DBA Diaries

Thoughts and experiences of a DBA working with SQL Server and MySQL

Have You Set Yourself Any Goals for the New Year?

Posted on January 12, 2013 Written by Andy Hayes 2 Comments

“New year, new start” – I’ve heard that saying several times and it could mean the start of many different things.

A new diet, a new fitness regime, a new job or complete career change. Giving up a vice, a new qualification, a new life – there will be others I’m sure.

I don’t usually do new years resolutions but this year I have set myself some new targets and they are related to my profession as a DBA.

SQL Server Certification

I wrote about this before in my posts on SQL Server 2012 certification

Whether you agree or disagree as to whether there is any benefit to certification is your opinion and I have certainly changed my mind on many occasions. I have decided that one of my goals this year will be to study and sit the exams.

Whether I do all of them this year remains to be seen. There are five to pass if I want to get to MCSE but I would hope that I can at least get to MCSA status this year and complete to MCSE the following year.

At the time of writing this post, there seems to be a delay with the release of the exam guide from Microsoft Press for exam 70-461. I have started to look at 70-462 instead as the exam kit is available to buy and I really wanted to get some material that contained practice questions that I could test myself with.

If you are working towards certification yourself or have experience with another SQL Server qualification, it would be great to hear from you. Any tips on approaches to study and revision would be gratefully received. 🙂

Blogging at DBA Diaries

My blog DBA Diaries is now a little over a year old and on a personal front, it has been really enjoyable building it and watching it grow. Traffic to the site is increasing month on month and its been really great to engage with readers who have found my site and commented.

I’m very keen to grow the site in this coming year and have a big list of things that I want to do with it. As well as ensuring that I contribute regularly, I wanted to give the site a new look. I use Thesis which is a great theme for WordPress but I have only touched the surface with what it is capable of.

Writing SQL articles for other sites

I’m looking for sites that I can write articles for. I’ve found the blogging experience really enjoyable and I want to write more and contribute to the SQL community in other ways.

Why have I written a blog post about this?

It’s part of my approach. If I write things down then I am more likely to do them instead of procrastinating over them. The fact that I am broadcasting it puts that little bit of pressure on me to work through it.

Everyone is different and this is me trying to ensure that I am focused on the goals I have set myself. I do fear that I may have given myself too much to do but we will see. The important thing will be to have a clear plan and be organized.

So what about you?

Have you set yourself any personal goals for your career this year? I’d be really interested to know what those are.

Filed Under: All Articles, Career Development Tagged With: certification

Free Ebook Downloads

Posted on August 27, 2012 Written by Andy Hayes 5 Comments

free ebooks downloadEveryone likes free ebooks right?

Well Eric Ligman, Director for Partner Experience at Microsoft and has very kindly provided a large number of free ebooks to download.

Amongst the 80+ titles, there are several Microsoft SQL ebooks as well as titles on Sharepoint, Windows Phone, Windows Server 2012, Microsoft Dynamics, virtualization and many more.

Here is the SQL ebooks download list available on the posts:

  1. Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012
  2. Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
  3. SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Tabular Modeling
  4. Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Solutions Guide for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
  5. Transact-SQL Data Manipulation Language (DML) Reference
  6. QuickStart: Learn DAX Basics in 30 Minutes
  7. SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Data Mining
  8. Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Multidimensional Performance and Operations Guide
  9. Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) Reference
  10. SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide
  11. Backup and Restore of SQL Server Databases
  12. SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Multidimensional Modeling
  13. Master Data Services Capacity Guidelines
  14. SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit

There are two download links, here is the first link and the second is here

Thank you Eric!

Filed Under: All Articles Tagged With: certification

SQL Server Certification – 2 for 1 exam offer

Posted on April 29, 2012 Written by Andy Hayes Leave a Comment

I came across this today and wanted to share it with you. If you are interested in SQL Server certification then for a limited time, Microsoft are offering “2 for 1” on SQL Server exams.

Between April 11 2012 and June 30 2012, you can purchase a SQL Server exam at full price and then once you have taken it you will be emailed a voucher for the second exam at no additional cost.

Please note that the voucher is for the exam in the next version of your chosen technology.

So for example, you can purchase an exam in SQL Server 2008 and once you have sat the exam, you will be emailed a voucher for an exam in SQL Server 2012 once the new exams have been released.

MCSE SQL Server 2012

The voucher code will be valid for 90 days after the availability of the next version certification.

If you sign up and sit one of the following exams, then the voucher will be available to you.

Exam 70-432 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Installation and Maintenance
Exam 70-433 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development
Exam 70-448 : TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance
Exam 70-450 : PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Server Infrastructure using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Exam 70-451 : PRO: Designing Database Solutions and Data Access Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Exam 70-452 : PRO: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

You can purchase up to five “2 for 1” exam vouchers per technology path and on the sign up page, there are other technologies to choose from.

The link to the sign up page is here

Filed Under: All Articles, Career Development Tagged With: certification, mcitp, mcsa, mcse, mcts, sql server 2008, sql server 2012

SQL Server Virtual Labs saves you time and resource

Posted on April 22, 2012 Written by Andy Hayes Leave a Comment

SQL Server Virtual LabsIf you have wanted to try SQL Server 2012 and learn about its new features but have not had the time or capacity to set yourself up a test environment then go over to SQL Server Virtual Labs where you can fire up SQL Server 2012 in an instant.

At the time of writing this post, there is no cost involved in running these labs. They don’t just cover SQL Server 2012, there are labs on SQL 2008 and business intelligence tools for you to try as well.

Whether you are going for SQL Server 2012 certification or wanting to learn about certain features related to SQL Server then these labs are a valuable resource. Not happy with something, then simply run the lab again and cut out any time required to set up what you wanted to cover. It’s also a great resource to come back to when you get close to sitting an exam. Labs can last up to 90 minutes.

There are three sections which a varied number of labs which you can try :

  1. Business Intelligence
  2. Mission-Critical Operations
  3. Database Management

Business Intelligence Labs

  • Creating a PowerPivot Model and Report in the Excel Client
  • Defining DAX Calculations with Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel 2010
  • Creating a Report with Report Builder 3.0
  • Exploring Power View
  • Importing and Developing a BI Semantic Model in Microsoft Visual Studio

Mission-Critical Operations Labs

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2: Database Mirroring
  • SQL Server 2012: AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Database Management Labs

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2: Database Mirroring
  • SQL Server 2012: AlwaysOn Availability Groups
  • SQL Upgrade: Upgrading to Microsoft SQL Server 2008
  • SQL Server 2012 – Working with Contained Databases
  • SQL Server 2012 – What’s new in Manageability
  • SQL Server 2012 – Installation and Configuration
  • SQL Server 2012 – Security and Compliance
  • SQL Server 2012 – Upgrading to SQL Server 2012
  • SQL Server 2012 – What’s new in T-SQL
  • SQL Server 2012 – Installing and managing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core
  • SQL Server 2012 – What’s new in Data warehousing and EIM

Click the link and check out SQL Server Virtual Labs

Filed Under: All Articles, Career Development Tagged With: certification, sql server 2012, tools

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