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Your role as a DBA is crucial, as a pivotal figure in the realm of Microsoft SQL Server. Your ability to monitor and analyze your server's performance and troubleshoot issues is essential, and it's what keeps the system running smoothly. One of the most effective ways to do this is by utilizing the built-in data collection, which records a wealth of information.

This session will delve into six collections (Logs and traces) that can provide valuable insights into your server's configuration, health, and performance. By the end of this session, you will be equipped with practical knowledge that will empower you to handle any SQL Server issue confidently.

• Default trace • SQL Error log • SQL Agent Error log • System_health • AlwaysOn_health • Telemetry xEvents

I will show you each one's default location, retention, and content captured. We will discuss how to access and interpret these logs and demonstrate how they can be used to identify and diagnose issues such as failed logins and deadlocks, the health of the Windows cluster and availability group, and schema changes. By effectively utilizing the SQL Blackbox, you can ensure the smooth operation of your server and maintain the highest performance and reliability.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with SQL Server administration

Goals: 1. Know the default location, retention, and content of the six built-in SQL Server logs/collections. 2. Know how information from these collections can be extracted for different troubleshooting scenarios and ensure reliable and highly available database systems.

In this technical talk, we will explore how to harness the power of Azure AI, Azure AI Studio, Azure Search Services, and large language models to extract valuable decision-making data from the Azure SQL Database.

We will begin by discussing Azure AI and its capabilities. Starting with a clean slate, build a solution using Azure AI Studio and its user-friendly interface that can chat with an SQL database, helping make data-driven decisions without writing code. This solution will delve into Azure Search Services, highlighting how it can be used to efficiently index and query data.

The second part of the presentation will focus on utilizing large language models and Python notebooks to extract and analyze data from the Azure SQL Database. Attendees will learn how to set up their environment, connect to the database, and implement AI-driven solutions (talk to the database).

By the end of the session, participants will have a solid foundation in using Azure AI and Python for data-driven decision-making, empowering them to leverage these tools in their projects.

Presentation Title: Leveraging Azure AI and Python for Data-Driven Decision Making

Description: In this technical talk, we will explore how to harness the power of Azure AI, Azure AI Studio, Azure Search Services, and large language models to extract valuable decision-making data from the Azure SQL Database. We will begin by discussing Azure AI and its capabilities.

Starting with a clean slate, build a solution using Azure AI Studio and its user-friendly interface that can chat with an SQL database, helping make data-driven decisions without writing code. This solution will delve into Azure Search Services, highlighting how it can be used to efficiently index and query data.

The second part of the presentation will focus on utilizing large language models and Python notebooks to extract and analyze data from the Azure SQL Database. Attendees will learn how to set up their environment, connect to the database, and implement AI-driven solutions (talk to the database). By the end of the session, participants will have a solid foundation in using Azure AI and Python for data-driven decision-making, empowering them to leverage these tools in their projects.

Please join us on 4th December, 2024 to listen to the topic: Leveraging Azure AI and Python for Data-Driven Decision Making with Taiob Ali

What \~ Toronto Data Professionals Community (Virtual) When \~ Wednesday, December 4th, 2024

Agenda:

• 6:00 PM Networking and Introduction
• 6:15 PM Topic: Leveraging Azure AI and Python for Data-Driven Decision Making with Taiob Ali
• 7:30 PM End

Where: Online via Microsoft team

Session Details: In this technical talk, we will explore how to harness the power of Azure AI, Azure AI Studio, Azure Search Services, and large language models to extract valuable decision-making data from the Azure SQL Database.

We will begin by discussing Azure AI and its capabilities. Starting with a clean slate, build a solution using Azure AI Studio and its user-friendly interface that can chat with an SQL database, helping make data-driven decisions without writing code. This solution will delve into Azure Search Services, highlighting how it can be used to efficiently index and query data.

The second part of the presentation will focus on utilizing large language models and Python notebooks to extract and analyze data from the Azure SQL Database. Attendees will learn how to set up their environment, connect to the database, and implement AI-driven solutions (talk to the database).

By the end of the session, participants will have a solid foundation in using Azure AI and Python for data-driven decision-making, empowering them to leverage these tools in their projects.

Speaker Bio: Taiob Ali, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, is an accomplished technical leader with a proven record of success. During his last 17 years, he has worked with the Microsoft Data Platform and MongoDB on-premises and in the cloud. His experience includes all three major business sectors: finance, e-commerce, and healthcare.

Taiob works at "GMO LLC" as a database solutions manager, focusing on cloud migration, automation, and improving and streamlining operational workflow. He regularly speaks at local and international conferences, SQL Saturdays, and Azure conferences. He is a board member of the New England SQL Server User Group, founder of 'Database Professionals Virtual Meetup Group', and organizer of Boston SQL Saturday.

Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-cloud-workshop-for-the-sql-professional-tickets-894045453017

Use promo code SUMMERBLUES to get $75 off the admission price through September 9th, 2024.

Are you thinking, exploring, migrating, or have migrated from SQL Server to Azure? This workshop will provide you with a technically driven approach to translating your knowledge and skills from SQL Server to Azure SQL. You will experience an immersive look at Azure SQL including hands-on labs with no Azure subscription required. This includes topics such as Azure networking, deployment, configuration, security, performance, availability, management, and monitoring. This workshop is designed to teach you Azure based on your existing SQL Server knowledge all led by the engineering team at Microsoft that works on both SQL Server and Azure SQL. This workshop is not intended to "sway" you to use Azure. It is designed for those wanting to learn about Azure, those who are migrating some or all SQL Server instances to Azure, or those who have migrated to Azure and want to optimize their investment. You don't even need to be a DBA to gain benefits from this workshop. Just bring your existing SQL Server knowledge and come learn Azure SQL!

Prerequisites - Attendees must have a basic knowledge of SQL Server and bring their own laptop for hands-on labs. Instructions will be provided later for what software to install. - No Azure subscription is required

Things to know: A significant part of the workshop will be dedicated to hands-on labs.

nstructor:

Bob Ward is a Principal Architect for the Microsoft Azure Data team, which owns the development for Microsoft SQL Edge to Cloud. Bob has worked for Microsoft for 30+ years on every version of SQL Server shipped from OS/2 1.1 to SQL Server 2022 including Azure SQL. Bob is a well-known speaker on SQL Server and Azure SQL, often presenting talks on new releases, internals, and specialized topics at events such as SQLBits, Microsoft Build, Microsoft Ignite, PASS Summit, DevIntersection, and VS Live. You can also learn Azure SQL from him on the popular series https://aka.ms/azuresql4beginners. You can follow him at @bobwardms or linkedin.com/in/bobwardms. Bob is the author of the books Pro SQL Server on Linux, SQL Server 2019 Revealed, Azure SQL Revealed and SQL Server 2022 Revealed available from Apress Media.

Co-presenter: Taiob Ali, Microsoft MVP - Data Platform Taiob is an accomplished technical leader with a proven record of success. For the past 17 years, he has worked with the Microsoft Data Platform and MongoDB on-premises and in the cloud. His experience includes all three major business sectors: finance, e-commerce, and healthcare.

Taiob works at GMO LLC as a database solutions manager, focusing on cloud migration, automation, and improving and streamlining operational workflow. He regularly speaks at local and international conferences, SQL Saturdays, and Azure conferences. He is a board member of the New England SQL Server User Group, founder of the Database Professionals Virtual Meetup Group, and organizer of Boston SQL Saturday.

Agenda:

8:00 AM - 8:30 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast 8:30 AM - 12 PM Morning Session with a 15-minute coffee break 12 pm - 1 PM Lunch 1 pm - 5 PM Afternoon session with a 15-minute snack and drinks break

Greetings, data enthusiasts!

Our June meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 10th, at 5:30 pm! We will meet in person at: Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce, 90 4th Street, Troy, NY.

Please RSVP if you are attending, so we can purchase an appropriate amount of food for everyone. Food will be ordered from First Choice Caribbean, and we'll have a wide assortment of appetizers and plates to share. For this meeting, we are welcoming Taiob Ali to join us from the Boston area. Thank you Taiob for taking the drive out to the Capital Region to be with us!

Our meeting schedule is as follows:

• 5:30 PM: Food, soft drinks, and networking
• 6:15 PM: Chapter news and announcements
• 6:30 PM: Presentation

We usually wrap up between 7:30 PM and 8:00 PM.

This month, Taiob Ali is presenting an excellent topic for both beginners and more advanced data professionals: "Think Like the Cardinality Estimator"

SQL Server uses a phase during query optimization, called cardinality estimation (CE). This process makes estimates based on the statistics as to how many rows flow from one query plan iterator to the next. Knowing how CE generates these numbers will enable you to write better TSQL code and in turn, influence the type of physical operations during query execution. Based on that estimated rows, the query processor decides how to access an object, which physical join to use, and how to sort the data. Do you know how the CE generates these numbers? If your query has only one predicate, the query optimizer will use the histogram to estimate how many rows will be qualified. What happens when you have multiple predicates, range predicates, variable values that are “NOT KNOWN” to the optimizer, or you have predicate values increasing in ascending order? Do you know what will happen if your predicate is using an amount that is outside of the histogram range?

In this session, I will show you how the cardinality estimator estimates in all of these scenarios. You will walk out of this session with a clear understanding of how the CE generates its numbers and is ready to tackle those nasty, hard-to-solve query plans.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 1600 GMT

DESCRIPTION of TALK

Title: Lifting Your Data Skills to the Cloud

94% of enterprises use cloud services. 67% of enterprise infrastructure is now cloud-based. 92% of businesses have a multi-cloud strategy in place or in the works. What does that mean for data professionals working with on-premises technology for years? Do we have to relearn everything from ground zero? How can we leverage our knowledge and experience acquired over the years and apply it to the cloud? If you are thinking about these questions, this session is for you. Many responsibilities have become shared between database administrators and the cloud provider. For example, in the PaaS model, the cloud provider will take a database backup, and setting up long-term retention is the responsibility of the database administrators. We will discuss each of these key areas of database administration (System provisioning, Data Migration, Data Security, Performance tuning and monitoring, Disaster Recover, High Availability, Backup and Recovery, and Cost management). I will show/explain what existing skills will be needed and what you will need to learn new ones. I will also cover tools provided by cloud providers that you will need to learn and use. Goals: This session will equip attendees with the information they need to administer databases in the cloud successfully. An attendee will walk away knowing three things: 1. List of on-premises skills they can retain and apply to the cloud. 2. For each of the key areas of database administration, what new skills they will need to learn to be a successful "Cloud DBA". 3. Tools provided by cloud providers (Microsoft) that they will need to learn and use. Prerequisites: On-premises database administrator who is preparing to migrate to Cloud.

Presentation Title: 360-degree Overview of Backup and Restore

Abstract: If you are the database steward, your most critical task is to guarantee that all committed transactions are always recoverable during a disaster within acceptable limits for data loss and downtimes.

Achieving this can be simple by taking a full backup or complex, which might include filegroup backups based on the size and criticality of your application data.

Whatever your situation is, being well-prepared and practicing with your tools, scripts, and strategy will ensure you can respond quickly and efficiently when a disaster happens.

In this session, I will teach you all the basic types of backups and how to create backups and restores using SSMS and TSQL. Then we will move to advanced techniques, discussing file and filegroup backups, partial database restore, and T-SQL snapshot backups introduced with SQL Server 2022.

At the end of the session, you'll be able to create a solid Backup and Restore strategy around the agreed service level agreement with your business counterpart.

Learning Objective: You will get a clear idea about different kinds of basic backups, their dependency on each other, and how to use those backup types. Attendees will also get introduced to an advanced backup-restore strategy. For example, file and filegroup backup, partial database restores, and snapshot backup were introduced in SQL 2022. With this information, you can create a solid backup and restore strategy based on service level agreement.

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