• Deadlock Detection, Troubleshooting, and Prevention
• Leveraging SQLDiag for Efficient Troubleshooting

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been adding to and improving the demonstrations for the SQLDiag presentation. I was satisfied with the code (in terms of functionality, it still needed polishing and testing) until last week, when I got an escalation call about end-user complaints of poor performance with a customer’s application. This type of case calls for the techniques covered in my presentation. I then realized that October has been a bit of a dry spell in terms of complex issues that merited these techniques.

I ended up seeing a number of opportunities to further automate the process, pleased with the dual benefit of 1.) helping to solve the issue for the customer and 2.) having more to share with my audiences. For example, I finally created a PowerShell script that automatically extracts a single SQLDiag data set from a 7-Zip archive and loads it into PAL and SQL Nexus. This saves an immense amount of time! The downside is that I added a significant set of new scripts that have to be refined and tested (but they are absolutely worth it!).

I have been putting the release of the presentation materials above many other tasks (including blogging, participating on forums, and many responsibilities in my personal life), which has really added to my stress level. It’s time to reprioritize… I need to enjoy some down-time with my wife, tie up a few loose ends at work, and prepare for the PASS conference. I’m sorry to postpone further, but on the other hand, the quality and quantity of deliverables will be much greater this way. I’m sure that you’ll find it worth the wait!

Expect the presentation materials the week of November 9th.

One reason is that the demonstrations for my SQLDiag presentation are still being actively developed and tested. They’ve come a long way so far (at SQLSaturday #25 they didn’t work and at the October NTSSUG meeting they were merely adequate). Last night I decided to add scripts for creating a SQL Server Agent job and alert pair that will launch SQLDiag. I’ve mentioned this technique each time that I’ve given the presentation so I thought that it was time to include the code for doing so. It’s an important addition, but it did take a bit of time to churn out instruction-quality code.

I briefly considered posting the PowerPoint slide decks for the presentations, without the accompanying sample code, but I would hate for somebody to neglect to return and get the updates. I put a lot into the sample code and I hope that it provides great value to the audience members.

Last night, I also had to upload the final revision of my PowerPoint slide deck for the PASS Community Summit 2009. I spent quite a while tweaking the content with ideas that I’ve gotten from the last few deliveries of the material.

Finally, there are a few remaining preparations for tonight, my last scheduled presentation (before the Summit).

I’m working diligently to get everything ready for you… there’s just a great deal to do. I even passed on going to the first meeting of the DFW IT Professionals users group, despite my strong desire to attend. I decided that my commitment to those of you that have attended my presentations trumped my own enjoyment (in this case).

• Send the slide decks and code for my SQLSaturday #25 presentations to Stuart Ainsworth (blog, Twitter) for posting on the SQLSaturday.com web site
• Post the slide deck for last Thursday’s presentation on the NTSSUG web site
• Continue refining my SQLDiag presentation for this coming Wednesday
• Catch up on some blogging, including an account of my experience at SQLSaturday #25

I made some great progress on the SQLDiag presentation, but the other tasks had to give way to caring for my sick wife and fielding an inordinate number of escalation calls (it was my turn to be the on-call DBA, a duty that rotates to me every four weeks).

I haven’t forgotten these tasks… hopefully I can catch up tomorrow, since I have the day off from work. Please bear with me.

Congratulations Stuart (blog, Twitter) and company!

As I’ve mentioned, a goal for the year has been to begin participating in technical forums, answering questions for other IT professionals and developers. I set up a few accounts/profiles last weekend and resolved to answer at least one thread over the course of the week. It was a busy week!

Well, last night Tim (blog, Twitter) and I left the SQLSaturday #25 afterparty some time between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. We were having a great time, but the weariness from traveling and the lack of sleep was catching up with me.

We got back to the hotel, relaxed briefly, then broke out the laptops. Tim planned to download videos about the Tableau product suite, a very impressive "visual analysis and data visualization" tool that had been demonstrated during the conference, for the flight home. I planned to continue working on my SQLDiag presentation and hopefully compose a blog post or two as well.

Instead, we got caught up in discussion, visiting such varied topics as: SQLSaturday #25, SQLSaturday #17, the North Texas SQLSaturday (that is being planned), the NTSSUG leadership, presentation styles, career goals, marriage, books, friendships, our jobs, the folly of youth (specifically not applying ourselves in school), and our mutual admiration for Tim Mitchell (blog, Twitter). It was a lot of fun!

A little after 11:00 p.m. (I think), I suddenly remembered my forum-post-for-the-week-of-October-4th goal, which hadn’t been achieved. I decided not to let it slip, so I took action.

First, I needed to find a good thread to which I could contribute. I brought up the ServerFault, SQL Server Central, and TechNet forums in different browser windows and began searching. I wasn’t quite sure the best way to conduct the search, so I started by only including threads that hadn’t been answered yet. I skimmed through the remaining post titles and saw a few about deadlocks. I quickly latched onto that topic and refined my search. Moments later, I found my target: "how to analyse deadlock graph and deadlock xml ?" [sic].

One of the suggestions in my deadlocks presentation is to sanitize the deadlock graph and then reach out to the SQL Server community (by way of forum of newsgroup) or send the graph to a colleague for help (at least until attaining proficiency with deadlock troubleshooting), so this was a great fit.

I copied the deadlock graph’s XML content from the forum post into a text file and then changed the extension of the file from "txt" to "XDL." Doing so made it so that SQL Server Management Studio would automatically open the deadlock graph and render a diagram of the deadlock. I also reformatted the XML contents so that it was easier to read.

I figured out the reason for the deadlock (as much as one can without access to the system and/or schema) pretty quickly, but the write-up took quite a while. I wanted to include enough information and references that the poster would learn from the answer, and not just take it and be no better off in the future.

Unfortunately it was past midnight by the time that I posted the answer, which meant that I hadn’t technically met my goal of posting an answer during the week of October 4th. However, I have rationalized that I did reach my goal, as it was still before midnight in the Central Time Zone (in which the goal has been set). Cheap? Yes… but I’m still happy with it!

I plan to answer at least two forum questions this week.

Now for the punch line: The thread that I answered was posted on January 23rd*, so my effort probably has little-to-no value for Anjali Vishwakarma! I’ll chalk that up to being a forum newbie. Tim tells me that this behavior has its own, very fitting and humorous term on ServerFault/StackOverflow. Hopefully the answer will be useful to somebody else, in the future, when they are researching deadlocks.

* I noticed the dates in the deadlock graph, thought that it was strange that the poster needed help with a deadlock from so long ago, but failed to make the connection that I was dealing with a long-forgotten thread. Remember that I said I was sleep deprived.

My "Leveraging SQLDiag for Efficient Troubleshooting" presentation is brand new, so of course it is very important practice the delivery to improve the experience for the audience. I use SQLDiag (as well as the other tools covered in the presentation*) on at least a weekly basis, but the development of the presentation and demonstrations has still involved a lot of work. As has happened with my previous two presentation topics, the development of the slide deck, sample code, and overall presentation took longer than expected. I intended to have a code freeze in-place by the end of September, but that didn’t work out.

So, I found myself in the week leading up to SQLSaturday #25 without having rehearsed in front of a technical audience. When I practiced my deadlocking presentation in preparation for SQLSaturday #17, most of my co-workers that accepted the invitation weren’t able to actually attend, and those that did had to come-and-go. I don’t fault anyone, it’s the nature of our business (being in the unit that provides direct technical support to our "highly managed hosting" customers. Anyway, I decided to go and practice in front of my good friends (and former teammates) on the development team at Usability Sciences Corporation.

The presentation had a lot of issues, but I received great feedback, especially from Brad (blog, Twitter). One of the biggest suggestions was that I limit the coverage of my troubleshooting methodology so that there is more time to focus on demonstrating the tools. I’m very glad to have the relationship with that team that allows me to take and an hour-and-a-half out of their busy development schedule to get valuable feedback on a presentation that still needs a lot of refinement and polish!

* PAL, PSSDiag, SQL Nexus, RML Utilities

Last Monday, October 5th, four of the members of the planning committee* toured the leading candidate of venues for the North Texas SQLSaturday. I don’t want to disclose the location until we have formally reserved it, but it is an ideal facility for our event. There are five large conference/class rooms that have plenty of seating and built-in A/V systems. There’s a good speakers’ room as well as a few smaller rooms for other purposes too. The lobby already has a registration desk and there is room for a few vendors’ booths along with plenty of space for socializing. There is also a small courtyard with several covered tables and benches.

The problem (referenced in the title) is that the facility is not available on either of the Saturdays in January that we are targeting. We have restarted the date selection process.

Our committee has been meeting semi-monthly and Andy Warren (blog, Twitter) has been able to join our last two conference calls. His coaching is really valuable, and I believe it will play a large role in the success of our event. Our next committee meeting is on Thursday night and I am hoping that we can lock-in a date and secure the facility. Once we’ve done so, we can: add our event to the SQLSaturday.com web site, begin accepting registrations, open the call-for-speakers, and begin the fund-raising… when the real fun should begin!

* Sean McCown (blog, Twitter), Tim Mitchell (blog, Twitter), Sri Sridharan, and myself

1. Deadlock Detection, Troubleshooting, & Prevention at 8:30 a.m.
2. Leveraging SQLDiag for Efficient Troubleshooting at 11:00 a.m.

The latter will be my first public delivery of that presentation, the same one that I will be giving in less than a month at the PASS Community Summit 2009! I hope to get a lot of good feedback so that I can continue to refine it.

As before, with SQLSaturday #17, a secondary reason for attending is to gain greater insight into the workings of a SQLSaturday event, in order to apply the experience to the North Texas SQLSaturday event that we are planning. I learned a great deal from a great blog post by Stuart Ainsworth (blog, Twitter), so it will be great to see him in action (he’s also the event coordinator of SQLSaturday #25).

I’m fortunate to get to travel with another friend from the user group, Tim Costello (blog, Twitter). This is going to be a fun trip!

This seems like a good time to evaluate the progress on my professional/technical goals for the year:

Overall, I’m pleased with my progress. I’m going to dedicate more time to this blog and to participating in forums and newsgroups.