Go SQL! Go SQL!

Since I mentioned the SQLRally Call for Presenters, I figured I should also be one of those people submitting a session.  I’m not going to be a pot calling the kettle black.

Below are the two sessions that I submitted.  Hopefully they will appeal to enough people that I’ll get a chance to present one of them at SQLRally.

Discovering the Plan Cache

Execution plans are stored after execution in the plan cache. This metadata about how queries are executed can provide insight into how your SQL Server environment is functioning. By using XQuery to browse and search the plan cache you can find potential performance issues and opportunities to tune your queries. This information can be used to help reduce issues related to parallelism, shift queries from using scans to using seek operations, or discover exactly which queries are using what indexes. All of this and more is readily available through the plan cache. In this session we will explore the plan cache and start you on the road to discovery.

Prerequisites

• Understanding of basic T-SQL coding
• Understanding of basic XQuery statements

Goals

1. Discuss information available in an execution plan
2. Demonstrate use of XQuery to query plan cache
3. Demonstrate methods to use the plan cache for performance tuning

XQuery Basics for the DBA

For the past few years, XML has been making its way more and more into our SQL Server instances. For a moment let’s forget that developers often find the need to store XML data in their databases. Outside of those databases, XML has already invaded our SQL Servers. It’s made its way into execution plans with the SHOWPLAN XML. It’s telling us about deadlock through deadlock graphs. It’s also presented to us through service broke, event notifications, and extended events. XML is there and we need to learn how to query it. In this session, we’ll explore some of the basic methods for querying XML through XQuery. By the end of the session you’ll be equipped with the tools and understanding needed to ease yourself into XQuery. Oh, and if you aren’t a DBA you can come to.

Prerequisites

• Understanding of basic T-SQL coding

Goals

1. Discuss the importance of learning XQuery
2. Discuss the XQuery methods
3. Demonstrate methods of using XQuery

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