SQL, Code, Coffee, Etc.

07/27/2012
by Marlon Ribunal
6 Comments

Learning solid SQL Server and Business Intelligence skills through online training

I have just signed up for a one year standard subscription of Pluralsight Hardcore Developer Training. I’m focusing on SQL Server and Business Intelligence. My training goal is to improve my technical knowledge and gain new industrial skills to get myself ready for opportunities now and the future.

I actually have an access to the full Pluralsight library. The other two courses I am interested in are Powershell and SharePoint. I’ll tackle those two right after finishing the SQL Server and BI courses.

I should mention that this subscription, worth $300.00, is courtesy of the Friends of Redgate Program. Contact Redgate if you want to avail of the 1 year complimentary Pluralsight training.

Self-studying without the aide of a training program can be difficult. Lack of organization makes self-studying cumbersome.

My usual tools for studying are technical books , magazines, and blogs. Free videos from SQL pros are also in the mix. But you have to organize these materials in a certain way so you can get the right flow.

My greatest challenge in that setup is getting easily overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials that I have to consume. Jumping from one topic to another in no logical order makes it harder to comprehend things.

This is where a solid online training does its magic. Just like any other types of training, online courses are organized and presented in very effective manner by focusing on a particular theme and delivering the content within reasonable amount of time.

Courses on Pluralsight are authored by authorities in their respective fields, so you’re quite sure you’re getting real value.

There are other legit SQL Server and Business Intelligence online training offerings out there: Linchpin People LLC, Brent Ozar PLF, SQL Skills, PragmaticWorks, and many others.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to the Pluralsight site to continue my training. I’ll share all the knowledge I gained in future posts. Stand by.

06/06/2012
by Marlon Ribunal
1 Comment

Getting started with SQL Server on private cloud

I have been invited to a private beta of SQLDirector by ScaleGrid. “SQLDirector is a MS SQL as a Service (SaaS) solution for the private cloud.” It is a software solution for your private cloud or virtualization infrastructure.

SQLDirector makes the deployment of SQL Server on virtual infrastructure quick and easy by bypassing the complexity of configuring virtualized environment with intuitive single-click wizard.

“SQLDirector allows easy one click provisioning, consolidation and virtualization of database instances.”

Each SQL Server instance is deployed to a machine pool that is mapped, in my case, to a VMWare vCenter ResourcePool (vCenter Server 5.0). According to their website, “The ScaleGrid solution works across heterogeneous virtualization platforms like VMware, Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), Citrix XenServer etc.”

In the beta, I only have two options for my machine pool mapping: System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 and VMware vSphere 5.0.

Scale Grid is generous enough to provide me my own machine that I can access via VPN (thanks to Ankit!).

Let me walk you through the the Scale Grid software. I am creating a SQL Server 2012 database in this demo:

Single Click Wizard

SQL Server Instance (beta only supports New instance)

Setting up Authentication

Database Setup

High Availability Setup (not available in beta)

SQL Director Provisioning Steps

Machine/Instance Information

SQL Server Status on SQL Director

Accessing The SQL Server On The Private Cloud

06/04/2012
by Marlon Ribunal
1 Comment

Review of “Start Here! Learn Microsoft Visual C# 2010”

Disclaimer: I wrote this review as a participant to O’Reilly Blogger Review Program.

If you’ve never seen a programming code in your life and want to build a simple program without really trying to learn how to code first, this might just be a good book for you.

If you want to learn programming per se, this is not a good book to start with. You’ll learn to build some simple GUI’s to handle some data and simple data manipulation.

This book introduces you to many aspects of C# Development like LINQ, XML, REST and SOAP, WPF,and Silverlight. It also walks you through tracing and debugging your applications.

Although it covered a little bit of LINQ and Web Services, it doesn’t have anything about database development. I expected it to have some examples on SQL Server. And I think that is the biggest negative of this introductory book.

I doubt that you’ll get a good grasp of C# programming after reading the book but you will get comfortable using the Visual Studio IDE. Majority of the samples are “no-code applications” (drag-n-drop using the built-in controls provided by the IDE).

I recommend this book only if this is the first book you’ll read about programming in .NET/C#. As the title of the book suggests, this is a starter book. If you’ve built GUI’s with some database backend, you don’t need this book.