You can download the resources – slide deck, Windows-based client application together with the Visual Studio 2010 project files, batch files to simulate workload and T-SQL scripts – here (you need to change the file extension from PDF to ZIP and extract the contents).

NOTE: If you’ve seen me deliver a presentation before, you know that the slides I used for the presentation were meant to be handouts.

With SQL Server “Denali” CTP3, you may have used cmdlets like *-SqlHadrService to enable the AlwaysOn features across all instances that you join in your availability group.

Starting with SQL Server 2012 RC0, these have now been converted to *-SqlAlwaysOn.

So be sure to update those PowerShell scripts before you run them for testing to make sure you don’t waste your time trying to figure out what went wrong. And if you haven’t downloaded SQL Server 2012 RC0 yet, make sure you do so and get your hands dirty trying out the latest bits.

And since we’re already on the topic of SQL Server 2012, you also might want to catch my webcast on AlwaysOn Availability Groups on 30-Nov-2011. You can register for the webcast thru this URL.

Being a high availability/disaster recovery (HA/DR) guy, AlwaysOn is one of the features that I like about SQL Server 2012. This provides organizations with more options to consider when implementing an HA/DR solution.  Two things that are being introduced here are AlwaysOn Availability Groups and AlwaysOn Failover Clustering.

On the 30th of November 2011 (3PM EDT), join me and the guys from Fusion-IO and MSSQLTips.com as we explore this new feature in SQL Server 2012 called AlwaysOn Availability Groups. To register for this webcast, simply click on this link. If you have questions about AlwaysOn Availability Groups  even before the webcast, you can post them here so we can discuss it further. I will try my very best to make sure that your question be mentioned during the webcast

If you happen to be in Canada, you probably have heard about Microsoft TechDays – the premier technical conference for IT professionals and developers. This year, three cities – Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto – will be hosting this 2-day event. Two years ago, I did a presentation “on SQL Server on Hyper-V” as well as “free/cheap tools for IT professionals.  This year, I will be delivering a presentation on Upgrading to SQL Server R2 and SQL Server “Denali” (now officially announced as SQL Server 2012) in Toronto on the 26th of October 2011. If you’re in town, let’s catch up for a cup of coffee as I will be at the Data Platform booth the whole day (except during my presentation) answering questions and providing guidance on how you can maximize your investments on the SQL Server platform. I’ll see you there.

I was installing SQL Server “Denali” on my test environment when I figured I’d try some good old-fashioned shortcuts. If you’re like me who uses the command-line most of the time on Windows, you’ve probably memorized the common ones you use. In my case, that happens to be SQL Server Management Studio and anything that has something to do with managing SQL Server. So, I’ve memorized those shortcuts – SqlWb.exe for SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, SSMS for SQL Server 2008 (and higher) Management Studio, sqlservermanagerXX.msc for SQL Server Configuration Manager (XX is the number corresponding to the SQL Server version), etc. But you get the point. I simply assumed that Microsoft has still decided to use those standards that to launch SQL Server Configuration Manager for Denali, I just had to use the value 11 for XX. Sure enough, I was right.

I just had to type sqlservermanager11.msc and I had SQL Server Configuration Manager right before me.

Don’t we love having standards?