Off Topic – Why I’m unclebiguns on Twitter

There may be some people wondering why I go by the name @unclebiguns on Twitter.  I am basing this on the following facts:

1. I have gotten some interesting followers (blocked of course).
2. Comments that have been made about this user name in other places as well.

I thought I’d blog (at Andy Warren’s suggestion) why I have that handle.

It goes back about 12 years when one of my best friends had their first child.  He and I had an ongoing debate going on who ate more and who was fatter, so to try to get me going he taught his daughter to call me Uncle Biguns after my stomach.  It’s kind of funny because I have grown into the name as I now wish I weighed what I weighed back then.  Since it is a unique name (last night Chad Miller commented that I was the only unclebigun’s he knows), I decided to use it as a user name for fantasy sports, etc….

So if you wondered why or what it meant, there it is.  I hope you aren’t too disappointed.

July OPASS Meeting Recap

Last night I attended, along with about 20 others, the latest and greatest OPASS meeting.  I got there early to help setup and great people as they came in.   I may not be the most enthusiastic greeter, but I’m willing and working on doing better.  Greeting also gives me the opportunity to “meet” everyone and try to remember names and find out where people work and how they use SQL Server.  Of course Andy Warren had to give me a hard time about how I was doing the job.  It wouldn’t be an OPASS meeting without taking some grief from Andy.

The meeting started with some updates from Andy on SQLSaturday – Orlando planning, other upcoming events, and some discussion about PASS and what technologies other than SQL Server that PASS could/should cover (Sharepoint, Excel, etc…).  My personal opinion is that PASS should stick with SQL Server, especially since there is so much that is part of SQL Server (SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, DB Engine), why does PASS need to expand?

We then had about 15-20 minutes of networking (group hug) and I spent the time talking with Nick who works in BI for Hilton and would like to transition to DBA.  We had a good discussion about how to transition and what resources are out there to learn how to be a SQL Server DBA.  I guess my biggest failing was not getting his last name and I probably should have given him a business card.  Hopefully I’ll see him again at the next meeting and rectify the situation.

The feature presentation was Powershell vs T-SQL by Chad Miller.  Chad is very passionate about the power of Powershell and knowledgeable and it definitely came across in his presentation.  I have to admit that I was looking for things to pick at Powershell, but really couldn’t come up with much.  I happen to be a “Jack of all trades” so I do some .NET development and would probably do a lot of what Chad did in Powershell in .NET because I already know .NET, but if I were not familiar with .NET I could definitely see learning and using Powershell.  Chad also did a good job of giving specific instances where Powershell is better/simpler to use than T-SQL and when T-SQL Is the better choice, so he did not have an “all Powershell all the time” stance which I appreciated.  I can definitely see where Powershell can make auditing easier and how it can make managing a multi-server environment easier to automate.  Since I am in a one SQL Server shop right now, I don’t see me using it a lot, but I will try to find a project to test it out and learn it.  Chad’s slide deck and demos can be found on his blog.

After the presentation we hung around and talked for about an hour or so.  I spent some time talking with Chad and Kendal Van Dyke about Powershell and other SQL Server tools like SSIS, etc…  Then Andy, Kendal, and Kendal’s co-worker, Todd, and I had some discussions about the PASS Summit, SQLSaturday’s, and growing speakers.  It’s always interesting getting together with these guys and finding out what they think and why.  I never leave without some interesting things to think about.

OPASS Meeting July 14th

Hey, Orlando area SQL Server folks, don’t forget the OPASS meeting 6pmTuesday, July 14th at End to End Training (map).  Chad Miller will be presenting on Powershell and T-SQL. 

As usual there will be an opportunity at the beginning of the meeting for networking and then again after the meeting.  Even when the presentation is excellent, many times the discussion before and after the meeting are just as profitable.

Mid-year update on my goals

I recently saw that Steve Jones had posted an update on his 2009 goals and realized that is was about time for me to do the same.  So let’s get to it.

Learn SQL Server 2008, particularly Policy Based Management, Resource Governor, and Service Broker.

Still not much progress here.  It’s really a matter of getting myself moving.

Write 1 article per quarter for SQLServerCentral

Doing okay here as I have had 2 published and some others in my queue, not SSC’s, but I think this one will get done no problem

Record and Submit 1 video per quarter to JumpStartTV.

Behind on this one as I have only done 1 this year, but I do have some ideas on ones to get in.  I can definitely make it.

One Blog Post per week

I was doing really well on this on until the last month.  I took a vacation where I did nothing technical and didn’t even have internet access and since I have been out of sorts and not interested in writing.  It looks like I do have the quantity, but not the regularity.  This is still a work in progress, but I definitely think I’ll get 52 posts in 2009.

Become more involved in leadership in my local user group (OPASS)

This one is slow going, but I have become involved in pursuing speakers and need to get more involved in finding sponsors and encouraging others to be involved.  I have also been involved in some of the early planning for the next SQLSaturday – Orlando, which is technically a user group event.  I know Andy Warren would be happy to see me do more.

Speak at 2 community events

I have actually met this goal already.  I did my Introduction to Profiler session at the Tampa SQL Server User Group in June and also at SQLSaturday – Pensacola.  I am also scheduled to speak at the Space Coast User Group in September  on the Default Trace.  I will probably submit my Default Trace session to SQLSaturday – Orlando as well.  I did submit 2 sesssions for the PASS Summit that, unfortunately were not selected, but it was the first step.

Attend the PASS Summit

Believe it or not I am still waiting to get permission from my boss to go.  I have permission from my wife to go, so now I just need to get permission from work.  I’m pretty sure this one will happen and if it doesn’t it won’t be because I didn’t try.

Summary

Overall I am doing okay, but I need to use my time better to meet them all.  It’s my nature to do the easy ones, speaking, going to pass, and blogging and procrastinate on the harder ones.  I guess that should be a goal for next year.

So Now I’m Gilligan, Finally

Okay I was tagged by Tim Mitchell on the Deserted Island scenario started by Tim Ford which goes like this:

So You’re On A Deserted Island With WiFi and you’re still on the clock at work.  Okay, so not a very good situational exercise here, but let’s roll with it; we’ll call it a virtual deserted island.  Perhaps what I should simply ask is if you had a month without any walk-up work, no projects due, no performance issues that require you to devote time from anything other than a wishlist of items you’ve been wanting to get accomplished at work but keep getting pulled away from I ask this question: what would be the top items that would get your attention?

There’s so much that I could do, I almost don’t know where to start and I rather be off hanging out with Mary Ann anyway, but that isn’t an option in this scenario so:

I’ll start with cleaning up security.  It seems like no matter where you go or how long they’ve been running SQL Server the security is messed up.  I’d clean out dead logins and make sure the ones left met the least privileges test.  In my current environment that would take about an hour (I guess I should get on it then), at my last job it would take most of the month.

Next I’d automate testing of my backups on at least at weekly basis by restoring to a development server.  Unfortunately valid backups tend to be one of the things I take for granted.  This would also include setting up a plan to validate the backups that have already gone to tape and off-site.  I think this is one thing that many administrators, system and SQL, leave out.

Next would come tuning up database maintenance.  I’d start with Michelle Ufford’s index maintenance script and work from there to add in DBCC checks as well.

Then I’d work on monitoring scripts, traces, and performance monitor logs to compare to my baseline or to create my baseline and then compare to it.

Since I’m so late in posting this and someone else might like Mary Ann, too, I’m not going to tag anyone else.

SQL Server Profiler Part 2: Custom Templates and Saving Data Published

Part 2 of my series on Profiler, SQL Server Profiler Part 2: Custom Templates and Saving Data, was published on SQLServerCentral today.   

Enjoy!

Speaker/Session Evaluation Results from SQLSaturday 14 – Pensacola

I received the results of the speaker/session evaluations from my session, Getting Started with SQL Server Profiler, so here they are:

Expectations:  0 Did not Meet, 7 met, 10 Exceeded. 

Overall quality:  Zero 1's, Zero 2's, 1 three, 5 4's, 11 5's.

Comments:
None

Overall pretty good results and slightly better than the results I got in Orlando, which it good because it means I have gotten better.  I would like to have seen some comments, but and introductory level session on Profiler isn’t exactly the sexiest topic.  I did have one attendee tell me later that it was a “great session”, so that made me feel pretty good.  Also, it’s good to know that the session didn’t disappoint anyone.