Summit
PASS Summit 2019 Precon - SQL Server Virtualization
I am proud to announce that I am presenting at this year’s PASS Summit conference, to be held in Seattle WA from November 5th to 8th at the Washington State Convention Center. The biggest session of this conference for me is presenting a full-day preconference training session called “Advanced Virtual SQL Server Performance“ as part of the Architecture stream.
Virtualization is the new norm in datacenters. Even the ubiquitous “cloud” is nothing more than virtualized servers in someone else’s datacenter with advanced automation on top of it. However, just because it’s everywhere doesn’t mean it is implemented and managed correctly. Done incorrectly, your SQL Server performance can take a massive dive. Are your SQL Servers running at their best possible performance? This full-day boot camp covers all aspects of performance engineering for virtualized SQL Servers. We will review critical topics such as virtualization layers, VM construction, NUMA, resource scheduling, query parallelization and physical server alignment, “right-sizing,” and storage performance-oriented presentation. Availability and disaster recovery guidelines will also be reviewed. Most importantly, this seminar informs you on methods and terminology to help you work better with your infrastructure team to streamline your critical SQL Server performance. You will understand how to review your critical SQL Servers for both their performance and availability as they relate to the virtualization and physical compute layers underneath, and work with your infrastructure team to implement and streamline any of your findings.
If you’ve never attended the PASS Summit before, I urge you to go. This conference is the best Microsoft data-platform-centric conference there is, and the information you will gain is second to none. Just look at this list of sessions! The friends you make last a lifetime. The sessions are certain to improve your career and your job. I know won’t miss it, and I hope to see you there!
PASS Summit 2018
Heraflux is thrilled to announce our contributions to this year's PASS Summit to be held in Seattle, WA held November 6-9th at the Washington Conference Center.
Both David Klee and Bob Pusateri are presenting sessions this year. Stay tuned for more details!
PASS Summit Precon on Virtual SQL Server Performance
PASS has just announced this year's precon sessions for the PASS Summit in Seattle this October, and I am humbled to announce that my session, "Virtual SQL Servers - Right to Ludicrous Speed" has been selected for one of the Tuesday precon slots. This topic is near and dear to my heart, and I'm thrilled to be able to present to the group advanced SQL Server VM tuning techniques learned from over 16 years of performance tuning.
If you are less interested in SQL Server infrastructure than other topics, I urge you to check out the other precons being presented at this conference. The topics and presenters are world class, and if I was not presenting this precon on Tuesday, I'd be in one of the other precons!
I hope all of you can attend what I consider the best SQL Server ecosystem conference in the world. I'll never miss it, and I look forward to meeting you all there!
Session Details:
Join this full-day introduction session focused on managing and boosting the performance of a virtualized SQL Server environment. The focus of the course is to help those new to virtualization, infrastructure, and cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service concepts to become familiar with the concept and purposes of virtualization and how it can benefit them as data professionals. Participants will gain exposure to all layers of virtualization underneath SQL Server, from storage to hypervisor to the SQL Server instance, no matter if on-premises or in the cloud, and will learn how to construct the entire stack with a strong emphasis on SQL Server performance.
Intended Audience
The intended audience of this course is information workers (both business and IT-centric) involved with architecting a virtualization strategy for SQL Server, or managing business-critical SQL Servers that have already been virtualized.
Course Topics
The following topics will be addressed during the course:
• The Physical Infrastructure Underneath the VM
• Storage and SAN Concepts and Design
• Virtualization and Infrastructure Fundamentals
• The SQL Server Virtual Machine
• Networking, Support, and Licensing
• SQL Server Infrastructure in the Cloud
• High Availability and Disaster Recovery and SQL Server
• Performance Investigation and Tuning of the Entire Stack
A working set of the screens and configuration settings referenced in the session, together with the reference slides and documentation, will be provided to attendees, for strategic reference in working with virtualized SQL Server in their own environments.
Register today! Seats are sure to fill up for these precons!
David Klee announced as speaker for PASS Summit 2017
Heraflux is proud to announce that David Klee has been selected as a speaker for this year's PASS Summit conference, to be held in Seattle Washington from October 31 to November 3rd.
The specific sessions that will be presented are not announced, but we are excited and cannot wait until we can share more details. Stay tunes for more details here and at the PASS Summit 2017 site!
Also, stay in town until at least Saturday morning, as we are planning an event for Friday evening after the conference wraps up.
More details to be announced here as soon as they are made public!
In case you are not familiar with the PASS Summit, it's the best Microsoft-ecosystem data-themed conference in the world. More details from last year's Summit are found here.
PASS Summit 2016 Wrapup
Last week, Heraflux was proud to present multiple sessions at this year's PASS Summit 2016 in Seattle, WA. David Klee presented three sessions at the conference, including one all-day workshop!
On Tuesday, David presented an all-day training session entitled "The Complete Primer to SQL Server Virtualization" to a full house. This session covered a soup-to-nuts series of topics for all of the layers underneath the SQL Server databases, including storage, networking and interconnects, physical servers, virtualization, and the VM construction, and discussed critical topics such as performance tuning and availability for SQL Server VMs.
Wednesday, David presented a general session entitled "Virtual SQL Servers. Actual Performance" to a packed room of die hard attendees who stayed to the last session of the day. This session was designed to discuss all of the major performance tuning aspects of virtualized SQL Server, and to give the attendees the most information possible for a 1.25 hour presentation.
Thursday morning David sat on a panel session with Denny Cherry, Joey D'Antoni, and Geoff Hiten called PASS the Bacon, all sponsored by SIOS and SanDisk.
Finally, Friday morning David presented with Argenis Fernandez and Lou Lydiksen from Pure Storage in a session called "Storage Testing for Database Professionals", where they talked about real-world storage testing and how conventional tools are less accurate than you think.
Thanks goes to all of the attendees, sponsors, and volunteers for making this great event a must-attend cornerstone of any database professional's training calendar. Special thanks goes to the PASS organization, who always go above and beyond to make sure this event is truly special.
We look forward to being a part of this event next year! Until then, keep learning!
PASS Summit 2016
In addition to the all-day preconference training session prior to the main event, Heraflux is proud to present two general sessions in this year's PASS Summit.
The first general session is a rapid-fire deep-dive on the virtualization topic for those that cannot make the precon session, entitled “Virtual SQL Servers. Actual Performance.”
Virtualizing your business-critical SQL Servers should not imply that they will run slower than if they were physical. When properly architected and managed, virtual SQL Servers should be equally as fast as their physical counterparts, if not faster. However, if not properly constructed, silent and seemingly random performance killers can strike and significantly hurt your database performance.
This session is packed with many tips and tricks gained from years of experience for getting the most performance from your virtual SQL Servers. The major roadblocks to performance will be discussed and the knowledge gained will help you work with your infrastructure engineers so you can optimize the system stack for performance. Tools, techniques, and processes will be demonstrated to help you measure and validate the system performance of the key components underneath your data.
The second general session is a deep-dive on storage performance with Argenis Fernandez and Lou Lydiksen of Pure Storage entitled "Storage Testing for Database Professionals".
More and more Database Professionals are tasked with performing testing and validation of storage devices and surrounding infrastructure to be used for database workloads they support. In this session we will give you all the tools you need to be effective at performing such testing and validation. We will argue pros and cons of synthetic testing. Tools like DiskSpd and VDBench will be discussed, along with SQL Server-specific tools to test real workloads like Distributed Replay and RML utilities. Links to tools and pre-packaged scripts will be provided.
Register for this amazing event today!
PASS Summit 2016 Precon - The Complete Primer to SQL Server Virtualization
Heraflux is very honored to be speaking at the PASS Global Summit again this year in Seattle during the week of October 24th. The first session being presented is an all-day preconference training session on Tuesday, October 25th entitled "The Complete Primer to SQL Server Virtualization".
Your SQL Servers are probably virtualized at this point, but do you feel you have lost that control over the infrastructure that you used to have when they were physical servers? Do the virtual SQL Servers “feel” slower after they were virtualized? When architected and managed with SQL Server in mind, this added layer will help improve the SQL Server’s availability and ability to change with the business, but only when executed properly.
Register for this exciting conference today!
Special Discount for PASS Summit Precon
Heraflux is honored to be speaking at the PASS Global Summit again this year in Seattle during the week of October 24th. David Klee is presenting two sessions on our favorite topic - the convergence of infrastructure and data. We have a special discount code for you if you have not already registered for this exciting class!
PASS Summit 2016 Preview Session this Wednesday
Heraflux is very excited to be presenting the opening slot for this year's 24 Hours of PASS - Summit Preview Edition - this Wednesday morning (September 7th) at 8am Eastern. The title of the session is "The Complete Primer to SQL Server Virtualization". The session is a one-hour preview to David's all-day PASS Summit pre-conference training session to be held on Tuesday, October 25th ahead of the PASS Summit conference.
Session Abstract: Your SQL Servers are probably virtualized at this point, but do you feel you have lost that control over the infrastructure that you used to have when they were physical servers? Do the virtual SQL Servers “feel” slower after they were virtualized? When architected and managed with SQL Server in mind, this added layer will help improve the SQL Server’s availability and ability to change with the business, but only when executed properly.
Register for the 24 Hours of PASS - Summit Preview Edition - here!
The expanded all-day session goes into 400-level detail on the hypervisors, how they work, and how to squeeze the most performance from every layer of your virtual environment.
If you are interested in the topic, check out the preview session! If you are intrigued after listening in, please register for the pre-conference session at the PASS Summit 2016.
Speaking at PASS Summit 2016
Heraflux is honored to be speaking at the PASS Global Summit again this year in Seattle during the week of October 24th. David Klee is presenting two sessions on our favorite topic - the convergence of infrastructure and data.