For almost a year now, I’ve exchanged emails with the leaders of the Memphis SQL Server User Group, trying to find a time when our schedules would align themselves and I’d be able to join them for a meeting. After many attempts and several near misses, we’ve finally set a date!

This Thursday, February 11, 2010, I will be speaking on a SQL Server Locking & Blocking. I’ll talk about:

• Why databases lock resources
• The consequences of blocking
• How SQL Server manages locks
• Techniques for influencing locking behavior
• Using Transaction Isolation Levels

You can download the presentation materials here.

During my presentation, I’ll demonstrate how to analyze locks that SQL Server is holding using the sys.dm_tran_locks Dynamic Management View (DMV) as shown below.

–examine the resources
SELECT
resource_type
,(CASE
WHEN resource_type = ‘OBJECT’ THEN object_name(resource_associated_entity_id)
WHEN resource_type IN (‘DATABASE’, ‘FILE’, ‘METADATA’) THEN ‘N/A’
WHEN resource_type IN (‘KEY’, ‘PAGE’, ‘RID’) THEN (
SELECT
object_name(object_id)
FROM
sys.partitions
WHERE
hobt_id=resource_associated_entity_id)
ELSE
‘Undefined’
END) AS resource_name
,request_mode as lock_type
,resource_description
,request_status
,request_session_id
,request_owner_id AS transaction_id
FROM
sys.dm_tran_locks
WHERE
resource_type <> ‘DATABASE’;

If you live in or near Memphis, I hope you come out and join us for the meeting. I’d love to meet you. For more information, visit mem-pass.org.

Have you ever received an appointment request for a meeting that you knew was going to be unproductive? Nothing was accomplished the last time this team met; the only thing that was decided was that we needed to meet again. What a waste of time!

Meetings are not free, even if everyone is local and there are no travel costs to consider. The loss in productivity alone can be staggering.

Personal Productivity at the Expense of Team Productivity

I used to just “grin and bear” it as the saying goes. I used to take my laptop to those meetings under the guise of “taking notes”. But what I was really doing was being productive on my own. I was sifting through email in pursuit of InboxZero. Or I remoting into a client’s server to do some “real work” while the meeting languished.

But I’ve learned that although I was being productive as an individual, I was contributing to the ineffectiveness of the team. My mental absence was hindering the team as a whole. My personal productivity was at the expense of the productivity of the team. In essence I was part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I’ve written about some of those experiences and my short-sightedness in a prior post entitled “Closing Your Laptop in Meetings“. If you haven’t read it, I’d encourage you to do so and then take the challenge.

Conducting Effective Meetings

Something had to give. I didn’t want to spend scores of hours each year sitting in meetings that even most of the attendees would say was worthless. So, I did a lot of research and experimenting, looking for ways to make the meetings I conduct and the meetings I attend more effective.

I finally found a few critical points that have helped me immensely in making my meetings more productive. I’ll be the first to admit that these are not rocket science; they are common sense approaches that just seem to work.

I’ve wrapped this into a presentation that I’ve delivered to clients with very good feedback. And now I’m delivering this session in a Microsoft TechNet Thrive! webcast next week. Here’s the information:

Language(s): English
Product(s): Other
Audience(s): IT Generalist
Duration: 60 Minutes
Start Date:Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
To Register: Click here

I hope you’ll join me for this session.

Now, your turn. What techniques have you found for making meetings more effective?

On Monday, the first of February, 2010, I will be speaking at the Baltimore SQL Server User Group meeting at 7:00 PM EST. My topic will be SQL Server Locking and Blocking Made Simple. In it, I will discuss:

• The need for locking
• The consequences of blocking
• How SQL Server locks resources
• How blocking affects performance
• Influencing locks with granularity hints
• Setting Transaction Isolation Levels

Here is a sample slide from the presentation. You can download the entire presentation here.

During the presentation, I will regularly use the following script to view the locks being held by SQL Server.

–examine the resources
SELECT
resource_type
,(CASE
WHEN resource_type = ‘OBJECT’ THEN object_name(resource_associated_entity_id)
WHEN resource_type IN (‘DATABASE’, ‘FILE’, ‘METADATA’) THEN ‘N/A’
WHEN resource_type IN (‘KEY’, ‘PAGE’, ‘RID’) THEN (
SELECT
object_name(object_id)
FROM
sys.partitions
WHERE
hobt_id=resource_associated_entity_id)
ELSE
‘Undefined’
END) AS resource_name
,request_mode as lock_type
,resource_description
,request_status
,request_session_id
,request_owner_id AS transaction_id
FROM
sys.dm_tran_locks
WHERE
resource_type <> ‘DATABASE’;

I hope you’ll join me there.

If you’re interested in having me speak at your local user group, please send me an email or direct message me in twitter. I’d love to talk with you.

Recently Paul Randal (twitter, blog) instigated another meme in the SQL Server community – What three events brought you here. If you’re not familiar with memes, I’ve explained them in another post entitled “What’s Your Biggest Weakness?” And as I mentioned in that post, I love reading memes because it really helps you feel like you’re getting to know others in the SQL community. Technical articles and forum postings help you to learn more about technology; memes help you to learn more about a person. And even though the SQL Community is focused on SQL Server, at its core is people.

A few days ago I was tagged for this meme by my friend TJay Belt (twitter, blog). You can read his post here.

So what brought me to this point in my career? I’m glad you asked.

The Apple IIc

The first event that started me down this journey was when my childhood friend and neighbor got an Apple IIc. He had a few games for it but otherwise really didn’t know what to do with it. I was in the latter part of middle school at the time and spent most every rainy day at his house trying to figure out what we could do with this new “thing”.

I eventually discovered that I could view and even changed the source code for some of the basic games. For example, in a horse racing game, I modified it so that I could alway tell before each race which horse would come in first. I also started creating some primitive “choose your own adventure” games.

Not long after noticing my interest in computers, my parents bout me an IBM PC Clone  from a company called Leading Edge. According to the salesman, it was powerful enough to run a small business and it should last me a long, long time. About a year later, I upgraded the RAM from 256kb to 512kb by removing a bunch of little individual chips from a breadboard and replacing them with others. It didn’t have hard drive.

I bought and studied a book on GWBasic and started writing programs. I started with simple things like a check book balancing program (boring!) and the like. The pentacle of that era was one that would play Mastermind with me.

The future Mrs. Webb

After high school, I went to college to study Electrical Engineering and then went on to get an M.B.A. It was during that time that I met the wonderful young woman that would eventually become my wife. The only issue was that she transferred from Auburn University to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. So after I graduated, I pursued her, looking for most any job I could find in the Middle Tennessee Area.

I landed one working for a pharmacy software company vendor. My job was to help develop a digital communications package that would transfer patient and sales information from stores to headquarters and then send formulary information from headquarters to stores . It was my first real experience with databases and I liked it.

A Taste of Consulting

Just a couple of short years after starting work for the pharmacy software company, my direct boss at the time left the company and started consulting for other companies in the pharmacy software field. It didn’t take long for him to get so busy that he needed some help. He called me and I started doing work on the side for him. Before long, that turned into a full time job for me.

Over the next few years I helped him to build a successful consulting business from the ground up. I learned invaluable lessons about working with clients, writing proposals, designing software, and the like. It was then that I decided to strike out on my own. I thought that if I could help him to build a successful consulting company, I could do it again for myself. So, with the support of my wife, I left and started WebbTech Solutions. That was 14 years ago and I haven’t regretted it at all.

Volunteering

In the year 2000, I was leading the Nashville SQL Server User Group and I heard about this new association called the Professional Association for SQL Server. Kevin Kline (twitter, blog), then the Vice President of Marketing for PASS, came to speak at our local group and really talked high of the organization.

So our group became an Official Chapter for PASS just one year after its inception. I went to my first PASS conference in San Francisco where I met Brian Knight (twitter, blog). He recruited me to be the Chapter Manager and I was eventually appointed to the Board to fill a vacancy.

I continued volunteering for PASS and was elected several more times to the Board, eventually serving as the Vice President of Marketing and Executive Vice President of Finance. During my time there I met many, many great people and a multitude of doors were opened for me, too many to recount here.

It’s all about people

As I think back over the events and milestones that have led me to this point in my career, I realize more than ever before that it really is all about people. The people you meet, the people you help, and the people that help you along the way.

So, what about you? How did you get to where you are right now? What events, either planned or coincidental got you to where you are? I’d like to hear about them.

I was warned by my father when I turned 21 that, although it seemed like it took a long to reach 21, three blinks from now I’d be 40. Boy was he right! The older I get, the faster time seems to pass by.

We’re two-thirds of the way through January 2010 already and I’m just now getting to my first blog post of the year. Weeks ago, I was tagged by my friend, Tim Ford (twitter, blog), for a meme about my Goals and Theme Word for 2010. A good and timely reminder to set aside some time to think about what I’d like to accomplish in the coming twelve months, and to share that with the world. What better way to hold yourself accountable than to share it with, well, everyone?

Time got away from me and I hadn’t posted anything. That’s when another good friend, Kevin Kline (twitter, blog), gently reminded me in his goals posting that I hadn’t shared mine.

The Value of Setting Goals

As you can probably imagine, the life I’ve chosen keeps me pretty busy. Running my own consulting business, living on a hobby farm with animals and a garden, raising four wonderful kids with my wife of twelve years, and volunteering for church and Boy Scout activities requires me to prioritize. I need to make sure that what I’m doing is important. That’s not to say that it’s all work and no play for me. No, leisure time with my family is important to me. So I make sure that I take the time to have fun.

This begs the question: how do you know what is important? We can go through life putting out the fires that pop up along the way, reacting to the pressing need of the moment. But that’s very reactionary. It’s not planned. And it doesn’t allow you to make sure you’re generally moving in the right direction because your vision is limited to one fire at a time.

To ensure that your overall direction is right, to know whether each of the fires puts before you will take you a step further in the direction you want to go, you must first define that direction. This is where goals come in.

Goals are set when there isn’t a fire immediately in front of us, when we have the time to think about what we want rather than what the pressing issue of the moment is asking of us. Goals give us a vision of the desired future. And with that vision in mind, we can evaluate each opportunity as it’s presented to us and compare it to that future-state that we’ve already defined. If the opportunity moves us a step closer to that future-state, we can embrace the opportunity, if it doesn’t we can take that into consideration as we evaluate what to do about it.

My Goals for 2010

I subscribe to the SMART goals theory. Each goal should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Essentially it boils down to “who does what by when” and in this case you are the “who”. This keeps us from creating fuzzy or indeterminate goals like “I’m going to blog more.” There is plenty of information online about SMART goals, just use your favorite search engine to find a plethora of information on the subject.

For the purposes of setting goals, I like to keep two broad categories in mind: the goals that pertain to my business and career and those that involve my home life.

My Professional Goals
Over the next twelve months (ok, 11.3 months), I’d like to accomplish the following things:

• Write a business plan for a new venture I’m considering. For several years now, I had an idea for a new and complementary business but I haven’t acted on it. This year, I will. The business plan itself is not really what I’m after, it’s the process of writing it that’s important – doing the research to see if it’s a worthwhile proposition.
• Post a minimum of 72 blogs to my professional blog site. That’s an average of 1.5 blog postings per week. Of course I’m already behind in this area so I’ll need to do some catch up here. As with my first goal, this goal is really serves as a proxy for two other goals that are more difficult to measure. First I’d like to get better and faster at writing and one approach to that is to do it more often. Secondly I’d like to increase the number of people I help through this blog and studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between blogging frequency and readers.
• Schedule and have a Weekly Review at least 40 times this year. I’ve been using a customized version of David Allen’s Getting Things Done for years now, but I haven’t quite mastered one of the more powerful aspects of it, the Weekly Review. This year will be different.

My Personal Goals
Before the end of this year, I will:

• Double the amount of pasture that I have fenced. About one-third of our pasture has perimeter fencing and that’s just not enough for the heard of animals that we have and will have by late spring. I need to give them access to more grass.
• Read at least 5 books on preparedness, survival skills, or sustainability on the farm. This equals what I did last year and my knowledge on the subjects have greatly increased but I still have a long way to go.
• Paint three rooms in our house. There’s not much more to say about this one.
• Resolve an ongoing plumbing issue. There’s not much more you want me to say about this one; trust me.

And there you have it, my goals for this year. Of course I’ll continue to do the other things in my life like teach a Sunday School Class at my Church, volunteer as an Assistance Scout Master in the Boy Scouts, and strive to spend more time with my kids. But these are the new goals for the coming year.

I was close to setting a personal goal of going to Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico this year, but I’m not quite ready to commit to that yet. I’ll go one day, I’m just not positive that this year will work out for me.

There’s nothing really impressive or necessarily inspiring with them, but getting them jotted down so that I can refer to them throughout the year and reflect on how I did at the end of the year will is good. Thanks Tim for tagging me on this one.

Since I was so very late in getting these out, this meme has pretty well run its course so I’m not going to tag anyone for follow up. But if you’d like to share your goals for this year, I’d love to hear about them. Post a link in the comments section below, or jot them down directly in a comment.

Freeze tag taken to an extreme

If you’ve followed many SQL Server blogs over the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly noticed a trend of “tagging” other bloggers. It usually starts with one person asking and answering a simple question. Typically, the question isn’t technical; it’s more of a “human interest” story. For example “How did you get your start in IT?” or “The best thing I learned at a PASS Summit” Something like that.

The person that starts it the question “tags” three other bloggers to answer the same question. The tagged bloggers answer the question in a post to their blog site and then tag three more. It continues from there, growing virally. It’s these kinds of blogs that tend to make the community more personable, more real.

The online version of freeze tag

Over the years, I’ve been tagged a number of times by friends and colleagues. I try to respond and keep the thread going but I must admit that I’ve probably missed as many as I’ve made. Usually that’s not intentional; I just run out of time. By the time I get around to responding, the question and answer craze has run its course.

I’ll confess, however, that occasionally I do skip questions that I don’t find entertaining or worthwhile. I almost did that with this question. Jeremiah Peschka (blog, twitter) tagged me with a question that David Stein started.

Why on earth would I want to share with potential clients, and everyone else for that matter, what I consider to be my biggest weakness? And not only to share it once, but to have it recorded for posterity. I don’t want to do that! Or rather, I didn’t want to do that.

Considering it from every angle

Then I began pondering the question. What would I say if I were to answer it? Would I answer it with the standard interview response to that question? Or delve deeper into some true self-analysis? What are the implications of each?

How high is your bar?

That’s when it really hit me. I was spinning my wheels looking for the perfect answer, one that was a good from every angle, one that was funny yet insightful, sincere yet not too revealing.

Have you figured it out yet, my biggest weakness?

I’m a perfectionist. I like and strive for perfection in everything I do. I set I very high bar for myself and expect not only to meet it but to exceed it. If I don’t live up to that expectation, I feel that I’ve fallen short somehow. I’m very competitive, but mostly with myself. I know I can bat 1.000 in softball. There’s no reason why I cannot get a turkey every time I bowl (even though that’s only once every five years).

Is that really a weakness, though? It can be. If you are never satisfied with your performance that can lead to a very unhealthy perspective on life.

It can also lead to “paralysis by analysis“, the phenomena where a decision cannot be reached because there is always more information to be sifted through or considered.

Fortunately, I’m not naturally affected by either of those by-products of perfectionism.  I tend to have a pretty healthy and balanced view of life, I think. And I’m much more of an action person than one who tends to over analyze.

Always room for improvement

Where perfectionism rears its ugly head in my day to day life is that there is always room for improvement, at least in my mind.

Let me give you a real example. I’ve written several books and authored articles for magazines and other publications. When I first started writing, I spent a consider amount of time writing, rewriting, revising, and fine-tuning each and every paragraph of each of each and every page of the article or chapter. Was the final product better than the first draft? Yeah, probably so. But was it really noticeably better, especially considering the extra effort required? Probably not. At least not to anyone except me. That was not a good use of my time.

Dealing with perfectionism in an imperfect world

Over the years, I’ve recognized my tendencies toward perfectionism and have slowly discovered habits that help to turn that tendency into a positive attribute.

Setting realistic goals
As many others have stated in various ways, it’s important to begin with the end in mind. That is, know where you are starting from and where you intend to go. The former is not a problem for the perfectionist; we can easily identify our starting point. But the latter can be an issue. If your expectations are not realistic or are needlessly over ambitious, that can be a problem. It can be counter productive to set goals that are too far fetched. We’ll either spend too much time trying to achieve the unachievable or get frustrated trying.

Moving the ball down the field
A corollary to “Setting realistic goals” is to keep in mind that often times it’s best to set incremental goals along the way. Sure we all want to achieve great results, but sometimes, getting from A to Z in one leap is too much to ask. It’s better to take two or three steps in the right direction and then once that’s done, set new goals to go a little further. Eventually we’ll get to our destination.

Time boxing
When I set out to accomplish an activity or task, I employ “time boxing”. Time boxing is the technique where you allot yourself a reasonable, yet finite, amount of time to work on the given task. During the allotted time you work as diligently as you can and do the best job you can to accomplish the task. At the end of the the scheduled time, you’re done. Period. No more. Then you move on to the next activity.

Continuing with the writing example, I may give myself a total of eight hours to write an article. I may break this up in to four 2-hour blocks. At the end of the fourth 2-hour session, it’s done. Time to turn it in.

Are there exceptions? Sure. But at least they are conscious choices rather than a continual slide toward never finishing the article.

Setting priorities
Implicit in all of this is the concept of setting priorities. We must take a balanced approach and consider what is not getting done because we are spending what may be considered an excessive amount of time on one particular task or project. It’s good to weigh priorities at the task level (what I’m working on right now) as well as at the overall project level (what projects am I engaged in currently) and even the meta-project level (all of the projects I’ve worked on compared to the direction I want to go).

No excuses!

Now, to be clear. I’m not advocating putting in a sub-par effort or recommending a “well it’s good enough” attitude. That’s a completely different issue. What I am recommending is that you keep in mind the Law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to your work.

Your turn

I was a bit late getting my answer to this post out (not because I kept rewriting it, though) so I’m not going to tag anyone else as a follow on. But I’d encourage you to give this question some thought. If you decide to blog about it, leave me a link to it in the comments section below.

And if you have some thoughts on how to better manage your time, I’d love to hear that too.

Licensing models can sometimes make database modeling seem trivial. Per processor or per seat? Single core, dual-core, multi-core processors? Multiple instances on one server? Virtualizing servers on a single server? It can get very confusing, very quickly.

I’m regularly asked by a former students, clients, and people in the Forums about licensing for a SQL Server Reporting Services instances. A typical question is: How many SQL Server licenses are required when the Report Server is installed on one server and the back end database is installed on a separate remote server?

Here are a couple of links that help describe the SQL Server licensing models.

• Special Licensing Considerations for SQL Server 2005
• SQL Server 2008 Pricing and Licensing

And by the way, the answer to the sample question? Each server where a Business Intelligence component is installed requires a valid SQL Server license. So, a remote database deployment scenario where the Report Server is installed on one server and the ReportServer database is installed on a separate server requires two licenses of SQL Server.

<< Adding a column to every table in a database | Home | DevLink 2009 Call for Speakers >> Reporting Services Licensing Licensing models can sometimes make database modeling seem trivial. Per processor or per seat? Single core, dual-core, multi-core processors? Multiple instances on one server? Virtualizing servers on a single server? It can get very confusing, very quickly. Recently, I was asked by a former student about licensing for a SQL Server Reporting Services instance. In the proposed scenario, the Report Server would be installed on one server and the back end database would be installed on a separate, remote server. How many licenses of SQL Server are required? In short, each server where a Business Intelligence component is installed requires a valid SQL Server license. So, a remote database deployment scenario where the Report Server is installed on one server and the ReportServer database is installed on a separate server requires two licenses of SQL Server. But don’t take my word for it. Here are a couple of links that will help clarify licensing requirements. Special Licensing Considerations for SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2008 Pricing and Licensing Cheers and I hope this helps! Joe Print | posted on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 8:01 AM <!– –> Feedback # re: Reporting Services Licensing really, as far as I know every server that runs any service of sql server needs separate licensing… And it is very expensive to have at leat 2 physical processor server for your SSRS… 2/17/2009 8:16 AM | Remote DBA # re: Reporting Services Licensing I could use a clarification here. Having any SQL Service run on a separate server makes sense that it would require an additional license. However, I’m under the impression that having the web components run on a different server does NOT constitute a SQL Service and therefore would NOT require a separate license. Am I mistaken there? Nick 11/10/2009 1:03 PM | Nick L Duckstein # re: Reporting Services Licensing Check this document: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/6/1e68f92c-f334-4517-b610-e4dee946ef91/2008%20SQL%20Licensing%20Overview%20final.docx It seems like if you want to install reporting services web components (the site and the web service) on a different server where SQL Server 2008 is installed then you will need an other license. 12/17/2009 7:58 AM | Jairo Portela Post Comment Title Please enter a title Name Please enter your name Email Email is not required, but it must be valid if specified. Url Url is not required, but it must be valid if specified. Comment  Please enter a comment Remember Me? Please enter the answer to the supplied question.Please add 7 and 1 and type the answer here: Enter the code shown above:Please enter the correct word

Thanks to everyone who attended my TechNet Thrive! and Nashville SQL Server User Group presentations this week! I hope it was worth your while. As promised, here is the presentation.

And here’s the script I used to review the locks.

–examine the resources
SELECT
resource_type
,(CASE
WHEN resource_type = ‘OBJECT’ THEN object_name(resource_associated_entity_id)
WHEN resource_type IN (‘DATABASE’, ‘FILE’, ‘METADATA’) THEN ‘N/A’
WHEN resource_type IN (‘KEY’, ‘PAGE’, ‘RID’) THEN (
SELECT
object_name(object_id)
FROM
sys.partitions
WHERE
hobt_id=resource_associated_entity_id)
ELSE
‘Undefined’
END) AS resource_name
,request_mode as lock_type
,resource_description
,request_status
,request_session_id
,request_owner_id AS transaction_id
FROM
sys.dm_tran_locks
WHERE
resource_type <> ‘DATABASE’;

On the gridiron, two opposing teams are contending for one very limited resource, the football. One team has it; the other team wants it. The team that has it, tries very hard to protect it by securing the football and blocking all others from getting to it.

The same can be said about SQL Server. When one process needs to access a resource, say a table, it secures the resource (locking) which prevents other processes from accessing it (blocking).

Locking in SQL Server is a good thing. Locking helps to maintain data integrity by ensuring that two different processes are not going to use a single resource in a way that is considered incompatible.

Blocking, a natural by-product of locking, is not so good of a thing.

If a resource is locked by one process and another process needs access to that resource, the second process will be blocked until the resource is released by the first process.  The effect? The second process experiences a longer wait time and performance suffers.

But locking and blocking are two sides of the same coin.

Locking & Blocking Made Simple

Okay, if locking is good and blocking is bad, what can be done about locking? I’m glad you asked! Tomorrow, I’m speaking at the Nashville SQL Server User Group. In the session, I’ll cover those topics and more. Here’s the abstract:

A good working knowledge of how Microsoft SQL Server makes use of locking and transaction isolation levels can help you greatly improve an application’s performance. In this session, we explore the SQL Server locking methodology and share techniques for enhancing query response times.

If you’re in the Middle Tennessee area, come on out and join us for the meeting. For more information on time, location, etc, visit the Nashville SQL Server User Group web site.

If you’re not in the Nashville area, I believe the meeting will be available via LiveMeeting provided by PASS. Stay tuned and follow me or NashSQL on Twitter for up to the connection information.

Thanks and I hope to see you there!

Next Monday, I’m presenting a TechNet WebCast for Microsoft Thrive Live! The subject: SQL Server Locking & Blocking Made Simple. Here are the details:

Event Overview

A good working knowledge of how Microsoft SQL Server makes use of locking and transaction isolation levels can help you greatly improve an application’s performance. In this webcast, we explore the SQL Server locking methodology and share techniques for enhancing query response times.

Language(s): English
Product(s): Microsoft SQL Server
Audience(s): IT Generalist
Duration: 60 Minutes
Start Date: Monday, December 07, 2009 9:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Event ID: 1032432983

I’d love to have you join me for this free session. Click here to register.