular intervals for maintenance activities. But there were certain limitations of this feature, significant one being that it could not be used against indexes that included columns of LOB data types (including Varchar(max), NVarchar(max)). This restricted the usage of online re-indexing for some scenarios, such as clustered indexes when tables included LOB data types.

Msg 2725, Level 16, State 2, Line 1

Online index operation cannot be performed for index ‘<Index name>’ because the index contains column ‘<LOB column name>’ of data type text, ntext, image, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max) or xml. For non-clustered index the column could be an include column of the index, for clustered index it could be any column of the table. In case of drop_existing the column could be part of new or old index. The operation must be performed offline.

The Error message is quite self-explanatory and at this moment want to point you to this BOL reference – Guidelines for Performing Online Index Operations.

What changed?

With introduction of this feature with SQL Server 2012, you can now rebuild indexes online for tables, which uses varchar(max), nvarchar(max), XML or varbinary(max) LOB data types for its columns.

Restrictions continue to exist for tables, which include columns of TEXT, NTEXT, FILESTREAM and IMAGE data type. You will receive following modified error message to indicate the limitation:

Msg 2725, Level 16, State 2, Line 1

An online operation cannot be performed for index ‘<Index name>’ because the index contains column ‘<Column name>’ of data type text, ntext, image or FILESTREAM. For a non-clustered index, the column could be an include column of the index. For a clustered index, the column could be any column of the table. If DROP_EXISTING is used, the column could be part of a new or old index. The operation must be performed offline.

This is an interesting improvement with SQL Server 2012 and feel free to use the same if you are an Administrator.

TechEd India 2012

What to expect in this session?

Personally, I don’t plan to give away so easily what all you will find in this session. But I can assure you some wonderful insights and working of SQL Server 2012 in this session.

1. Storage alignment – Have you heard about 512 Vs 512E? Does this affect SQL Server?
2. Security Changes – though there is a session around Contained Databases, that will talk about the indepth details of security. Here I will bring you to light some of the other security changes inside SQL Server 2012.
3. Checkpoint Changes – There are some interesting changes to the process of Checkpoints inside SQL Server and we will discuss these internal changes.
4. Memory Changes – This is the meat of the topic. There are tons of interesting changes to the multi-page allocator, VAS changes etc that will get discussed.

And not to forget you will get tons of demo and almost the session flow is out here (not all :)). But wait for surprises at the session something not to be missed too.

I am also open to hearing from you too if you plan to attend my session and want some content to be included. Feel free to send me a note :).