Tag SQL

Hey everyone out there!   I hope this finds you well and your holidays are off to a festive start.   I find no better gift to you within the community than the motherlode and brainshare of information I’ve collected, assumed, and delivered throughout the years and even a rare ‘sighting’ of my own delivery of said material in case there is ever anything you’re wondering about the what, the where and so forth!

A little bit about this source material; The emphasis and focus on this is intended to be around virtualizing Exchange and SQL.   And while some of you hardcore VMware zealots expect me to only discuss VMware it does take into heavy consideration and discuss the materials at hand on how to go about addressing this within the body  of work that is Microsoft Hyper-V as well – So happy holidays to all virtualization! :)

To start I’d like to focus on my most recent delivery of this presentation material for our good friends at Windows IT Pro, Power IT Pro, and more specifically the instance of the discussion was with VM Tech Pro!

There by clicking on the handy dandy image, or even by this embedded link you will have access to the live presentation I delivered for the folks over by there and the some ~130 or so attendees who were on the line (submitting questions, so on and so forth).   As most of you know this is something I’m particularly passionate about (Virtualization, Best Practices, Mission Critical Apps) all of that, and I do love to share my body of work to help make your day to day jobs even easier.    I definitely encourage you to go through the link to check out the live version of events (slides can only tell so much of the story, and I share a lot of stories not reflected directly in the slides) but I also encourage you to check out the links below which will have the original source material and SPEAKER NOTES OMG THE SPEAKER NOTES!  Those are filled with every ounce of material you need to help make your case and continue to make your case when it comes to virtualizing and driving your story home; it’s something you won’t regret having on hand. :)

I do encourage you to use this material to help make your case, if you’re going to publicly share the slides or use them in your own source (as many have done) I appreciate a reference or just letting me know (sometimes I update material and I’d hate for you not to have the latest material :))

Also anyone who wishes to contribute back into this living body of work, don’t hesitate to in the comments.   We’re only as good as our information and any chance to improve that I’ll be sure to reference back to you as well!   Thanks, and here is the rest of it! :)

Slides delivered for the Virtualization Strategies session (Hyper-V material had been hidden)

Slides delivered for The Experts Conference 2012 #TEC2012 – Best Practices for Virtualizing Mission Critical Applications

Slides delivered for The Experts Conference 2011 #TEC2011 Session (material was later updated in 2012, but I am full disclosure :))

… And just for good measure since I’m sharing… here for a little of storage is…

Slides delivered for The Experts Conference 2012 #TEC2012 Session of Storage, Backup, Recovery for HyperV

… And the holidays wouldn’t be proper without adding one last mini-gift! My Post-VMworld 2012 Update – Cherish :)

Slides delivered for the St Croix Solutions community with the Post VMworld 2012 Recap!

So a hearty happy holidays to you and your kind, as we launch into a brand new year… Oh the exciting things we will have to share when that time comes! :)

Stay tuned :)

Every so often I get asked by people for help improving their skills, making them more marketable as well as ways to get access to training and resources.

And more often than not, I lead them in directions with the huge cost of $0.00 associated with it.    Whether you’re looking for Certification, access to Labs, E-Books, or Training information.

I’m a BIG fan of Free!

So, can you afford freE-Learning?

Thanks to our friends at Microsoft, here is another resource available to you!

By visiting this lovely site, it will display all of the available courses being offered by Microsoft Learning for Free!

What relevant topics are available on there at the moment:

1. SQL 2008
2. Application Virtualization
3. Terminal Services in Server 2008
4. Virtual Machine Manager for 2008
5. Hyper-V
6. ASP.NET
7. .NET Framework
8. Windows Security
9. Microsoft Security Guidance I-IV

…And more!

Seriously, there is a motherload of information here, so much training to wrap your teeth into!

If you saw my previous post about the voucher to get the Hyper-V training for free, this training is very complimentary to that and more! (Especially since that voucher seems to be faulty at the moment)

So get out there, get yourself something Free for this season.  It’s your education, do something about it!

Raise your hands up and praise Joanne Lin of the MSLCommunity for bringing us these little gems! (Gem1 and Gem2 ! :)) [Time for some verbatim copying!…kind of!]

Help celebrate our 25^th anniversary with a free e-book offer.  The November offers is valid from November 19 to November 26, 2008, so download the e-books soon.  You can also sign up for Microsoft Press Connection newsletter to get monthly update.

For November:

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Fundamentals by Stanslav Pavlov and Pavel Belevsky:   This book examines the architecture, built-in programming tools, drivers, and build process, and shows how to take advantage of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Software Development Kit (SDK).

Download this e-book!

Windows Server 2008 Networking and Network Access Protection (NAP) by Joseph Davies and Tony Northrup with the Microsoft Networking Team:   Get the official resource for deploying, administering, and troubleshooting Windows Server 2008 networking and Network Access Protection (NAP) technologies.

Download this e-book!

Going for a SQL Class? Get a copy of SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition!

Microsoft Learning is teaming up with the SQL Server team to give away free copies of SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition to people who attend select instructor-led classroom training at a Microsoft Certified Partner for Learning Solutions (CPLS). Here’s the deal: The Deal!

So, if you’re looking for an early gift for yourself, or your friends.. Get them the Ebook that keeps on giving! :)

Happy Holiday-Season-Time! And spend that good money in this economy of free!

I took these two beta exams this past week, and let me start off first by saying, Wow! These are quite possibly some of the most polished exams I’ve ever seen!

The content was clear and concise, the questions were spot-on, and the delivery was amazing! I had no comments to offer other than "Wow, great exam" (I’m paraphrasing!:))

However, going past that, we get into the depths of the Post-Mortem.

071-451 was an excellent exam, the questions were very focused on your ability to Design, Optimize, and continually work on making sure that your data was delivered in a consistent fashion while also validating for performance and a number of other figures.   If you’re a day-in-day-out DBA who looks at improving your SQL Data, then this is the exam for you.

071-450 was also an excellent exam, the questions were very focused on your ability to actually manage your data, be it in clusters, clustered and non-clustered indexes, mirrors and especially the ability to back up your data.   If you happen to wear the hat of managing the databases and spending less time writing queries, this exam is spot-on and will be a breath of fresh air to you.

In all, I have nothing special to offer you outside of "If you know you’re stuff, you’ll be ready for these exams"

However, I did encounter something disturbing.   While taking 071-450 an exam focused on "Designing, Optimizing, and Maintaining" a database environment, I encountered a considerable volume of "How do I back this up" type of question, equally followed by a series of "How do I restore and get back into operation" type of questions.

Which leaves me to think, it’s 2008 already, is this seriously still a question?    I hear it in the field all the time as well, and I’m seriously disturbed.    The amount of data we have is growing, our windows – shrinking.   There are options and opportunities to ensure you have a quick, efficient and effective backup, restore and operational window.   When it’s still a question on the table – especially in an emerging product like SQL 2008, I have to seriously ask, Are we taking steps backwards instead of adopting the innovations available to us over the years?

Yes I work for NetApp, and yes I’ve seen the light offered by amazing solutions like SnapManager for SQL, and SnapManager for Oracle, and a series of other products to protect everything important within every small, medium and enterprise business.    And to be honest, this isn’t rocket science (Rocket Science is FAR easier) especially when you compare it to the number of "backup" options available to "try" to protect your SQL environment only to leave you scratching your head and still unsure about your availability and recoverability.  

And to be honest, this isn’t a commercial, whereas in reality that test was a wake-up call of "WTF is going on?!" I don’t want to be in this same position 2 years from now in 2010, and 12 years from now in 2020 and having it still be a question on the table of "How do we protect and recover our data?"   

Another verbatim theft from Beta Blog!

You are invited to take beta exam 71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The results will not appear on your transcript until several weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.

71-433: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

· Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Database Development (earned when passing 70-433)

· Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Database Developer 2008. In order to earn this certification you must also pass exam 70-451: PRO: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Designing and Optimizing Database Solutions.

Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-433.mspx

Availability

Registration begins: September 19, 2008

Beta exam period runs: September 22, 2008– October 10, 2008

Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: F589G
You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

· Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

· Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Test Information and Support

You are invited to take this beta exam at no charge.
You will be given four hours to complete the beta exam. Please plan accordingly.