This year the Program Committee decided to open up the selection process to the community. I'm anxious to see how well this is received, since it'll be the people who are actively online and aware of the process who'll influence the sessions that are selected.
I've submitted four regular sessions and one pre-conference session for this year's Summit. Not all my sessions are PowerShell-specific. Last year I successfully implemented a Service Broker solution and LOVE the possibilities that Service Broker provides in scaling your applications. I also import data from my various GPS units to see where I've gone and how long it took, etc., so I've got a session on using XQuery and the SQL Server spatial functions to analyze GPS data.
Here's a list of the sessions I've submitted to this year's PASS Summit:
Analyze GPS Data with XQuery and Spatial Functions [200]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Application and Database Development
Many third-party devices capture location data using GPS features and store the results in an XML format. With XQuery and the spatial functions new to SQL Server 2008 it's easy to extract and use this data to analyze the data to improve your business. This session will introduce XQuery and the basic spatial functions to show you how to get better information from the devices you're using in your business already.
Automate Policy-Based Management using PowerShell [300]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
The Policy-Based Management feature in SQL Server 2008 provides a great way to ensure your systems are configured consistently and correctly, but it can be tedious to implement on each server in your environment. PowerShell scripts allow you to automate the implementation of your policies so you can focus on more important problems. This session will walk you through how PBM works, how to define your policies in PowerShell, and how to set up Agent jobs to evaluate those policies regularly to let you know when you need to take action.
Let Service Broker Help You Scale Your Application [200]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Application and Database Development
How your business applications interact with the corporate database directly can have a dramatic impact on how successful you are, and one of the biggest issues is performance with large databases. By designing the application to use asynchronous messaging for non-critical updates you can focus performance concerns to where the timeliness is critical. SQL Server Service Broker handles the asynchronous requests quickly and efficiently, and minimizes the conflicts with your critical updates. This session will walk you through the steps to get Service Broker up and running and providing a consistent delivery of your business data.
Manage SQL Server System and Performance Data with PowerShell [200]
Session Category: Regular Session (75 minutes)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
Maintaining a solid set of information about our servers and their performance is critical when issues arise, and often help us see a problem before it occurs. Building a baseline of performance metrics allows us to know when something is wrong and help us to track it down and fix the problem. This session will walk you through a series of PowerShell scripts you can schedule which will capture the most important data and a set of reports to show you how to use that data to keep your server running smoothly.
Here's the abstract for my full-day pre-conference session. Last year I had 62 people attend my pre-con and the feedback I got was wonderful, and I really hope to present it again.
Automate and Manage SQL Server with PowerShell [200]
Session Category: Pre-conference Session (7 hours)
Session Track: Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment
You have a lot of servers to manage, and less time to focus on each one. You've heard about PowerShell but don't know where to start. In this pre-conference session you'll learn PowerShell, how to write and manage your scripts and your environment, and how to manage SQL Server using this powerful tool. You don't need any knowledge of PowerShell, as the session starts with the basics of the language, but experienced PowerShell users will also learn the methods the experts use to manage SQL Server.
If you're a member of PASS and you go to the PASS Website via this link it will bring up these sessions, and you can select them to let the Program Committee know that you're interested in attending them. I hope you do, and look forward to seeing you at this year's PASS Summit.
Allen
