Up until SQL 2012, I recommended installing Books On-Line (BOL) anywhere you installed SQL Server. It made looking up reference information simpler, especially when you were on a server that didn’t have direct Internet access.
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This marks my last post as a SQLPASS Board member. I learned a lot during my year of service and I thank everyone involved for this opportunity. I would especially like to thank the Chapter leaders and Regional Mentors for Virtual Chapters who (mostly) patiently taught me about Virtual Chapters.
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It is always a good start when you can steal a title line from one of the best writers in the English language. Let’s hope I can make the rest of this post live up to the opening.
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The only thing more controversial than new Federal Tax plans is new Licensing plans from Microsoft. In both cases, everyone calculates several numbers. First, will I pay more or less under this plan?
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Once you have a good virtualization platform chosen, whether it is a desktop, server or laptop environment, the temptation is to build “X”. “X” may be a SharePoint lab, a Virtual Cluster, an AD test environment or some other cool project that you really need RIGHT NOW.
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I recently had a friend ask me to review his resume. He is a very experienced DBA with excellent skills. If I had an opening I would have hired him myself.
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No, not that kind of Virtual Lab. I mean a virtualization based laboratory so you can experiment with test systems. While there are many uses and configurations for a virtual lab, my primary configuration is a laptop based environment because I am often at client sites that do not allow outbound access to remote systems for security reasons so I need something I can take with me.
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The schedule is out and it is a hot one. We have a super lineup of regional and national level speakers as well as some brand new local ones. We have Adam Machanic (blog, twitter) coming down from Boston to share his expertise.
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OK, this is really the first thing “I” hate about SQL Denali, but I bet a fair number of you will hate this too. Once again, Microsoft has enforced the dictum that everyone must be either a Developer or an IT Pro.
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Two years ago I wrote about how screwed up the SQL PASS elections process was, mainly due to the small candidate to seat ratio. That post included a harsh comment comparing the election to a game of musical chairs.
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Both Tom LaRock and Andy Warren recently posted blogs on PASS Summit 2013 locations. As was announced at the 2010 Summit, we have a contract that keeps the Summit in Seattle for 2011 and 2012.
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By now those that are interested have noticed the latest PASS board changes.Two members resigned for professional reasons.Myself and Mark Ginnebaugh were asked to serve the remainder of their terms.As per the usual practice, the board reached out to non-winning candidates from the prior slate.
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DBA skills are important only if your company’s data is important. Basic skills like backup and restore are the minimum but sometimes you have to understand the technology involved to make decent business decisions.
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I was recently called in to what has to be the most interesting low-availability environment I have ever seen. There was not any single thing that I had not seen before, but to see all of them together in one place was truly amazing.
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Last night I had the privilege of sitting at Kevin Kline’s dinner table with some of my fellow community leaders for a serious discussion.Note that I am not talking about Board members or Nom-Com members (although one of each was there), I mean “in the trenches” local community leaders.
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Why?
No technical content on this one, sorry.
A couple of weeks ago, I signed up as a candidate for the Board of Directors for SQLPASS.Many of the other candidates have posted on why they chose to run.
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The Controller
Now we get to the meat of the matter.You want a virtual cluster, the first thing you have to do is create your own portable domain.Start with a plain vanilla install of Windows 2003 R2 Standard on a semi-default VM.
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Along with a lot of my colleagues, I went to SQLSaturday #33 in Charlotte this last weekend. Overall a really good event, especially for a first-time organizer. There is some controversy over certain events where my name got mentioned so I thought I would clear the air.
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Denny Cherry tagged me to write about my best MacGyver Moment. Usually I ignore blogosphere fluff and just use this space to write what I think is important. However, #MVP10 just ended and I have a stronger sense of community.
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Planning.
I could stop there and let that be the entirety post #2 in this series. Planning is the single most important element in building a cluster and the Laptop Demo Cluster is no exception.
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