Do your civic duty, and vote today! Voting is now open for SQLBits, to be held in Nottingham, UK this May. This event is probably the best-known SQL Server event outside of the US, and unlike most other such events, they use a popular-vote model for general session selection. I’ve submitted three general sessions: When ETL Goes Bad: Handling Errors…
I’m back home after a long week attending and presenting at the SQL PASS 2012 Summit in Seattle. This was the best event yet, in my opinion, and for me it was certainly the busiest. For the second year in a row, our SSIS Design Patterns team was invited to deliver a full-day preconference seminar before the Summit. Unlike last…
I’m happy to announce that the book I’ve been working on for the past two years, SSIS Design Patterns, is complete and has been released for sale as of today. I got the unique privilege to work alongside SSIS rock stars Andy Leonard, Jessica Moss, Matt Masson, and Michelle Ufford to scribe what will hopefully be a must-have book for…
It seems just yesterday that we were all in Seattle together, getting a crash course in what’s new and exciting in SQL Server. It couldn’t possible have been 8 months since we were attending after-party events together, stopping by the Tap House for a beer, or closing down Bush Gardens with some spectacular SQL Karaoke. Yet here were are, getting…
I’m happy to announce that the North Texas SQL Server User Group will be hosting our fourth SQL Saturday event this fall. SQL Saturday #163 will be a BI-focused event similar to the one we hosted in the Fall of 2010. We invite you to join us at the Microsoft campus on Saturday, October 13th for a full day of…
As I’ve been working with Data Quality Services over the past few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time working with data domains, DQS composite domains, and rules. In that exploration, I’ve found some behavior that might not be expected when performing cleansing operations against a knowledge base containing a composite domain. In this post, I’ll outline the expected data…
In Data Quality Services, composite domains can be created to associate together two or more natural domains within a knowledge base. Like natural domains, composite domains can also contain one or more validation rules to govern which domain values are valid. In my last post, I discussed the use of validation rules against natural domains. In this post, I’ll continue…
A compelling feature of the new Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012 is the ability to apply rules to fields (domains) to describe what makes up a valid value. In this brief post, I’d like to walk through the concepts of domain validation and demonstrate how this can be implemented in DQS. Domain validation essentials Let’s ponder domain validation…
I remember a lot of things about that day. It was July in Texas, which is to say, it was unbearably hot. For the work I ended up doing that day, I was way overdressed in my long-sleeved blue button down and khakis. I was training a new guy – Andy – who had recently been promoted from Service Agent…
Everybody loves the carnival. It only comes around every few years, but when it does, it brings in a variety of people from all around. Young, old, short, tall, skinny, chubby, and even Buck Woody – they stand in line for tickets, mill around for hours, and endure noise, crowds, and temperature extremes for a little dose of fun. What…