Search results matching tag 'Virtualization'

SQL Server in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services: Performance Guidance Whitepaper and other TechEd NA 2013 updates

SQLOS Team — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 20:42:00 GMT

Greetings,

We are excited to announce the release of our new whitepaper, Performance Guidance for SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. This paper provides you guidance to optimize your SQL Server workloads running in Windows Azure Infrastructure Services. Additionally, if you are attending TechEd North America 2013 in New Orleans this week, be sure to stop by DBI-B311 on Day 4 (details below) to learn these strategies in person!

We also have a bunch of other sessions in TechEd North America 2013 to learn more about running SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. Please see the full list of Breakout Sessions below.

Day 1 - Monday June 3^rd

4:45 PM

DBI-B201: Lap Around Windows Azure SQL Database and Microsoft SQL Server in Windows
Azure Virtual Machines

Day 2 - Tuesday June 4^th

3:15 PM	MDC-B406: Achieve High Availability with Microsoft SQL Server on Windows Azure Virtual Machines
5:00 PM	DBI-B206: Private Cloud – Better Together: Microsoft SQL Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012

Day 3 - Wednesday June 5^th

8:30 AM	DBI-B316: Running BI Workloads on Windows Azure Virtual Machines
10:15 AM	DBI-B306: Microsoft SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery on Windows Azure
5:00 PM	DBI-B329: Overview, Best Practices and Lessons Learned on Microsoft SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines

Day 4 - Thursday June 6^th

10:15 AM	DBI-B311: Performance Tuning Microsoft SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines
1:00 PM	DBI-B310: Windows Azure Virtual Machines and SQL Unplugged
2:45 PM	MDC-B361: Best Practices from Real Customers: Deploying to Windows Azure Infrastructure Services (IaaS)

Hope to see you there!

Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

New On-Line Resources for Windows, Virtualization, and Cloud!

KKline — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:29:00 GMT

Ever since returning from the UK for the SQLBits conference, I've been snowed under a mountain of action items. I've got such a backlog of things to get done, emails to answer, and family to not ignore that I'm starting to feel really guilty.

So with that in mind, I wanted to whip out a quick blog post to let you know I'm still alive and thinking of y'all. What could be quicker and easier than some cool new resources you might not have seen? For your perusal:

Whitepaper: Managing Windows 7 and Windows 8 Side-by-Side
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37144
Poster: Networking in Virtual Machine Manager
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37137
Windows Server 2012: Core Network Companion Guide for Deploying IP Addressing in Branch Offices
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=37034
Become a Virtualization Expert in 20 Days ( Blog Article Series )
- http://aka.ms/VirtExpert
Build Your Private Cloud in a Month ( Blog Article Series )
- http://aka.ms/BuildYourCloud
Windows Server 2012 “Early Experts” FREE IT Pro Study Group
- http://EarlyExperts.net

Let me know what you think. Thanks,

-Kevin

- Follow me on Twitter!

- Google Author

The All-New 'Database Lifecycle Management" is available on MSDN

KKline — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:51:00 GMT

The initial release of Database Lifecycle Management is now available on MSDN.

The site is something called "curated content". This means it's a single consolidated location to look up lots of disparate articles and content, all in one easy to search location. This “curated content view” contains the best content, video, and community-centric information from Microsoft, including topics like:

SQL Server Data Tools

· Get started with sample projects, code samples

· Video demos by Gert Drapers (blog)

· Script common data portability tasks using Sqlpackage.exe

· Link to the SSDT team blog

SQL Server Management Studio

· Manage SQL Database using SSMS

· Backup and restore w/ SQL Azure

· Migrate local databases to Azure

· Video demo of hybrid scenarios by Gert Drapers (blog)

Windows Azure SQL Database

· SQL Database backup and restore

· Import/export SQL Database

· Windows Azure training kit

· Connection management and troubleshooting connections

Enjoy,

-Kevin

-Follow me on Twitter!
- Google Author

Let's Talk Licensing and Virtualization for SQL Server

KKline — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:23:00 GMT

I have two new articles up on Database Trends & Applications magazine. I'd love to get your thoughts and feedback!

Welcome to the Weird, Wild World of SQL Server Licensing

Not long in the past, SQL Server licensing was an easy and straightforward process. You used to take one of a few paths to get your SQL Server licenses. The first and easiest path was to buy your SQL Server license with your hardware. Want to buy a HP Proliant DL380 for a SQL Server application? Why not get your SQL Server Enterprise Edition license with it at the same time? Just pay the hardware vendor for the whole stack, from the bare metal all the way through to the Microsoft OS and SQL Server....

DBTA E-Edition - December 2012 Issue

Virtualization Conquers the Database

I was privileged to deliver a session entitled Managing SQL Server in a Virtual World at the PASS Summit 2012, the largest annual conference for Microsoft SQL Server. It was a packed house, literally at standing-room-only capacity. I delivered the session with my friend David Klee and we were swarmed by attendees after the session wrapped up. With almost 600 people in the room, we conducted one of those informal polls that speakers like to do along the lines of "Raise your hands if …" and the informal findings were very telling. Probably around 90% of the attendees used VMware and SQL Server in some capacity and at least 60% used it in production environments. Another important fact was that only 10% of the attendees were actually able to get information on the performance of the actual VMs themselves. Most had to get all of their information and support from the VM / System administration staff....

DBTA E-Edition - November E-Edition Issue

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PASS Summit 2012, Slide Decks

KKline — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:02:00 GMT

Ok, I have to admit the painful truth. I'm reliably slow to the finish line. This year, I got my slides into PASS HQ by the skin of my teeth, the weekend before the event was to begin. Although I could say with a straight face "I uploaded my slides!". I have to be honest that I wasn't surprised when many of my attendees said that they weren't available for download by the time my session started. OTOH, I also have to say that I really do prefer for attendees to focus on the presentation while it's being presented and that they should grab the slides afterwards. But that's just my personal preference.

Having said all of that, I'm going to post my three session slide decks here so that you can grab them in case PASS has to take a while longer to get them posted. If you don't mind, the PASS program committee has introduced a new electronic feedback system. PLEASE PROVIDE FEEDBACK!

(Click on the session title to download the zip file of the slide deck).

PASS TV - Gaining Executive Support

This brief session is all about convincing your boss to do something you want - telecommute, make a big purchase of hardware or software, bring in a consultant, and so forth. See the PASS TV schedule for other sessions.

Winning Influence in IT Teams

Abstract: Ever wanted to convince the boss to try something new, but didn't know where to start? Ever tried to lead your peers toward an innovative, fresh idea only to fail to achieve your goals? This session teaches you the eight techniques of influencing IT professionals and the means of communicating your ideas upward to management and out to teammates so that you can innovate and achieve change in your organization. You'll learn the fundamental difference between influence and authority and how you can achieve a high degree of influence without explicit authority. You'll also learn the eight techniques of influencing IT professionals, when to apply them, and how to best use them. And you'll discover the communication and procedural techniques that ensure your ideas get a hearing by bosses and peers, and how to best win support for them.

Evaluate Session

Managing SQL Server in a Virtual World

This session rocked the house! We had standing room only probably at 20 to 30 minutes before start time. Our attendance was over 500, but we probably could've filled the biggest 700+ person room. A special thanks to my friend David Klee (blog | twitter) for tag-teaming with my like mega-nerd luchadors.

Abstract: Why are so many organizations implementing VMware, and what does it mean for SQL Server DBAs? In this deep-dive session, you'll see that when configured and managed properly, SQL Server can run just as well in a virtual environment as a physical one. We'll review the benefits VMware provides, including hardware abstraction, easier failover, and simpler capacity planning. We'll also explore key tips to help administer a SQL Server instance running inside a virtual machine. You'll learn the differences in general administration, disaster recovery, and high availability on VMs; get a better understanding of activity and performance trends on VMs; and learn how to ensure effective capacity planning and optimal performance on VMs. If you’ve ever had a virtual deployment go bad, or if you’re struggling to manage the performance of virtualized SQL Servers, be sure to catch this session.

Evaluate Session

Conquer Your Fear of Virtualization with a Free Day of Training at PASS!

KKline — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:50:00 GMT

Click this link to register: http://www.houseofbrick.com/education/sqlserverbootcamp/Registration.

Presented by my buddy, David Klee at House of Brick, one of the nations top VMWare consultancies specializing in Oracle and SQL Server deployments.

David has a great write-up of this boot camp at http://www.davidklee.net/2012/10/01/virtualizing-your-business-critical-sql-servers-free-boot-camp-by-house-of-brick/.

New Project Starting. Got Gas?

merrillaldrich — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:32:02 GMT

“Storage is just like gasoline,” said a fellow DBA at the office the other day.

This DBA, Mike is his name, is one of the smartest people I know, so I pressed him, in my subtle and erudite way, to elaborate.

“Um, whut?” I said.

“Yeah. Now that everything is shared – VMs or consolidated SQL Servers and shared storage – if you want to do a big project, like, say, drive to Vegas, you better fill the car with gas. Drive back and forth to work every day? Gas. Same for storage.”

This was a light-bulb-above-my-head moment.

Now that everything is consolidated onto shared infrastructure, all the way down to complete servers, the way we think about funding IT projects has to change too. It used to be that if you wanted to do a project, you would enumerate what the systems would cost, then price and go buy them. It was like this: this new project will need a bulldozer and an excavator, and maybe a Super-Zooper-Flooper-Do, let’s buy them for the project, and then they will arrive on a truck and we will install them, and the project will move forward. Many people are still thinking this way, but it’s now officially backward. We don’t buy discrete items for projects anymore, we buy a slice of shared infrastructure. And planning for that infrastructure has to change, or you will be, as many organizations are, forever, endlessly, exasperatingly short of it.

Gas Up Early

Imagine you and your friends are cruising down the road on a beautiful day, and someone decides you need to, simply MUST drive to Southern California. Do you at that point look around at each other and say “OK, who has gas money?” Perhaps. But hopefully not if you run a large business.

Worse, do you just start driving that direction, and when you get down to 1/8 of a tank, then ask everyone in the car? Again, maybe, but not too many people travel this way who are over 25. I think, anyway.

So the obvious question is, and I see this in many companies, why do we pile projects onto shared infrastructure like SAN storage and VM clusters without planning what infrastructure will be required to take us where we want to go? Answer: the organizations haven’t finished shifting their thinking. They think, hey presto, now we don’t need to buy those unique pieces of equipment any more, we just get “free” VMs and databases and storage from that magic bottomless pool. But that’s only the first stage. They haven’t realized yet, at an organizational level, who fills that pool of resources up, and how quickly, and how much it costs.

Watch the Gauge

Part of the difficulty is there’s no single “gas gauge” to tell an organization how the shared infrastructure is doing – you need some clever, forward thinking administrators to do that, and they, in turn need some tools. Further, it’s pretty hard today to estimate what “slice” of shared infrastructure a project will need, and how or whether to literally charge back for that resource. That means you have one arm making plans for all the places the organization will drive, with no idea how much gas is in the tank, and perhaps another arm with its eye on the fuel level, but which doesn’t know what the travel plans are. If you just start driving, at some point someone’s going to be standing by the side of the road with a thumb out and a gas can.

And here’s another gotcha – you can’t, from a practical point of view, keep on filling this tank one gallon at a time, while always near empty. It’s not safe or economical. Do you really want to buy disks or shared servers and try to install them monthly? Weekly?

So start thinking about your servers and storage as a commodity, and do it now. Try to get your organization to make this simple shift – we don’t buy pieces of equipment for projects anymore. We buy a platform, then estimate how much more of that platform we need for all upcoming work, and to sustain growth, then implement it.

The Expert's Conference (TEC) - For AD, SharePoint, Exchange, PowerShell and Other Admins

KKline — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:09:00 GMT

What is TEC?

The Expert's Conference (TEC) is a multi-day event featuring five co-located Microsoft educational conferences at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina April 29-May 2. It's pretty - see!

The event includes advanced 400-level training on Microsoft Directory & Identity (including Active Directory), Exchange Server, SharePoint, Virtualization (Microsoft Hyper-V) & Workspace Management, and PowerShell Deep Dives. There are lots of great activities for Quest and Microsoft customers and partners. In addition, there's a Quest Software Day, with User Groups sessions; Focus Groups to steer product direction; and Executive Briefings.

In the registration section, be sure to mention my name when it asks "How did you hear about TEC?" If I get enough people to sign on, they'll let me off of the chain and give me fresh bread and water instead of the old moldy stuff they usually slide under the cell door.

Click on the pretty picture below to get more info!

New on "Database Trends & Applications"

KKline — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:37:00 GMT

In last month's column, "2012 Might Really Be the End of the World as We Know It," I described a number of major developments in the IT industry that are likely to disrupt the life of database professionals everywhere. I categorize those four disruptors - virtualization, cloud computing, solid state drives (SSD), and advanced multi-core CPUs - into two broad groups. I'm going to continue an analysis of these disruptive technologies in inverse order. Today, let's discuss SSDs.

[READ MORE ON DATABASE TRENDS & APPLICATIONS ]

What I'm Reading, July 22 2011

KKline — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:43:00 GMT

I read too much, and that, my friends, is an entirely separate topic for a blog post. But I thought I'd share with you a little more about what I'm reading because sometimes, if I'm lucky, it might be something you'd enjoy too. So I'm going to start sharing what I'm reading at least once per week, partly so that I don't firehose too many reading links directly into your brain (where I to do it say once per month) and partly to solidify in my own mind the information that I'm reviewing. So here are a few good links for the seven days leading up to July 22, 2001:

Microsoft and Whitehouse partnership on BigData: BigData isn't a particularly new concept. But I was intrigued to learn that the National Science Foundation, Microsoft, and 13 other teams were partnering on developing better BigData analytics for lots of government data from activities such as healthcare, economic development, education, transportation, and the power grid. Cools stuff! Plus, Microsoft has developed a new tool called Project Daytona to better harness the power of the cloud, in general, and Windows Azure, specifically.
While we're on the topic of Federal IT in the Cloud be sure to read this linked article from ComputerWorld. Say what you will about our government, but putting government IT in the cloud and increasing both its transparency and availability will make a huge difference in how the Federal government will be able to service the public. We're talking as big a difference as corporations experienced between the "catalog on the web" experience of the 1990's to the Web2.0 experience of today.
If you're the social media type, give this article a read discussing the Power of Hashtags in Social Media.
The Register, of the UK, whose tagline is "Biting the hand that feeds IT" has a great article on a spat over database technologies between the IT sage Michael Stonebreaker and Google. It's a great read if for no other reason than to prove that databases are worth fighting over.
And if you think Microsoft is still towing the relational database barge without thinking about other technologies, you need to read up on Projects Dryad and Daytona.
Finally, I'm still getting lots of questions about when and where to limit SQL Server's Max Degrees of Parallelism. Be sure to read Microsoft's Recommendations and Guidelines for 'max degree of parallelism' configuration option here.

And just because so many of us in IT are closet or former musicians, there's Live Guitar Lessons with Steven Krenz, sponsored by my hometown boyz at Gibson Guitar. Got a favorite article or tool tip? Let me know! Enjoy,

-Kev

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