SQLUG.be

Get a 20% discount for the SQLBits Conference in England

Frederik — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:04:00 GMT

Our friends in the UK are organising SQLBits - The 7 Wonders of SQL conference, which will be taking place from September 30th to October 2nd at York University. SQLBits is the largest SQL Server conference in Europe and the previous six conferences have established it as a must-attend event for DBAs, developers and BI professionals who work with Microsoft SQL Server in the UK and Europe.

This time SQLBits will be running the three day format that was so successful in South Wales last year. Day one will be a training day, featuring in-depth full day seminars by leading SQL Server professionals; day two will be a deep-dive conference day with advanced sessions delivered by the best speakers from the SQL Server community; and day three will be the traditional SQLBits community conference day, with a wide range of sessions covered all aspects of SQL Server at all levels of ability.

There will be a charge to attend days one and two, but day three, the Saturday, will as usual be completely free to attend allowing those without any budget still to be able to attend and experience a great day of training.

SQLUG.BE members receive a 20% discount on the event. Just use the promotion code BE20 during the registration process.

SQL Server Jobs at Kohera

Frederik — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:07:00 GMT

Our Gold Partner Kohea is looking for a SQL Server DBA and a MS Business Intelligence Constultant. Please have a look at our job section for more details.

Slide Deck SQLUG Event System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2

karim — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:01:00 GMT

The slides from System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 event on the 20th of May are available for download.

Practical SQL Server 2008 for the Oracle DBA - Online Seminar

Frederik — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:24:00 GMT

This 2 day Online Seminar is to help Oracle database administrators (DBAs) leverage their skills and experience as an Oracle DBA to manage a SQL Server system. This seminar will provide a quick start for the Oracle DBA to map, compare and contrast the realm of Oracle database management to SQL Server database management.

June 21 – 22 9-5pm Australia (East)
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032454218&Culture=en-US

June 23 – 24 9-5pm Paris
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032454219&Culture=en-US

Next SQLUG event on What is System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 and how can it help in managing SQL Servers, May 20th

Frederik — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:04:00 GMT

Managing SQL Server requires insight in the state and performance of the underlying infrastructure, OS and individual SQL components.

System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 cannot only give you that insight, but it can be reused in a broader application/service monitoring view.

This session focuses on the out-of-the-box capabilities of System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 but also shows you how a distributed application can easily reuse these capabilities to provide an extra step in monitoring.

About Ricardo Noulez
Ricardo Noulez is a Senior Consultant at Microsoft Consulting Services in the Benelux. Been with Microsoft since January 2002 as a subject matter expert in Microsoft Operations Manager (now System Center Operations Manager) and Systems Management Server (System Center Configuration Manager). Ricardo has a great focus around the System Center product family and he is currently expanding his horizons towards the System Center Service Manager product. He is always interested in finding ways to improve the way that customers manage their IT environment and has certifications and great affinity with ITIL good practices and the MOF framework to help them achieve this. In the first third of his 18 year career, Ricardo was a developer but gradually converted himself to Systems Management and IT operations. This gives him a broad understanding in the different needs and view-points of all technical players that make IT ideas come true.

Agenda:

18:00	Registration
18:30	Session Start
21:00	Session End

Location:
Microsoft België
Corporate Village
Leonardo Da Vincilaan 3
1935 Zaventem

Tel: +32.2.503.31.13
Fax: +32.2.704.35.35

This Event is brought to you by Microsoft

Click here to register.

SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM

Frederik — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:04:00 GMT

Today Microsoft released the RTM version of SQL Server 2008 R2. The trial version is available on the following URL http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=54ad6107-c552-4d47-b1a1-3f66460f71a9.

More related downloads can be found via Download Center: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/results.aspx?freetext=sql+server+2008+R2&displaylang=en&stype=s_basic

Happy downloading!

Get a 10% discount on SQL Server training at Global Knowledge

Frederik — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 07:44:00 GMT

Global Knowledge offers SQLUG.be members a 10% discount on selected SQL Server courses.

Code	Description	Date	List Price	SQL UG Price
M2778	Writing Queries using SQL Server 2008	26/05	€1.200,-	€1.080,-
M6231	Maintaining a SQL Server 2008 database	28/06	€ 1.750,-	€ 1.575,-
M6232	Implementing a SQL Server 2008 database	07/06	€ 1.750,-	€ 1.575,-
M6234	Implement & Maintain SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services	15/06	€ 1.200,-	€1.080,-
M6235	Implement & Maintain SQL Server 2008 Integration Services	03/05	€ 1.200,-	€1.080,-
M6236	Implement & Maintain SQL Server 2008 Reporting	10/05	€ 800,-	€720,-
GK7004	Business Intelligence with SQL Server (combo 6234,-35,-36)	21/06	€1.750,-	€1.575,-

EXCLUSIVE at Global Knowledge: Prepare for SQL 2008 R2: First Look – Breakfast sessions:
Find out what’s new in this short product update: SQL SERVER 2008 R2 – What’s New?

Dates: Thursday 6 May or Tuesday 11 May
Hours: 8h30 – 11h00
Speaker: MTC – Marc Mertens
Price: €99,-*

*When you book a training at Global Knowledge this amount will be deducted of the price!

Slide deck SQLUG event Resource Governor

Steve — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:21:00 GMT

The slides from the Resource Governor event on the 8th of april are available for download.

Community Day 2010

Frederik — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:18:00 GMT

Community Day is back with the Fourth Edition of this annual community event on Microsoft technologies!

Fourteen Microsoft User Groups combine their efforts to organize this unique networking and knowledge sharing
event. With so many new releases from Microsoft, the theme of Community Day 2010 is of course 2010: a new wave of products and technologies. This means that most sessions will be looking at Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight 4, Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2, OCSR2...

Microsoft Community Day will take place on Thursday 24th June 2010 in Utopolis, Mechelen, where we will
bring together over 300 IT Pro’s and developers.

The Microsoft Community Day 2010 is supported by:

AZUG
BESUG
BIWUG
IT-Talks
MVUG
Pro-Exchange
SCUG
SQLUG
VBIB
Visug
WinSec
XNA-BUG
CLUG
DotNetHub

Practical event details
Location: Utopolis Mechelen (Map)
Address: Spuibeekstraat 5 2800 Mechelen
Event date: Thursday June 24th
Start & end time: 9.00 -18.30

Social
Community Day on Twitter: #comday2010

The is a free event but registration is required through http://www.communityday.be.

Wanted - your input on Web Administration of SQL Server and SQL Azure

Frederik — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:00:00 GMT

The SQL Server product team is thinking about Web Administration of SQL Server and SQL Azure, and is looking for customer input/feedback.

Please take a short survey @ http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/978R8TB on this subject.

Free tickets for Star Wars in Concert

Frederik — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:47:00 GMT

We have 10 free tickets for Star Wars in Concert for tomorrow night @ Sportpaleis Antwerp.

Visit us tomorrow at our booth on the Techdays and mention the magic word SQL Server 2008 R2 D2.

Chalk Talk sessions on the Belgian Techdays

Frederik — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:45:00 GMT

We are happy to announce that a number of IT-Pro community groups are joining forces this year to bring you two highly interactive Chalk Talk sessions on the Belgian Techdays.

The concept is very simple, If you have that one question you have been dying to ask a leading technology expert, this is your chance.

Bring your question and join a panel of MVP’s and tech experts during the lunch breaks 31-03 Room2 and 1-04 Expo area. Pose your question live and see how the panel thinks and analyses your problem from there expertise and where possible formulate answers or research options to help you solve your problem.

Looking forward meeting you on the Techdays!

Next SQLUG evening event on Resource Governor, April 8th

Frederik — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:57:00 GMT

Resource Governor is a new technology in SQL Server 2008 that enables you to manage SQL Server workload and resources by specifying limits on resource consumption by incoming request. In this session you will learn how to define a classifier function, to sort your request in resource groups, that will be assigned to resource pools dividing up your CPU and memory resources. Monitoring of resources used by the resource groups is also covered. If you ever have to full fill service level agreements based on the performance of your queries then this is the session for you.

About the speaker
Marc Mertens is a SQL Server and .NET trainer/consultant voor Global Knowledge. He has been working with SQL server from version 4.x up to the current version. His Microsoft Certifications are MSCA, MSCE, MCDBA, MCAD,MCSD and MCT. He has been a trainer for every aspect of SQL server, from building .net applications using ADO.NET and LINQ to BI solutions.

Agenda:

18:00	Registration
18:30	Session Start
21:00	Session End

Location:
Global Knowledge Belgium
Industriepark Mechelen Noord II
Zandvoortstraat 1
2800 Mechelen
Tel.: 015/27.65.35
Fax: 015/20.49.50

This Event is brought to you by Globalknowledge

Click here to register

SQL Server Service Broker and some of the things it can do for you

karim — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:08:00 GMT

The presentaion and demo fiels are available. Click here to download.

SQL Server 2005 SP3 and SQL Server 2008 SP2

Steve — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:08:00 GMT

MSFT announced on the Global Releases Services Team blog they will release new service packs for both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 in Q4 and Q3 respectively.

Save up to 35% for the PASS European Conference - use promo code BEC15Y

Frederik — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:18:00 GMT

We are very proud to offer our members a special discount code that offers significant savings for any PASS European Conference 2010 registration. (It’s an even better discount than Early Bird registration!)

Use discount code BEC15Y and enjoy the following savings for PASS European Conference:

Conference Prices (19% VAT additional)	Pre-Con Only 21 April	Conference Only 22-23 April	Full Conference 21-22 April
Chapter registration (with discount)	279 €	649 €	799 €
Early Bird Registration	289 €	782 €	911 €
Full Price Registration	359 €	999 €	1.099 €

· more than 45 sessions by dynamic speakers from around the world

· special SQL Server R2 launch activities

· SQL Server best practices, effective troubleshooting, issue prevention, and money savings tips

· face-to-face answers and advice from Microsoft CSS experts

Looking forward to seeing you in Neuss, Germany , 21-23 April.

SQL Zaterdag

Frederik — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:19:00 GMT

We inspired our Dutch friends at PASS Nederland with SQL Server Day. On March 6th they are organising their first full day event. Full details can be found on http://www.sqlzaterdag.nl/

Good luck guys!!!!!

SQL Zaterdag is geen nieuw soort event, maar wel nieuw voor Nederland. Het is geinspireerd door populaire evenementen als de diverse Code Camps in de .net wereld, SQLSaturday, SQL Server Day en het zeer populaire SQLBits.

Het principe is heel simpel :

Het is op een zaterdag (6 maart in dit geval, bij Info Support te Veenendaal)
Het is gratis !
Er zijn 2 tracks, een BI track en een Engine track (of zo je wilt een "niet BI track")
Wij zorgen voor ontbijt, lunch, koffie en nog meer koffie.
Had ik al gezegd dat het gratis is ?

February 11th, next UG-evening on Service Broker

Frederik — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:15:00 GMT

SQL Server Service Broker and some of the things it can do for you” is brought to you by Nico Jacobs and will take place on February 11th. Since SQL server 2005, it is possible to build a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) inside SQL Server.

The component that enables this is the service broker, a message based system which allows for dialogs between two SQL server instances. In this session, we will first introduce the terminology and features of this framework, then we will discuss some of the scenarios in which it can be used, and we will conclude by implementing a small service broker application. Dr. Nico Jacobs was a researcher at the Computer Science department, KULeuven for seven years, where he obtained his PhD in machine learning (data mining). Since 2004, he is trainer and consultant at U2U, where he focuses primarily on SQL Server and the Business Intelligence back-end.

Free registration is now open.

Upcoming Technet Livemeetings on managing the SQL Server 2008 data platform

Frederik — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:06:00 GMT

Vereenvoudig het management van uw SQL Server 2008 Data Platform

In deze sessie bekijken we de management kant van Microsoft SQL Server 2008 en gaan we dieper in op de uitdagingen waarvoor database beheerders staan.
Topics die we zullen behandelen zijn onder meer: het managen van complexe en high-value taken, proactieve monitoring en tuning van de gezondheid van uw systeem, schaalbaarheidsmanagement voor meerdere data centers, en inzicht verwerven in historische trends en real-time activiteiten

11 Februari – 14:00 Inschrijven

Simplifiez la direction de votre Plateforme de Données SQL Server 2008

Durant cette session nous allons discuter la direction de Microsoft SQL Server 2008 et approfondir les défis auquels doivent faire face les gérants des bases de données. Nous allons parler de (entre autre) : gérer des tâches complexes et de haute valeur, monitorer et améliorer proactivement la santé de votre système, gérer l’élargabilité de plusieurs centres de données, et connaître mieux les trends historiques et les activités en real-time.

11 Février – 10:00 Inscription

TechDays Pre Conf: BI with SQL Server 2008 R2 and Office System 2010 with Rafal Lukawiecki

Frederik — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:16:00 GMT

A must see for any who's working with or thinking about Microsoft BI. Rafal Lukawiecki is probably the most gifted speaker on this topic.

Full Details on: http://www.techdays.be

BI with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010

We will examine an end-to-end approach to building and delivering a BI solution using the Microsoft BI platform. We will focus on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Office System 2010, in particular on PowerPivot, SharePoint 2010, and PerformancePoint Services. To make this seminar easier and more pleasant to follow we have structured the first half to focus on the concepts of BI and the knowledge worker and the second half to focus on underlying technologies.

Register today to benefit from the early bird pricing and save 15%

Session1: The Big Picture of Business Intelligence: Goals, Concepts, and the Platform
This session will introduce the overall picture of Business Intelligence and will relate the Microsoft BI Platform to it. Fundamental concepts, such as Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, Self-service Analysis, Dimensions, Facts, and Measures will be introduced, too. Technology, stressing the newly released products, will be briefly discussed and the overall road ahead will be outlined.

Session2: The Knowledge Worker’s Perspective: Self-Service of BI
The most demanded and the fastest growing form of BI is the self-service, personal BI. This session will concentrate on how Office System 2010, in particular SharePoint 2010 and its PerformancePoint Services enable anyone to create and use BI in an organisation. We will also introduce the very new Microsoft PowerPivot stressing how existing Excel skills enable self-service analysis by intermediate and more advanced users. We will also mention other self-service aspects of BI, such as self-service reporting. This session will also discuss the IT Professional challenge of managing the life cycle of a potentially fast, organically growing BI system built by its users.

Session3: The IT Perspective: Data Warehousing, Management, and Analytical Structures
This session aims to take a look at BI capabilities of the SQL Server 2008 R2. We will introduce Master Data Management and new approaches to massive Data Warehousing. We will look at the way in which SQL Server functions as part of the overall BI Platform. Naturally, the fundamental BI functions of SQL Server, such as Data Integration and OLAP will also be discussed in order to enable all attendees to start planning their BI infrastructure after attending this seminar.

Session4: The Analyst’s Perspective: Ad-hoc Analysis with Microsoft PowerPivot and Office 2010 Excel
Returning to the key theme of this seminar, the self-service nature of BI, we will dive deeper into the most exciting of the recent additions to the Microsoft BI platform, the Microsoft PowerPivot. We will look at the ways in which an analyst can use their existing knowledge of Excel to perform advanced analysis of large data sets, including their acquisition and later publication. Briefly, we will introduce a new language for analysis known as DAX which can help more advanced users create powerful analytical applications all inside Excel and PowerPivot. Finally, we will review the existing Data Mining technologies of SQL Server 2008 R2 thus completing the day’s thorough journey through the Microsoft BI Platform.

The Belgian SQL Server user group wishes you happy holidays!!

Steve — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:05:00 GMT

Enjoy the holidays. We'll see you back next year!

SQL Server Day 2009 videos now available on Chopsticks

Steve — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Microsoft has made all sessions presented on SQL Server Day 2009 available on Chopsticks

Opening Keynote by Wesley Backelant and Ritchie Houtmeyers
Best Practices for SQL Server Consolidation by Tom Van Mulders
Breaking the ETL world record with Integration Services by Henk van der Valk
Designing Effective Aggregations in Analysyis Services 2008 by Chris Webb
High availability for BI DWH by Patrick Tack
How New.NET Development technologies could change the live of the SQL DBA guy/girl by Gill Cleeren & Kurt Claeys
Implementing best practices with Policy Based Management by Nico Jacobs
Introducing to PowerPivot or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Excel by Chris Webb
Tracking Changes and Data movement in SQL Server 2008 by Dirk Gubbels
Handling XML in SQL Server by Nico Jacobs

SSMS 2008 cannot connect to a SSIS 2005 instance

Steve — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:44:00 GMT

Read the title carefully and take it literally. I had discussions with people trying to convince me this is indeed possible. What they were trying to explain to me is the following:

Let's take a SQL Server Management Studio 2008 and connect to a SQL Server Integration Services 2005 instance. Proof can be found here.

It won't work. One would think it's backward compatible but it's not.
However, there is somewhat a workaround: connect to SSIS 2008 instance through SSMS 2008 which of course should work AND within the stored packages node, you are indeed able to connect to 2005 packages.

Literally, SSMS 2008 cannot connect to a SSIS 2005 instance

SQL Server Day 2009 website live and registration open

Frederik — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:53:00 GMT

On Thursday, the 3rd of December 2009 SQLUG.BE (The Belgian SQL Server User Group) and Microsoft are teaming up to organize the second Belgian SQL Server Day. Focus of the day is off course SQL Server.

Last year, SQL Server Day 2008 was the biggest community driven SQL Server event in the Benelux, with more than 200 attendees.

The event will kick-off with an international speaker positioning the SQL Server data platform, today and tomorrow.

We have 6 break-out sessions with technical content on SQL Server. The speakers are recognized international SQL Server experts; including Dirk Gubbels, Chris Webb, Henk van der Valk, ...

During the lunch break our gold partners will present their solutions and offerings in the lightning sessions .

We conclude the day with a closing keynote on Gemini, the new breakthrough Self-Service Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities being delivered in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Full details and registration are available on www.sqlserverday.be

Technet Event - Virtualization from Desktop to Datacenter - 17 November 2009

Frederik — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:38:00 GMT

On November 17th Microsoft is hosting a Technet Event on Virtualization from Desktop to Datacenter.

Using products that span the desktop to the data center, you can bring capacities online in real-time, as needed; streamline and provision applications, services and data on-demand; accelerate backup and recovery, and enhance availability so that your users are well protected against system failure and service interruptions.

This event will consist out of two tracks: one for Server Virtualization and one for Client Virtualization

Full details can be found on http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technetroadshow/events_detail2.aspx