Paul normally take mentor from his class, which is out-of-reach for me due to location, as I'm on the different side of the world (Asia). This time seems to be a great chance for everyone who loves to know more about SQL that can be teach by someone who really understand and have great knowledge of the the product.

Ok, this post should be about me, so here it is. I have been working with SQL server for more then 10 years now, am passionate about it and really enjoying the journey. I still remember the first few blog I read from Paul (and Kimberly) was about virtual log files, as I have always thought that transaction log file was just a file, but after reading on how it works, I quickly go to check those server I administer and figure some of them already suffering from large VLF. After that I have keep on following their blog and try to understand the deeper side of SQL, not just how it work, but why does it operate that way. With the great knowledge from Paul and Kimberly, it really helps me to understand how the SQL engine works, down to how dbcc command works.

Now working with SQL server 2014, using different aspect of SQL for HADR, optimization and others, I started to collect some knowledge and having this blog to share some of mine to everyone out there. From basic setup or limitation that I have encountered, to more advance setup of HADR configuration, in a hope of two things, first is to ensure that I really understand what I have read and tested myself. Secondly, is to share my knowledge and test result with others who is interested.

I still remember one of the phase from Paul that I have been keep repeating at work was that "you need to design a restore strategy, not a backup strategy". Often times we only think about taking backup of the database and do regular restore to ensure no data loss, but we not taken into account of the overall time it requires. There are so many more that I have learnt from Paul that I cannot mention every single one, it will be a golden chance to have Paul as my mentor to learn and improve my SQL Server knowledge.

Like I said in the beginning, there are many aspect of SQL and I'm learning new things everyday. It would be good to have Paul as my mentor, so that I can learn from an expert, to have a much greater depth of knowledge about how SQL server works as well as maybe plans for my career as SQL server specialist.