Adam Machanic : TechEd

SQLCLR Performance Session at TechEd US

Adam Machanic — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:14:00 GMT

I am super-excited to visit New Orleans next month for Microsoft TechEd; it will be my sixth time speaking at the show. My session takes an in-depth look at some of the techniques I've developed for using SQLCLR modules -- and some of the great performance...(read more)

Where Can You Find Me the Rest of This Year?

Adam Machanic — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:28:00 GMT

Autumn is creeping inevitably closer here in the US, and that means that speaking season is about to kick into high gear. Here's my current schedule for the remainder of the year: September 8, 17:00 GMT (online) - 24 Hours of PASS webcast: "Baseline Basics...(read more)

TechEd 2011 - Performance Tuning and Optimization in SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server Code Named "Denali"

Adam Machanic — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:05:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who took the time out of their conference experience to join Mike Wachal and me for yesterday's session on SQL Server performance tuning! For those who weren't there, we focused in on troubleshooting techniques, highlighting some of...(read more)

TechEd 2010 Thanks and Demos

Adam Machanic — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Thank you to everyone who attended my three sessions at this year's TechEd show in New Orleans. I had a great time presenting and answering the really great questions posed by attendees. My sessions were: DAT317 T-SQL Power! The OVER Clause: Your Key...(read more)

Demos - TechEd DAT402 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting with Extended Events

Adam Machanic — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:52:00 GMT

Whew! Another TechEd session completed, and now I'm done for the week. Thanks to everyone who joined me today; I had a fantastic time talking about the ins and outs of Extended Events. Demos are attached. I realize how complex some of these topics are, so please feel free to drop me a note in the comments here with any questions or concerns. Also stay tuned--I'm continuing to work with and improve these samples and will be publishing updates from time to time in the coming months.

Demos - TechEd DAT305 - Best Practices for Exception Handling and Defensive Programming in Microsoft SQL Server

Adam Machanic — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:46:00 GMT

A huge thank you to everyone who attended today's session on exception handling! I had a great time and got some very good, on-point questions from the audience. As promised, the demos are attached to this blog post. Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions (whether or not you attended--everyone is allowed to join the party).

TechEd Coming Up - Recommended Background for My Extended Events Talk

Adam Machanic — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:46:00 GMT

TechEd North America 2009 is just a few short weeks away, and I'm really looking forward not only to the show, but also the opportunity to visit Los Angeles for the first time in several years. I'm busy putting the finishing touches on my Extended Events talk, DAT402, "Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Performance Profiling and Troubleshooting with Extended Events", and I thought I should write a quick note to anyone out there who is thinking of attending.

What's noteworthy about this talk is that the TechEd team modified the title a bit and removed the word "Advanced", but left the talk at 400-level and also left the original abstract untouched:

Imagine tracking and aggregating wait statistics at the session level rather than the server level. Imagine seeing exactly how long each step in your query took and figuring out the real cost of that index scan. Imagine capturing an exception with an associated callstack--no more guessing about exactly what component failed and why. When you're done imagining, open your eyes and attend this session to learn all of these techniques and more, all thanks to Extended Events (XEvents)--the powerful new tracing infrastructure in SQL Server 2008. Designed for DBAs and developers who already understand the basics of XEvents, this session goes from 0 to 60 in the first few minutes. See a number of code examples and gain an understanding of how to maximize XEvents for performance profiling and troubleshooting purposes. If you're serious about making your SQL Servers fly, this is one session not to be missed.

When I gave this same talk earlier this year at SQL Server Connections in Orlando, some attendees apparently didn't understand that it really is an advanced talk, and showed up without quite enough background to follow along as well as they could have. I'm hoping to minimize that phenomenon at TechEd; so please keep in mind that although I do a quick (five-minute) refresher, that's it, and Extended Events is a much bigger topic than can be fully introduced in five minutes. Once the refresher part is over I jump into four fairly intense, demo-heavy deep-dive sections, so please, if you want to get your money's worth, make sure that you read one or more of the following in the next few weeks:

My chapter in the SQL Server 2008 Internals book
The Extended Events section in the recently-released Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008 white paper
Paul Randal's Advanced Troubleshooting with Extended Events article in TechNet Magazine

Reading through these sources will give you the background so that you can focus on the performance troubleshooting aspects of the talk, rather than sitting there bogged down in the unfamiliar Extended Events syntax and terminology.

I'm looking forward to meeting some SQLblog readers at the event; if you're attending, even if you decide to skip my Extended Events talk, stop by the Database Practices TLC and say hi. Looking forward to seeing you in LA!

Demos from my TechEd session (DAT302: Best Practices for Exception Handling and Defensive Programming in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008)

Adam Machanic — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:48:00 GMT

If you attended my session this morning, thank you! It's always flattering when people are willing to wake up before 8:00 a.m. just so that they can hear a talk about SQL Server. I had a great time doing the talk, and I think it went well. My sincerest apologies to the person I accidentally hit in the head with the t-shirt; I will work on my throwing arm and hopefully do a better job with the swag tossing next time!

I had a few requests for the demo scripts, and they are attached to this post. Please let me know if you have any questions or issues with them. And thanks again for attending.

For those who were not there, the presentation was recorded, and I believe it will be posted online at some point, so keep your eyes open for that.