Last week was the Cleveland edition of SQL Saturday. If you do not know what SQL Saturday is, you really need to follow this link: https://www.sqlsaturday.com
From their site: “Free, high quality, 1-day, SQL Server Training events. You’ll find it’s a great way to spend a Saturday.” If you go to their site, you can also download slides, pdf’s and scripts from previous sessions from all of the other cities. I also recommend you sign up approx 3 months before the day of the class so you do not get shut out. Today I am going to give you a rundown on the sessions I attended.
This year the event was held at Baldwin Wallace University in a suburb of Cleveland. This was a new location from the previous times I have attended, but it was still run very professionally and was a good time.
The first session I attended was called: “Hardware hints for the SQL DBA – Don’t let your IT department hand you a big bag of hurt”, by Matt Slocum. This class gave an overview on what specs you should expect or check for when you are given a new server to install SQL Server on. Matt also gave some tips on what SQL Server defaults you should change during the install process to ensure good performance. He also passed out Twizzlers to the attendee’s!
The second class was called: “Performance improvements in SQL Server 2019”, by Frank Gill. In this class Frank demonstrated new features including: Accelerated database recovery, in memory TempDB, and persistent memory and how these could improve performance.
The third session of the day was: “Introduction to SQL++ for Big Data: Same Language, More Power” by Matthew Groves. This is a session I had no idea what to expect. Matthew showed how using Couchbase and other open source alternatives, you are able to query JSON data very simply using almost standard SQL commands. With the amount of data being created these days, these commands may get my attention in the future.
Next was lunch. I did not sign up for the lunch, so I ran errands and ate lunch in my car and read. I know, the opposite of what I should be doing at a networking event.
My fourth session was called: “Practical Indexing for SQL Databases”, by David Maxwell. Here he talked about creating the indexes you really need, ensuring those indexes are used effectively, and maintaining those indexes. He also showed how sometimes indexes are not used and how to change your SQL code so they will be used.
My last class was: “Indexing for SQL Writers”, by Eric Blinn. Full disclosure, I went into the wrong classroom and was too embarrassed to leave, but I have been in other classes that Eric has presented, so I knew it would not be a waste. Here he demonstrated for non-DBA’s the different types of indexes and how they can help make your queries/reports faster. Part of the learning process is repetition, so I still picked up some useful hints. Each presenter teaches a different way and explains things differently, so it was time well spent.
I was not able to stay for the final session, but it was another great time at SQL Saturday. It is highly recommended that you try and attend one when they come to your city/country. They are in a different location each week.
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