Odds and Ends - Zach Nichter

Tough Row to Hoe

Man, I know that you all have been patient, and it seems like forever ago that I told you all that I would be posting my findings for the DMV's.  I have probably spent over 80 hours researching DMV's and I still feel so far from ready to post anything.  Problem is, I am reasearching rabbit trails as I find them, and while this is good for discovery it keeps me from my original goal.  Work has been catching up with me too. 

I promise to finish at least a couple of these before the week is out so I can post something.

Sorry to keep you waiting,
Zach

SQL Server 2005 Migration

A friend of mine, Darshan Singh, wrote this article for SQL Server magazine.  It's a great article for those of you that are looking to make the migration from 2000 to 2005.  The article covers two methods of migrating SQL Servers (in-place upgrade) and databases (side-by-side upgrade). 

Enjoy the article, it's very well written, clear, and has some great content.

Enjoy,
Zach

DMV Research

I have been doing a great deal of research on the DMV's, functions, stored procs and tables that are shipped in 2005.  During my adventure I have learned a lot along the way.  I have collected a ton of great information and have had some luck finding information in a lot of great places.  Some of the information that I have picked up has been a result of just trying to understand exactly what it is I'm looking at when I query a DMV.  This stuff can be mind boggling when your not a developer and there is not a bit of information available about it on the web.

I have been collecting the information and breaking the DMV's, functions and stored procs up into categories and trying to derive what the object is doing, then determining how it could be used and maybe giving some query examples. 

Look for some of the results soon.

-Zach 

DMV's - Query Troublshooting

I read the SQL Server Engine Tips blog this morning about troubleshooting SQL statements in 2005.  If you don't read this blog you really should consider checking it out.  The blog uses the new T-SQL features and DMV's to retrieve information about queries that have run through the server. 

There's a lot of great content in the post.

Enjoy,
Zach

What's Next?

This week I am doing research on 2 different SQL 2005 topics.  The first is a collection of the DMV's I've heard about and grouping them together for usage.  The second is testing DB Mirroring.  I want to hammer mirroring and see how it performs. The plan is to write a couple of articles about the setup, performance and test results of the technology. 

If there is anything in specific you would like to know about DB Mirroring, let me know and I'll try to fit it into the testing.

Later,
Zach