Today at PASS Summit 2010…spoilt for choice…but no frills

With over 160 technical sessions available at the PASS Summit conference, a techie like me is like a kid in a candy store. I have already outlined the catchy names that have gained my attention in a previous blog entry. Now I am going to focus on the honest to goodness subject matter…no frills. OK, maybe a few. “How to Optimize tempdb Performance” is a subject that has spawned many a lively discussion in recent classes of mine so I am looking forward to hearing what Brad Mcgehee has to say on the subject. I tend to lean towards speakers that I know will give the subject enough depth while at the same time keeping things lively and entertaining. Speaking of entertaining, Buck Woody is presenting “Database Testing Overview” which sounds fairly mundane but you know that Buck will bring the house down so it’s certainly worth a visit. At the same time, I have been avoiding Sharepoint recently so now may be the chance to catch up by attending “What Every DBA Should Know About Sharepoint 2010” by Victor Isakov. I only have so many brain cells but plenty of my SQL Server students have been asking about this latest version. I am very interested in SQL Server 2008 Master Data Services so one of the sessions I will be attending is Paul Bertucci’s session “An MDM Methodololgy with SQL Server 2008 Master Data Services”. Paul is one of the primary authors of the “SQL Server Unleashed” series and did a great session on Database Mirroring last year. Kevin Kline has always been a great servant to PASS, and today he is presenting “End-to-End Troubleshooting for SQL Server” which will be interesting. Kevin will explore the best Perfmon counters and DMVs to choose and how to use the native tools available in SQL Server to your advantage. Should be good. By the end of the week I certainly feel exhausted (and my brain hurts) but I am always happy that I was able to be there. I am sure this year will be no different. Cheers Brian