SQL Pass Summit 2016... day 3

Just like the other two days, day three in Seattle started early....very early. This is day three for me, but this is the first day of the general sessions. This year over 6000 people came to attend the Pass Summit.

My day started with a 6:50 AM session

6:50 AM -  8 AM

Why Use AWS for Running Your Databases
A session explaining how you can run databases on Amazon Web Services, they explained the difference between running RDS and EC2. Overall the presenter gave a nice overview of what is all available within the Amazon cloud

8:15 AM - 10 AM

Keynote

Keynote was well attended, Joseph Sirosh Corporate Vice President for the Data Group, Microsoft started the keynote (he is not pictured here)

Below are some pictures I took of the keynote, I have mostly one liners below the images. The keynote was not bad, it wasn't the best ever but I think it was better than the last couple of years.

ACID doesn't mean what you think it means

You can run queries against a variety of data source straight from SSMS

Intelligent Database Service...this means taking the intelligence out of the apps and moving it into the database, think of running R service inside the database.

This Data Warehouse on Azure will be general available in a couple of weeks

A lot of people are already looking at SQL Server running on Linux

Installing SQL Server on Linux. And just like that, by being available on Linux, Microsoft just doubled the number of platforms that SQL Server runs on :-)

The Planet of the Apps. Apps completely dominate how much data they use and also how much data they generate

Some stuff about DocumentDB

DocumentDB is Rick Grimes favorite weapon to kill walkers, 43 million walker eliminated each day....

Here is what the explosion of data looks like when you look at it as rice

A look from the back of the room...


10:15 AM - 11:30 AM

Powershell Jumpstart for SQL Server DBAs [DBA-102] presented by Michael Fal

Powershell can be intimidating. There are many challenges to using it, especially for those not familiar with its nuances. Once understood, the language can be used for effective and robust automation that brings together SQL Server with other Windows components, such as the file system or Active Directory. 

In this session, we will cover the Powershell fundamentals, how you can use Powershell itself to learn about concepts and syntax, and techniques for using Powershell with SQL Server. We will focus on core language patterns that you can use immediately, take the mystery out of the code, and help you get started writing your own PowerShell scripts. Attendees will not only acquire an understanding of Powershell, but see practical examples of how it can be used with SQL Server, along with a set of resources they can use to learn more about the language.

I attended this session with 3 of my co-workers, I saw some interesting stuff, I only played around a little with powershell and I will spend more time with it for sure.


01:30 PM - 02:45 PM
03:15 PM - 04:30 PM
Inside SQL Server In-Memory OLTP [DBA-500-HD] presented by Bob Ward

Hekaton is the original project name for In-Memory OLTP and just sounds cooler for a title name. Keeping up the tradition of deep technical “Inside” sessions at PASS, this half-day talk will take you behind the scenes and under the covers on how the In-Memory OLTP functionality works with SQL Server. 

We will cover “everything Hekaton”, including how it is integrated with the SQL Server Engine Architecture. We will explore how data is stored in memory and on disk, how I/O works, how native complied procedures are built and executed. We will also look at how Hekaton integrates with the rest of the engine, including Backup, Restore, Recovery, High-Availability, Transaction Logging, and Troubleshooting. 

Demos are a must for a half-day session like this and what would an inside session be if we didn’t bring out the Windows Debugger. As with previous “Inside…” talks I’ve presented at PASS, this session is level 500 and not for the faint of heart. So read through the docs on In-Memory OLTP and bring some extra pain reliever as we move fast and go deep. 

This session will appear as two sessions in the program guide but is not a Part I and II. It is one complete session with a small break so you should plan to attend it all to get the maximum benefit.

This was a 3 hour session and Bob also cut the break down to 15 minutes...30 minute breaks are for wimps he said  :-)

This was a very good and very fast sessions, the way you attend these sessions is that you attend it in person and then you watch the recorded session at least two more times...and only then will you be able to understand everything.

Of course Bob was very cruel, he had the Cowboys use In Memory OLTP tables and the Eagles were stuck with regular disk based tables....  Kidding aside, if you ever have a chance to attend one of Bob's session, make sure you do... who else would run the debugger against SQL Server and step through a Hekaton Stored Procedure



04:45 PM - 06:00 PM

This Batch-Mode Window Aggregate Operator Will Change Your Life! [AD-400] presented by Itzik Ben-Gan

Window functions introduced a paradigm shift in solving T-SQL querying tasks. They allow more elegant, and often more efficient, solutions compared to traditional predicate-based solutions. Still, prior to SQL Server 2016, there were a number of inefficiencies in their optimization. SQL Server 2016 introduces the new batch-mode Window Aggregate operator, which changes everything as far as performance is concerned. This session describes and demonstrates this new operator, and also provides tips and tricks to enable its use in cases you might not have expected.

Itzik is a very good presenter and he always shows cool stuff

In this session he showed how you can make SQL Server run in batch mode instead of row mode by having a dummy columnstore index. You create a dummy table by adding a where clause and you do for example  WHERE Col1 =2 AND Col1 = 1, this is a filtered index with a filter that can never be true. This session was very good


06:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Exhibitor Reception

This was the time to go see the vendors, learn about the products, meet and greet with your peers, there was also food.

 A view of the hall

 Another view of the hall

 We are sooo tired from sitting whole day long, we need a massage

Some swag I managed to grab, these shirts will be mostly to work out in.

That's all for today, tomorrow is another jam-packed day....