Dan English's BI Blog: Training

Quick Feedback on the 71-448 (70-448) Beta Exam

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:58:39 GMT

I took the beta exam 71-448 for the MCTS Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance (70-448). I would definitely check out the prep guide prior to going into the test to prepare yourself for what will be on the test and that is available on Microsoft’s site here. In an earlier posting I posted the link stating that you can take this test for free until July 31st if you can get a spot.

I was a little surprised that there was 70 questions. I didn’t think there were that many on the SQL Server 2005 exam (70-445), but I could be mistaken. I thought there were only around 54 or so, but it was over a year ago that I took it. You definitely need to know SSRS inside and out. As you can see in the prep guide at least 30% is focused just on this topic. The rest is pretty much a split between SSIS and SSAS with a handful of Data Mining questions.

The other thing was that even though it states it is SQL Server 2008 you wouldn’t have known it. A little surprised that none of the new features were brought up and a little disappointed. Seems like they did a search and replace on 2005 with 2008. If you took the 2005 exam (70-445) or have the Transcender prep tests you are all set.

If you have the time before the end of the month I would definitely recommend taking it now for free In eight weeks I will find out if I passed or not, so until then I just have to wait patiently.

Magenic Technology Council (MTC) Summit 2008 Follow-up

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:59:14 GMT

Last month Magenic held its first ever MTC Summit in Chicago. I helped check people in and I was able to watch some of the great presentations by Jay Schmelzer, Rocky Lohtka, Whitney Weaver, Jason Bock, Kirstin Juhl, Michael Cummings, and Anthony Handley. I wasn’t able to check them all out, but there was some excellent content provided and I want to thank everyone who attended and helped to make this a great event.

If you were not able to attend I have placed the presentations in my SkyDrive account here. I would definitely recommend checking out Whitney’s presentation and T-SQL examples for accessing information with the SQL Server 2005 DMVs. Whitney is one of our SQL Server gurus in Atlanta.

The one thing that I really enjoyed was being able to meet and get together with the MTC members and talk about technology. It was really great to finally meet some of the other Magenicons face-to-face.

Hereos Happen {Here} Hands on Lab Manuals

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:36:31 GMT

If you went to one of the launches there was a hands on lab setup with some great exercises that you could take to take a look at some of the features that are available in Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008. I did some of the PowerShell labs for Windows Server 2008 (a few minor issues in the labs, but nothing that I couldn't figure out) and Change Data Capture (CDC) and Table Partitioning (not a new feature in 2008, exists in 2005 - Enterprise Edition) in SQL Server 2008.

If you haven't attended a launch yet I would highly recommend checking out the virtual lab area, but if you don't get a chance or missed out here is the link to the site that has all of the lab manuals you can download.

Heroes Happen {Here} Hands on Lab Manuals

TechNet BI Virtual Labs

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:29:37 GMT

Just wanted to point out the Business Intelligence virtual labs that are available on the TechNet web site. There are three labs in regards to PerformancePoint server too

Business Intelligence

Don't forget to check out the ones in regards to SQL Server 2008 and get ready for the new product release and take the new version for a test drive. There are two locations for these virtual labs, there are some on MSDN and some on TechNet.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtual Labs

TechNet Virtual Labs: SQL Server 2008

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 advanced lectures and white papers

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:31:27 GMT

Now that Microsoft's BI, PerformancePoint Server, is tied into SharePoint, I thought this information could become rather valuable:

Advanced lectures and white papers

Watch lectures delivered by experts in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and download and read supporting white papers.

Title	Description	Streaming Video	White Paper
Overview: Office SharePoint Server server farm architecture	Describes how to plan server farms for reliability and scalability, and how to deploy Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 on a server farm.	None	Download
Overview: Configuring server farms	Describes configuration steps needed for server farms after deployment.	Watch	Download
Securing server farms	Describes how to help control access to information and how to help protect deployments from malicious users.	Watch	Download
Configuring performance options	Describes how to set up caching, IIS compression, and other options to help maximize performance of an Office SharePoint Server server farm.	Watch	None
Backing up and restoring Office SharePoint Server server farms	Describes how to back up and recover Office SharePoint Server server farms.	Watch	Download
Operations and management	Provides information about common operations and management tasks.	Watch	Download
Capacity planning	Describes how to determine requirements to support your capacity requirements.	Watch	Download
Search architecture and configuration	Describes how to plan for and configure search for Office SharePoint Server.	Watch	Download

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/f27b1c10-aa0f-421b-8c8f-0ed52be863d71033.mspx?mfr=true

Microsoft 2008 Product Launch - Heroes Happen Here

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:15:42 GMT

Don't forget to try and attend a local Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008. I just noticed this morning that a bunch of the local launches are open for registration now and I signed up this morning. The odd thing is that the local launch in MPLS is on April Fools Day. I would sign up now before the registration is full.

http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/register/default.mspx

Here is some additional information from the site:

Take a test drive

Come to an event and test drive Windows Server® 2008 operating system, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008, and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008.

Meet the experts

Enjoy hands-on labs, face-to-face Q&A sessions with software experts, and other opportunities to interact with development team members.

Bring the products home

Want more? To say thanks for taking part of this exciting launch, you’ll take home a promotional kit with versions of all three products.

Registered attendees must by 18 years old by February 27, 2008 to attend this event. For those eligible, you must be 21 years old by February 27, 2008 to attend the Launch Evening Celebration.

Product giveaway kit good only for attendees of 2008 Launch Wave event, events that are targeted towards IT professionals. Limit one launch giveaway kit per person. All kits must be claimed at the event. This offer is non-transferrable and expires on May 22, 2008 while supplies last. Offer is not redeemable for cash. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient.

Get Ready for SQL Server 2008 Virtual Conference - Jan 24, 2008

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:07:04 GMT

Just read about this event in Chris Webb’s blog and wanted to pass it along.

http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=157&seid=291&code=solidqsig

Get Ready for SQL Server 2008 Virtual Event Agenda

11:00 am–12:00 pm EST
Get Ready for SQL Server 2008

12:15 pm–1:30 pm EST
ADMIN TRACK: Performance Tuning: What’s Between Index Internals, Isolation Levels, Locking and the Consistency of Reads
Itzik Ben-Gan, Solid Quality Mentors

BI TRACK: Reporting Services with SQL Server 2008 + Integration with MOSS
Andy Potter, Microsoft .NET Consultants

DEVELOPER TRACK:Developing Data-Centric Applications with SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008
Ken Spencer, Solid Quality Mentors

1:45 pm-2:45 pm EST
Sponsored Technology Sessions

3:00 pm–4:15 pm EST
ADMIN TRACK:SQL Server Virtualization
Michael Otey, SQL Server Magazine

BI TRACK: Getting a Handle on Data Cleansing in SSIS
Erik Veerman, Solid Quality Mentors

DEVELOPER TRACK: Language-Integrated Query
Michael Otey, SQL Server Magazine

Get Ready for SQL Server 2008
Learn how to prepare for an upgrade to SQL Server 2008, including preparing your infrastructure and planning the integration with Office applications, including Office PerformancePoint Server and SharePoint 2007.

ADMIN TRACK: Performance Tuning: What’s Between Index internals, Isolation Levels, Locking and the Consistency of Reads
Itzik Ben-Gan, Solid Quality Mentors
To improve SQL Server database performance, learn how reads behave in different scenarios and the consistency level that you should expect in each scenario.

BI TRACK: Reporting Services with SQL Server 2008 + Integration with MOSS
Andy Potter, Microsoft .NET Consultants
Find out how SQL Server Reporting Services for SQL Server 2008 will offer new power and benefits to SQL Server professionals, including integration with SharePoint Server.

DEVELOPER TRACK: Developing Data-Centric Applications with SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008
Ken Spencer, Solid Quality Mentors
Find out how SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 will offer developers a comprehensive programming framework for developing data-centric solutions that access data from any source and improve developer productivity.

ADMIN TRACK: SQL Server Virtualization
Michael Otey, SQL Server Magazine
Learn how virtualization technologies can benefit the database platform, and how to plan, deploy, and manage a virtual environment for SQL Server.

BI TRACK: Building an SSIS Framework
Erik Veerman, Solid Quality Mentors
In the ever-increasing world of data and integration, it is rare to find pure data. Most data sources have missing values, typographical errors, duplicated rows, mismatched rows, or just plain bad data. For those of you who are data integrators, DBA, and ETL designers who have to work with this, come hear how to best apply the data cleansing capabilities in SSIS through the fuzzy transformations, expressions, and scripting.

DEVELOPER TRACK: Language-Integrated Query
Michael Otey, SQL Server Magazine
Language-integrated query (LINQ) revolutionizes database application development. Learn how to take advantage of the new features of LINQ for SQL Server applications.

Microsoft Business Intelligence Screencasts

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:22:41 GMT

There were a bunch of screencasts added to the Channel9 site this past week in regards to Microsoft Business Intelligence. If you don't subscribe to an RSS feed to get this information or haven't checked out this site before then I would recommend it to get you up-to-speed. You can download the files for viewing offline or to synch up to your Zune to take on the road with you or you can view them online.

Here is what is available (looks like the second one on the list is not uploaded yet and the third one got uploaded twice):

#00: Platform Overview (25 minutes, 25 seconds)

#01a: Introduction to Microsoft BI (20 minutes, 33 seconds) ??? (not available yet)

#01b: Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Tools and Sample Databases (13 minutes, 16 seconds)

#02a: Developing a Query-Driven E-mail Delivery System (17 minutes, 37 seconds)

#03a: Loading and Integrating Data from Multiple Sources (17 minutes, 13 seconds)

#04a: Identifying and Importing New Customers by Using Fuzzy Lookup (12 minutes, 5 seconds)

#04b: Implementing Slowly Changing Dimensions in the Data Flow (16 minutes, 11 seconds)

#04c: Advanced Package Design (13 minutes, 26 seconds)

#05a: Designing a Basic Report (18 minutes, 10 seconds)

#05b: Adding Interactivity to a Report (13 minutes, 59 seconds)

#06a: Developing a Report Model and Designing a Report Builder Report (15 minutes, 46 seconds)

#07a: Deploying and Accessing Reports (16 minutes, 23 seconds)

#09a: Designing Dimensions (16 minutes, 55 seconds)

#09b: Advanced Dimension Design (12 minutes, 25 seconds)

#09c: Using the Cube Wizard (13 minutes, 20 seconds)

#09d: Introducing Cube Calculations (14 minutes, 55 seconds)

#10a: Designing Reports on the UDM (15 minutes, 28 seconds)

#10b: Exploring Analysis Features of Microsoft Excel 2007 (14 minutes, 57 seconds)

#11a: More Analysis with Microsoft Excel 2007 (12 minutes, 45 seconds)

#12a: Introducing Data Mining (14 minutes, 54 seconds)

#12b: Introducing the Table Analysis Tool for Excel 2007 (15 minutes, 28 seconds)

#14a: Building a Performance Point Scorecard (15 minutes, 55 seconds)