Education

SQL Class

Found a nice article on some basic SQL. Check it out, it is never bad to have the knowledge even if you are not a DBA or SQL Developer.

 http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/ti…

Another New Language

My team is going to be developing a new application that will handle all of our monitoring. Currently that includes the monitoring of Sybase Servers, Oracle Instances, and MSSQL Servers. We will also be adding another Database Type that will house all of the Monitoring data. We will be using a MYSQL backend for this application. This application will be developed to run on a unix host so I need to be able to connect to my MSSQL servers from the unix host and insert rows of data back into the MYSQL database. To do this I think that we have decided on Perl for the language of choice. So I now get to go learn Perl. I am excited to learn another language as I am of the befleif that the more tools I have in my box the better off I will be. I will be starting my educational journey of Perl at

 http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/10/begper…

I am looking forward to this project and I will keep you up to date on the progress and features.

SQL Server 2008 Learning

I found this nice article that I thought I should pass on regarding Learning SQL Server 2008.

 http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/ge…

The article talks about key features and enhancments from SQL Server 2005, BI, Security, and more good stuff. Check it out and enjoy.

MR. Denny has a webcast

I just saw this and I am looking forward to attending. MR. Denny is a great SQL Resource and I am sure that I will learn new things during this webcast. Here is a link to his blog entry about the webcast.

 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.co…

I suggest you check it out and learn something new from a knowledgable SQL Server DBA.

Still working towards Cert.

Sorry that I have not posted in so long. I have had some family things come up and I have ben very busy. I think that I have all that worked out, except for being busy, and I should be back to posting at more regular intervals.

I am still working on getting my MCITP DBA. I, and the guys I work with, are still working on the first book. I must say that I really do still have a lot to learn but I love that. That is why I chose to get into IT, the education never ends. I just never have enough time to do all that I want and to read all that I want. I am still working with Powershell alot and trying to do things with SQL Server and Poweshell combined. I am working on some small scripts that will gather important information from SQL Server for us and I will share them as I complete them. Anyway, I still have about 5 chapters to go in the first study guide book and then I think that I will read it again and this time I will do all the practices and examples as I go. I am not this time around because I am just attempting to absorb as much as I can and get a basic understanding. Once I have that then I will be able to go though it again and dig deeper and do the stuff and really understand what it is all about and how it works.

Anyone have any thoughts on how I can better prepare myself for the MCITP exams I am all ears.

Thanks and I will be posting again soon.

SQL Server Certs

I have been talking about what I would like to do to further my education and my carreer as a DBA. I started reading the books in order to study for my MCITP DBA certification and the other members of my team decided that they would like to do the same. They both ordered the books as well and now we are going to attempt to get the certification as a team. We just started working as a group on this and we are doing a 3 hour study session per week and trying to get three chapters of the book done per week. We read the chapters on our own and then we can work the problems, case scenarios, and the examples in the book together. This is great since if any one of us has any questions we can talk about it and make sure that we all understand the concepts.

I think I will gain the most out of this arrangement since I am the new guy still and they have a lot more experiance than I do. I recommend trying to do this type of thing in a group for a couple of reasons.

1. For me this will really push me forward and I will be more driven to get it all done

2. I work better in a group and if I have others that understand concepts I learn best from them.

Iris Pen

My wife is still in school and she wanted a way to scan lines from her book into some application in order to print notecards. She found the solution and it works really well. Thought I would pass it along to you all. It is called the Iris Pen.

 http://www.irislink.com/c2-1056-189/IRIS…

This is a cool highlighter sized scanner with a pretty good OCR. It types what you have scanned into any application.  I have set it up on her Netbook and she is using Word 2007 with the Avery 5388 3X5 Index card template. It scans the text right in and then she can manipulate it in any way that she wants. Ie, bold, italic, hightlight, ….

If you are looking for a small handheld USB scanner that can scan directly into an application then this is it. I am sure that I will use it to make flashcards for me as well for the MCITP tests. I really think that it will help make my study faster as well.

Check it out.

SQL Server Training Kit

I received my SQL Server 2005 Certification Training kit in the mail and have started on the first book. I am trying to do a chapter a day so that I will be able to take the test in a month or less. So far I have only done two chapters in two days but the book is not bad to read and has good explanation. I am doing all the practices, questions, and case studies. So far nothing has been to hard and it has been stuff that I already have a good understanding of with the exception of the bit of encryption that it got into. Nothing to hard though. I am looking forward to Chapter 3 to learn more about the configuration options on the server. I am hoping to be able to help performance on some of my instances once I get a feel for what all the options really mean and how they affect the server.

SQL Server Education

In an earlier post I said that I was about to start reading some books from the advanced Sybase Training course. I have changed course since then and I have decided to move on with some SQL Server education instead. I have decided that I would like to get my MCITP: Database Administrator certificate. I have never really felt like certificates were very meaningful while I was doing workstation and Windows administration. I have changed my views of certificates when it comes to the Database world. I have decided to tackle SQL Server first for a couple of reasons.

1. It is a MS Product and has a nice GUI. I come from a Windows Administration background and feel that this is the logical course.
2. My company has roughly 50 production SQL servers that we really do not do much with. I have written a Powershell script to monitor the SQL Servers for errors but we need to do more.

I have already started my journey and have finished reading my first MS SQL Server book. I read Beginning SQL Server 2005 Administration by Wrox publishing. I enjoyed the book and I ordered the next in the series called Professional SQL Server 2005 Administration. I like the way the books are laid out and have hands on examples that you can try if you have installed the AdventureWorks Database.

I have also ordered the study material for the three tests that I will have to take in order to get the certification. I am hoping to get these books in the mail in the next day or two. I would like to try to take one test a month and have my certification in about three months. I am looking forward to doing more in SQL Server and have learned a lot just from the first book. I will continue to keep you updated on this and hopefully you can learn along with me.

If you have any questions please head over to http://sysadminsmith.com and click the submit a question link to the right.

Sybase Learning Continued

Today I came back into the office after having a week off. It is always hard to come back into the office but it is nice to get back into the swing of things as well. When I arrived I found some new Sybase books sitting on my desk. Now I know that my company is not going to send me to another class right now in these rough economic times so it was a nice surprise to see the books. Unfortunately, they are the old books of a former employee here. None the less, I plan on reading the books and trying to do as many of the labs as I can. I will be posting in the future about what I am learning here. I have some ASE Performance and Tuning as well as Advanced Administration and Troubleshooting books. I am really looking forward to the Performance and Tuning guide as I would love to make our end users experience better. I will keep you posted on my progress.