If you're in the central Florida area you're invited to the February 2011 meeting of MagicPASS, South Orlando's SQL Server User Group. We'll have food & drinks, networking, presentations from Andy Warren and Bradley Ball, and swag to give away.

This month's meeting is sponsored by Red Gate Software and Signature Consultants and will also include a brief demonstration of Red Gate's SQL Monitor.

We're changing the meeting format and times to include a bonus "pre-meeting" presentation for those that want to absorb more SQL Server learning. The pre-meeting begins at 5:00 PM and the main meeting begins at 6:30 PM. Pre-meeting attendance is optional - if you can't make it we'd still love to have you come for the main meeting!

Join us afterwards at the Celebration Town Tavern for more socializing and shop talk. (You are responsible for your own drinks)

Pre-Meeting Presentation

Basics of Performance Tuning - Part 1

Speaker: Andy Warren

Abstract: In part one of our three part class on performance tuning you'll learn how to use Profiler, the tool that ships with SQL Server that is used to monitor SQL statements sent to the server. We'll show you how to start a Profiler session, set up the most common events, columns, and filters, and how to create a template so you can easily use the same settings each time. We'll explain how to assess the cost of a query by looking at reads, writes, cpu time, and duration. We'll finish up by showing you how to set up a server side trace - think of it as Profiler without the UI. Knowing how to use Profiler is critical for a DBA, and incredibly useful for a developer.

About Andy: Andy Warren is a SQL trainer focusing on basic administration and performance tuning, he runs the free SQLShare.com training site, is currently a SQL Server MVP, blogs daily at SQLAndy.com, started the SQLSaturday franchise, serves as a member of the Board of Directors of PASS, and was a founding partner in SQLServerCentral.com. In his remaining free time he’s working on a book for first time managers

Main Meeting Presentation

Page And Row Compression How, When, and Why

Speaker: Bradley Ball

Abstract: Page and Row Compression are powerful new tools. Vardecimal shipped with SQL 2005 SP2, Page & Row with SQL 2008 RTM, and Page & Row with Unicode Compression with SQL 2008 R2. Get an overview into how each version of compression works internally. Learn how your Allocation Units will determine if your data is a candidate for compression. Understand how your tables Update and Scan patterns affect the compression types you should consider. And what you should you take into consideration for additional overhead.

About Bradley: Bradley Ball is a MCITP SQL 2005 & MCTS 2008 Database Administrator with over 10 years of IT experience. Bradley spent 8 years working as a Defense contractor for clients such as the U.S. Army and The Executive Office Of the President of the United States. He is currently a Sr. SQL Database Administrator for Publix Supermarkets. Bradley can be found blogging on http://sqlballs.blogspot.com