Over the last few weeks, I’ve been watching SQL Server videos and webcasts. My primary motivator in doing this is to help myself prepare for re-taking the SQL Server MCM Lab exam.
After watching a few presentations, I thought it would be good to take some time to share the ones that I find most useful and interesting. Instead of cramming my blog with a hundred webcast reviews, I’ll be posting the nooner webcast at noon every day and summarizing them here on Fridays.
Hope you enjoy this information.
Investigating parallelism and the CXPACKET wait type
This session, from SQL Bits 8, is presented by Christian Bolton (Blog | @christianbolton). In it, he breaks down parallelism and explains how it all fits together within execution plans. My primary take away from this session was how different coding choices can affect whether or not parallelism will be utilized, such as inserting into a table variable.
Consolidating data collection with SQLDIAG and analysing it all with SQLNexus
Another session by Christian Bolton and also from SQL Bits, this time though it is SQL Bits 7. In this session, Christian goes through the SQLDIAG and SQLNexus tools and explain how and where they fit in with troubleshooting and performance monitoring. I’ve wondered about these tools for a while and after this session, I’m definitely raising the priority to start using them.
Inside SQL Server Latches
At the 2010 PASS Summit, Bob Ward (Blog | @bobwardms) presented an amazing session on latching within SQL Server. There isn’t enough information out in the world about how latching works and what it is. This session fills that gap by leaps and bounds. After watching it twice now, I know I need to watch it again. Really deep and amazing information.
Understanding XQuery
Another presentation from the 2010 PASS Summit, this time it is from Dejan Sarka (Blog | @DejanSarka). In this session, Dejan goes through the basics of XQuery and XML and walks through some simple example of querying and using FLWOR. If you are a DBA that isn’t familiar with using XQuery, its time to learn and this session will provide a good start.
Locking
The last session for this week is Paul Randal’s (Blog | @PaulRandal) Locking session from the MCM Readiness Videos. I’ve watched this webcast more than a few times. It walks through how locking works within SQL Server and the block and deadlocking that can occur because of it. The information in this session may seem fairly basic, but it’s fundamental to how SQL Server works and worth looking at again and again.
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