Art of the DBA Rotating Header Image

Community

Speaking Updates – July 2015

This is a short break from my usual blog posts to share some information on upcoming presentations I’m giving that might interest you.

Performance Palooza – Virtual Performance Chapter

Coming up in two weeks (July 23), I’ll be part of the annual Performance Palooza that is run by the Performance PASS Virtual Chapter. I’m pretty excited, as this will be a new session I’ve built from some work I’ve been doing on benchmarking SQL Server.

SQL SERVER BENCHMARKING: THE POWERSHELL SPEEDOMETER

How fast do you think you were going? The only way to be sure is to have a reliable way to measure your performance. The challenge with SQL Server is that there are many aspects of your stack that you need to measure and understand. Powershell, with its ability to access and report on all these different levels, can give you a robust tool to benchmark your SQL Server. This session will cover benchmarking methodologies, the tools Powershell offers for capturing performance information, and will demonstrate how you can use them to measure performance statistics. After attending this session, you will understand how to effectively use Powershell to measure your database speed.

RSVP here if you’re interested: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6348286936653801474

Upcoming Precons

I’ve had the opportunity to present my Introduction to Powershell for SQL Server DBAs now at both SQL Saturday Albuquerque and SQL Saturday Atlanta. This has been a great time for me and I’ve already had comments from attendees of how they’ve used Powershell in their current jobs. If you plan on attending either SQL Saturday Omaha or SQL Saturday Denver, you have an opportunity to learn some Powershell and add this robust tool to your skill set.

Introduction to Powershell for SQL Server DBAs

This full day session will help build your foundation for learning and using Powershell.  While we will be focusing on using Powershell as a SQL Server Database Administrator (or Developer), much of the material will also review general use for system administrators.  By attending this training, you will gain an understanding of what Powershell is, how you can use it in your day to day management of your environments, and what specific things can be done using Powershell in a SQL Server environment.

RSVP to either of these links if you are interested:

IT/DEV Connections – Las Vegas, NV #ITDevCon

ITnDevConnections_logo_TylerOptimized_236x59I’m super excited to be speaking at this year’s IT/DEV Connections Conference in Las Vegas. This is a huge opportunity for me to share some of the useful Powershell techniques that I’ve built out in my work environments. I will be presenting two sessions:

There are TONS of great speakers at this event, so it’s a huge learning opportunity for attendees and will be a great time.

PASS Summit 2015 – Seattle, WA #PASSSummit2015

I'm Speaking Graphic_LargeThe grandaddy of ’em all. I’m honored to be part of this year’s Summit speaker line up. This is the premiere SQL Server conference and will be my fifth year in attendance. I’ll be speaking on a Powershell topic that will not only help out a lot of DBAs with their day-to-day work, but will also give you some insights in to how I think the world of database infrastructure is changing with the two magic buzzwords of “DevOps” and “the Cloud”. If you’re the kind of DBA that has to manage the struggles of deploying and maintaining SQL Servers in a highly-available environment or a large enterprise, this session can make your life a whole lot easier.

PowerShell and the Art of SQL Server Deployment

In today’s tech world, IT professionals are driven to perform tasks faster and more consistently. Automation is the watchword for our success, whether we are deploying SQL Server to private virtual clouds or public platforms such as Azure IaaS. This session focuses on rapidly creating and configuring SQL Servers, using PowerShell and desired state configuration. You will see practical examples of how to create repeatable builds of SQL Server that can be deployed in a matter of minutes. We will also review how these techniques can be applied to both public and private cloud platforms, helping to ensure success in any situation.

Even if you don’t want to attend my session, you should seriously consider registering for the Summit. It’s the largest pure-SQL Server conference in the world and has been a tremendous boost for my career over these past five years. And now I get to speak there! (How cool is that)

The PASS Summit 2015 Call for Speakers

Here we are, the annual community tradition of submitting sessions to the PASS Summit. This is the big time, the real deal, the event everyone wants to be seen at (as far as SQL Server goes). We all have hopes and dreams of standing on that stage, sharing what we love about SQL Server with the greater community.  Now that the submission deadline has passed, I wanted to post a few thoughts I had on this year’s process.

And yes, I want to do it before the OTHER annual community tradition of “bitching about why I didn’t get selected” starts.

Too Many Topics

The first thing that struck me was the excessive number of topics in each track. I didn’t count them all, but it was a little overwhelming. What made the process especially difficult was that there’s a lot of overlap with these subcategories, making it confusing about which to select.  This is especially a challenge for me with Powershell submissions, because many of the abstracts I created could have easily gone under two or three subcategories.

One example is my abstract on automating SQL Server builds with Powershell. Now, there’s a Powershell/SMO subcategory and one for Installing/Upgrading SQL Server. Which do I choose? I went with Powershell because that’s the focus of my session, but it might have been more applicable to the other.  This is a problem.

Suggestion: Either PASS needs to cull the overall list of topics or allow you to select multiple topics for your abstract.  Personally, I’d prefer the former.

Too Many Submissions

We have a good problem in the SQL Server community: tons of great speaking talent. There a lots of folks at the local and regional level who give great presentations at local user groups and SQL Saturdays. There’s also a fair amount of mediocre talent as well. However, all of these speakers can submit to Summit, regardless of their experience level. This places an overwhelming burden of work on the program committee.

I don’t want to make speaking at the Summit an exclusive club. I think all community members should have the opportunity to present at the Summit, but we need to balance that with consideration for the program committee volunteers and trying to provide the best product for Summit attendees. As such, the process should focus on standards that encourage both active community participation and a focus on public speaking.

Suggestion: PASS needs to start placing restrictions on who can and can’t submit. They already do this for the precons. My initial thought is a speaker should have four public SQL speaking events in the past calendar year. With opportunities like local user groups, SQL Saturdays, and virtual chapters, this is not a difficult number to hit.  It ensures that the speaker is an active community participant, someone who is contributing and practicing their craft.

We need more faces

In general, this isn’t a big deal, but we do have many popular speakers get multiple sessions at the Summit. I understand these folks are a draw and will put butts in seats, but the reality is that every person who gets doubled up means one less other speaker who will be selected. Again, considering the depth of speaking talent in the PASS community, this strikes me as problematic in general and a wasted opportunity to increase the variety of speakers at the Summit.

Suggestion: All speakers are limited to a single session, no exceptions.

More Transparency Around the Selection

I know this is a constant refrain regarding PASS, but it is needed. This is not me piling on the organization for being closed and secretive, but simply reminding them that we still need to know more about what’s going on. I’ve been paying attention to the selection process for the past two years and it IS getting better. I like how open PASS has been with how the program committee works.

The challenge is that the program volunteers don’t make the actual selections. They make recommendations that are passed to the selection committee. The selection committee then performs “levelling” and uses that to select sessions. This is the black box, because I don’t know what the levelling process entails and how things are judged. I’m not advocating some grand conspiracy theory around who gets selected, but there will always be questions and criticism until we are better informed about why.

Suggestion: PASS needs to continue what they have been doing and communicate more about the process. As I said, I recognize that the process of improvement is ongoing and it is getting better, but it can’t stop. The community needs communication, especially as we grow larger and larger.

Videos Don’t Add Value

I understand that PASS is trying to gather as much information about a speaker as possible. Videos are not the way to do it. There are too many issues with recording quality and software that make this a reliable method. Additionally, many videos won’t actually display a candidate’s public speaking skills, only their ability to sit down and chat in front of a camera. These combine to make video recordings more subjective than objective, and we need to focus on objective quantifiers.

Suggestion: Just ditch the video submission.

You Don’t Deserve To Speak At The Summit

This one is directed to the entire community, the people submitting. Every year I see the same tweets and posts griping about how certain people did not get selected or others did. How the process is horribly broken. To be fair, when you craft abstracts and then wait two to three months for a response, the resulting rejection is disappointing.

I think, because of all the other opportunities in the community, being rejected from a speaking event is a bit of a shock. The reality is that competition is tight for the Summit and speaking slots are limited. Getting turned down really is not that surprising. What bothers me most is that I see an attitude of entitlement from some of community members concerning presenting at the Summit. None of us are owed a speaking slot and the burden is on each individual speaker to prove their worth.

I view speaking at the Summit a lot like free agency in a professional sport. There’s a lot of competition to get noticed and a lot of reward if you do. Some people have an edge because they’re really good at what they do and demonstrate that on the public stage. Some others are hidden gems, waiting for their opportunity to get noticed. However, the market is driven by demand and selections are made based on that demand, not by attribution or “right”. We as speakers should always be striving to prove ourselves to the community and our selection should be based on ability, presence, and contribution, all of which will drive up demand.

Suggestion: Chill out if you don’t get selected. Focus on what you can do locally and regionally, through your own user group and SQL Saturdays.The Summit is awesome and I love going, but the truth is I have MUCH more of an impact speaking at smaller events. I encourage all community members to have a presence at these events, to focus on what they can do in their city. Build your community resume and skill set so that when you do submit to the Summit, you’ll be better prepared when you do make it to that stage.

In Conclusion…

I’ve already shared some of this with some members of the PASS board privately, but I wanted to share this publically as well. This is our community and we all have the ability to affect this change by being involved and reaching out. What has always impressed me about PASS is how grass roots it is and how members feed off each other. We need to focus on that, because it is what makes our community stronger than any other technical community out there.

The #SQLNewBlogger Challenge: Git ‘er done!

This week my friend Ed Leighton-Dick(@elieghtondick) announced his New SQL Blogger challenge.  It’s an effort focused on getting new bloggers to write regularly and build a habit of blogging. We’ve heard a lot about how blogging can build your personal brand, so I’m a big fan of this challenge and will participate, even though I’ve been blogging off and on for the past few years.  So far, some big names have come out in support of this challenge. Awesome to see. Not to try and ride their coat tails, but I want to add my own thoughts because I think it’s incredibly important to participate.

Most community members will be intimidated by this challenge. I say this because I’ve heard (and said) all the excuses that are probably going through your head when you think about blogging.  I want to show you how you can overcome that intimidation and participate successfully, jump starting your blogging career.

I don’t have anything to blog about

I hear this all the time. Really what people are saying is “I don’t have anything valuable to blog about” and I completely call shenanigans on this attitude, for much the same reason as why I tell folks they should start presenting. Everyone has something to share. Even if you think it’s simple or a no-brainer, I guarantee you someone will benefit from your knowledge.

Let’s consider why new bloggers get so intimidated. The perception is that current bloggers, especially the BIG names, always seem to have some clever script or gotcha to contribute. Something no one else has ever thought of. It’s a tough act to follow, especially if you are just getting started.

However, to butcher a song lyric, “Any blog is a good blog”.

I always recommend that new bloggers approach their blogging as self documentation. Write for yourself, don’t expect anyone else to read it (and if they do, BONUS!). There have been a number of times where I go back to my blog for a technique or script I wrote in the past. It’s a great entry point to get you to started writing and reduces the “freak out” about other people reading what you wrote.

They’re All Going to Laugh at Me

This could also be the “what if I’m wrong” clause. For new presenters and bloggers, there seems to be a permeating fear about getting called out for something wrong or bad that they publish. I’m sorry, have you met the #SQLFamily? What I love about the SQL Server community is that most folks out there are extremely supportive and helpful. If something is wrong, the community will help you fix it and learn from it.

The bonus of doing this in the internet is making corrections and updates is easy. If someone corrects you or shows you a better way, you can blog about it! If there’s an error, you can fix it! Consider your blog a living diary that can be adjusted as necessary. The only caveat here: Be public about your changes. Either write a new post or make an addendum calling out your edit. Stealth edits look fishy, be public.

Who Has Time To Blog?

Blogging is like any other part of your life where you need to grow: you need to make time for it.  It doesn’t have to be much, an hour or two. The trick is to schedule it like any other commitment and stick to that schedule.

My routine is to write every Saturday morning. I found a nice little tea shop near my house and include that in my morning routine:

  1. I’ll walk to the tea shop around 9 AM. It’s a 30 minute walk and gives me time to think about what I will write about. Plus, the physical activity energizes me.
  2. Once I get to the shop, I order my tea and breakfast (oatmeal, ‘cause I’m trying to lose ‘dat weight). Then I find a space, get plugged in, and start writing.
  3. The writing process is very stream of consciousness. I use Google docs and basically just spitball out what’s in my brain. I don’t worry so much about grammar or sentence structure, the idea is to get my thoughts on paper. This also might include hacking out scripts or testing the stuff I’m blogging about if it’s technical.
  4. Once the writing is complete, I’ll take a Twitter/Internet break (note, I shut Twitter down during the writing, reduce those distractions). Not long, maybe 15 minutes.
  5. After the break, I’ll do one major pass to clean up sentence structure and grammar. Then I shut it down and go home.

 

It should be noted that at this point the blog isn’t quite complete, but the bulk of the work is done.  Next steps for me are to get to get the post into WordPress and schedule it. I always schedule my blog posts for Tuesdays at 8 AM MDT, giving myself a deadline.

You need to commit to this to make it work. The best way I’ve found to hold myself to commitments is to set deadlines. Need to build a presentation? Commit to giving it on a specific date. Need to get a blog post up? There’s my weekly publish deadline. Will you hit those deadlines every the time? Probably not, but as long as it’s not a habit and you don’t let yourself get away with missing a deadline, you’ll be fine.

How Can I Help?

While I think this is a great challenge, I think it’s fairly obvious I’m not a new blogger. How I’m participating is lending my less-than-expansive blogging experience to get others started. This post is the first portion of me owning the challenge as I hope to show you the path to getting started. There’s yet more that I can contribute. So here’s the next steps:

  • Need someone to review your blog before you post it? Hit me up.
  • Want to bounce blog post ideas off of someone? I can do this.
  • Lacking inspiration for what to blog about? Let’s talk.

Let me help you make the most of this challenge. I’m not a expert, I’m not a big name, I’m just a dude doing his SQL thing. But I think I can share some of that with you to make the road a little easier.  Email me via mike at this blog.

Own that $#!+

Blogging, like presenting, is a huge part of building your career and personal brand. It will make you more visible to your peers, help you retain knowledge, and improve your writing skills through practice. By blogging you strengthen the larger SQL community by adding to the pool of tribal knowledge as well as making yourself a stronger member of that group. Remember, you have something to contribute, a unique piece of knowledge that you can share with your comrades in the community. I encourage you to step up and answer the challenge.

SQL Rally 2012: It’s all about the sauce

Consider, for a moment, the Eggs Benedict.  Most breakfasts involve egg, sometimes with toast, sometimes with meat (bacon, sausage, etc.), various combinations.  However, this one signature dish is special because it combines all this and then covers everything in tasty hollandaise sauce.  This unique combination sets the dish apart from your normal breakfast.

Our database careers are similar.  Any of us can get the job done with some basic combination of study, practical experience, and some community involvement.  What sets one path apart from another?  What gives us that extra boost that makes us stand out from our peers, that carries us up to a new level of success?  What, in short, is the hollandaise sauce of our own personal careers, providing that flavor that makes us special and unique?

This week I had the opportunity to attend the second annual SQL Rally.  For those of you following along, I wrote about my experience at SQL Rally Orlando last year and the profound impact it had on me.  This year, it was a little different for a couple reasons, though the impact was no less significant on my work and my professional growth.

First off, I’m now a community “veteran”.  This doesn’t mean I’ve got a special status, but it does mean that it was now my turn to reach out to people who were attending for their first time.  I met many new folks, shared war stories and terrible jokes, and generally spread the infection that is the SQL Family.  This infection strengthens us, since having a good professional network provides us knowledge and opportunity on a logarithmic scale.

Secondly, this year I attended as a speaker.  Instead of just trying to soak it all in, now I had to get up and talk on my own topic.  That was a particular thrill on its own, because while I’ve done several local and regional events now, now I was speaking on a national stage to the largest audience I’ve had to date.  While I haven’t seen the feedback forms yet, I was blown away by the number of people who came up and personally thanked me for presenting.  Because of the encouragement I received from my audience, I’ve gone ahead and submitted to the PASS Summit for 2012.  It wasn’t on my goal sheet for the year, but I see no reason to hold back now.

Finally, these conferences are still primarily about learning, not just networking and speaking.  I still wanted to make time to attend sessions and add advance my own personal learning.  The sessions this year were better than last year and I got a LOT of great knowledge.  On top of that, all the rooms were packed with the exception of the very last slot on Friday.  My focus on administration and internals topics and saw some great sessions on extended events, integration processes, 2012 features (and, yes, Bob Ward pulled out the debugger), and other topics.  I also mixed in a couple development sessions to broaden my experience.  Overall, some great sessions from some top notch talent.

Sure, the Summit is bigger with larger names, but Rally is incredibly valuable on its own.  Since it’s a smaller conference, you can have more direct access to some incredibly smart people.  I had conversations with at least 4 MCMs , a number of other authors and MVPs, and members of the SQL CAT team.  I got guidance on professional development as well as technical problems, without the crush or general busy-ness that comes with the size of the Summit.

I want to reiterate that we can go through our daily work, study the blogs, and go to technical courses.  We’ll still be moderately successful in our professional lives.  Community involvement is what adds that special kick, that extra flavor.  It’s the hollandaise sauce that completes the Eggs Benedict and makes it more than just eggs, an English muffin, and Canadian bacon.  If you want to be that person in your company who makes a difference, who is recognized as being something more than a database administrator or developer, then conferences like these will not only give you the knowledge you need to succeed, but also connect you to the community that drives change and sets the trends.

I want to extend a huge thank you to the NTSSUG guys who made this all possible, like Sri(b|t), Tim(b|t), Ryan(b|t), and Dave(b|t) (as well as many others I KNOW I’m forgetting).  The fact that such a great event is hosted and supported directly by members of the community shows the strength of what PASS is doing.  I can only hope that reading this inspires you to go to your own local user group or attend a SQL Saturday.  Get involved, get connected, because if you aren’t you’re, quite simply, doing it wrong!