Build Schedule

Performance troubleshooting is a required skill for every DBA. Knowing the deep internals of how a query functions and why SQL Server chose to run it in a certain way is important. Knowing how to design a table or configure a database to squeeze every ounce of performance is our lifeblood. 

What if I told you that you may be doing this all wrong? What if all the work and laborious effort put into design or configuration don't improve the situation because the issue was never in SQL to begin with? Truth be told, the biggest differentiator between a good DBA and a great DBA is knowing the hardware and O/S; not just SQL.

Join me as I guide you through troubleshooting SQL Server performance from tip to toe to demonstrate the common performance problems you never knew you had.

Daniel Janik

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Advanced Analysis Techniques

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Room: R2105

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The Azure Resource Model (ARM) enables Azure infrastructure automation for both IaaS and PaaS deployments.  Using Visual Studio as a management tool enables repeatable, automated, source controlled deployments for test and development environments, enabling true DevOps practices for all aspects of pre-production systems.  In this session, I will demonstrate, explain, and deploy a IaaS/PaaS hybrid environment (SQL and BI stack elements) using ARM templates, Visual Studio, source control integration, and PowerShell scripts.

Geoff Hiten

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Cloud Application Development & Deployment

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Room: R2205

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So you're using Azure Sql Database Platform As A Service. Now what? Without a physical machine, how do you do restore? Where are the backup files? When are service packs applied? Can service packs be rolled up thru dev to production? What's a service level and how does it impact database design? How do we encrypt, authorize, query tune, restore...?  We'll go over these questions and any others that you may have.

Jonathon Moorman

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Strategy and Architecture

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM

Room: R2207

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This session is meant to dive into the world of R using awesome data to make learning memorable.  We will discuss a brief overview of the syntax, how to write an In-Database R query, and then dive into a data set using the Lahman database & data from Retrosheets.org to examine baseball games from 1990 – 2016 to answer the following questions: If I want to see my team win a game should I go to a double header?  What is the best day of the week to see my team play?  What is the best day if they are above .500 or below?  What if they have home vs. away games?  Then we will display the results in Power BI or and Excel Dashboard. Come for the Science stay for the data!

Bradley Ball

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Advanced Analysis Techniques

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM

Room: R2208

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SQL Server reduces compilation and optimization overhead by caching and reusing execution plans for the queries. Plan caching helps to reduce CPU load on the server; however, it may also introduce unexpected issues and lead to suboptimal execution plans and performance problems.  

In this session, Dmitri will explain how plan caching works internally and demonstrate how to address several common issues related to the plan caching. He will talk about parameter sniffing, simple and forced parameterization, OPTIMIZE FOR UNKNOWN strategy, and several other related topics.    Finally, Dmitri will provide the guidelines how to reduce CPU load and recompilation overhead in the systems with heavy ad-hoc workload and non-parameterized queries.

Dmitri Korotkevitch

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Room: R3205

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This session looks at both Power BI Desktop and Power BI.com to compare the advantages and capabilities of both platforms for creating and distributing data analysis within your organization.  It will also touch a little on why you might choose Power BI over Power Pivot and why you might not.  It will also look at how to create drill down detail screens to expose the details behind your visualizations.  Finally, we will touch on how to publish your Power BI results for others in your organization to share.  A basic understanding of database structures and referential integrity is an advantage to gain the most from this session, but as will be shown, not always necessary depending on the source of the data to be analyzed.

Michael Antonovich

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Information Delivery

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Room: R2105

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On a given project, data scientists can spend upwards of 80% of their time preparing, cleaning, and correcting data. In this session, we will look at different data cleansing and preparation techniques using both SQL Server and R. We will investigate the concept of tidy data and see how we can use tools in both languages to simplify research and analysis of a small but realistic data set.

Kevin Feasel

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Analytics and Visualization

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Room: R2205

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Today's Business Intelligence Tools allow to secure the data for a variety of business scenarios. Learn How Row Level Security and other security data technologies can be implemented in Power BI, SSAS, and SQL Server and can change the design of corporate Apps using Active Directory.
In this session, BI Architect and Microsoft Certified Professional, Hector Villafuerte focuses upon the design and architecture of data security using different tools: Power BI, SSAS, SQL Server, Web Apps and explain when to use them, their differences and their limitations. Throughout the session, we explore and demo various ways to secure the data and witness how to implement the security in each.

Hector Villafuerte

Session Type:
Extended Session (90 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM

Room: R2205

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Automating your deployments should not be limited to applications.  In this session, learn how to create an automated deployment pipeline that includes your application and database using Redgate’s DLM Automation tools.  You will get instant feedback on your code changes, get the exact script you need for release automation and, when you’re ready, you can deploy to production in confidence.  We will use Visual Studio, Visual Studio Team Services to create a build and release pipeline to deploy your changes to dev, staging, and production environments. [Presenter will be Esteban Garcia]

Andy Warren

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Room: R2206

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How to set up a Requirements Analysis to develop successful databases

Arvin Meyer

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Room: R2208

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While blocking and deadlocks are part of the territory for a DBA, dealing with them can be another story. In this session we will break down locking types, capturing and identifying deadlocks and the code behind them, and things you can do to resolve and prevent blocking and deadlocks. If you are frequently dealing with deadlocks in your databases this session is for you.

Amy Herold

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Room: R2103

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If you’ve ever used the standard Excel Source or Destination components in SSIS, you know there are some limitations. Cozyroc’s Excel Source Plus and Excel Destination Plus components remove those limitations. In addition, Cozyroc’s Excel Task enables editing of Excel files from SSIS packages. In this session, I’ll talk about the capabilities of the Cozyroc components and demonstrate how easy it is use use these components with SSIS.

Diane Schuster

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Room: R2207

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This will be a Beginners session highlighting the starting point for using the execution plans from SQL Server to assist in query tuning. Briefly, we will look at the history to get an idea of how Microsoft has improved the display through Graphical Plans and Missing Index suggestion. What is the difference between a Table and Clustered Index Scan? What is a Lookup? How do you improve performance of Lookups? What are the different types of Loops? How to get more information from the Plan with the properties window?

Thomas LeBlanc

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM

Room: R3102

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CosmosDB was announced at Build 2017 as an extension to Microsoft's DocumentDB offering and is positioned to be a key component of the Microsoft Data Platform. In this session, we will explore CosmosDB's graph API that is built using Apache's TinkerPop and Gremlin projects. Graph databases allow you to build a powerful data model that explores connections and paths between data. At the end of this session, attendees will have a solid understanding of what a graph database is and how you can use Gremlin and the .NET API to interact with a graph database.

Christopher Sims

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
BI Platform Architecture, Development & Administration

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Room: R2205

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You know you are well qualified for the jobs that you search for on any major job site.  You know that if you just get to that next step that they will see it for themselves.  This lightning talk focuses on strategies for your resume and LinkedIn profile to help get you noticed and reach that next step. Interaction with the audience is encouraged throughout the discussion.

Rick Heiges

Session Type:
Lightning Talk (15 minutes)

Track:
Professional Development

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM

Room: R2205

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This session will cover how to tune a multi-terabyte database where all of the data is stored a single file, primary file group. We will look at file groups, managing indexes and moving large amounts of data.

Jeff Taylor

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Advanced

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM

Room: R3205

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Learn all you wanted to know about index design, but were afraid to ask. This session focuses on physical index structures as well as how the server chooses indexes. Note: Join optimization is a separate session

Jeffrey Garbus

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Room: R3205

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SQL Server 2016 lifted several limitations from its initial implementation.
This session will cover how to implement InMemory objects, new capabilities (Defaults, Checks, FK validation, Triggers); performance gains; and an introduction to monitoring these objects.

Sam Mesel

Session Type:
Extended Session (90 minutes)

Track:
Other

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Room: R3102

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Testing allows database code to be consistently verified during the development process, but it can be challenging to get testing setup for database development. This session will give an overview on the purpose of database testing, the installation of the tSQLt framework, and the design of unit and integration tests. I will use general concepts of test driven design to create and run tests to confirm that objects exist and to test single and multiple test cases. Learn how to implement testing in a development environment and create and run your own tests.

Elizabeth Noble

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Beginner

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM

Room: R2206

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Logging messages in your database is a common request, and there are a million ways to do it. This presentation will cover basic methods and progress through more advanced ones.  We'll also show how autonomous transactions (available in some database products, but not natively supported in SQL Server) can be accommodated with some interesting techniques.

We'll examine user-defined events, linked servers and the new SESSION_CONTEXT() feature in SQL Server 2016, to provide different levels of logging and transaction management, and cover their best use cases.

Rob Volk

Session Type:
Regular Session (60 minutes)

Track:
Application & Database Development

Level: Intermedia

Session Code:

Date: October 07

Time: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Room: R3205

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