亲爱的日记-第一天在SQL PASS峰会2009

这一天从“布鲁斯”韦恩斯奈德开始提供在PASS峰会2009年的开幕词，并在AMC频道上完成“蝙蝠侠返回”。介于两者之间是一个SQL Server技术和网络的节日。很好的一天。Microsoft在SQL Server的过去，当前和未来时，Microsoft的服务器和工具业务总裁Bob Muglia突出了主题演讲。1988年1月13日，鲍勃在NYC的比尔盖茨在宣布与Sybase结合使用Sybase的第一版Microsoft SQL Server时。这是从过去的爆炸声明它在5 1/4“和3 1/2”软盘上交付。从那以后发生了很大的事情。Bob在IBM X3950 M2 Server上在Windows 2008 Server R2上展示了US SQL Server 2008 R2，具有192个处理器。（我并不肯定为什么服务器在舞台上展示有各种树木和灌木，某种形式的伪装也许？）。他还宣布了一个新的世界纪录的TPC-E基准测试结果在Unisys ES7000型号7600R Enterprise Server上运行，在96核心Xeon平台上设置2,012 TPSE的性能记录2,012 TPSE（TPC-e基准的事务）。 result on a server with more than 64 cores. Impressive stuff. Edwin Yen, Senior Product Manager of the Virtualization team at Microsoft then demoed the "Live Migration" feature of Windows 2008 Server R2 with Hyper-V. He showed a SQL Server, running with an active load, being moved to another node without skipping a beat using System Center VM Manager 2008 R2. Very cool. Ted Kummert, Senior VP SQL Server, then confirmed the release of SQL Server 2008 R2 for the first half of 2010 and announced a new CTP to be available this month. After the keynote, I attended the SQLCAT (Microsoft's SQL Customer Advisory Team) session on Security and Compliance. Denny Lee outlined how SQL Server 2008 supports mechanisms for compliance with requirements for SOX, PCI, HIPAA etc. Il-Sung Lee walked through PCI (Payment Credit Industry) requirements and how SQL Server 2008 supported them through features like Transparent Data Encryption, Audit, Policy Based Management, Change Data Capture etc. A customer testimony from Harvard Medical School on HIPAA compliance was next showing proactive ways of tracking and preventing the 100+ attacks they receive per day. This helped me understand how customers in these industries have to configure SQL Server and continously audit and monitor for security compliance. At lunch, we had the "Birds of a Feather" sessions which meant that many lunch tables were setup for particular subjects with a subject matter expert hosting each one. I had my meal at the "Failover Clustering" table hosted by Christian Bolton of Microsoft SQL Server development. I wanted to know more about suggested strategies for upgrade from SQL 2005 to 2008 for Clusters. There was a wealth of knowledge at the table and the concensus was that the rolling upgrade to SQL 2008 was a smooth process since you could upgrade the passive node first, then failover to upgrade the other node with minimal downtime. As always there is the side-by-side migration option too. We were also joined by Ahmed Bisht who gave us the low down on Windows 2008 Server R2 Clustering and the new Validation Wizard that allows a cluster to be qualified more easily. This was a great way to spend the lunch break. After lunch, I attended a session on Database Mirroring 2008 by Paul Bertucci, author of the SQL Server Unleashed books. This was excellent since the presentation went into sufficient detail with real-life examples and scenarios that were tried and tested. Paul had to struggle a bit to fend off questions that would be answered later so he could get through the materials. He showed that DB Mirroring 2008 was around 50% faster than 2005 due to compression of log records and provided the justification for an upgrade right there and then. He also showed how the Mirror database could be used for reporting using a Snapshot database. Combining Clustering with an asynchronous Mirror was an interesting option as well as combining Mirroring with Replication, all supported. Because of some room and time changes, I was forced into some exercise between floors 4 and 6 but eventually found my way to Craig Utley's session on SSAS 2005/2008 Best Practices. This was a well attended session and Craig guided us through some demos highlighting Attribute Relationships, Aggregation Design and efficient MDX. He let us know that SSAS 2005 was limited to 20 million rows per partition but now SSAS 2008 can support 300+ million rows. Whew! Final session of the day was with Joe Yong of Scalability Experts on Consolidation and Virtualization. Joe focused on emphasizing the difference between the two, as many vendors use the terms together. He has worked on many Consolidation projects (which may or may not have included Virtualization) with as many as 5000 servers. The most poinient slide was one with a picture of an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg was the technology which is clearly visible and available. Below the water line were the more difficult issues such as security, management, administration and the most difficult, yes, people. Political friction can cause any project to fail so Executive sponsorship is a must. Although Virtualization in production with SQL Server is possible now with products like Hyper-V and VMWare, Joe's message was one of caution. Make sure your objectives can be fully met by the technology and the organizational infrastructure. I was pleased to hear that training was a critical component of any consolidation effort. Drinks and appetizers at the Exhibitor Reception were well received. It is always fun to tour the vendor booths to see the latest demos of products that support SQL Server. I especially enjoyed Red Gate's SQLPrompt intellisense add-in to SSMS. It makes Microsoft's version look pale in comparison, it really does. Microsoft themselves had several demo stations so the PowerPivot feature of Excel 2010 that supports operating with 100+ milion rows from SQL Server impressed too. Dell gave away a laptop at the end of the day. I won a rubber duck from Idera. What can I say?...I was happy. Roll on tomorrow... cheers Brian