Free SQL Server Training Resources

Often these IT Professionals, sometimes called “Accidental DBAs,” do an admirable job, even with little formal SQL Server training. Fortunately, there are a lot of great resources available online for the “Accidental DBA.” Here are a few free SQL Server learning resources worth checking out:

1. Microsoft Resources and Labs

Microsoft has put together quite a few learning opportunities available to the public for free. These are in several different formats so you can pick the one you’re most comfortable with. Here are a few you may want to check out:

1. Microsoft SQL Server 2019 (CTP 3.2) Lab. In this self-paced lab, you’ll learn how to use SQL Server 2019 to solve business challenges.
2. Microsoft AI School. Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic in today’s business environment. In Microsoft AI School, you’ll “find the information, learning materials, and resources you need to start building intelligence into your solutions.”
3. SQL Server Tutorials. More than just Online Documentation, SQL Docs is a great place for detailed information about how to use SQL Server. It includes tutorials that will step you through learning the database technology.
4. EdX. Founded by Harvard and MIT, EdX is a place where education is freely available to everyone online. Microsoft has partnered with EdX to provide free courses online for SQL Server. Here are a few:
   • Querying Data with Transact-SQL.
   • Developing SQL Databases.
   • Analyzing and Visualizing Data with SQL Server Reporting Services.
5. Channel 9. Microsoft produces a lot of video content for SQL Server and other products. They make it available online via Channel 9.

2. YouTube Channels

YouTube can be a great resource for learning just about anything. From changing a tire to playing the ukulele, you can find it on YouTube. It should come as no surprise that there are a lot of great SQL Server training videos available as well. Of course, since just about anyone can create a video, you’ll want to be careful. Not everyone is the expert that they portend to be online. Do your own research. Here are a couple of places to start.

1. SQL Server YouTube Search. A list of SQL Server-related videos.
2. Microsoft SQL Server YouTube Channel. Microsoft SQL Server home on YouTube.

3. SQLSaturdays and Virtual Groups

For many years, I was on the board of Directors for a global user group called PASS. The organization is committed to providing learning opportunities for professionals around the globe and to helping the community to better connect with one another. There are a couple of ways PASS helps with this.

1. SQLSaturdays are a series of free one-day training events in cities around the world. These events, as the name suggests are held on Saturdays and are free to attend. They typically have some of the best and most well-known SQL Server experts around. Look for a SQLSaturday near you and plan to attend. You’ll see some great content and better yet make some incredible connections.
2. Virtual Groups. Through live webinars, PASS Virtual Groups offer top-notch training no matter where you happen to be. Check out a list of upcoming webinars.

Summary

With a new release every 18 to 24 months, keeping up with the latest changes can be a challenge. Hopefully, these free resources will help. We also have an ever growing SQL Script Library available to help get you started with some of the more common tasks.

Want to work with The Sero Group?

Want to learn more about how SERO Group helps organizations take the guesswork out of managing their SQL Servers? It’s easy and there is no obligation. 

Schedule a call with us to get started.

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One of the biggest events of the year for data professionals is just one week away. The PASS Summit in Seattle, Washington, kicks off on November 6, 2018. Each year the event draws thousands of attendees from around the globe for three days of intensive learning, engaging networking, and embracing camaraderie. If you’ve never been, I highly encourage it. I’ve been to the annual conference 16 times, speaking at a dozen of them. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend this year.

What’s that? You can’t go either? There’s always next year. But just because you cannot make it to Seattle this year doesn’t mean you cannot continue growing in knowledge of your craft. Successful IT professionals make continual learning a part of their routine.

So, what are some options for learning SQL Server? Here are a few that we regularly recommend to those we coach and mentor. 

• PASStv.  Although PASS makes many of the sessions from the conference available for purchase on its website, some recordings from the conference, from the 24 Hours of PASS, and virtual chapter meetings are available for free on YouTube. Just search for SQL Server PASStv and you’ll get a long list of available sessions worth watching. For example: 
  • Watch Brent Tune Queries by Brent Ozar
  • SQL Server 2016 Always On Availability Groups Enhancements by Jimmy May
  • 7 Tips to Performance Tuning, Optimization, and Everything by Pinal Dave
  • But It Worked in Development by Brent Ozar
• YouTube Videos. PASS doesn’t have the market cornered on good SQL Server content on YouTube. There are other videos available as well. For example, if you search for SQL Server, you can watch these great sessions: 
  • SQL Server 2017 Deep Dive by Bob Ward
  • SQL Server 2016 Hidden Gems with Adam Machanic
  • Running SQL Server in a Docker Container on a Mac by Kendra Little
  • T-SQL: Bad Habits and Best Practices with Aaron Bertrand 
• Vendor Resources. Many SQL Server tools manufacturers create a lot of educational content to help you not only learn to use their products but to learn SQL Server concepts as well. Some are videos. Others are free ebooks. For example:
  • SentryOne Resources
  • Redgate Hub
  • Microsoft Channel 9
• White Papers. Quite a few companies create white papers and other technical documents that can be helpful as you learn. There are good collections curated by others: 
  • SQL Skills 
  • MSSQLTips
  • PASS 
• Paid Training Sites. Although free training is good, sometimes high-quality training is available from paid sites. These offer some reasonably priced alternatives to in-person conference attendance.  
  • Lynda.com
  • PluralSight.com
  • PASS Summit Recordings

This list is not meant to be comprehensive. Rather it’s designed to spark interest and to offer proof that good education is available online, often for free.

These online experiences are no substitute for actually being at the conference where you can meet the speakers, connect with others in your industry, ask questions of the product teams, and immerse your self in the SQL Server goodness that is PASS. But, if you cannot make it to the World’s Largest SQL Family Reunion, these are good opportunities to expand your knowledge. 

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Still, with that much data to manage, how can one DBA be familiar with it all? How can she keep tabs on each server, on each database, on each transform package? She can’t. Not if she’s doing it manually.

Fortunately, the tools have gotten better over the past 8 years. SQL Server is more resilient and has more capabilities built in than ever before. Additionally, third parties, such as SentryOne and Redgate continue, to extend the database server’s native functionality.

In a RoadShow event, my close friend and renowned SQL Server expert Kevin Kline joins his fellow SQL Server MVP Andy Yun to discuss how you can proactively monitor your database servers. They will highlight how SentryOne can be leveraged to enhance what you’re already doing with the native tools.

The benefits of attending an in-person training event go far beyond the information presented. The contacts and connections made with other attendees and the presenters can be invaluable. Additionally, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions specific to your environment. 

If you’ll be in the Middle Tennessee area on Thursday, October 11, 2018, I’d encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn from a couple of really smart SQL Server pros. If you’re not in Middle Tennessee, check their upcoming events.

Register for the Nashville Roadshow here. 

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Music City Tech, One of the premier technical training conferences in Nashville, is May 31 through June 2, 2018.

If you are unfamiliar with the event, there are three mini conference is within the broader event. Music City Code focuses on topics for software developers like Building a Blockchain, Test-Driven Development, and Entity Framework Core 2. The Music City Agile event offers insight into the agile approach to developing software. Topics in this event include Understanding DevOps, Product Management and Design Thinking, and User Story Mapping in the Backlog.

This year introduces a new mini-conference called Music City Data. As the name implies, this event will focus on data-related topics such as NoSQL on a Microsoft Platform, Building Better SQL Server Databases, End to End Encryption and Security in SQL Server, and Using PowerBI.

And if you work in an environment where IT Auditors come in every so often to review what you’re doing, come by my session called “The Auditors are Coming! Let’s WOW them.” It’s a condensed version of my two-day class designed to help dBAs prepare for an IT audit. It also provides auditors with insight on requesting and collecting the necessary information during an audit. If everyone’s on the same page, the audit will go swimmingly, right?

Want to see some of the area’s we’ll cover? Download the Auditing SQL Server Checklist.

If you go to the event, find me and say “Hi!”

You can register here:

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As technical professionals, we have a myriad of responsibilities This is especially true in today’s economy when so many of us are being asked to do more with less. It’s easy to get caught up in our daily tasks and projects. We must improve the response time of a report and gently slap the hand of the guy who designed it so inefficiently. We must crank out more code to meet an arbitrary deadline promised by a salesman.

It’s easy to lose heart and to think of ourselves as just another cog in the underbelly of a faceless, heartless organization.

At least one-third of each business day is spent at work. For some if us, it’s much more than that. When we are discontented with our jobs, it affects the other areas of our lives. That’s why it’s important to keep a healthy perspective on life.

The Power of Perspective

I’m reminded of the story a man who was waking down the street in old England many years ago when he happened upon a construction site. As he approached, he saw a laborer. The man stopped and asked the laborer what he was doing. The laborer gave a sneering look and replied “I’m laying bricks. What does it look like I’m doing?” and continued about the business of laying bricks.

A few minutes later, the man came to another laborer who was wielding a trowel and slathering mortar onto a granite block. The man asked the second laborer what he was doing. “I’m raising this wall.” replied the laborer as he continued working.

Another few minutes passed and the man came to a third laborer with trowel in hand. The man asked the laborer the same question posed to the first two laborers “What are you doing?” The laborer looked at the man and replied “I’m building a magnificent and grand Cathedral where generations of believers will be able to come to worship God Almighty.”

That’s the difference perspective can make. All three laborers were doing the same thing from an outsiders vantage point, yet each viewed their activities differently.

What Are You Doing?

So, let me ask you: what are you are doing? Are you creating maintenance plans? Or are you ensuring the medical staff have the information they need to help treat patients effectively? Are you going through your daily check list on the servers? Or are you working on something much more important, much bigger than yourself?

How is your perspective?

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