Tips & Tricks with SQL Server Performance Tuning, SSRS, SSIS, and More!

By Ike Ellis, MVP@ike_elliswww.ikeellis.comBlog.ikeellis.comhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/ikeellisLook for CraftingBytes – Coming SoonDevelopMentorSQL Pass Book Readers

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So you want to be great at SQL Server…SQL Server Integration ServicesSQL Server Analysis Services

TabularMultiDimensional

SQL Server Reporting ServicesExcelData Quality ServicesService BrokerPerformance Tuning

IndexingQuery PlansPlan AnalysisMemory ManagementSANsNetwork

ClusteringAvailability GroupsPowerShellMaster Data ServicesArchitectureData Mart DesignData NormalizationCDCNoSQL/BigData (At least the MS Cloud Offerings)Competitive Knowledge (Oracle, Tablaeu, QlickView, Postgres)ORMs(Entity Framework, Nhibernate, Micros)Installation/Configuration/Upgrading/Service Packing

Power BIPowerMapPowerQueryPowerView

PowerPivotT-SQL

QueryingStored ProceduresFunctionsWindowing FunctionsAggregates

CLRMDXDAXXMLABCPSQL AzureTooling

RedgateSSMSSSDT

Past VersionsCentral ManagementDacPacs/BacPacsProfiler/Extended EventsAuditingSecurity/EncryptionReplicationSQLCMD

Tips From the SQL Consultant

For the YouTube/Reddit/Chive/Cracked/Meme generationLots of disjointed tipsPopular mistakes I see or easy things I think you can take advantage ofBetween 3 – 5 minutes eachLet’s see if we can get through all 20

Tip #1: SSIS for the Color Blind

Tip #2: Five minutes on report formatting = 10x more impressive

Spend 10 minutes on design (as opposed to the zero we typically spend)     Choose colors wisely     • 99/100 - developers use the default color palette        

HTML color picker websites  • http://www.lavishbootstrap.com   

MorgueFile• http://www.morguefile.com/

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Life Tip: Start 2014 with a jar and fill it with notes of good things that happenNext New Year’s Eve, empty the jar and see what awesome stuff happened that year.

Tip #3: The right way to find hardware problems

Merging PerfMon and TracingGet the Batch and Completed Events OnlyNever trace from the computer you are monitoringAlways trace to a file and then load in a table after.

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*Thanks, Grant!

Tip #4: Lifehack: Readable Presentations

Take the average age of the people in your audience and divide by 2: That’s your font size

USE THIS SIZE IF YOUR AUDIENCE IS 200

Tip #5: Check for heaps/clustered indexes

SELECT t.[Name] FROM sys.Indexes i JOIN sys.Tables t ON t.Object_ID = i.Object_idWHERE i.type_desc = 'HEAP'ORDER BY t.[Name]

Tip #6: The proper way to run an SSIS package

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Tip: More Visualization Tips

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In nature, colors do two things:

1) Entice2) Warn

So let’s use them sparingly..

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Stephen Few Dashboard

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Tip: ColorBrewer

Cynthia Brewer did a fantastic job!

Tip #7: No reason to use ISNULL CONCAT!

Messy vs clean codeNo + symbol neededNo ISNULL needed

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Life Tip: If you backpack, but need news, search Wikipedia by month & year

Tip #8: How to search schema

F7SQLSearch• Free• Download it!• http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-search/• Did I mention it’s free?

Dependency Tracker• Not Free, but still cool

select object_name(object_id), definition as namefrom sys.all_sql_moduleswhere definition like '%cust%'

*THANKS HUGO!

Tip #9: Windowing Functions are pretty cool

They are worth learning, and have a neat evolution

Tip #10: SSDT Search for options

No more digging around in optionsJust search for everything

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Presentation Tip

Tip #11: Scripting: You have two choices

Two Choices• Get good at boring repetitive tasks• Get good at PowerShell & Scripting

Who adds more value to their company or their customers?Who gets paid more?

Tip #12: TempDB Configuration

Current thought is 4 logical processors to 1 fileJust a good beginning, your mileage may veryStart there, then go to 2:1 or 1:1 if necessaryTrace Flag 1117 or autogrow off

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Travel Tip: If you take a power strip to the air port during the winter, you’ll be a hero

Tip #13: Prettify!

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http://extras.sqlservercentral.com/prettifier/prettifier.aspx

RedGate PlugIn for SQL Server Management Studio

Tip #14: Execute scripts over multiple servers?

Super easy!

Tip #15: Life is so easy with a dates table

Find the sales numbers for the first Monday of every month of the yearT-SQL with no dates tableT-SQL with dates table

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Life Tip: Motorcyclist signaling cop to other motorcyclist

Tip #16: Try_Cast

Avoiding terrible casting errors

Tip #17: Never reinvent the wheel

Take SQL# for exampleGood DocumentationEasy SyntaxCheap (and much of it is free)

Tip #18: Save scripts for easy access

Lots of repetitive scripts with business logicNo reason to write the same queries for the same tables day after day

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Life Tip: Focus!

Tip #19: Enforce Business Rules in the DB

Foreign KeysUnique ConstraintsCheck Constraints

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Tip #20: Log, Log, Log (and beware of subscriptions)

select c.Name, e.InstanceName, e.UserName, e.Parameters, e.TimeStart, e.TimeEnd, e.TimeDataRetrieval, e.TimeProcessing, e.TimeRenderingfrom executionlog e join catalog c on e.reportid = c.ItemID

Send a Link, or a file on a shared folder that you can audit. Find someway to audit who opened the link or the file in the folder. Try to avoid sending the PDF without a way to audit it.

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SQL Sentry Plan Explorer

Ike Ellis

http://blog.ikeellis.comhttp://www.ikeellis.comYouTube • http://www.youtube.com/user/IkeEllisData

SQL Pass Book Readers • http://bookreaders.sqlpass.org/

San Diego Tech Immersion GroupTwitter: @ike_ellis619.922.9801Email address is just my first name @ikeellis.com

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