2016 Pittsburgh SQL Saturday

2016 Pittsburgh SQL Saturday
 * The Premier SQL Server training event in Western Pennsylvania

We are just over a month away from the 5th annual SQL Saturday in Pittsburgh! Come join us on October 1, 2016 for a full day of FREE training and networking with your peers. Click Here to register. The event is free to attend but seating is limited. You can add an option of a hot lunch for $15 to your registration.

The schedule is now posted, and can be viewed here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/545/Sessions/Schedule.aspx

Help us spread the word!

Help us spread the word about Pittsburgh SQL Saturday. Let your peers know about the event on October 1 and encourage them to register and attend as well.

Wanna Be A DBA?
Our signature track at Pittsburgh SQL Saturday is geared towards college students and IT professionals interested in starting the career path of becoming a DBA. Help us spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested in this track. Additional information and the registration can be found here: *https://www.meetup.com/PittsburghSQL/events/233727502/

Networking
Don't forget to bring some business cards for networking on October 1. You don't need to wait until SQL Saturday to begin networking. Join the conversation now on twitter with hashtag #SQLSatPittsburgh.

Pre-Cons
We have 2 great pre-cons lined up for Friday, September 30. Register at the links below to attend.

Cost: $125 until 8/30. $150 after 9/1
 * Friday September 30, 2016
 * Jeff Moden, Ed Wagner
 * SQL Server Black Arts #1 - High Performance Tools and Techniques
 * Register Here

You already know how to write good, high performance code using the right kind of joins, effective criteria, and proper indexing, but then there are those “special” problems that you just won’t find the answers to in “Books Online”. Or, maybe you’re a beginner and want to see “what’s possible” but don’t know where to even begin on the Internet. That’s where Black Arts SQL comes in.

Black Arts SQL is thought to be the arcane, overly-complicated stuff that’s beyond understanding by anyone except for a select few. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s simply an approach to solving problems that lets the database engine do what it does best to achieve high performance.

This full-day pre-conference by Jeff Moden (the guy that coined the term “RBAR”) and Ed Wagner (another set-based heavy hitter on http://www.sqlservercentral.com/) will introduce a set of tools and techniques used to write high-performance code. You’ll learn the art of counting and why it’s important, the best type of functions to use, how to build mountains of test data in seconds, some indexing tricks, and several high-impact performance techniques. We’ll also look at measuring performance, temporal and other math shortcuts, several things that actually kill performance, and many ancillary topics, as well.

The seminar is very code-centric and includes lots of example scenarios and solutions. You’ll walk away from it with many tools for your toolbox but, even better than that, you’ll have the knowledge to look at some pretty complex problems in the future and build your own tools to solve them.

Cost: $125 until 8/30. $150 after 9/1. Register Here
 * Friday September 30, 2016
 * Kevin Klein
 * Real World Database Configuration and Tuning for SQL Server
 * Get a copy of SQL in a Nutshell signed by Kevin Kline for $30 (preorder only)

This full-day training event combines a thorough overview of key concepts followed by hands-on demos to reinforce each conceptual lesson. Since most technologists learn by doing, this training is designed to maximize the time attendees spend working with SQL Server. With sample demos, we’ll cover the spectrum of best practices as they relate to server and database design & configuration and performance tuning.

At the conclusion of the training, attendees will understand:


 * The internals and architecture of SQL Server and how they interact during read and, separately, during write operations, including an overview of SQL Server caches, memory buffering and clean-up processes, and user activity handling.
 * An introduction to bare-metal tuning of server hardware and storage configurations for database applications, including DASD, RAID, SSD, and SAN architectures.
 * Important Windows and SQL Server configuration settings and trace flags, including special considerations for SQL Server running on VMs.
 * Methods for benchmarking the performance of alternative configurations and settings.
 * Designing databases for performance through indexing, statistics and cardinality, data types, and recovery mode.
 * Monitoring and identifying performance bottlenecks and resolving performance issues, including PerfMon, traces and extended events, Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and Wait Statistics.
 * Advanced database structures including “Hekaton” in-memory tables and Columnstore indexes.