SQL Server
Last week I presented at my local PASS Chapter meeting (Professional Association for SQL Server). It was great to participate in the meeting and to network with other SQL Professionals in my area. My presentation was “What’s new with R2?” and covered the latest features in the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP. My presentation covered the 3 major projects of the release due out in the first half of next year: Projects Gemini, Madison and Kilimanjaro. Project Gemini is for “Self Service Business Intelligence” and integrates SSAS 2008 R2 with Office 2010. Project Madison integrates the acquired DATAllegro technology for support of huge databases in excess of 100TBs. The August CTP contains the first functionality for Project Kilimanjaro which provides Multi-Server Management capabilities. I demoed creating a UCP (Utility Control Point) which hosts the central repository called a Utility Management Data Warehouse (UMDW) and enrolling Managed Instances which are the SQL Servers you want to manage/monitor. I also showed how to create a Data-tier Application Component (DAC) so that you can monitor individual application databases too. I used the “Julia Child” method of demonstration. After showing how to get started, I took a “fully baked” UMDW out of the oven to show some actual results after 24 hours of data collection. Then they could see the UCP Dashboard to quickly assess the health of the SQL Servers. There were some great questions and comments. For instance, if the managed instances all have to be SQL 2008 R2 Enterprise (as it is in the CTP) it will be a very long time before this feature is used. I think the phrase “non-starter” was used. Hopefully that will change in future CTPs. Another question revolved around the polices that define “over-utilization” and “under-utilization”. I was able to answer the technical questions but I think we all agreed that we had no concept of what an under-utilized server looks like, never having seen one before. Have you? In your dreams maybe… cheers Brian
