The last two weeks were just incredible! I gave my first SQL Saturday PreCon training session in Washington DC and then traveled back to Iowa to speak to two of my favorite SQL Server Users Groups. 

All Day Training – Virtualization for SQL Server DBAs

Last Friday, December 6th, I presented my first all day training session to an enthusiastic group of professionals on the precon Friday before SQL Saturday Washington DC at the Microsoft office in Chevy Chase, MD. The attendees were great! It felt more like a group discussion on the various virtualization topics and how they impact the DBA rather than a training class. We went from 9am to 5:30pm and could have kept going until midnight! This will be the first of many precon training sessions! If you are interested in hosting one of these preconference training sessions the Friday before your next SQL Saturday, please do not hesitate to contact me for more details.

Abstract: VMware vExpert and SQL Server performance expert David Klee leads this full-day, hands-on introduction to enabling and managing a virtualized SQL Server environment. The focus of the course is to help those new to virtualization and/or infrastructure 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, and will learn how to construct the entire stack with the focus on SQL Server performance.

For those of you who gave up your Friday to attend this training session, thank you for making this one of the best days I have had in a long time! Your questions and constant interaction were very good and kept me on my toes. 

SQL Saturday Washington DC

The next day, December 7th, was Washington DC’s annual SQL Saturday event. I had a great time talking about the performance of virtualized SQL Servers with my session ‘Squeezing Top Performance from your Virtualized SQL Server’ to a packed room of attendees. 

Abstract: Just about anyone can click through a SQL Server installation and get it working, but more than a little  tuning is required to get the most performance out of your servers. Once virtualized, additional tuning can help get even more performance out of that virtual machine. David Klee (@kleegeek) will discuss valuable details for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V on how to tweak and tune your virtual infrastructure for business-critical virtualized SQL Servers. Tips on configuring your SQL Server installations for maximum performance when virtualized will be covered in detail.

The next day I managed to get out of the area JUST before the nasty snow storm hit! I was quite pleased, but wished that I had more time to explore the immediate area around the event and the sights in Washington DC. I’ll get there one of these days!

You can download the slides from this presentation here.

I-380 PASS SQL Server Users Group

I managed to beat the ugly winter weather out of Washington DC the next morning, and then beat it again traveling through Chicago, and then again as I landed in Omaha. I got home, relaxed for a day, and then drove out to Iowa City in eastern Iowa to present to the I-380 PASS SQL Server Users Group. I presented the session ‘Squeezing Top Performance from your Virtualized SQL Server’ to a great room of attendees.

You can download the slides from this presentation here.

Quad Cities SQL Server Users Group

The next day I dug out my rental Mini Cooper from the fresh snow in some very cold temperatures and presented the same ‘Squeezing Top Performance from your Virtualized SQL Server’ session that evening to the Quad Cities SQL Server Users Group in Davenport, IA. Again, I always enjoy coming out to user groups in the eastern Iowa region. The people are extremely friendly and we could have gone on until midnight because of the great questions and involvement from the attendees.

You can download the slides from this presentation here.

Time to Relax

Coming up I intend to take a few weeks to relax, catch up on some blog posts (and some sleep), spend some time at home, and then am getting back into the swing of things in January like there is no tomorrow! 2014 promises to be my best year yet, and I plan on starting it with a bang!