As a followup to a question in this week's 2790: Troubleshooting and Optimizing Database Servers using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 session, here are some additional resources on using SQL Server tools to monitor blocking:

• Knowledgebase article Q271509 How to monitor blocking in SQL Server 2005 and in SQL Server 2000
• Adapting SQLDiag to invoke sp_blocker_pss_80 (and some other interesting ideas)
• Top SQL Server 2005 Performance Issues for OLTP Applications SQLCAT - Top 10 Lists
• SQL Server Wait Types, Perfmon Counters, and Correlations

• Product team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlpbm/
• Lara Rubbelke's blog: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/lara_rubbelke/default.aspx
• SQL Server 2008 Compliance Whitepaper

A significant barrier to my use of OneNote was that on 64-bit OSes, the Print-to-OneNote feature wasn't available. That's now changed:

From David Rasmussen's blog

ONENOTE PRINT DRIVER – A 64 BIT SOLUTION

Short version: I have a solution for those of you needing a 64 bit OS solution for printing to OneNote. Read on for details.

Well… it’s been a long time between posts. Without making excuses, suffice it to say we’ve been crazy busy working on the next release of OneNote. And given strong feedback about the 64 bit print driver issue, I decided to put what little spare time I had into trying to develop a 64 bit OS solution for printing to OneNote 2007 for you, rather than blogging.

See the rest at his blog, including the link to the Codeplex download.

Come join us on Thursday, April 16 for two presentations while you eat and mingle with your peers.SQL Server consultant Eric Peterson will concisely cover the myths and truths of efficient query performance, followed by Kevin Cox of Microsoft, who will show us how to use SQL Server 2008 to manage all of your database servers.

We’ll make time during the meeting for the group to answer any technical questions you have about SQL Server, and there will also be announcements concerning jobs and events that might be of interest to you.

The meeting will conclude with prize drawings provided to us by our sponsors, including 2 full licenses of Vista Ultimate, a copy of Visual Studio 2008 Standard, an excellent book on query tuning and optimization, and the much desired SQL Server 2008 Postal Stamps.

Glenn Berry's also threatening to bring some goodies!

Coming Attractions:

In May, Paul Nielsen of SQL Server Bible fame will be with us, and Ed Tomlinson of Dataface will present at our June meeting to show us how SQL Server supports Enterprise 2.0 applications.

Presentation #1: SQL Server Queries – Myths, Truths and other Insights

We’ve all heard or even told co-workers certain “truths” about SQL Server including:

• Don’t select more columns than you need
• Joins are expensive
• Include the schema name when referencing tables

Most of us accept these and other “truths” at face value and don’t give them a second thought. Testing has shown that some assumptions are pure myths, others depend on the circumstances and others are true, but may not be exactly as you imagined them.

In this session, we’ll conjecture a bit and then we’ll investigate a number of cases to see the actual percentage differences between various options and discuss where these SQL Server surprises might be lurking in your systems.

Presenter:

Eric Peterson has a BS in Computer Science, an MBA and Masters in International Management Studies. He runs a consulting company that specializes in SQL Server services, teaches the SQL Server Performance Tuning course for a leading training company, and has worked in employee and consulting capacities with companies ranging from Fortune 100 firms to startups throughout his 25 year career.

Eric has worked with SQL Server from its introduction through SQL Server 2008 and his specialties include design, administration, replication and hosted environments in a number of diverse industries. Questions arising from his experiences and training prompted Eric to create a website that explores the real cost of SQL Server tasks; often clarifying conventional wisdom and occasionally dispelling SQL myths.

Presentation #2: Using SQL 2008 to manage SQL 2005 and 2000 machines; covers multi-server management, policy based management, Performance Data Warehouse.

This session will provide an overview on how to use SQL Server 2008 to manage all of your SQL Server machines. Kevin will discuss multi-server management in detail and will provide us with Microsoft’s roadmap for multi-server management. In addition, Kevin will cover topics such as policy based management and Performance Data Warehouse and discuss their relevance in a multi- server environment.

Presenter:

Kevin Cox works for Microsoft in the SQL Server Product Group on the Customer Advisory Team. This team works on the largest database implementations in the world to make sure they are successful with SQL Server. Kevin received his BS in Computer Science from Arizona State University.

Location:

• 7595 Technology Way
• Suite 400
• Denver, CO 80237

Typical Meeting Agenda:

• 5:30 - 6:00 - Food / Socializing
• 6:00 - 6:10 - User Group Business
• 6:10 - 6:30 - Vendor / Open Q&A
• 6:30 - 8:00 - Main Presentation
• 8:00 - 8:30 - Give Away / Wrap-Up

Pass it on:

If you feel that a friend or colleague would benefit from our user group, please feel free to forward on this notice. If you received this notice from a friend or colleague, please consider becoming a member of our user group. There are no dues to membership but you will have the added benefits of receiving event reminders and attendance to members only meetings. Becoming a member is quick and painless, simply go to the membership section of the user group web site which and complete the form. That's it!