Kendra Little's Blog & Free Training

IDC DevOps Conference – Virtual Event September 24, 2020 – info

Redgate Evangelist YouTube Channel: Tutorials on Database DevOps -New videos each week – Watch

Redgate Streamed – a 3 day free virtual conference on the Microsoft Data Platform – Watch here

Level Up Your Deployments for SQL Source Control – Watch

Key findings from the 2020 State of Database DevOps Report – Watch

Managing and Automating Test Datasets for DevOps with Jeffrey Palermo – Watch

How to Make Your 2020 Monitoring Strategy a Success, with BMW’s Tony Maddonna – Watch

Essential Practices for High Performing Database DevOps Teams – Watch

Fast and Reliable Development with Redgate Solutions for SQL Server – Watch

Implementing Data Masking for NIST Compliance – 1 hour – Watch

How Developers and DBAs Collaborate in a DevOps World – 40 minutes – Watch

How DevOps Keeps DBAs Safe from Being Automated Out of a Job – 1 hour – Watch

DevOps: What, who, why and how? – 1 hour – Watch

Can This Team Succeed at DevOps? Panel discussion – 1 hour – Watch

Down Tools Week 2020 (10 minute video/podcast episode)

August 6, 2020

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In this episode of Dear SQL DBA, I talk about how Redgate runs “Down Tools Week,” what I’m working on as part of the project, and how this has inspired me to approach creative work in the future.

Things That Shouldn’t Be Normal in Database Development (28 minute video/podcast episode)

July 30, 2020

Many people use entrenched processes for database development that have been in place so long that it’s hard to imagine doing it any other way. In this episode, I share three things that should NOT be normal for database development– but which are incredibly common. This episode is inspired by the book, “The Unicorn Project”, by Gene Kim. Prefer to listen on the go? Get…

Everything I Never Wanted to Know About Collation (14 minute video/podcast episode)

July 16, 2020

I’m not an expert on collation in SQL Server, but there are a few important facts which I’ve had to learn the hard way.

In this episode I share the basics, along with helpful resources to learn more.

How to Spell and Capitalize tempdb for SQL Server

July 15, 2020

No matter what I write in this post, some of y’all are going to tell me I’m wrong. That’s inevitable, because I’m writing about tempdb: a database so complex and mysterious that even the spelling and capitalization of the name is a topic of disagreement.

The Manager’s Guide to Git Training for DBAs (Video / Podcast)

July 9, 2020

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Learning Git can be daunting for DBAs. In this 20 minute episode, I discuss why learning a VCS is necessary for DBAs, then give three tips on scoping your project, choosing the right tools, and making sure the project is successful.

Thoughts As Pride Month 2020 Comes to a Close

June 30, 2020

I’ve begun working on developing a couple of small habits this month, thanks largely to Andy Mallon‘s helpful advocacy. Becoming more consistent in sharing my pronouns My pronouns are “she/her.” I only became aware of why it’s helpful to share your pronouns in the last year. Before that, I hadn’t given much thought to it. Andy gives a great explanation of why this is helpful…

New Free Course: The Dirty Secrets of NOLOCK

June 29, 2020

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I’m excited to begin moving over courses from SQL Workbooks and making the material available here. The first course up for grabs is The Dirty Secrets of NOLOCK. A little bit about the course What happens when you use NOLOCK hints in your code, or set your isolation level to READ UNCOMMITTED in SQL Server? In 50 minutes of online videos, you will learn what…

How to “Rename” the Master Branch to Main in Git in Azure DevOps

June 26, 2020

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I believe that language matters, and that it is worth our effort to move away from language associated with slavery and racism whenever possible. Azure DevOps doesn’t technically allow you to rename branches– but you can work around the issue by creating a new branch from master, setting the new branch as the default branch, and deleting the master branch. Here’s the Microsoft documentation on…

Create a Build with YAML for SQL Change Automation in Azure DevOps

June 25, 2020

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I used to make fun of YAML because I was scared of it. I still make fun of YAML, but I’m not scared of it anymore now that Rob Sewell showed me how to avoid having to write it myself. In this 11 minute video, I show how to set up a YAML build pipeline in Azure DevOps. My build is configured using a Local…

Use Chocolatey to Install Multiple SQL Server 2019 Instances for Testing

June 5, 2020

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I’m not at all a fan of “stacking” multiple SQL Server Instances into one Windows Installation in production, but it’s helpful for some testing scenarios.

In this post I explain how to automate this with Chocolatey and PowerShell.