200
Dev
A chance for speakers new and seasoned to take the stage for 5 minutes and effuse about something/anything in SQL Server they love.
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300
DBA
Maintaining a solid set of information about our servers and their performance is critical when issues arise, and often help us see a problem before it occurs. Building a baseline of performance metrics allows us to know when something is wrong and help us to track it down and fix the problem. This session will walk you through a series of PowerShell scripts you can schedule which will capture the most important data and a set of reports to show you how to use that data to keep your server running smoothly.
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300
DBA
This session will give you insight into both of the current tracing technologies in SQL Server with emphasis on Extended Events.
The old SQL Trace which has served us well over the past 10 or so years is on its way out because the overhead and details it produces are no longer enough to deal with today's loads.
The new Extended Events are a new lightweight tracing mechanism built directly into the SQLOS thus giving us information SQL Trace just couldn't. They were designed and built with performance in mind and it shows. Mastering Extended Events requires learning at least one new skill: XML querying.
We'll look at how the Extended Events work with only a brief overview of old SQL Trace architecure.
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400
DBA
Do you have enough from "normal" performance tuning sessions? You can't hear anything about Indexing and Execution Plans anymore? Then you are right in this session! In this session we will walk into the heart of SQL Server, and you will see performance bottlenecks and error conditions, from which your production SQL Server's should be afraid of. You will learn some troubleshooting techniques with which you can identify and solve the most difficult SQL Server problems. Agenda at a glance:
*) Hold Locks with Read Committed
*) ThreadPool Starvation
*) TempDb Latch Contention
*) Spinlock Contention
*) Cross NUMA Node Latency Problems
*) VMware Memory Balloon Driver
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300
BI
Dirty data is everywhere, and it's headed for a database near you. Extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) can be difficult, but often the most challenging component of that process is the validation and clean up of data. Information must be cleansed in such a way that it retains its original message and business value, while conforming to the expectations of the destination system(s).
In this session, we'll discuss some design patterns for addressing different types of dirty data using SQL Server Integration Services. We will review the various cleansing tools accessible from within SSIS including native Integration Services components, T-SQL, and SSIS scripting. In addition, we'll briefly review the new SQL Server Data Quality Services and its integration with SSIS. We'll cap off the discussion with demonstrations of several methods for data cleansing.
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300
Dev
The geospatial capabilities in SQL Server are not only powerful, but easy and fun to use! In this session, Lenni shows you how to integrate location-awareness into your own applications with the geometry and geography data types. We’ll explore the planar and geodetic spatial models, spatial markup languages such as WKT and GML, and then put these concepts to use and build several spatial desktop and web applications. Demos show how to integrate with Bing Maps, and how to use the geospatial methods to easily calculate area, length, and distance, and project new shapes based on intersection and overlap. We’ll also cover the latest geospatial enhancements in SQL Server 2012. Attend this session and embrace spatial programming today!
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300
BI
Building Integration services packages is one. Creating a monitoring solution for all packages and ETL processes is something different. Good monitoring however can be a live safer, or may be it is simply part of your functional specs.
In this session we will recap how logging worked in SSIS 2008. We will then discuss some of the features introduced in 2012 and the benefits of project deployment. We will dive into the SSISDB catalog views and discuss pro’s and con’s of the available views. We will add our own logging to packages to extend the out-of-the-box logging available in SSIS 2012. We end this demo-only session by building a simple SSRS report on top of the logging we build/configured for our packages.
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300
DBA
In this session we'll look over some of the things which you should be looking at within your virtual environment to ensure that you are getting the performance out of it that you should be. This will include how to look for CPU performance issues at the host level. We will also be discussing the Memory Balloon drivers and what they actually do, and how you should be configuring them, and why. We'll discuss some of the memory sharing technologies which are built into vSphere and Hyper-V and how they relate to SQL Server. Then we will finish up with some storage configuration options to look at.
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200
DBA
In this session we will look at the features which are provided with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 as part of the "AlwaysOn" features including site to site configurations to allow of a large scale high availability solution without the need for any high end SAN storage solution.
Additionally we will be looking at the ability to have redundant servers which can be used for reporting or for taking your backups reducing the load from the production database. We will also look a unique use case using SQL Server 2012's Always On feature to scale out the reads to synchronous read only copies.
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300
BI
Excel is “The” analytical tool in Microsoft suite for advanced analysts. You can use it as a SQL Server Analysis Services client or as a standalone analytical engine. With Excel, you can analyze both, relational and unstructured big data. With PowerPivot, Excel becomes a single-user Analysis Services in tabular mode. The performance of your analytical processing is amazing. With Power View inside Excel, you can create ad-hoc reports on the tabular model with minimal effort. With Data Mining Add-in, you can perform even the most advanced analyzes on your Excel data. This session introduces Excel 2013 and 2010 business intelligence capabilities.
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300
DBA
It is normal for us to have to face poorly performing queries or even
complete failure in our SQL server environments. This can happen for a variety
of reasons including poor Database Designs, hardware failure,
improperly-configured systems and OS Updates applied without testing. As
Database Administrators, we need to take precaution to minimize the impact of
these problems when they occur, and so we need the tools and methodology
required to identify and solve issues quickly. In this Session we will use
PowerShell to explore some common troubleshooting techniques used in our
day-to-day work as s DBA. This will include a variety of such activities
including Gathering Performance Counters in several servers at the same time
using background jobs, identifying Blocked Sessions and Reading & filtering
the SQL Error Log even if the Instance is offline.
The approach will be using some advanced PowerShell techniques that allow us
to scale the code for multiple servers and run the data collection in
asynchronous mode.
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200
Dev
Discussion of the pros and cons of using XML to store and access data with SQL Server 2008.
What will be reviewed:
a few basic T-SQL XML commands to generate and access XML data using SQL server, Typed and Untyped XML and in-built validation options.
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200
DBA
Many DBAs have heard the term Analysis Services, but don't really know what it's for or who would use it. In this session, Mark will explain the use cases for Analysis Services, illustrate how it improves performance for large data sets and eases report writing, and will go through a practical example of building a first Analysis Services solution, and managing Analysis Services in a production environment.
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300
BI
Compare and contrast how multidimensional and tabular achieve the same end result in quite different ways. Learn where multidimensional decorates the metadata of the model, while tabular offloads responsibility to DAX. Understand how the design goals of the DAX language – which are akin to Excel formulas and relational-database concepts – differ from MDX and traditional OLAP. Features covered can be used in a broad range of scenarios (not only currency conversion), adding valuable knowledge to your SSAS arsenal.
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400
Dev
At the heart of SQL Server is the cost based optimizer. Stop and think about that a minute, it
attempts to give the “best plan” based on the cost of the work undertaken. How does it know the cost of the work before
its done the work ? This isn’t a conundrum, it doesn’t. It estimates!
How does it estimate ? That is statistics.
This will be a deep dive into how the optimizer makes its
decisions to give you a plan, the things that can go wrong and how you can have
influence over these choices.
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200
Dev
The MERGE statement can synchronize imported data with base data, inserting new rows and updating existing rows, all in one go. But step beyond basics and MERGE becomes a tool that can do much, much more.
In this demo-rich session, Hugo Kornelis will present the full syntax of the MERGE statement, explain all the options, and show the possibilities. He will also demonstrate the pitfalls that you need to be aware of if you, or even someone else, uses MERGE – and show you how to solve them.
Whether you already used MERGE or not, this session will show you new ways to tackle problems that would otherwise be much harder to solve.
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200
Dev
Guidelines
-A template
Error catching
-Using a CLR proc to catch
Generic tests
-Procedures
-Functions
-Dynamic sql
-Cube
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300
Dev
Ever had to write a large number of similar or standardized stored procedures, audit triggers, archive tables, etc.? Let SQL Server do the work for you! With some custom functions, stored procedures and extended properties, this is no longer a chore. In this session we will see how to create table-based object factories that are capable of producing well-formatted stored procedures, triggers, audit tables or whatever you need them to produce. Whether initial creates or alters post schema changes, the manual drudgery can be removed!
During the session I will explain what automation is possible and demonstrate this working in practice. I will also show how this can be used in conjunction with DDL Triggers and SQL Server Database Tools to seamlessly fit into the development process.
I heard a phrase from Jen Stirrup recently, "If you have to do it twice, automate it.". Damn straight, I'm down with that and you should be too.
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300
Dev
SQL Server optimizer doesn't use and index seek for execution of your query although the quer is high selective? What is better, when and why: LIKE vs: SUBSTRING, IN vs. EXISTS, SUBQUERY vs. JOIN. Why you should not use the UPPER or LOWER functions? How to avoid non-SARG-able WHERE clauses? Which query takes about 3 minutes in SQL Server 2008 and only one second in SQL Server 2012?
In this session we will answer these questions and show how bad designed queries lead to poor execution plans. We will offer recommendations and tips how to avoid performance problems caused by poor query design (functions in WHERE clause, data type conversions…) and explain how local variables and parameters affect the generation of execution plan.
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400
BI
An introduction to scaling out packages using parallelism with the "Work pile" pattern, balanced data distributor and "Roll your own" techniques. This will also cover how to achieve elastic style scale out and how well different approaches scale across CPU cores, including scaling with hyper threading turned on and off and an investigation into what the the affects of L2 cache splitting. Comparisons will be drawn between achieving parallelism using SSIS and the query execution engine, specifically around parallelism start up costs, partitioning workloads between threads and the impact of serial regions on the throughput of parallel schemas.
|
100
Dev
Never given time or care, never forming good relationships, becoming bloated, corrupt and rife with indistinguishable copies, and all so horrifyingly pervasive in society. But enough about the Kardashians, what about YOUR DATA? If you want to straighten it out and prevent it from going too far in the first place, this session is for you. We will cover constraint basics (not null, check, primary key/unique, foreign keys), provide standard use cases, and address misconceptions about constraint use and performance. We will also look at triggers and application logic and why these are NOT substitutes for (but can effectively complement) good constraint usage. Attendees will enjoy learning how to keep THEIR data off the tabloid page!
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400
DBA
Data loading is one of the most critical challenges for many systems. The increase in data volumes and the increased demands for availability make this task ever more challenging.
In this session we will cover both theoretical and their counterpart practical aspects of the various means you have at your disposal to optimize your data loading performance.
We will unravel the truths and bust some myths regarding minimally logged operations and
bulk load mechanisms. We will look at internals, 'secret' trace flags but also review some simpler techniques that you may have overlooked.
We will analyze the most common data loading scenarios and provide practical, proven tips for optimizing bulk data load performance which can make a difference in orders of magnitude!
|
300
BI
Join me as I guide you through the architecture and capabilities of the OData protocol.
Data has been locked inside applications for too long, allow me to show you how to implement OData and open up the data silos inside your company today! I will also show you how you can use OData in everyday scenarios such as Business Intelligence & (Mobile) Development.
|
300
DBA
In this session I will illustrate how SQL Server AlwaysOn can be used to achieve tier 1 HA. I will speak about what the common misconceptions are with SQL Server HA. I will then detail what considerations there are within designing and implementing AlwaysOn. This session will also demonstrate how to implement AlwaysOn,
but more importantly what ‘Gotchas’ I have come across whilst implementing it in the real world.
|
200
BI
You probably already heard a lot of the wonders of PowerPivot and Power View, but will you have any other cool new BI features with Excel 2013. The answer is a big YES!
This session will be one long demo, where you will learn about stuff like Flash Fill, TimeLine Slicers, creating new MOLAP calculated members and measures directly in Excel, use of Excel Applications and how the Excel Interactive View gives you the analytical power of Excel to use on any HTML table on any web page.
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300
BI
The recent introduction of new technologies like PowerPivot, BI Semantic Model, columnstore indexes in SQL Server and the more general trend of advances in Self-Service BI and Big Data might be considered threats to the classic data warehouse ecosystem. In reality, a good data warehouse is still the best starting point for any kind of analysis, but it is necessary to update the strategy of its implementation and evolution in this new era.
This session will start the conversation about what a modern strategy for data warehousing can be in this era. Which type of data modeling we should use for the data warehouse? What is the role of the data marts? Does the use of technologies like PowerPivot or Analysis Services Tabular affect the way you should model your data? Do the columnstore indexes remove the need of an analytical server like Analysis Services? We will try to answer to these and other questions, offering an updated approach to the data warehouse modeling methodology.
|
400
BI
As a report creator and designer, it's your role to make the message of the data come alive for data consumers and decision-makers. This requires a balance between conveying the 'truth' of the data across to the target audience, in addition to making the report look interesting that it will draw people's attentions in the first place.
Reporting Services is one of the most widely-used Business Intelligence products within the Microsoft stack. Come to this session to pick up some tips and tricks for advanced reporting writing, that is also in accordance with thinking by Data Visualisation gurus such as Stephen Few and Edward Tufte.
This session will cover more advanced and less well-known features of reporting services in order to provide you with some interesting ideas and insights for your next reporting project.
|
300
DBA
Many experienced DBAs are aware that there are many undocumented commands and traceflags in SQL Server, and some DBAs may even keep track of all references to such options whenever they read about them in an article or blog posts, or hear about them at a conference. In this session, I’ll not only tell you about some of my favorite undocumented features, I’ll also tell you some of my tricks for discovering more undocumented secrets.
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300
DBA
Always On Availability Groups offer a huge leap forward in terms of high availability. This sessions is a demo based introduction to the high availability changes in SQL 2012 emphasizing key features and benefits.
During the demonstration we will show how to seamlessly upgrade a database from SQL 2005+ to SQL 2012 with ZERO down time and then use the Availability Group features to simplify reporting, availability and disaster recovery.
This session will be useful for anyone who is working in a high availability environment or currently using replication to provide reporting and looking for a neater solution.
Bob Duffy is a SQL Server MVP from Dublin, Ireland who is both MCA and MCM certified. Bob has spent many years helping customers in Ireland with high availability planning.
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200
Dev
So what is this cloud stuff and how does it affect database professionals ?
In this session we aim to cover the fundamental concepts that you should know on the Cloud and Windows Azure. In this demo based hour we will step through building Azure applications, deploying and managing them and what storage choices you have when developing applications in the cloud.
This sessions is Ideally suited to anyone who wants to understand more behind how Azure works, what it offers and what is probably just hype.
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300
Dev
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) provide a new declarative model for building SQL Server databases. Come and learn more from Craig and Jamie who have both been using SSDT to do that for many months.
This cornucopia of real-world experience should be of use to anyone that either is using SSDT or considering using it in the future.
This will be a demo-heavy, slide-light session.
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300
DBA
Great database performance starts with great database design. During the design process it is important to select your SQL Server datatypes wisely. Failure to do so will result in wasted disk space, additional I/O overhead, and decreased performance. There is also the risk that your design will not scale as well as it should. Unless you have unlimited hardware purchasing power, size matters.
Attend this session and learn how smart, effective database design will ensure your databases perform at their peak efficiency. You will learn how to choose the best performing datatypes, how to measure their effectiveness, and how to correct bad datatypes decisions (decision that were not, of course, made by you.)
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400
BI
The VertiPaq engine, which is the core of
the new SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular engine, has an unprecedented level
of performance, thanks to its fine-tuned architecture and its ability to
perform fast cross-fltering. Automatic cross filtering between columns of the
same table or related tables is a very powerful feature of DAX. It allows a measure
to evaluate to different values for different cells in a pivot table even
though the DAX expression for the measure does not change. Filter context is
the underlying mechanism that enables this magic behavior. But it is also a
very tricky concept that even befuddles some DAX experts. In this session, we will
analyze the way DAX solves filtering. Starting from simple queries, we will
follow the steps DAX does with the filter context, discovering the internals of
the query engine of DAX.
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400
BI
The xVelocity engine in SQL Server Analysis
Services 2012 Tabular is a columnar database capable of incredible performances,
both in speed and compression ratio. In this session, we will perform a deep
dive in the internals of the database architecture, discovering how Vertipaq
stores information, in order to gain better insights into the engine and
understand the best way to model your data warehouse to leverage the features
of VertiPaq. We will show common and useful techniques to increase the
compression ratio and obtain better performances from your Tabular data model.
|
300
Dev
More and more data collected in organizations is in an encoded format, essentially a binary classification of data. These can be images, audio files, video, or even common formats like Word and Excel files. This data contains lots of important data, but the formatting must be stripped out in order for users to effectively search this data.This presentation starts with a discussion of the three types of data in SQL Server to set the framework. It demos and explains:
- structured data
- semi-structured data
- unstructured data
The talk then looks at how unstructured data is stored in SQL Server, specifically briefly looking at Filestream and Filetable.There is a short discussion of full text search, with a look at the changes in SQL Server 2012 before moving on to the iFilter interfaces which are used to search the binary data while ignoring the encoding.
There are demos of the basics of CONTAINS and FREETEXT searches, along with some of the more advanced options, like customizable NEAR and weighting of search terms.The talk finishes with a short look at the new semantic search feature in SQL Server 2012.
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300
DBA
Do you consider the Windows GUI to be a waste of resources? Starting with SQL Server 2012, you can run on top of Windows Server Core 2008 R2 or 2012. In this session we will discuss installation and management of SQL Server on Windows Server Core, along with lots of tips and tricks.
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300
Dev
Just because you're using an Azure SQL database does not mean you can avoid tuning queries. Microsoft has throttling in place that could seriously impact your systems if your queries are using up lots of resources. This session will introduce you to the tools you have available to identify poor performing queries, such as dynamic management objects and others. You'll learn how to understand why a query is running slow using the Azure Portal execution plans. This understanding will enable you to fix your poorly performing queries. All in the cloud.
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300
BI
In the ideal world, all information and structures are static, but in the real world almost everything is dynamic, and so many tables are affected by the changes of multiple applications and developers. If you have just a couple of objects to take care off, then it is all fine and easy to handle, but if you are working with 100's or 1000's of tables, will you try to edit all your content manually? Join me to review different existing frameworks for developing content dynamically for Microsoft BI tools.
The only existing constant in the nature is the change, so we better be ready to face it.
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200
Dev
In this session I'll be exploring all of the below new analytical functions of SQL server 2012.
CUME_DIST
LEAD
LAG
FIRST_VALUE
LAST_VALUE
PERCENTILE_CONT
PERCENTILE_DISC
PERCENT_RANK
I'll be explaining how this functions works , where we can use these functions. How we were achieving the same in earlier version and now how simple it is to achieve the same.
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300
BI
This session looks at the most significant new functionality to be added to SSAS Multidimensional in recent years: support for the DAX language and Power View. It will show how Multidimensional models are mapped to Tabular concepts, what works and what doesn't work in DAX, how Power View works with Multidimensional models and what other benefits there are to using DAX with a Multidimensional model.
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300
Dev
SQL Server 2012 introduced an important extension to its integrated Full-text Search, namely the Statistical Semantic Search. In this session you will learn how to install and configure this new functionality, how to use it to extend your existing full-text search capabilities, and how to utilize it properly to improve your information management solutions. You will learn how to automatically extract key phrases from your documents, and how to find similarities between individual documents of your information corpus based on the key phrases that they contain.
|
300
BI
The Master Data Services offers an easy to use toolset to work with Master Data. In this session we will explore the hidden power of MDS to integrate this service in our solutions. MDS provides ways to programmatically accessed all tasks. We will see how to automate all the functions of MDS and how to build our own frontends for our data stewards. Take your MDS Project on a higher level.
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300
DBA
Upgrading SQL Server is one of the most challenging and risky
operations that you will perform as a DBA. Make the wrong move, and you
could be heading for the exit. In this diverse session, we'll take an
in-depth look at moving to the SQL Server 2012 platform and review the
upgrade strategies available for a smooth and successful move.
We'll cover preparing and reporting for upgrade, upgrade strategies,
performing the upgrade, and how to know the upgrade was successful. And
we'll explore some advanced scenarios, including SQL Server 2012 on
Server Core, preparing for AlwaysOn availability groups, upgrading your
SQL failover cluster, and storage migration. After this session, you too
can have “moves like Jagger.”
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200
Dev
Bad habits: we all have them. SELECT * is the obvious one; but in this session you will learn about various other habits and why they can be bad for performance or maintainability. You will also learn about best practices that will help you avoid falling into some of these bad habits. Come learn how these habits develop, what kind of problems they can lead to, and how you can avoid them - leading to more efficient code, a more productive work environment, and - in a lot of cases - both.
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300
BI
Analysis Services OLAP cubes provide an incredibly powerful platform for the analysis and reporting of complex data. Unfortunately we often find that our source data is not in the right structure to make the best use of the cube’s power. This limits the cube’s functionality, compromises performance and complicates the reports.
In this session we’ll look at a number of different data scenarios that we encounter and explore ways of remodelling the data to optimise it for cubes and MDX. We’ll see how adding functionality into the ETL layer can have a dramatic effect on the functionality and simplicity of the cube.
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300
BI
Loading and managing large data sets in your Data Warehouse is not always a trivial task. Especially if the source systems can re-deliver data and you want to replace an old subset of your data. The quick answer you always hear is “just use partitioning”, but nobody really tells you how you should design or implement it. This session will show one way to load and manage your very large data sets, by using layered partitioning. We will walk through partitioned tables and partitioned views, before moving on to the concept of layered partitioning.
|
400
DBA
In this session I'll cover advanced HA and DR architectures for SQL Server 2012 that also enable you to scale-out certain workloads. This will include design patterns and configuration best practices for Availability Groups (AG) and Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) across different sites as well AG replicas between FCIs.
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300
BI
Configuring Kerberos can be easy. Indeed, with favourable conditions and some preparation, the whole thing can be over in minutes. However, if hours later it still does not work, troubleshooting can take many days even with help of experts.
As you all know, real world implementations can deviate dramatically from lab scenarios considered in common whitepapers. What most resources usually cover is, at best, some step by step configuration instructions for a particular architecture. Such instructions often lack explanation of why it has to be done that way in terms of the role of every step in the authentication process, i.e. they do not explain principles, only give certain examples.
I would like to present easy to follow principles of Kerberos constrained delegation and protocol transition with handy tips and templates to get this right the first time for your particular environment. The goal is to explain the meaning of the settings in terms of the role in the Kerberos constrained delegation authentication rather than simply presenting another example of a particular scenario. I will also include a
jargon-busting glossary of terms to help you get started.
This presentation covers some very useful resources to help you tame your three-headed monster and make it behave in case it decides to go on a strop. I will also mention some useful tips and resources
on dealing with Claims To Windows Token services, an important part to Kerberos configuration. It plays a very important part in delegating authentication for services requiring protocol transition (Claims -> Windows), such as Excel Services, Performance Point and Power View.
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300
Dev
Most T-SQL developers know that the APPLY operator can be used
to invoke a table valued function. But did you know that it can also be used to
join to derived data sets, return multiple columns from a sub-query, shred XML,
create working columns for use with the WHERE and GROUP BY clauses, and replace
the UNPIVOT operator? If not, then why not take your skills to the next level, and
come see each use case in action, using real-world examples. You’ll leave the
session with thorough understanding of the full potential of this versatile
operator, as well as a few new tricks up your T-SQL sleeves.
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300
DBA
SQL Server 2012 brings a wide range of changes, including a key change in
how SQL Server memory is managed. Earlier releases of SQL Server have two memory
managers, which have now been merged into one. And that’s just the beginning of
the changes for SQL Server memory.
This session will dive into SQL Server 2012's new memory architecture. We'll see how to diagnose memory
performance issues and gain insight into memory pressure issues. We'll also cover the settings to adjust memory configuration levels and their impact.
Learn the ways to determine if your memory is performance is 'Healthy' or needs some TLC
|
300
BI
Big Data is hot! And the magic word is Hadoop. But what is it? And more important: what can I do with it? And how can we use it in our traditional BI solutions?
Apache Hadoop is a collection of tools mainly used nowadays in the Big Data space. With Hadoop (and MapReduce, Pig and Hive) we can use it as part of our ETL process to get insight from our (un)structured data sources.
In this session we will cover these basics, but also introduce some internals of Hadoop.
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200
DBA
This session provides an architectural blueprint to deploying disaster recovery solutions combining on-premise and Windows Azure cloud technologies. The session looks at a design pattern to solve a long standing and often expensive issue of Disaster Recovery for the data platform. Understanding and utilising the strengths of SQL Server on Windows Azure to provide Infrastructure as a Service enables IT to deliver a cost effective solution to business continuity.
The session reviews capabilities of the Azure platform, including highlighting differences between Windows Azure SQL Database and Windows Azure. The session looks at implementing a disaster recovery strategy that combines AlwaysOn to provide DR. The session looks at the prerequisites, challenges, limitations and benefits of this architecture – including security, network configuration and performance.
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100
BI
There has been rapid development in the capabilities of SQL Server to support big data and hadoop following introduction of the HDInsight Service and HDInsight Server. The big data concept is gaining momentum and a hot topic with many data rich organisations who are interested in mining intelligence from unstructured data sources. This session will define the terms, concepts and provide demos of integrating big data into SQL Server solutions.
The session will cover options for on-premise and cloud deployments and examples for BI and data professionals to get started in understanding the capabilities and strengths of this technology.
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300
DBA
Deploying a SQL Server Failover Cluster on Windows Server 2008 has become a lot easier with the availability of online resources. However, making it easy does not mean ignoring the basic principles of the underlying technology. In this session, learn the fundamentals and principles behind how Windows Failover Clustering works and how SQL Server leverages on the technology, allowing you to build highly available database infrastructures.
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300
BI
I know what you're thinking, Powershell is not an ETL tool. And you're probably right. But I keep running into weird requests that were just easier to fix with Powershell. I'll show you why some things are not easy in SSIS. I'll also discuss how you can work around a lot of that instead of switching to Powershell like I did. This session will be around 70% "why is this hard in SSIS and can you work around it?" and 30% "Look how cool Powershell is"
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200
Dev
How would you like to spend less time fixing bugs? Come and learn how to use unit-testing effectively in your database code. This fun and demo loaded session will show you how to prevent bugs in your SQL code and make it easier to maintain at the same time.
It’s bad enough to spend hours finding and fixing database defects, explaining to the rest of the team what went wrong and trying to clean up the mess. It’s even worse when a defect causes the end-user to make a bad decision. Database defects are far too costly and most testing practices do not adequately detect or prevent them.
In this session we will cover a variety of patterns for writing test cases and techniques to overcome barriers that are unique to database unit testing.
You’ll learn:
- How to write your tests using an automated testing framework
- The basic structure of a test case, including the AAA pattern
- What tests to create based on test identification patterns, called testing heuristics
- How and when to create test data that leads to maintainable test cases.
- What to do with constraints and dependencies.
By the end you will be able to write your own tests to get you started on the way to robust and easier to maintain T-SQL code.
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300
BI
Processing of SSAS OLAP databases can be a tricky business, particularly when it comes to incremental processing of dimensions. John will illuminate the dark interior of SSAS and describes how attribute relationships, aggregation design and different processing techniques can all have a positive or negative impact on your real-time cubes.
John will give you real life examples of why certain approaches work and others do not, describing some of the pitfalls of each approach.
At the end of the session, you should fully understand how to use ProcessUpdate and ProcessAdd to incrementally update dimension data and also various approaches to processing fact partitions including negation strategies.
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300
DBA
Join Ewan Fairweather and Silvano Coriani from the SQL CAT team, who will take you on a tour of the new features that make up the Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Virtual Networks offerings and how they apply to running SQL Server 2012 in a Virtual Machine. We’ll focus specifically on features that enable you to create highly available Virtual Machine-based services and how to connect SQL Server Virtual Machines with IaaS and PaaS Cloud Services.
They will take you through step by step the supported and optimal configurations for SQL Server 2012 AlwaysON, show you the results of intensive storage and networking tests which have been performed. The recommendations and knowledge that are shared in this session are all based on real world learnings.
By the end of the session you will understand what the recommended patterns and practices are for running SQL Server 2012 in Azure Infrastructure as a Service
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