Pragmatic Works – Performance Tuning

I had the opportunity last week to attend the SQL Server Performance Tuning Workshop by Pragmatic Works Learning Center.

I definitely recommend this workshop.

This is the second class I have taken at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center located in Cambridge, MA.

It is conveniently located right off the Kendall station stop on the Massachusetts Transit Bay Authority (MBTA) Red Line.

The main instructor for the class was Bradley Ball aka SQLBalls. He was a very likable speaker possessing good presentation skills as well as a wealth of knowledge to draw upon.

The following topics were covered during the two day workshop.

  1. Introduction: ‘Houston, do you have a problem?’
  2. Hardware Environment and Configuration
  3. Software Environment and Configuration
  4. Understanding Queries in SQL Server
  5. Index Tuning
  6. Locking / Blocking / Deadlocks / Latches
  7. Waits and Queues Methodology
  8. Baselines
  9. Setting Up Alerts
  10. Extended Events and other Monitoring Tools
  11. Making it real

Other Pragmatic employees at the event were Kim Hathaway (training) and Nick Slevoski (sales).

Kim presented several topics when Bradley needed a break and Nick made sure the event went on without a hitch.

The food and refreshments were plenty and good. Mike Hillwig, a Microsoft SQL MVP, also attended the class.

In short, if you have the time and money, please take the workshop. You might even learn something like this old IT guy did.

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