TechEd-Developers Hands-on-Labs (HOL) Schedule

Today I received my Hands-on-Lab (HOL) and Ask-the Expert (ATE) schedule and will be assisting delegates with the SQL Server 2005 HOL's and working on the SQL Server 2005 Ask-the-Expert booth.

Ronald has done an excellent job this year and managed to work my schedule around the MS Influencer Community Camp, Speaker Idol waves and all the sessions I want to attend. This is shaping up to be an awesome event.

Ask-the-Experts Schedule

Tuesday 6th : 10:00 - 13:00

HOL Schedule

Monday 5th : 16:00 - 19:00
Tuesday 6th : 13:00 - 15:15
Wednesday 7th : 15:45 - 18:45
Friday 9th : 8:00 - 13:00

SQL Server 2005 HOL Labs

DAT01-HOL - Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 for Data Warehousing: SQL Server 2005 provides a complete and integrated platform for Data Warehousing. SQL Server enables customers to build Data Warehouses faster, manage their growing volumes of data more effectively, and deliver insights to users for making informed decisions. This lab walks you through the partitioning capabilities in SQL Server and demonstrates how they can be used to build more manageable and scalable data warehouses.

DAT02-HOL - Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Database Mirroring: The goal of this lab is to provide an understanding of when to use one of the more advanced new features of SQL Server 2005: Database Mirroring.

DAT03-HOL - Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Service-Oriented Database Architecture: The goal of this lab is to provide an understanding of when to use one of the more advanced new features of SQL Server 2005: Support for the Service-Oriented Database Architecture.

DAT04-HOL - Learn How to Build Occasionally Connected Applications: Explore how you can build offline smart client applications in a RAD way that synchronizes backend database with a local Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition store using the Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.NET. The lab walks you through the Microsoft Visual Studio Designer to help build a two-tier application and N-tier application that incrementally downloads data that can be cached on a SQL Server Compact Edition store. You can also explore how to perform bidirectional synchronization with conflict detection using these synchronization components.

DAT05-HOL - Understanding Command-Line Management Using SQLCMD: The exercises in this lab provide you with best practices and implementation details for SQL Server 2005 SQL CMD management tool. Learn to use SQLCMD with an initialization file, system environment variables, and parameters to create customized "master" scripts for automation and administration. Learn to use SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio with the Dedicated Admin Connection for troubleshooting. Finally, use SQL Server Management Studio to modify and execute SQLCMD mode scripts, and upgrade databases from SQL Server 2000 using a parameterized script running with SQLCMD.

DAT06-HOL - Understanding the ADO.NET Entity Framework: In this lab you will be introduced to the ADO.NET Entity Framework and learn to create a new Entity Data Model from an existing database and edit the default mapping to reflect the conceptual model that will be used for your application. Create a new Application and learn to use LINQ to Entities and/or Entity SQL to query data exposed through your new Entity Data Model.

DAT07-HOL - Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Table and Index Partitioning: In this lab, gain an understanding of when to use one of the more advanced new features of SQL Server 2005: able and Index Partitioning.

DAT08-HOL - SQL Server 2005 Online Operations: The goal of this lab is to understand, define, and manage the class of operations known as Online Operations. In this lab, the key Online Operations covered are:

• Online Index Creation/Move
• Online conversion to/from non-partitioned tables to partitioned tables
• Partial Database Availability
• Online Piecemeal Restore

DAT09-HOL - Effectively Using the Integrated Management Tools of Microsoft SQL Server 2005: The intent of these exercises is to provide you with best practices and implementation details for SQL Server 2005 Management Studio. Use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to reset the password and register all SQL Server instances. Create databases using the graphical tools as well as Transact-SQL (generated through SSMS). Generate Database Diagrams using SSMS. Use Object Explorer to view, filter, modify, and drill into a variety of different types of objects.

DAT10-HOL - Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Peer-to-Peer Replication: This series of exercises shows you how Peer-to-Peer Replication works and how to setup a Peer-to-Peer replication topology using the Replication Wizards.

DAT11-HOL - Query Tuning in Microsoft SQL Server 2005: This lab guides you through some common query performance tuning exercises including troubleshooting deadlocks, query plans, and using the Database Tuning Advisor. Learn how to use the various tools provided with SQL Server 2005 to effectively troubleshoot and tune queries in SQL Server. This lab requires prior experience with basic administration in SQL Server 2000, familiarity with T-SQL, and familiarity with SQL Server 2005 Workbench; or prior completion of the lab on SQL Server Workbench.

DAT12-HOL - Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Snapshot Isolation: The goal of this lab is to provide an understanding of when to use one of the more advanced new features of SQL Server 2005: Snapshot Isolation.

DAT13-HOL - SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Enhancements: Many enhancements have been made to T-SQL and this lab provides exercises to help you understand how these enhancement work and how you may leverage them in your environment. The lab exercises cover usage of new data types, recursive query expressions, triggers, exception handling and the new PIVOT/UNPIVOT operators. This lab requires prior basic working experience with SQL Server 2000, familiarity with T-SQL in SQL Server 2000, and familiarity with SQL Server 2005 Management Studio; or prior completion of the lab on SQL Server Management Studio

DAT15-HOL - How to Upgrade to Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Prescriptive Guidance and Practical Techniques: Are you interested in lowering the risks and costs of upgrading? By completing these six SQL Server 2005 Hands-on-Labs, you will gain valuable experience in performing upgrades involving both the relational database engine and business intelligence components. The primary purposes of these labs are to: 1) Learn new techniques on how to planning an upgrade from SQL Server 2000 or 7.0 to SQL Server 2005, 2) Increase your confidence and reduce upgrade risks by performing in-place and side-by-side upgrades SQL Server 2005, and 3) Learn about valuable SQL Server 2005 upgrade resources and diagnostic tools such as the Upgrade Advisor.

DAT16-HOL - Using Web Services with Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Learn how to create an XML Web service running inside SQL Server 2005. In this lab, use T-SQL to create a Web service via T-SQL, consume it via T-SQL and then use Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to create a client that calls the Web service. This lab requires prior basic familiarity with SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio 2005.

SQL Server 2008 Certification Live Meeting Rescheduled

On 20th October I blogged about the SQL Server 2008 Certification Live Meeting scheduled for 14th November 2007. Well, I've just been informed that this has been postponed until 12th December 2007 which suits me to a tee as now I won't have to try and watch it while at TechEd Barcelona (which is probably why the event was rescheduled in the first place!).

Registration:

• December 12, 2007, at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time (What time is this in my region?)
• December 12, 2007, at 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time (What time is this in my region?)

Cheers
Jeff

SQL Server Compact Edition Multi-User Access

While trolling the SQL Server Compact Edition forum today I saw another post from someone wanting to know if SSCE is truly a single-user database given that it allows up to 256 connections. The poster then goes on to ask:

"Could CE be extended for use as a multi-user DB Server by creating a custom server such as a .NET Remoting Server hosted through a Windows Service (or any other custom host) on a machine whereby the CE DB would run in-process with this server on the machine which would then be accessed by multiple users from multiple machines"

I was going to provide the stock standard answer of no but got thinking and decided to ask Nick Randolph. It turns out that this response is not entirely correct as Nick pointed me to a blog entry he did some time ago about using SQL Server CE as ASP.NET Database. So, all those people saying no (including myself) are wrong. It can be done.

Now that's cleared up, would you really want to do this? Don't get me wrong. I love SSCE and it's a great product; but why would you want to host it on a server? Why the fascination with multi-user access? Yes SSCE is free, but so is SQL Server Express and it allows multi-user access. A SQL Server Express database is also upgradeable to SQL Server whereas a SSCE database isn't. Not to mention that SSCE only supports a:

• Subset of T-SQL
• Subset of in-built SQL Server functions
• Subset of SQL Server datatypes
• Not Supported: decimal, smallmoney, smalldatetime, char, varchar, text,
  timestamp, sql_variant, xml

and SSCE does not support:

• Stored Procedures‘
• User-defined Functions (UDF’s)
• Any CLR UDT Datatypes
• XML schema collections
• Queries with multiple statements

So is there a real need to create multi-user applications that access a SSCE database or is it just a fad? Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers
Jeff

TechEd Developers Speaker Idol Schedule

Contestant names and wave schedule for Speaker Idol '07 have been released and I will be up against Danish Sami and Brent Shepherd on Wednesday 7th November between 12:20 - 13:30 (Wave 3).

This should be a very interesting contest, especially considering that I shared an apartment with 3 of the contestants at TechEd Developers in 2006 (Karl Davies-Barret, Maciej Pilecki and Daniel Joskovski) and have kept in contact with Karl over the last year and will be sharing an apartment with him again this year.  Bring it on gentlemen :-)

Date	Time	Wave
Mon 05 Nov	12.30 – 13.00	Onsite Briefing - All to attend
	19.00 - 20.00	Wave 1: - Karl Davies-Barrett - Maciej Pilecki - Hans Hantson
Tues 06 Nov	12.30 - 13.30	Wave 2: - Bill Ayers - Daniel Joskovski - Ron DeSerranno
Weds 07 Nov	12.30 - 13.30	Wave 3: - Jeff Wharton - Danish Sami - Brent Shepherd
Thurs 08 Nov	12.30 - 13.30	Wave 4: - Ammar Abbas - Bilal Haidar - Giuseppe Maggiore
Thurs 08 Nov	14:45 - 15:45	Final Wave: - Wave 1 Winner - Wave 2 Winner - Wave 3 Winner - Wave 4 Winner

Canberra SQL Server User Group Is Now An Official PASS Chapter

I am proud to announce that the Canberra SQL Server User Group is now an official PASS Chapter.

The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is the definitive, global community for SQL Server professionals. It is the first independent, user-run, not-for-profit association committed to providing SQL Server professionals around the world with the resources and knowledge necessary to achieve unparalleled business results.

Stay tuned for more exciting news on what's happening in the Canberra SQL Server community.

SelfTest Software and Windows Vista

One of my ITI556 students was having problems getting SelfTest software to run on Windows Vista.; he then did a little research and found this link on the SelfTest Web Site.

Boy he's going to make a great Systems Administrator :-D

IT Masters Does Google Maps

IT Masters has put together a pretty funky map (using Google Earth and ASP.NET) to showcase student enrollment distribution around the world.

Since launching the IT Masters Degrees at the beginning of 2003 the number of enrolments has continued to expand with overall student numbers now at 662. Over one third of the new enrolments come from referrals (Alumni & current students) - the average demographic of students is that they are 34.7 years old and have had an average of 9.3 years working in the IT industry.

IT Masters is the commercial organization that initially approached Charles Sturt University (CSU) with the vision of integrating leading IT industry certifications with premier Academic qualifications. IT Masters then worked with CSU to develop the Masters and today undertakes the following functions:

1. Promotes the Masters to the IT industry
2. Supports students studying their industry certification subjects
3. Researches and identifies opportunities to further expand the range of Masters

IT Masters currently offers the following courses and streams:

• Networking Professionals (MNSA)
• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) 2003
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
• Novell Certified Linux Engineer
• Systems Developers (MSD)
• Combined Project Management - ITIL stream
• Microsoft MCSD .NET Stream (.NET Framework v2)
• Security Specialists (MISS)
• Microsoft
• Check Point
• Cisco
• CompTIA
• IT Managers (MMIT)
• Database Professionals (MDDM)
• Microsoft Stream
• Oracle Stream
• Project Management
• Graduate Certificate in Project Management
• Graduate Diploma of Project Management
• Master of Management (PMI-ITIL)
• Master of Systems Development (PMI-ITIL)

For more information, including eligibility requirements, vists www.itmasters.com.au.

TechEd-Developer Speaker Idol '07 Contestant

I've just received notice that I've been chosen as one of the finalists for Speaker Idol '07 at TechEd-Developers Barcelona. So what's Speaker Idol? Well, as you can probably deduce from the title, it's a speakers contest.

First round participants were required to submit a 3 minute video of themselves which demonstrated their ability to deliver a technical presentation on a Microsoft product or technology using PPT, demo, or both. I submitted a video on how choosing the wrong RAID configuration for SQL Server could adversely affect application performance. Some of it was tongue-in-cheek as it played upon the usual finger pointing that goes on between developers and DBA's when applications start to perform badly; but the underlying message was that you can't use the same hardware and RAID configuration for SQL Server as you do for a File Server (something I've seen way to often) and that different RAID configurations suit different types of applications. Obviously it hit the spot!

Round two consist of 3 waves - each consisting of 3-4 participants who will present a short 5 minutes presentation (in the Speaker Idol Theatre) on any subject, as long as it references a Microsoft product or technology. At the end of each wave, a panel of judges will select a wave winner who will go through to the final wave. The 3 wave winners will then redeliver their presentation to the judges (can be the same presentation), at which stage one overall winner and one runner-up will be selected.

So what do we win? A Speaker ticket to TechEd-Developers 2008 where we will get to present a 75min technical session and 1 meter of MS Press books. Coolies!!!!

Not sure which wave I'm in yet, but hope it's Wave 1:

Date	Time	Wave
Mon 05 Nov 07	19:00 - 20:00	Wave 1: Welcome Reception
Tues 06 Nov 07	12:30 - 13:30	Wave 2: Lunch Break
Wed 07 Nov 07	12:30 - 13:30	Wave 3: Lunch Break
Thur 08 Nov 07	14:45 - 15:45	Final Wave: Break

SQL Server 2008 Certification Live Meeting

Trika has just blogged about a Live Meeting being held on 14th November 2007 to discuss the new SQL Server 2008 certifications. This session is being run by the Microsoft Certification team and is designed to:

• Introduce their plans for SQL Server 2008 training and certification,
• Review the SQL Server 2005 certifications, and
• Answer our individual questions about certification and the path that is right for you, in Business Intelligence, Database Development, or Database Administration.

Registration:

• November 14, 2007, at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time
• November 14, 2007, at 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Read the rest of this great post here

Cheers
Jeff

ISV Innovation Days Coming to Canberra

My man Oscar has done it again!

Less than 48hrs after shooting Oscar an email about the ISV Innovation Days not coming to Canberra, he has worked his magic and managed to get this changed. Is there anything this guy can't do!

ISV Innovation Days is a free event and will allow you to connect with the Microsoft ISV Virtual Team (including the Partner Team - SMS&P; our Developer Platform Evangelism - DPE) and learn about the advantages and resources of becoming an early adopter for the 2008 launch wave products (Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008) and how you can better leverage your solution on these three products, in a relaxed workshop environment.

By attending Innovation Days, you will learn about the opportunities that the Windows 2008 Launch Wave have to offer and you will also learn how you can better leverage your Windows Server, Visual Studio, and SQL Server Solutions.

Event Details

When:	Tuesday, 11 December 2007 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Where:	Microsoft Office Level 2, 44 Sydney Avenue, Barton Canberra Australian Capital Territory 2600
Product(s):	SQL Server, Visual Studio and Windows Server.
Audience(s):	Partner and Technology Decision Maker.
Agenda:	Here
Registration:	Here

Cheers
Jeff

Who Said Pub's and Geek's Don't Mix!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting two sessions on "SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition : A Developer's Primer" to the Canberra.NET User Group. Apart from being thrilled at the opportunity to present to the Canberra .NET community, it was the first time that I've ever presented at a pub. Yes, you heard me right; a pub! Athena (Canberra .NET and Canberra Windows Infrastructure User Group Lead) has achieved what no other User Group in Australia has been able to achieve and that's the successful running of a User Group at a pub.

Now before you jump to the conclusion that people only attend to drink grog, I'll let you know that no alcohol is provided at the event and not one person even brought a alcoholic drink into my session. The reason why this idea has been such a hit is because it's run at lunchtime and a pub seems to offer up a more relaxed atmosphere than a meeting room or theater. I know one thing for sure, it was the most relaxing presentation I have ever delivered.

Congratulations Athena for coming up with such a novel idea and thanks for giving me the opportunity to present at such a unique venue. Keep up the great work.

Cheers
Jeff

Kalen Delaney to Deliver Training in Brisbane & Sydney

WARDY IT Solutions is proud to announce that Kalen Delaney will be back in Australia next February teaching her highly acclaimed five day SQL Server Architecture, Internals and Optimisation course in both Brisbane and Sydney.

Kalen is considered one of the world's leading trainers and mentors for SQL Server and her courses and seminars on SQL Server internals are considered to be the best available. Kalen is also the author of Inside SQL Server 7, Inside SQL Server 2000 and the series editor for the four part Inside SQL Server 2005 series, and she is a monthly author for the SQL Server Magazine.

Places for these training events are strictly limited so make sure you reserve your seat now. As an added incentive to attend, WARDY IT Solutions is giving away the complete four book series of Inside SQL Server 2005 to all attendees who book and pay prior to the 31^st of November.

More details of this course can be found here.

Course dates:

• Brisbane 18^th to 22^nd February
• Sydney 25^th to 29^th February
  

New MCP and MCT Resources

Over the last couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of reviewing some of the the new features being made available (shortly) to Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) via the MCP and MCT member sites. The idea behind the overhaul is to provide similar functionality to that being provided to its Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) via their member site. The two new features I've been reviewing are the 'Knowledge Base Resources' and 'Community Profile and Members Directory' tools.

Knowledge Base Resources

Certified Professional will soon have access to exclusive technical information that is not available to the general public, including public security articles, partner security articles with detailed product support information, and articles about pre-release (beta) products. This feature will provide them with full access to the Microsoft Knowledge Base where they can find all that and much more. Additionally, MCT's will soon be able to author and submit Knowledge Base articles for review, and addition to this key community resource.

Community Profile and Members Directory

The 'Community Profile and Members Directory' tool will enable others to find MCP/MCT resources based on various search criteria. For this to work effectively, MCP's and MCT's will be encouraged to build a community profile on the Microsoft.com platform, complete with their photo, professional achievements, and technology expertise. This 'personal landing page' will provide an excellent way to highlight their certifications, skills, and affiliation with Microsoft-and allow clients, colleagues, and employers to find them in the Membership Directory. Conscious of members privacy, Microsoft has also built in the ability to control who see's what about a members profile by providing the following visibility restrictions:

• Microsoft – Visible only to Microsoft staff
• Microsoft + Members – Visible to Microsoft staff and other members of the your program
• Microsoft + Members + Public – Visible to Microsoft staff, other program members, and the general public

One cool (and very geeky) feature of the Members Directory is the ability for Certified Professionals to quickly share their profile with others by providing them with a personalised profile URL at Microsoft.com.

2008 Wave Launch Dates Released

Readiness event dates for the launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 & Visual Studio 2008 have now been locked in. Please note that these are not the RTM dates of these products, just the dates that Microsoft has set aside to officially launch them.

Location	Day	Date
Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre	Thursday	February 28, 2008
Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre	Tuesday	March 4, 2008
Adelaide Hilton Hotel	Thursday	March 13, 2008
Perth Convention & Exhibition Centre	Wednesday	March 19, 2008
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre	Wednesday	March 26, 2008
Canberra Hyatt Hotel	Wednesday	April 2, 2008

Be sure to visit the Helping Aussie Partners Get Ready for the 2008 Wave Launch site for update-to-date information about the Wave Launch and to subscribe to the Wave Launch RSS feed.

SQL Down Under Camp - Done and Dusted

SDU Camp is over for another year and there's no doubt that this year’s event was the best ever. The range and quality of presentations was breathtaking and the 6 first time presenters highlighted some of the awesome talent we have making its way through the ranks of the SQL community here in Australia. Many of the attendees I spoke with also stated that this event provided them with a much deeper insight into SQL Server technologies than Tech-Ed. Another great outcome for this event was that fact that it was the first time all the Australian SQL Server MVP’s and User Group Leaders were together at the one time. A feat that not even Tech-Ed has been able to achieve.

There’s so many people that need to be thanked for helping make this event such a big success and it would be too difficult to name them all without missing someone out, however here’s a few that stood out and really made an effort to help deliver such a quality event:

Organisers

Greg Low, Mai Low, Peter Ward, Jeff Wharton

Presenters

Greg Low, Kevin Kline, Peter Ward, Mehesh Krishan, Mai Low, Ducas Francis, Adam Cogan, Peter Myers, Jeff Wharton, Ron Dunn, Rob Farley, Grant paisley, Greg Linwood, Darren Gosbell, Marc Ridey, James Green, Chris Hewitt

Logistics

Readify, WARDY IT Solution, Charles Sturt University, IT Masters, Red Gate, Microsoft Australia, Eagle Boys Pizza’s

Attendees

Everyone :-D

Rahul Desai has put together an excellent overview of the event on his blog

Telstra Turbo Card MF 332 Windows Vista and 7.2Mpbs Upgrades Released

Telstra and ZTE have finally released upgrades for the Telstra Turbo MF332 Next-G Card to enable it to operate at 7.2Mbps and under Windows Vista. The only downside to these updates is that you must apply the 7.2Mbps upgrade to your card before you can use the new Turbo Card Manager software under Windows Vista, but you can only use Windows XP on 2003 to apply the upgrade. Anyone else see the irony in this!!!!!

Here are the links to the respective downloads:

Supercharge your Telstra Turbo Mobile Broadband Device (7.2Mbps)
Turbo Card Manager

Enjoy

Book: Windows Mobile Data Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Compact 3.1

Rob Tiffany has finished the final chapter of his new book called "Windows Mobile Data Synchronization with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server Compact 3.1". Chapter 5, which covers coding the Subscriber via the .NET Compact Framework and the SqlCeReplication object, is available for download from here.