Over the past few months, I have been working diligently to learn more about Azure. As a result of my studies, I have successfully passed the Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions certification exam (70-533). By far, this is the hardest exam I have taken to date. Over the past 15+ years I have worked very hard to learn as much as possible about SQL Server and the Windows operating systems that it runs on, but that knowledge only took me so far within Azure. I had to look at Azure as an entire suite of products that seamlessly work together, and...
Continue reading...Patrick Keisler
Speaking at SQL Saturday #452 – Charlotte, NC – October 17
In case you missed it last week, there will be another SQL Saturday this weekend in Charlotte, NC. If you are in the area, please come out to this free training event to hear a bunch of great professionals talk about SQL Server. You can register for the event here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/452/eventhome.aspx. I will be presenting one session on Performance Monitoring Tools. No Money for Performance Monitoring Tools? No Problem! So you like the idea of using one of the commercially available performance monitoring tools but can’t convince your boss to spend the money? Then join me as we explore some...
Continue reading...Speaking at SQL Saturday #445 – Raleigh, NC – October 10
I will be speaking this weekend at SQL Saturday #445 – Raleigh, NC. If you are in the area, please come out to this free training event to hear a bunch of great professionals talk about SQL Server. You can register for the event here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/445/eventhome.aspx. So come on out and meet some great people who might be able to help you solve your worst problems. I will be presenting two sessions on Policy Based Management and Performance Monitoring Tools. Policy Based Management – Beyond the Basics Policy Based Management is a great feature of SQL Server and easy to implement;...
Continue reading...PSSDiag Configuration Manager – A Companion for SQLNexus
Have you ever called Microsoft Customer Support for help with a SQL Server performance issue? The engineer will typically send you a self-extracting exe file with instructions to unzip the file on the server and run the pssdiag.cmd file to collect data while you reproduce your issue. Afterwards, you’re supposed to zip up the contents of the output folder and send it back to the engineer. How did the engineer compile that collection code so quickly? The answer is PSSDiag Configuration Manager, or simply DiagManager. DiagManager is just a tool that you use to configure which performance items are to...
Continue reading...Use Trace Flag 902 to Recover from a Cumulative Update Failure
Recently, I ran into a critical error while I was helping a customer troubleshoot an issue in SQL Server. That may not sound like a big deal, but we were installing Cumulative Update 6 for SQL Server 2012 SP2 to fix our initial problem when we encountered the following error. What gives SQL Server? We just upgraded several other instances on this same server. Why does this one have to fail right now? Well, a quick peak in the errorlog sure points me in the right direction. Starting execution of SSIS_HOTFIX_INSTALL.SQL : : Error: 9002, Severity: 17, State: 4. The...
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