This past weekend I attended SQL Saturday here in sunny Cleveland. And while there were probably more fun ways to spend a Saturday, I have to say I’m very glad I went. There were some great sessions by Steve Jones, Thomas LaRock, Grant Fritchey, and Jeremiah Peschka and I learned a ton of information.
However, I would say that 2 things stand out as the most important lessons I came away with.
1) sp_whoisactive. I don’t know where I’ve been. Under a rock, apparently. This stored procedure by Adam Mechanic is AWESOME. Period. I downloaded it this morning and within seconds was able to provide my users with the exact SQL from a couple of reports that were killing our system. Out of the box, this procedure lists details about all active sessions, including the time since the last batch, the spid, full SQL text, login, CPU utilization, tempdb usage, disk and usage, and a lot more. I haven’t even explored all the options yet. This is my new sp_who, my new activity monitor, my new [insert name of pretty third party tool here]. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do it now!
2) This one is a bit embarrassing. I haven’t updated my resume since… ok I’m not going to say exactly when. Suffice it to say it’s been years. Years. There, I said it. My head hangs in shame. Why so long? I don’t really have a good explanation. I’ve been at the same employer for over 10 years. I’m not looking to leave at this point. I realize that just because I have no intention of leaving, that doesn’t mean my employer might not have other ideas. And the longer I leave it, the more difficult the task becomes. Key points get forgotten. So the second important (and probably the *most* important) thing I took away from SQL Saturday is that I have to make more of an effort in building and maintaining a “brand” for myself, which includes keeping my resume up to date.
Which leads me to this blog. This is more for me than anyone else. A place to document things I know, things I learn, questions I face, and maybe even help someone else. And this is my first post, done. Glad we got that out of the way.