Our Mascot and host takes the stage to showcase geospatial data types. Mark has worked with ArcGIS for far longer than SQL has supported geospatial data types. He has spent years out in the field and making real life solutions for terabytes of geospatial data. He has deep industry knowledge and I can’t wait to hear what he’s doing with the new SQL Server 2008 features for geospatial data.

See you there! Location

We are delighted to have our very own Jack Green share his experiences with policy based management and what he is doing with the new Facets in SQL Server 2008.

SQL Server 2008 defines over 70 different facets that can be used to manage SQL Server 2008 instances. This introduction to Policy-based management will discuss how those facets can be used to manage the configuration of your SQL Server 2008 databases.  We’ll cover setting policies to monitor and control your SQL Server 2008 environment using real-life scenarios that you can start using right away to help manage your SQL Server databases more effectively.

Jack Green is the Lead Database Administrator at Rapp, a marketing an advertising firm located in Las Colinas. They are currently using policy-based management to manage over 30 SQL Server 2008 instances.

See you there!

OK, we’re finally past the newness of PowerShell and have some great scripts to apply directly to SQL Server. Trevor has a great show and tell lined up for us!

Description:     This introduction to PowerShell is different than most.  Instead of starting with a full treatment of the language, you will receive a brief overview then a collection of “recipes,” stand-alone PowerShell scripts that automate various administration tasks for SQL Server 2000, 2005, and 2008.  You will learn by example, and quickly realize why investing a little time into learning PowerShell will make your job a great deal easier.  Despite the title, there will be value for database and business intelligence developers too!

Biography:       Trevor Barkhouse is an Escalation DBA for Terremark Worldwide, Inc., a leading global provider of IT infrastructure services.  His passions are automation, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.  Trevor is very active in the community. In addition to recently finishing a term on the board of directors of the North Texas SQL Server Users Group, he has spoken at many user group meetings, three SQLSaturday events, and at the 2009 PASS Community Summit.

Web site:          http://SQLServerSleuth.com/

Professor Stewart Rogers is going to give us a rare and valuable insight into what Business Intelligence really means to the corporate world and how we can enable Business Analysts to do their analysis work without overburdening Report Writers.

Some of the topics Professor Rogers will cover will be:

• Tips and tricks for identifying, (via the SSIS DNS Test Connection)
• Which applications are being called and how to optimize this
• Why and when to use Excel as a reporting tool
• The Pro’s and cons of using Excel pivot tables as a reporting and alternatives to pivot tables

(collecting SQL data and creating dynamic Excel reports in the formats that are actually being utilized for large corporations by their Business Analysts (using 7-11 as an example of this methodology)…in other words, pushing into specific Excel fields exactly what the BA’s are having to cut’n’paste and restructure into their spreadsheets to perform their Business Analysis, such as the Pivot Tables in Excel as they almost always need).

• How to take slices from a data warehouse and move into a smaller stand-alone database for portability to locations that have no external connectivity or have limited software approaches (small businesses or remote businesses that must rely on stand-alone solutions such as SQL Express or Access databases), which actually enables DBA’s to branch out to assist in or create solutions for a turn-key data analysis solution for small to medium businesses or even large corporations when their business processes restrict their network connectivity.

7 pm but come early for our meet and greet at 6:30 pm if you can and get to know Professor Rogers

Hope to see you there!

~ Mary Mathias

Those of you who have had the privilege to hear MVP Jason Massie speak know the surprising new twists and depths he brings to a topic. Check out his blog: http://statisticsio.com/ And come check him out this Wednesday.

Running mixed workloads on SQL Server
In an ideal world, you can separate your OLTP traffic and reporting so the databases can be optimized for their respective workloads. In the real world, this is not always an option. Business requirements may require real time data which means reporting off of the OLTP environment. We will first look at the shortcomings of different reporting solutions. We will then look at features that help a mixed workloads play nicely together. Some of these features include filtered indexes, indexes views, persisted computed columns, data compression, resource governor, partitioning and others. We will also touch on database design concepts that can help mixed workloads and leave you with topics to research further so you master the juggling act that is mixed workloads

Address:
Freese and Nichols Corporate Headquarters
4055 International Plaza
Fort Worth, Texas 76109-4895

We’re in the ground floor training room to the left of the guard desk as you enter the building.
Meeting starts at 7 pm but come early for our meet and greet at 6:30 pm if you can!

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

6:30 PM Meet & Greet | 7 PM Presentation

Who needs a little more BI? Since we just finished up a weekend SSAS classes with Michael Hotek, we’d like to keep the BI discussion rolling.

Any of you that have come for the classes or the monthly meetings know that if you give Andy Eggers 5 minutes he will bubble over about analysis. He loves analysis and he loves talking about it. He also has some really nifty time calculation tools and tips to share. You have to see his time dimension! It never occurred to me all the ways to calculate the fiscal and calendar years and the business days in this detail.

This is real customer analysis you can do on site, now. This should be a real treat.

Come see Increasing Customer Loyalty Using Business Intelligence with Andy Eggers.

After the meeting, follow Brian to the Covey just north on Hulen to address the St. Patty’s day portion of the equation.

See you there,

Judith

This time we have Brian Guarnieri & Richard Mason putting the funk back in SQL Server Reporting Services with cascading parameters, dynamic SQL and they promised maybe a little James Brown & Parliament Funk-a-delic.

Also, this Saturday morning at 8:30 AM – 4 PM is the kick off for all things OLAP with our 4 Saturday Analysis Services class. All you Hotek-a-teers out there get another chance at some class time with our favorite SQL Server author.

Both our User Group Meeting Wednesday and our class Saturday are being graciously hosted by Freese & Nichols at 4055 International Plaza in Fort Worth.

This class will focus exclusively on the OLAP piece of the engine. See an actual small business OLTP database be extracted and built into cubes for analysis. They always skip this all important bit in the demos. See how it can be rapidly done and immediately used.

Mike Hotek, our fav SQL Server author,  is donating his time to the Fort Worth SQL Server User’s Group and the local SQL community. Tuition is merely a $25 donation to the group.