skreebydba

Last night was the August meeting of the Chicago SQL Server User Group. It was the second meeting Aaron Lowe and I have run. Ira Whiteside of Melissa Data was kind enough to sponsor the meeting and was scheduled to present. Unfortunately, Ira ran into car problems on the way down and could not make it. In Ira's absence, Aaron and I decided that we would each do a presentation. Aaron presented on Writing Professional Database Code, which was excellent. Statement terminators and version control for database code are two of Aaron's suggestions I will bring back to my team.

I started off the meeting with a short presentation introducing Adam Machanic's sp_whoisactive. If you do any troubleshooting of SQL Server issues, sp_whoisactive is a tool you should be using. It consolidates data from sp_who2, sys.dm_exec_requests and a number of other DMOs to give you a quick and complete picture of how each process is performing on your system. You can pull the execution plan for each process and have the option to generate deltas for a number of metrics over a period of time. The best part about the procedure is that it is free for download. The fact that Adam Machanic provides the code for free is a testament to the strength of the SQL Server community.

If you live in the Chicago area and are not registered for the user group, you can do so here. You will receive e-mail notification for upcoming meetings. We are looking for group members to present at upcoming meetings. If you are interested, you can e-mail me here. I hope to see you at an upcoming meeting.