SQLSaturday #595 Cleveland 2017

On 2/4/2017 I went to my third SQLSaturday hosted at Hyland Software in Westlake, OH.  What is SQLSaturday? From their site:  “SQLSaturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. Admittance to this event is free, all costs are covered by donations and sponsorships. Please register soon as seating is limited, and let friends and colleagues know about the event.”  http://www.sqlsaturday.com/

What a fantastic way to get free training and to ask a live person a question about an issue you are having.  They occur in a different city each week and are world wide!  You can also browse the class selections from previous events to see what kind of sessions they usually offer.  Most presenters also include power points and scripts that are downloadable so you can walk through what they talked about and test in your own lab.  Did I say this is all free?  There is a nominal fee if you want the lunch they provide, but you can go out or even bring your own.

 

This week, I am going to talk about which sessions that I attended.

 

7:30–8:00  Doors open and registration and signing in begins.

There is breakfast available, and vendors have booths open.

 

8:00–8:15  Opening remarks

 

8:30–9:30  SSIS Incremental Loading:  The Tortoise and The Hare by Jeremy Frye

I attended this session because I am still learning all that SSIS can do and am looking for any hints and tips to improve my ETL skills.

 

9:45–10:45  Create lightning fast Dashboards with Power BI and its components by Vishal Pawar

This session interested me because we are testing Power BI at where I work.  He ran through a lot of information, but showed how easy it was to create some impressive looking dashboards and provided a great overview.

 

11:00–12:15  Don’t let history be a mystery!  Temporal Data in SQL Server 2016, by Adam Machanic

I currently use a script that this presenter created called sp_Whoisactive and I read his blog, so I needed to attend his presentation.  He had some great examples and showed any gotcha’s of using this new feature.  Depending on your application needs, this easily allows storing the history of previous records compared to writing your own triggers.

 

12:15–1:15  Lunch! and vendors showing their apps and services

Lunch was a taco bar which had a wide selection of fixings, so it was very good.  While I was eating I sat in on the Hyland Software recruiting session.  They are always expanding and always hiring and look to have some great employee benefits and a great company to work for.

 

1:30–2:30  Hacking SQL Server – A Peek Into the Dark Side, by Dustin Prescott

This presenter showed how a hacker can easily compromise a database server if you do not keep your systems patched.  He used free tools and showed just how easy it is.  He also gave some hints on securing your servers.

 

2:45–3:45  Ensuring Plan Stability with Query Store, by Erin Stellato

This is another presenter who’s blog that I read, so I wanted to attend her session.  She showed the difference between using plan guides and using the forced plans in Query Store and how easy the Query Store works.  She ran through a ton of demos that showed all of her points effectively.

 

After this session I needed to leave for the day, but there was one more session of classes and then after that closing remarks and raffles and then there is an after party you may attend at a local restaurant.  If you are able to attend a SQLSaturday event, it is really a good time and highly recommended.

Now go to http://www.sqlsaturday.com/ and look for your city and go!