January 2009 - Posts

Best device ever: estata and an external docking station/pcmcia esata card - no more usb 25MBytes/sec - hello 125MBytes/sec

Increasingly new machines have esata ports, these allow you to connect external SATA disks. Until now I've had to use USB to connect external hard drives but USB speed is limited to a poor 25MBytes thereabouts per second which when you are copying GBytes of data around is well poor.

I've got one of these now: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=222999

Also got a SSD SATA interface disk that I've put into it (ok, I've got a couple of 7,200rpms out of old laptops) - the performance is blinding.

Take my SSD I've just copied a 1GB file from it onto my desktop - the speed - 125Mbytes per second.

Fan-dam-tastic.

The best thing - its hot plug, I turn the docking station off (button on it), slide the disk in, turn it back on and Vista just sees it as another disk :)

I've a new laptop with 2 internal 7,200rpm disks in RAID 0 so I've got the speed there now to run VM's but, if you haven't got that luxury and/or carry your VM's around on sata disks - look into esata instead of USB; you can get a PCMCI card (http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=48643) that you can hook directly up to your SATA drive (SSD?).

I love Maplin - truely love it :)

Tony.

 

Posted 30 January 2009 12:59 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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UK MSDN Flash Survey - Win tickets for a football match at Wembley Stadium

 UK MSDN Flash Survey

We are all aware of the recent changes to the economic environment and the potential impact this may have on businesses in the UK. We appreciate many of our customers may be facing budget constraints, such as travel restrictions, which may limit the ability to attend events. In light of this, we have created a very short survey to discover how you would prefer to receive information and to identify the most effective methods for keeping you informed of the latest developments.

Your feedback will enable us to tailor our plans for the coming months to ensure we deliver activities using the vehicles that best support you.

As a thank you, we are offering you an opportunity to enter a free prize draw to win 2 tickets for a football match at Wembley Stadium. The prize draw closes on 5th February 2009 at 11:59pm, any entries received after this will NOT be entered into the draw. For full terms and conditions, including an alternative free entry route please click here.

 http://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=991748711

 

 

Posted 27 January 2009 11:24 by tonyrogerson | with no comments

£43,695.64 for a laptop - Lenovo must be kidding right?

I've just ordered a ThinkPad W700 to replace my not so old laptop but my laptop is too noisy now, anyway - shopping around I discovered the world's most expensive laptops - check the image out....

See for yourself, though I hope they may fix the site soon :)

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=FD6DB49790C7411D933567FC361231FB&current-category-id=3D30F7A2971B44DB9D15A7051B04CC0E

  

 

 

Posted 25 January 2009 13:58 by tonyrogerson | 1 comment(s)
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SQL 2005 Publisher and push Subscription to a SQL Server 2008 box

My client has SQL Server 2005 and needs to publish SQL data to me, I'm running SQL Server 2008 Express.

I installed SP3 of SQL 2005 so I could connect to SQL 2008.

Could I get SQL 2005 to set up the subscription - could I heck! Well, not with the GUI anyway.

Fix: Using SQL Server 2008 Management Studio to do it - worked like a charm.

May be having a Friday moment on a Thursday; I even tried using ODBC but couldn't get that going either :)

Tony. 

 

Posted 15 January 2009 15:19 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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sqlblogcasts and sqlserverfaq why they where down yesterday pm.

Ok, so I went to replace two of my servers down at the colocation facility in Docklands with a DELL poweredge 2900.

Should have been simple - the box was all configured and working, just a case of swapping in and changing IP addresses.

Well, that was the plan.

Got there - box wouldn't fit horizontal so I had to move shelving around to fit vertically - fair enough - did that.

All connected up - couldn't connect to the router, I spent about an hour and a half trying to get the dam thing working, resetting router to factory settings etc.. All the lights where on but nobody was home so to speak.

Anyway - I always keep a spare one of everything but only I hadn't brought it; I had to drive all the way back to Harpenden (1hr there, 1hr back) to pick the dam thing up - anyway; needless to say that was the problem.

I'll let things settle for a couple of weeks and then will upgrade the CS version to the latest. At least I'm running the user group on SQL 2008 now anyway :), an interesting find though - I have 4.3 million posts in my database from the forums and in SQL 2000 (just migrated from) I have a fulltext catalog on top- well its all stored in the db now, the catalogue is 525MBytes - I'm using SQL 2008 Express, got about a 1.3GB left so I guess I'm going to have to start splitting it out soon.

Hope you find the site a bit quicker - its amazingly fast here; I also up'd the RAM in the server running them to 4GB.

Lesson learn't: keep a spare "onsite" rather than at the office!

Tony.

Posted 11 January 2009 11:30 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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Install "Index Server" on Windows 2008 aide memoir

Ok, so I'm migrating the user group website to windows 2008 and I use Index Server called via a linked server to get at the catalogue data.

Could I find "Index Server" - nope; luckily I found a post (http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=a7fe647ccbf48ebddf8801a540a8c044&showtopic=630309&pid=589481605&st=0&#entry589481605) that told me.

Note to self: On Windows 2008 to install Index Server you add the File Server role and its under there.

Tony.

Posted 09 January 2009 10:46 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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UK SQL Server User Group (Edinburgh, 29th Jan) - Rob Carrol Microsoft PFE (Upgrading to SQL 2008) and Martin Bell (Resource Governor demo)

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 - Rob Carrol PFE; Resource Governor demo; SQL Nuggets and networking.

Cost Free
Register Via UK SQL Server User Group
Address Microsoft Office at Waverley Gate, Edinburgh
Directions to Event
Scottish Area SQL Server User Group Meeting, Edinburgh - Thursday 29th January

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 – Rob Carrol As a Premier Field Support Engineer for Microsoft, Rob is heavily involved with clients who are in the process or looking to upgrade to SQL Server 2008. In this presentation he will talk about the reasons to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, the possible upgrade routes, what you should consider when upgrading. He will also discuss the potential pitfalls and gotcha’s that people experience on an upgrade as well as the tools which will help you in the planning and execution of you upgrade to make it run smoothly and be a success.  Rob Carrol
Rob Carrol has been working with SQL Server since 1999 when he started out his career as a web developer using ASP/.NET, ColdFusion and SQL Server. Since then he has continued to work with SQL Server in a DBA and consultancy capacity, specializing in performance tuning and database troubleshooting. He joined Microsoft in April 2008 as a SQL Server Premier Field Engineer, working with some of Microsoft's largest clients in the UK and Europe. Rob lives in South Ayrshire, Scotland and I am married with 2 daughters. When he's not working with SQL Server you'll usually find him playing Xbox or thinking about football or golf !


Resource Governor – the  demoA new feature of SQL Server 2008 that was requested by quite a few attendees at the Jammin’ Session but we couldn’t fit in was Resource Governor. Martin Will demonstrate Resource Governor in use and how it may be beneficial. Martin Bell
Martin Bell has been a freelance computer consultant in the UK for over 23 years. He has worked on many relational database systems and since the 1998 has specialized in SQL Server. He was first awarded Microsoft MVP (SQL Server) status in June 2003.  Martin organises the Leeds and Scottish Area SQL Server User Group meetings and is one of the founding members of the SQLBits organising committee.


Agenda

18:30 - 19:00 - Introduction, Networking and Food

19:00 - 19:45 - Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 – Rob Carrol

19:45 - 20:00 – Break 20:00 - 20:20 SQL Server Nuggets                        Bring along a tip that you can share with the group and we will give you 5 minutes to present this to the group. 20:20 – 20:50 – Resource Governor - the demo 20:50 – 21:00 - Close Location:
Microsoft Office at Waverley Gate
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/about/map-edinburgh.mspx


Registration will be necessary as I have to submit registrations to Microsoft on Thursday morning
Posted 05 January 2009 17:31 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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UK SQL Server User Group (Leeds, 28th Jan) - Martin Bell (What's new for DBA's in SQL Server 2008?)

What’s new for a DBA in SQL Server 2008; Nuggets and networking

Cost Free
Register Via UK SQL Server User Group
Address Leeds Metropolitan University
Directions to Event

Slides:

UG20090128 Examples.zip

UG20090128 What's New for a DBA in SQL Server 2008.zip

What’s new for a DBA in SQL Server 2008?There are many great new features in SQL Server 2008. In this presentation Martin will demonstrate some of his favourite features that will be of interest to DBA including the new Auditing feature, Transparent Data Encryption, Change Data Capture, Resource Governor, Compression features, Performance Data Collector and whatever else there may be time for!Martin Bell
Martin Bell has been a freelance computer consultant in the UK for over 23 years. He has worked on many relational database systems and since the 1998 has specialized in SQL Server. He was first awarded Microsoft MVP (SQL Server) status in June 2003.  Martin organises the Leeds and Scottish Area SQL Server User Group meetings and is one of the founding members of the SQLBits organising committee.Agenda

18:00 - 18:30 - Introduction, Networking and Food

18:30 - 19:45 – What’s New for a DBA in SQL Server 2008 – Part 1

19:45 - 20:00 – Break 20:00 - 20:20 SQL Server NuggetsBring along a tip that you can share with the group and we will give you 5 minutes to present this to the group. 

20:20 – 20:50 – What’s New for a DBA in SQL Server 2008 – Part 2

20:50 – 21:00 - Close 

Location:
D421, Forth Floor, Building D
Civic Quarter Campus
Leeds Metropolitan University
Calverley Street,
Leeds,
LS1 3HE

http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/maps/current_map.pdf 

Please note: for people arriving by car, please use the public car parks and allow enough time to get to the event.

Registration will be necessary as I have to submit catering details.

Posted 05 January 2009 17:28 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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UK SQL Server User Group (Reading, 15th Jan) - Business Intelligence; Chris Webb (Creating a SSRS, SSAS & SSIS monitoring solution with SSIS, SSAS & SSIS) and Allan Mitchell (Data Mining - time prediction)

Business Intelligence - Creating an SSIS, SSAS & SSRS monitoring solution with SSIS, SSAS and SSRS; Data Mining - Marking Predictions over time

Cost Free
Registration Via UK SQL Server User Group
Address Building 3, Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG
Directions to Event
Join us for another UK SQL Server User Group meeting.

5.30pm – 6:00 Registration and networking + Tea/Coffee with biscuits.

Meet and greet.

6:00pm – 6:30pm Round Table discussion and Nuggets - ALL

Take stock and get the latest news in the SQL Server field. This is also a great opportunity to ask any burning questions you have, may be a problem at work.

It's also a great opportunity to share your knowledge and gain exposure in the industry by giving a short 1 - 6 minute "nugget" demo/tip.

6.30pm – 7:30 Allan Mitchell, SQL Server MVP; Konesans

Time Gentlemen Please.

 

Making predictions over time is a very common use of Data Mining.  Whether you want to know what the FX rate of EUR to GBP will look like over the next 3 months or you want to know what skills to train the service desk personnel in based on current support call trends, time series data mining is going to help you a lot.

In this presentation I want to look at what MS is offering in SQL Server 2008 for Time Series Analysis.  We will look at the different algorithms available, when to use them and how.  We will also have a look at the effects of changing some of the parameters in the Mining model like AUTO_DETECT_PERIODICITY and MISSING_VALUE_SUBSTITUTION.  We will also spend a small amount of time querying the Time series model to get a handle on the possibilities outside of BIDs.

Data Mining is often seen as super complex and off-putting but I am going to try and change that view and make this session fun.


7:30pm – 7:50 BREAK: Light refreshments

More time to network and ask questions...

7:50pm – 9.00pm Chris Webb, SQL Server MVP; Cross Join Consulting

Creating an SSIS, SSAS and SSRS monitoring solution with SSIS, SSAS and SSRS

 

The Microsoft BI stack is now mainstream, and mission-critical implementations can be found in the largest businesses worldwide. However, the kind of monitoring tools that we take for granted with the relational engine simply don't exist yet for Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services. How do we know if our Integration Services packages are taking longer and longer to run every day, who's running that big query that's slowing Analysis Services down, or if the boss ever looks at that Reporting Services report you took three weeks to create for him? Luckily the solution is close at hand: we can use SSIS, SSAS and SSRS to build an application for monitoring SSIS, SSAS and SSRS. This session will describe how you can do this.

Posted 05 January 2009 17:23 by tonyrogerson | with no comments
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