Using Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise, and using it well, can really make a DBAs life easier.  But don’t take our word for it.  Here’s a real DBA using Spotlight Enterprise to make a daunting task doable (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/merrill_aldrich/archive/2009/10/29/using-historical-perf-counters-for-storage-planning.aspx).

The 2009 Redmond Readers’ Choice award for Best SQL Tool has been announced, and the winner of preferred product is Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise!  Thanks to everyone who voted.  It’s always rewarding when customers recognize the effort our incredibly talented staff of architects and developers have put into developing a solution like Spotlight Enterprise.  Stay tuned, we’ve got a lot more things to get excited about in SQL Server land for 2010!

When I got my first production DBA job, we were given pagers for on-call issues.  And in managing a multi-regional backend database system, that pager went off – alot. Eventually the pager became a cell phone and a laptop, and finally a smartphone (the mythical Blackberry was reserved for executives at that time, and the iPhone wasn’t even a twinkle in Steve Jobs’s eye).  The worst part about being an on-call production DBA was always that you simply couldn’t do much without driving into work (and boy could that pose a challenge sometimes).  Today, with the advances in mobile devices, and with internet/WiFi becoming standard and reasonably fast most anywhere you travel, DBAs are expected to respond to problems faster, so tools that make that possible are fast becoming mission critical.  The problem is, most web-enabled SQL Server performance managment products are simply not good enough.  They offer too small a subset of information, are not responsive enough, or are cripplingly limited in the functionality they provide.

Full web-enablement – from alert, to diagnosis, to root cause analysis. What can you do with Foglight for SQL Server?  If you’re an operational DBA, everything necessary to get to the root of what went bump in the night to wake you. Full alarm resolution workflow; enterprise-level and cross-platform health checks; diagnostic drill-downs to guide you toward the root cause of a problem; customizable interfaces with drag & drop capabilities; full administrative control.

Foglight for SQL Server Mobile Web Support

I have previously posted that Foglight for SQL Server is a reality, and while we count down to the GA on November 5th, this series of posts will take a closer look at our newest addition to the SQL Server portfolio.

Global View: Everyone wants it. The big picture on infrastructure health; the cross-platform solution for your database environment; the central location for administration; the quick and easy way to deploy additional monitoring; the quickly sortable, groupable head’s up display. Here it is, the Foglight for SQL Server Global View dashboard. Quickly understand instance health. Determine if your host or your database needs attention. Discover more databases to monitor and instantly deploy monitoring. Administer your full SQL Server monitoring environment. Log in, have a look, and in one click launch an investigation into SQL Server health in a single, fluid interface.

Foglight for SQL Server Global View Dashboard

PASS is fast approaching, and as a countdown to the big event where SQL Server performance management will make a big splash with 2 HUGE releases, I’ll be going over what’s hot in Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise and Foglight for SQL Server.

CPU Diagnostics.  Let’s face it, as a DBA it’s not easy when CPU issues arise.  There are all sorts of things that could be to blame, and a plethora of ways to troubleshoot the problem.  Spotlight has built a strong reputation for the way it helps DBAs diagnose performance problems with an intuitive interface and built-in workflows, but in version 6.0 we’ve taken the next step.  Actually, it’s more of a leap.  Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise now automatically diagnoses CPU conditions, and presents a dynamic output defined by what’s been identified as the root cause.  By bringing together SQL Server and Windows metrics, controls, and views in a single dashboard – you’re one click away from “problem solved”.

Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise CPU Diagnostic Drill-down

Today we went RTM with our latest version of LiteSpeed for SQL Server (5.2) and we’ll be going GA with this at the PASS show in Seattle, WA the week of Nov. 2.

We’re really excited about this release as it beefs up our already strong Fast Compression functionality. Fast Compression further reduces the size of backups by only backing up changed data. This improves backup times and lowers storage requirements by 70% or more over and above your current backup and compression strategy.

Again, we look forward to making it generally available during the PASS show and if you’re headed there, please stop by the booth to say hello and see a demo.  See you there!

Andy

Every year, Quest puts on a one-day virtual conference called QuestConnect.  Quest staffers and community members give seminars about all the different technologies Quest is involved in – SQL Server, other database platforms, Active Directory, Exchange, virtualization, security, identity, all kinds of stuff.

We encourage attendees to fill out a survey so that we can improve the event each year.  Here’s some highlights from some of the hundreds of responses:

We want more!  Add more days and more tracks. I hear ya – we could offer free training 24/7 around the clock, and it still wouldn’t be enough.  I liken it to my TV cable company: I’ve got hundreds of channels, but I still want more.  We want to offer as much free training as we can while still keeping it free.  At some point, adding and broadcasting live content starts to cost money.

Couldn’t figure out how to navigate the system. This is one of those pieces of feedback that make me say, “Ah, cool, it wasn’t just me.”  We’re constantly trying to improve our game, and we had a hunch that this was a weak spot.  I’m really thankful to hear this feedback.

Less sales pitches and more actual implementations. Agreed – I hate infomercials.  In the SQL Server group, all of our presentations are focused on helping you work with the native tools first, and our tools second.  Not all of the groups feel that way, though, and that’s why some of the presentations can be a little light on value.

Add a high-level track for managers. I love this idea.

Add virtual booth babes. I’ll get right on that.  (It did make me laugh though.)

Allow the on-demand webinars to be downloaded. This is a tough one as a vendor because it means the content can be given around to friends more easily.  Part of the payback for the free training is giving us your name and email address.  If you download the training, then give it out to a bunch of people, it’s harder for us to justify doing the free training as a marketing method.  I feel bad saying that, because I’m kinda like a record company, but that’s the way it is.  Instead, let’s go back to the root problem: why do you need the webinars on your local hard drive?  If the objective is to be able to watch ‘em whenever you want, that’s what SQLServerPedia’s podcasts and Quest’s webcast archives are for.

More demos and virtual hands-on labs for the attendees. We’ve got a great solution for that coming.

Add more vendors. Wow, that surprised me.  I hadn’t thought of that, but we could pitch the service to other vendors too.

Bring in more world class speakers like Brent Ozar. Okay, now you’re just pulling my leg.

Many of you who venture into this area of the website are already familiar with Spotlight. Whether you have experience with the SQL Server flavors of the product, or other editions like those for Active Directory, DB2, Exchange, MySQL, Oracle or Sybase, Spotlight is a very successful and very compelling product for many reasons. Starting roughly a year ago, I embarked on a journey with one of Quest’s best development labs to try to extend that success to our Foglight product line via a product that is now dubbed Foglight for SQL Server. By leveraging the lessons we’ve learned from Spotlight, and after extensive conversations with customers and prospects, we’ve arrived at the dawn of a new era for Foglight, where a download and go product based on the Foglight framework is ready to change the way database diagnosis and monitoring can be achieved in an end-to-end monitoring product. With a wizard-driven installation, automated instance discovery, built-in dashboards, workflows and alarms, and dramatically simplified administration, Foglight for SQL Server is ushering in the age of the special purpose monitor. A product that is designed to focus on a specific domain, for a specific user, but that can later be expanded to encompass a wide range of domains and data. We’ll be showcasing our new technology at the PASS conference in Seattle when we GA on November 3rd, and will be posting a wealth of information to quest.com very shortly. Stay tuned!

Every quarter we have ‘QBRs’, which stands for Quarterly Business Reviews. I’ve been busy reviewing our SQL Server business, and planning for 2010, and on October 29th I get to journey into the lion’s den and present that plan.
The audience for the QBR is high-level executives from every area of the company – development, support, legal, sales, marketing, CEO, President – and it will be my first time presenting the whole business to them. People have made or broken their careers during these meetings, and some of the stories I have heard range from the truly painful, Gong Show-esque moments to people knocking it out of the park and cementing their place. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad nervous, but I am looking forward to the opportunity.
I am a big believer of advancing your career by getting out of your comfort zone. I’ll let you know how that goes!