Not so good news for MCM Aspirants

Few days back, late Friday (30th August 2013) MS has made an announcement – that they are cancelling the MCM Certification, not so good news for MCM Aspirants. This announcement has upset many in the SQL Community including me.

I have my own reasons, and belief about not attending any of the certification exam until few month back. In my 14+ years of career not even a single employer of mine have asked me to go and get certified. I can say, I am lucky, but all I know that I have worked hard – a lot. I have tried to learn a lot, from friends, from colleagues, from online web forums, books online, books and MS Evangelists, and still learning. And, that pays me well, I participate in community activities, speaks, blog and have been able to put my thoughts together to publish a book on SQL Server Cluster – this way I am surviving as a professional.

To be honest, during my career I have interviewed a lot many people and many of them are certified but they don’t have exposure and practical troubleshooting skills which was expected; apart from this, there are dumps available that can made it easy to clear an exam. Please, Neither I am not criticizing those who has passed nor I am saying all who haven’t passed aren’t good as professional, but I am just trying to make a point why I haven’t attempted one. With this kind of experience it never interest me to pass the certification.

And, then, MCM was introduced. I have heard a lot about Oracle exams which has lab test as well and MCM is similar kind of exams. Brent Ozar ( Blog | Twitter ) blogged about What is MCM in 2010. I have followed all his posts about MCM and has developed my interest in attending MCM training followed by an exam. Event though the exam and training fees are way too high for me, I have made my mind that I will utilize the money my employer provide each of us for training + some from my pocket to get train and earn this title – but, sadly, it is gone now.  Since MCITP is a pre-requisite for MCM, I have made my mind, attempted and failed. However, I was sure, I was reading more and will clear it in next attempt. But, I am not sure, whether I will be taking an MCITP now.

I will be more than happiest person, if this decision for MCM exam are reversed or some relevant / at par exams are introduced. In our country, it is said that “whatever happened has happened for the good, and whatever that is going to be happen in future will be for good”.  I am hoping that this saying will hold true.

At the end, I would like to say, if you are believer and aspirant of this exam just like me please take some time and vote on the MS Connect site for reconsideration.

Thank you

Hemantgiri S. Goswami (http://www.sql-server-citation.com)

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Download free eBook on SQL Server 2008 R2

In this quarter Microsoft Press has gift a free eBook on "Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2", a book written by Microsoft SQL Server MVP Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner.

This book has 10 Chapters and 216 pages which covers

• Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2
• Multi Server Administration
• Data Tier Application
• HA and Virtualization Enhancements
• Server Consolidation and Monitoring 
• Data Warehousing
• Master Data Services
• Event Processing with StreamInsigh
• SSRS Enhancements
• Self-Service Analysis using PowerPivot

Isn't this list looking great? I just have downloaded this book in PDF format, alternatively you can download this book in XPS format as well.

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Virtualization – a way to reduce IT Costs!

A month ago I and my friend were discussing IT budget, and it becomes very interesting when we started discussing virtualization. Let me brief you the case: with the growing business usage of IT infrastructure increases and that increases the usage of energy and space. Apart from this, there is another side; are those resources getting utilized at optimum level? Well, at some cases yes but in most of the cases it doesn't - source.

One would think if this really requires? I would say, yes, it is required. Let's take an example here; company Ax Inc is managing its 200 servers at its datacenter at Bangalore. Let's say a single server which utilized at 60% consumes 350 watts, now let us calculate -:

Unit	Rate	Amount
Up to 100	2.90	290
101 to 200	3.60	360
201 to 300	4.20	420
301 to 400	4.45	222.5
Above 401	4.70	-- NA --
Bill generated for single server		1292.5

                                   (Figure 1)

Further, calculating this amount for 200 servers would make 258500/- INR per month (US$ 5609.45 per month, as of 23-Feb-2010 according to CurrenciesDirect). If we also consider the bill for cooling systems and miscellaneous expenses it would be much more. In addition, add licensing costs, resources which manage and maintain this IT Infrastructure will add some extra burden.

Is there a solution for this? Yes, there is a solution for this – Virtualization. Virtualization is great technology which helps us to utilize our IT infrastructure at the max and lower down the costs. You must be wondering how this can be possible, and if it is; how to implement this solution!!!  As I said above, our discussion was turned very interesting – the solutions are to implement "Virtualization". Virtualization – a methodology of dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments, by applying one or more concepts or technologies such as hardware and software partitioning , time-sharing, partial or complete machine simulation, emulation, quality of services, and many other.

There are bunch of benefits that are attached to with implementing Virtualization, and related product i.e. lowering power consumption, ease of deployment, maintenance and updates, and consolidation. Let me brief you about each.

Lowering power consumption: As I shown you in the above calculation in figure 1, 200 servers would generate whooping electricity bill - 31,02,000/- (2585000*12) annually. This is just an example and that to without considering cooling system.

Now, if you have hardware with Hyper-V you will be able to have your multiple servers on it. You can even host with Linux. And, naturally with lower numbers of servers your electricity bill goes down significantly.

Ease of Deployment: With the use of Microsoft Virtual Server Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager you will be able to optimized your physical and virtual resources.

• Centralized virtual machine deployment and management
• Intelligent placement of virtual machines
• Integrated performance and resource optimization
• Fast physical to virtual and virtual to virtual conversion
• Leverage and extend existing storage infrastructure
• Scriptable using PowerShell
• Live migration
• Hot add/remove of VHDs, pass-through disks
• Server consolidation

Maintenance and Updates: The real beauty is that it makes administrator's life easy. With the use of System Center Configuration Manager and Operation Manager you will be able to easily do our maintenance and updates easily.

• Comprehensive application and service level monitoring
• Update management
• Software distribution
• Operating system deployment
• Ease of Backup

Conclusion: Virtualization helps a lot to save energy by consuming less power, save resources, and make IT administrator's life easy by server consolidation, deployment of patches and updates and even migration. As I have said in my previous post about embedding security to your product or piece of code, you may have the same tight security mechanism implemented with Virtualization- refer the document. Microsoft's own websites like MSDN and TechNet which has 1~3 million hits a day runs 100% on Hyper – V.

Cumulatively all this effort saves a lots of money by reducing IT costs, this makes real sense to me because it makes my life easy and as IT cost is down my client is happy with the solution.

Further reading:

Videos:

Monitoring .NET and Web Applications with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

Selecting the Right Candidates for Virtualization

Consolidation and Rapid Provisioning

Physical and Virtual Server Management

Application Virtualization Cost Reduction Study

Virtual Labs:

TechNet Virtual Lab: Introduction to System Center Essentials 2007

TechNet Virtual Lab: System Center Operations Manager 2007- Introduction

TechNet Virtual Lab: System Center Operations Manager 2007- Advanced Topics

References:
http://www.mybengaluru.com/resources/2248-Bangalore-Electricity-Tariff-Hike.aspx
http://www.spec.org/power_ssj2008/docs/SPECpower-Methodology.pdf

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Embed security and secure your data

Security!! A word – that everybody want, whatever it may for - a life, money or a job. In an IT world this term is often used, and asked by the client, the customer or the end user because it is closely attached to the information they are providing or storing or exchanging with each other. It can create a chaos if an ounce of the information is leaked or spread publicly; refer the case about classified US Military info available, reported in July-2007 by Network World.  

So, what we really have to care about that every piece of work that we do should be secure - by default, and this applies to every technology. That means whatever we work on, we should follow and implement the security policies to build the robust and secure product. Recently, I was researching about security and I found a link about Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL). It is since 2004 that Microsoft has made SDL mandatory to follow for its entire product range.  I would advise you to follow the same when you make a product for a business environment, communication software such as messenger or dealing with the sensitive information. 

Since 2004, most of the product from Microsoft has built-in features to tighten security. This applies to SQL server as well; you can see that SQL Server 2005 has great security features i.e. you can enforce password policy on your database server to ensure that the passwords that your users are crating are strong. Apart from this   now it is not necessary to assign system administrator rights to run profile, the only permission user requires is ALTER TRACE to run profiler. You may refer my article on how to secure SQL server for more pointers.

Microsoft publish security bulletin every month which will give advice you if you required installing any patch on your system. And to make this procedure easy for Windows operating systems and Office product Microsoft is offering Security Compliance Management Toolkit Series. Also to keep your system free from Viruses or malware Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) toolkit is useful.

So, all in all we all should be more cautious when we are dealing with sensitive data and should improve by following SDL.

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Get Discount of 25% to first 25 people for Surat SQL Server User group - TechEd India 2009

Dear Surat SQL Server User Group members,

Culminis, INETA APAC and PASS, have worked along with Microsoft to secure a unique discount for our user group members. TechEd is happening in after a period of 3 years. http://www.microsoft.com/india/teched2009/. With Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft is giving the Keynote, and illustrious speakers presenting.

Tech.Ed-India 2009 is all about getting yourself ready for the next wave of technology innovations and trends. In today's economic scenario, more than ever before, it has become pertinent that we stay ahead of the curve so as to establish ourselves as the future trend- setters. Tech.Ed-India 2009 - with its offering of sub-events - offers you this opportunity to interact with some of the leading lights in the business and technology space globally, talk to Microsoft product development teams directly, and get in-depth hands-on-trainings and certifications in some of the most coveted and anticipated technologies of our time.

Special Discount for Surat SQL Server User Group Members

If you are attending TechEd, as a member of "Surat SQL Server User Group" you can get a 25% discount. This discount is available to the first 25 people to respond via an email to inteched2009@surat-user-group.org the first 25 people to respond will receive instructions on how to avail the discount.
You are requested to Share your User name and email id which you use to sign in to Surat User Group Website while submitting your request.

Hey, if you are not the registered member of Surat User Group, do not worry. Get your self registered here and grab the opportunity!!!!

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Download SQL Server 2008 SP1

Microsoft has released SP1 for SQL Server 2008 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968382

List of the bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1

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Microsoft Virtual Techdays

It would be a good time again.... Microsoft Virtual Techday (VTD) is back; below is an agenda
http://www.virtualtechdays.com/agendaday1.aspx

Get registered!!

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PUG Community Day 10 Jan 09

From 6:00 to 7:30 PM @ Nalanda,SEED Infotech Ltd
: Topic :
NAP with Windows Server 2008
: Speaker :
Abhishek Pradhan - Information Security(SIR Specialist)
Currenly working with Symmentec India,he have around 5 yrs of expertise on various Server Technologies and on Microsoft domain
Free event for all..
Some Landmark for Venue :
Near Mehendale Garage,Near Karnataka High School,Near Yugay Mangal Karyalaya,Near Gandhi Lawns[One near City Pride Kothrud]
Venue by : SEED Infotech Ltd.

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Failed to connecto to SSIS

Sometimes we receive "SSMS failed to connect to SSIS on client machine", Microsoft has released KB 940232 for the workaround

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Timeout occured while running dbcc freeproccache/alter database/sp_configure/sp_detace_db

Some of us might have face timeout when we run DBCC FREEPROCCACHE, Alter Database, Restore Database, SP_configure or sp_detach_db ; Microsoft has released KB 925419 which has workaround for the problem.

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Feature Pack for SQL Server 2005

Have you downloaded stand alone value addition packages for SQL Server 2005 like Best Practice Analyzer,Performance Dashboard etc. ? Here is a link where you can find this all http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=50b97994-8453-4998-8226-fa42ec403d17&displaylang=en

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Logging and Data Storage Algorithms in MS SQL Server

Ever wonder how SQL Server Logs data in T-Log and Data Files? What algorithm it uses!!! What is ARIES (Algorithm for Recovery and Isolation Exploiting Semantics), refer Microsoft Knowledge Base Article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/230785 which gives the complete details how it works!! With the detail explanation on each steps and terms.

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Do Win a Lottery - Money from Microsoft

Hi,
Now a days I have seen too many emails in my inbox fwd by friends and unknown persons claiming that THEY WON $$$$$ BECAUSE THEY FWD THIS TO THIS MANY PEOPLE, SOME ARE ASKING FOR ADVANCE MONEY TO GET YOU MORE MONEY and this type of emails are fake / fraud emails don't ever forward them and do not believe in this kind of emails. This is now confirmed by Microsoft Officials so ignore this type of emails and don't ever believe on it. Refer below link for more

http://blogs.msdn.com/securitytipstalk/archive/2007/03/09/did-you-win-the-microsoft-lottery.aspx

Hemantgiri S. Goswami

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Index Defregment Best Practice

Here is the best article on Index Defregment Best Practice published on Microsoft Web Site

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/ss2kidbp.mspx

Hemantgiri S. Goswami

Microsoft SQL Server MVP

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, SQL Server, Index Defregment, Best Practice

powered by performancing firefox

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Difference between Stored Procedure and Function (UDF)

Functions

• can be used with Select statement


• Not returning output parameter but returns Table variables


• You can join UDF


• Can not be used to change server configuration


• Can not be used with XML FOR clause


• Can not have transaction within function

Stored Procedure

• have to use EXEC or EXECUTE


• return output parameter


• can create table but won’t return Table Variables


• you can not join SP


• can be used to change server configuration


• can be used with XML FOR Clause


• can have transaction within SP

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New Version Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2 and Books On Line release

New version of SQL Server 2005 SP2 & SQL Server 2005 Books Online (BOL) released and now available at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/sp2.mspx

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Remote Deployement of SQL Server

Hi All,

When it comes to deploying a SQL Server Remotely with Sharepoint service, we just think and search around to get the answer how do i?!!!

Here is a very good article on the Remote Deployment of SQL Server with Sharepoint Services, Refer http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsc02.mspx?mfr=true for more.

Regards
Hemantgiri S. Goswami
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
"Humans don't have Caliber to PASS TIME , Time it self Pass or Fail Humans"

Disclaimer: This postings is provided "AS IS"

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SQL Server : TO Blob or Not

Hi All,

In many community forums i participated i found many users ask a querstion on BLOB datatype. That is "Is it okay if i do store binary files / images / documents store in SQL Server Database?" . The answer is no.....it is always good to store the location of the Binary Files or Documents Or Images and let it handled by Front End application. Here is a wonderfull research paper published on Microsoft Site http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?msr_tr_id=MSR-TR-2006-45

Regards
Hemantgiri S. Goswami
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
"Humans don't have Caliber to PASS TIME , Time it self Pass or Fail Humans"

Disclaimer: This postings is provided "AS IS"

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New Year Gift from Microsoft

Hi All,
I am honored Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Windows Server System - SQL Server Competency for year 2007. A wonderfull gift from Microsoft.

Hemantgiri S. Goswami

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"Katmai" - Next Version of SQL Server

Hi All,
Microsoft officials has announced in their blog at ZDNET website, They code name it "Katmai" that would be next version of Microsoft SQL Server and that's not just a SQL Server but more then that. Read more on it http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=217

Regards
Hemantgiri S. Goswami
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
"Humans don't have Caliber to PASS TIME , Time it self Pass or Fail Humans"

Disclaimer: This postings is provided "AS IS"

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