Presenter: Craig Utley, Mentor with Solid Quality Mentors
craig@solidq.com
http://learnmicrosoftbi.com
Popularity: 8% [?]
Game Changing Announcement for Microsoft BI
Boy doesn’t this sound like other previous Microsoft endeavors. Hmmmm…. The post/video indicates the following end results.
- Supporting the democratization of BI (aka BI for the masses) with the consolidation of PerformancePoint Server Monitoring and Analytics functions into Office SharePoint Server Enterprise. The new capabilities will be called PerformancePoint Services.
- As I read the announcement, PerformancePoint Planning has been put out of our misery. Service Pack 3 will represent the end of the line for investment in a stand-alone PPS Planning product.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Yes, okay, call me a dolt for having to take five minutes to find this but I’ve seen this question asked so many places I figured I’d throw it up here.
In Visual Studio 2008 when working on a SQL Server Reporting Services report, you may find that you want to change the order in which the parameters are listed to the end user. Or perhaps you are using unnamed parameters, such as with ODBC, and need to change the order for token replacement in your query. Well in 2008 this is not where you expected it to be if coming from 2005.
To start with, see if you have the Report Data region showing. If not, go to the toolbar and click View –> Report Data as shown below.
Now, find the parameters section and expand it. Pick a parameter that needs re-ordering. Click and highlight the parameter. Now a little further up you will see a set of up and down arrows. Use these to move the parameter, re-order the list of parameters.
I know, too simple right? Well, sometimes the obvious things are easily overlooked.
Blessings to you!
Popularity: 27% [?]
So I have a few minutes to decompress and give kudos to the great folks at SSWUG.org for putting on a great vConf. What’s a vConf? You mean you don’t know? 
Well, take a look at the partner site at vConferenceOnline.com. They’ve got a great setup going. Essentially the pre-tape each session in the studio. That way the quality is controlled and ends up great. (Next one is slated to be in HD). Then they have created an asp based solution (Gotta wonder why ASP? 
) that handles making the appropriate “rooms” available at the appropriate times during the actual virtual conference. All from the comfort of home, the office, the library or even your favorite coffee shop.
This time, they ran 3 rooms simultaneously for the Business Intelligence conference I attended. The format allows the first half of the day to have these sessions running. The second half of the day the re-run the first half of the day. This way you get a chance to see secondary sessions that may have been running at the same time in the morning.
There were actually 4 conferences going on at the same time. A SQL Server, Business Intelligence, .Net Developer and MS Sharepoint were all available. Each conference was a separate registration fee but for the price you cannot beat it.
Well, take a look at the partner site at vConferenceOnline.com. They’ve got a great setup going. Essentially the pre-tape each session in the studio. That way the quality is controlled and ends up great. (Next one is slated to be in HD). Then they have created an asp based solution (Gotta wonder why ASP? ) that handles making the appropriate “rooms” available at the appropriate times during the actual virtual conference.
The video quality is very good and continues to improve. The content distribution network they are using seems to be quite well suited for such multimedia distribution. Note, you’re going to need some decent bandwidth to get the best quality.
There are set times for exhibitor booth visits which has gone through a great overhaul this time. On demand vendor videos, downloads and of course vendor chat rooms.
Here’s the best part. 3 days for one conference was $100, actually $10 less since I’ve been to the previous two. That’s a BARGAIN when you consider typical conference costs, meals, lodging, travel and more. You certainly do miss out on the personal interaction however they are working on ideas for that. Currently during each presentation, appropriate chat rooms are available for participants and the speaker.
So, yup, I’ll continue to go as long as the quality of the experience and information remains high. Kudos to those who helped put it on.
Kudos Stephen Wynkoop, Chris Shaw and the rest of the gang.
Popularity: 6% [?]
We just ordered our licenses for SQL Server 2008 (various editions). Now it is time to get ready for the migration. While doing some research on the actual report .rdl upgrade process I figured I’d put my findings here.
The Performance Point Blog has this FAQ that has a few good tidbits. The one that stuck out to me was the last one:
“Q: I know that every once in a while, a 2005 report won’t auto-upgrade to
2008 successfully. How can I tell if a report I’m running is being rendered in 2005 or 2008 mode?
A: We attempt to upgrade a 2005 report to 2008 once and only once. If the process fails the first time, we don’t try again. To see which engine is being used to render a report, use the new ExecutionLog2 view in the
reportserver database, examine the AdditionalInfo column and check the <ProcessingEngine> element. A value of 2 indicates the new 2008 “on demand” rendering engine was used, while a value of 1 means the older, 2005 engine was used.”
Seems like a quick way of seeing which engine is being used when you first hit those reports after upgrading the server. Good stuff.
A brief take from Cliff Nelson is here referencing an internal discussion guided by Robert Bruckner.
Oh, I have to say that I am very excited about the chart, graph and gauge controls, a la Dundas, that are included as part of SSRS 2008. Plus, there available for the .Net framework 3.5 as standalone controls. Yipee!
As we move further in this process I’ll post any important pieces here for my use and yours.
Blessings.
Popularity: 24% [?]
So Jason Massie has called me a many other out on this recent post. Ha! Of course looks like Chris Shaw was the real instigator.
So, he wants us each to share a stupid mistake we’ve made regarding our roles as DBA’s. For myself, I certainly use the term DBA very lightly. Anyhow, that post got me thinking, what was the biggest stupid mistake I’d made over so many years working with DB’s that others could learn from?
Well Jason already hit an obvious one about always having a reliable backup. That’s bitten me a few times, mostly because the network backup solution had “good” backups, only to find out that I needed to restore (rollback) and the backup was actually bad. Yikes. Disk based backup has been more reliable for me, but even today, before I make a DB schema or large data change you’ll find me making a manually backup of the db to some other location.
So, what else could I confess to doing? Well here’s another one, related to backups, but really related to DBA diligence. Not too long ago, I found myself in a bit of a bind. Our SQL server instances have been humming along swimmingly for months. I’ve been heads down on some other not DBA related projects. Peers are working with our CRM solution doing mailing address validation through a third party. Typically export/validation/import type stuff.
I get called over after a few days of overheard head scratching. We talk about the data and potential data corruption that may have taken place a few days ago. Run some queries to identify the extent of the damage. Ouch! Problems are definitely there.
No problem, we’ll get the backup of the DB from 2 days ago, and do some data fixing between the old and new datasets. You know the story. Open SQL Server Management Studio and check out the last backup date/time and transaction logs….WHAT! 3 months ago? Yup, there was an application running on the network that was holding open connections to the database even when it wasn’t doing anything.
“Bad programmer”, I thought knowing good and well it was something I had slapped together to answer a need. Silly me. Well, the DB backups were part of the shared maintenance plan and it was setup to do database checks and fix issues prior to backups. Wow, really? Yup.
The maintenance task could not take the db into single user mode to correct an issue 3 months ago. That had been causing the job to fail and the backups not to run. UGH!
What’s the big morale of the story? Diligence! I had gotten away from the basic of tasks, daily care and feeding of our environment. Sure, if it was a 2005 or 2008 environment I would have had those darned error emails, but we all know what a pain mail was on 2000 so nobody had ever set it up.
You will now find a three ring binder on my desk with a daily checklist in it. Believe me, all DB’s, jobs, etc… are looked at almost every morning now. Don’t get bored of the mundane, it will bite you.
So, there is my humbling story just for you Jason!
Blessings.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Well, just got back from attending the Microsoft 2008 Launch event. Yes, Microsoft! Come on now, most of us in the enterprises still work with Microsoft products daily. ;o)
It was the standard Microsoft event. Got to the Dallas Convention Center at about 7:20 and there was already a line of cars waiting to pay the $8.00 to park in the Convention Center parking garage. I was going to take the TRE to Union Station and then the DART Red line south to Convention Center Station but change my mind at the last minute. Two escalators up and then to the registration area.
Funny enough, the gal getting me registered seemed to think I looked familiar as she also did to me. After about five minutes of asking questions of eachother, we realized we worked for the same retailer in the early ’90s. Funny!
Grabbed my turkey lunch bag from the table. Wow, neat little black zippered Microsoft lunch cooler. I’ll actually hang on to that and use it elsewhere. Almost worth the trip already. 
Now to walk the gauntlet of vendors in the exhibitors area. Met the Microsoft BI folks, talked some non-profit pricing numbers, got some information. Then to the Microsoft Unified Communications guy. Just filled out a form and grab some schwag. Developer evangelist talking to a larger group of folks. Figured I’d listen in. Did he just say that they already have support for programming the IRobot Roomba? Cool! Microsoft Robotics Studio.
A few more meets and greets and I’m outta there. Made a few quick calls back to the office checking on this and that. Headed to the arena for the keynote. Arrived early and got those good aisle seats. Yeah! Running 15 minutes late so we got to view the vendor videos, yet again. UGH! Too much marketing. Keynote was okay but not terribly inspiring.
I was in the Data IT Pro track and it was certainly not too stellar. Demos were a bit rough but I guess that can certainly happen. But the primary speaker for two of the sessions just did not have a great personality for speaking and I think that zoned a bunch of people out.
I did get excited about a couple of things.
Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Remote Apps – Ability to virtualize presentation of applications, not just desktops. Seems like this will steal away from Citrix but hey, good for us.
“Terminal Services (TS) RemoteApp programs are accessed through Terminal Services, and look and act as if they are running on the end user’s local computer. Users can run TS RemoteApp programs side by side with their local programs. If a user is running more than one RemoteApp on the same terminal server, RemoteApp will share the same Terminal Services session.” – Per Microsoft
Visual Studio 2008 will now support PHP. At least that is what the keynote stated. I’ll have to load it up and take a look-see. Also, apparently Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7 is supposed to include support for PHP without us having to go to third party pieces. Keep in mind that I’m skeptical about this. Is this a Microsoft version of PHP? Yikes!
Freebies included:
Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition
Visual Studio 2008
Windows Vista Ultimate SP 1
I cut out a bit early form there and came back to the office to do some more PHP/SQL coding so the day would not be a complete loss. It was nice to get away from the office for a few hours though and we scored some free licenses of products we will use for the non-profit.
Blessings.
Popularity: 6% [?]
