(my wife LOVES this game)

“Creates a sequence object and specifies its properties. A sequence is a user-defined schema bound object that generates a sequence of numeric values according to the specification with which the sequence was created. The sequence of numeric values is generated in an ascending or descending order at a defined interval and can be configured to restart (cycle) when exhausted. Sequences, unlike identity columns, are not associated with specific tables. Applications refer to a sequence object to retrieve its next value. The relationship between sequences and tables is controlled by the application. User applications can reference a sequence object and coordinate the values across multiple rows and tables.”

MSDN Link for CREATE SEQUENCE

So what did I get from this:

• It’s like Identity but not
• Can reuse values once a limit has been reached
• Sequence can be “shared” between many tables as it is it’s own object
• Has to be assigned to a schema

There are plenty of great examples on how to create and reference a SEQUENCE on the MSDN link above but where I’m struggling is why I would want to use this new functionality?

Some problems/questions I have right off the bat:

• Inserting conflict – what if 2 transactions ask for the next sequence (NEXT VALUE FOR) and both try and commit the same “OrderID”?
• IDENTITY columns can’t be updated “accidentally” … other then the use of a trigger I don’t see how you could prevent an update to a column referencing a sequence
• Reusing sequences just sounds dangerous

I did a quick test of the “Inserting Conflict” issue and created a SEQUENCE:

CREATE SEQUENCE dbo.TestSequence1 AS INT
START WITH 1
INCREMENT BY 1

Then I opened 2 mgmt studio query windows and ran the following:

DECLARE @NextSequence AS INT
 
BEGIN TRAN
SELECT @NextSequence = NEXT VALUE FOR dbo.TestSequence1
 
SELECT @NextSequence

and I’m happy to report that getting the “NEXT VALUE” increments the sequence so as long as you do this within a transaction you should be good to go without worrying about an INSERT conflict.

So where does that leave me?

It leaves me still asking WHY… so where is where the “win a prize” comes in…

HOW TO WIN A PRIZE

In the comments section if you can give me a reason or a use-case as to why/how you would use this over IDENTITY you could win a prize

Now the winner is going to be the reason/use-case/comment that best explains to ME how/why you would use SEQUENCE and why it would be a better solution than an IDENTITY.

Contest end date of: Feb 10th

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

I start thinking about what I don’t know (a new feature or function, etc) and work through it and then write a blog post about it.  After 4 years of blogging I still haven’t figured out that there are some people out there that don’t know what I know.

I’ve worked 15 years in the SQL Server world and I still assume that everyone not only knows what I know but probably knows more LOL

I’m not sure at what point (if ever) that feeling goes away but a late goal to add to my 2012 list of things to do is to blog more… and while it might not be ground breaking or new stuff for me personally; I’m hoping that it will help some of my readers who might not know some of what I know or who maybe hasn’t had a chance to work with the particular feature I’m talking/blogging about.

Anyways… that’s it I guess just a revelation that I came up with last night sometime.

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2653305107

Please be sure to not only click the “Add to my calendar” but also the “Register” button so that we can plan accordingly for food and drinks.

Date: January 12th 2012
Time: 5:45 pm – 7:00 pm
Location: 6th Floor Room 7 (Stanley A Milner Library)
Speaker: Ryan Adams
Topic: Mirroring: The Bare Necessities

Session Abstract:

Remember Baloo the bear from the Jungle Book? Well we are going to get down to the “bear” necessities of mirroring and more. Mirroring can be an integral part of your high availability and disaster recovery planning. We’ll cover what mirroring is, how it can fit into an HA/DR plan, the rules surrounding its use, configuration via the GUI and T-SQL, as well as how to monitor mirroring. This presentation is designed to not only give you an overview of mirroring, but to also walk you through a basic implementation. At the end you will have learned what mirroring is, how it can fit into your environment, what business requirements it solves, and how to configure it.

Presenter Information: Ryan Adams ( blog | twitter )

Ryan is a highly skilled Microsoft oriented administrator and has worked for a Fortune 100 company for 14 years (2 of those as a contractor). In his time there he has supported everything from desktop to server. Most recently he has served as a senior Active Directory Architect and Identity Management (MIIS, ILM, FIM) Consultant. He is the sole SQL Server DBA for his group, supporting both vendor databases and custom databases. His primary focus is database design and performance, but also works with SSRS report development, and SSIS ETL. He enjoys being involved in the SQL community and serves on the Board of Directors for the North Texas SQL Server User Group as well as the PASS Performance Virtual Chapter. He also serves as a Regional Mentor for the Professional Association for SQL Server. He is well versed in many core Microsoft technologies, has implemented and supported them both nationally and internationally for a company of 250k+ users, and holds the following certifications: MCP MCSA MCSE MCDBA MCTS MCITP

Agenda:
5:00 pm – Pizza and Socializing
5:30 pm – Sponsor Presentation
5:45 pm – Feature Presentation
7:00 pm – Wrap Up and Draws

If you haven’t signed up already at EDMPASS.com please do so now to receive meeting notifications, news, and updates from EDMPASS.

For those who are unable to attend in person here is the Live Meeting Attendee Link:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=78DJ42&role=attend&pw=X%5E2Bxh2wg

Hope to see you there.

EDMPASS HOMEPAGE

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

Cheers and I look forward to catching up with all of you in the new year.

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

http://swflorida.sqlpass.org/ – SWFSSUG

Doing virtual presentations add a bit of a “weird” dynamic as you can’t see the faces in the room and get a read/feel for things like:

• Is anyone lost?
• Am I going too slow/fast?
• Is anyone asleep?

Here are some of the things that I try and do to help make virtual presentations run smoothly:

• Use good equipment (high speed internet, good lighting, professional microphone, HD camera)
• Clear all distractions (no Twitter, phone, dogs, family, etc)
• Periodically ask if there are any questions/concerns/too fast/too slow
• Print the slide deck w/notes on hand
• If you’re making video of yourself available try to appear as you would of you were presenting live (no housecoats and boxer shorts)

I guess this list really can be used for both physical and virtual presentations but I think the focus on making sure these things do not become a distraction are that much more important when you don’t have a “warm body” in the room with the session attendees.

If you have any additions to the list please leave a comment and I’ll be sure to update the post!

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

I was able to breakdown what #SQLFamily means to me into 3 categories:

• Technology
• Professional Development
• Personal Relationships

Technology

I cannot think of another technical community out there that offers so many great opportunities to learn about a product like SQL Server.  I’m not just talking about the “paid” events like the PASS Summit, SQLConnections, or SQLRally.

I’m also talking about all the free training out there the local PASS Chapter meetings, SQLSaturdays, 24 hours of PASS, websites, blogs, etc…. people are PASSionate about SQL Server and love sharing their knowledge which is AMAZING.

There are also social networking tools like Twitter (#SQLHelp, #SQLPASS, #SQLFamily), Facebook, LinkedIn, and my new found friend Yammer to use to find even more knowledge.

There are so many ways to get amazing information from some of the best in the business.

Professional Development

Being part of the #SQLFamily means that you are able to surround yourself with people who are like you and people that you aspire to be like.  I can honestly say that if I didn’t jump into the SQL Server Community with both feet I wouldn’t of met the people responsible for helping me:

• Start Blogging here at BenchmarkITConsulting.com
• Start EDMPASS (The Edmonton PASS Chapter)
• Co-Author my first book (Pro SQL Server 2008 Policy Based Management)
• Become the Western Canada Regional Mentor for PASS

All of which has helped me professionally to grow my knowledge,  name, and business as an Independent Consultant.

Personal Relationships

This is what I believe REALLY sets the #SQLFamily apart from other technology communities.

(This is the hardest section of this blog post to describe because to me it is such a phenomenon so bare with me)

The people care, they really do care.  It really is like a family… you might not see everyone as much as you’d like but when you do it’s like you haven’t skipped a beat.  The friendships and camaraderie that I’ve developed through the #SQLFamily are not just “work friends” but real honest to goodness friends.

If someone’s child is sick, they care.  If someone needs to find a new job, they help.  If someone needs an extra $25 in his Movember campaign to take first place, they donate (thanks Jason Strate BTW)

I’m a better person professionally and personally because of my #SQLFamily.

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

I’m so excited to announce that I’m the new PASS Regional Mentor for Western Canada!!  PASS.ORG link

I’m pretty pumped about this because being from Canada (at times) I know we feel like we’re kinda “out there” on some of the happenings and I want to make sure that the PASS Chapters in Western Canada feel connected and supported by me and PASS in general.  I think there are some challenges that we face (getting local speakers, SWAG, etc) that are unique to us due to our location and I want to help bring us up to speed and more inline with our friends from the south.

One of my goals this year as a regional mentor is to bring a SQL Saturday to Alberta, Canada.  I think between Edmonton and Calgary that we can get a great turnout and hopefully this would also help in getting a better network of local speakers that are willing to present in person at the Edmonton and Calgary PASS Chapters.

I have a bunch of ideas and I can’t wait to get started working with PASS on to do my best to help the SQL Community grow within Canada.

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

INSERT INTO PuntaCana
SELECT     FirstName, LastName
FROM    dbo.Family
WHERE    LastName = 'STASIUK'

Don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear from me for a week or so I’ll be having a girlie drink or two too many on a beach and leaving this cold weather behind (temporarily)

Stay tuned when I get back for some exciting news on a more “geeky” level but until then……….

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

Prior Winners:

• Lara Rubbelke – (post link | blog | @SQLGal) – Enterprise Policy Management Framework
• Tim Ford – (post link | blog | @SQLAgentMan) – Determine Free Space, Consumed Space, and Total Space Allocated for SQL Server databases

This “award” has (unintentionally) not been handed out in a while but something that I’ve used (or a variation of) for a while now that I think needs to get bumped back up to the top of everyone’s RSS Feed is Mladen Prajdic’s I.D.N.W.C.E.C (a not so catchy acronym that I just came up with).

Immediate Deadlock Notifications Without Changing Existing Code

Mladen describes how to use the server wide deadlock notification (Event Notifications) to capture the deadlock graph (or deadlock chain, deadlock, escalation) to a table as soon as a deadlock occurs (as well as optionally to send an email at time of capture).

Now what I like about this over the more “traditional” way of detecting deadlocks with Trace Flags 1204 and 1222 (MSDN Link) is that we’re able to capture the deadlock graph event like we were running a Profiler trace against the server.  Using trace flags 1204 and 1222 you get all the same information but I’m a picture person….

and as a picture person I much prefer to see the deadlock graph over the “texty” / XMLish type of information you get back from Trace Flags 1204 and 1222.

Big thanks and props to Mladen for this blog post as I’ve come back to it time and time again

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2447251796

Please be sure to not only click the “Add to my calendar” but also the “Register” button so that we can plan accordingly for food and drinks.

Date: December 8th 2011
Time: 5:45 pm – 7:00 pm
Location: Virtual (sorry the room was booked Live Meeting Link to follow)
Speaker: Jes Borland
Topic: Reporting Services 201: From Basic to WOW!

Session Abstract:

You have mastered the art of linking a dataset to a table in SQL Server Reporting Services. You have solid, reliable reports that you and others depend on. Learn how to take them from basic to “wow”, using features such as tablix, lists, images, and charts. At the end of this session, you will be familiar with:

- Report properties such as headers, footers and backgrounds
- Tablix properties such as ToolTip and NoRows
- How to build and customize a matrix
- How to effectively use lists, an often-overlooked feature
- Adding charts to make reports visually appealing and easy to understand

Presenter Information: Jes Borland ( blog | twitter )

Jes Schultz Borland is a Database Administrator at Kimberly Clark. She holds an AAS – Programmer/Analyst degree. She has worked with SQL Server since 2007, focusing on Reporting Services and day-to-day administration. She is an active member of PASS, the PASS WIT virtual chapter, and the MADPASS chapter. She is also an avid tweeter, blogger and runner.

Agenda:

5:45 pm – Feature Presentation

If you haven’t signed up already at EDMPASS.com please do so now to receive meeting notifications, news, and updates from EDMPASS.

Hope to see you there (Virtually ).

If you’d like to chat with me about this or anything else (SQL or other) please leave a comment or hit me up on my Twitter: @ColinStasiuk