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Maxx Dopp here. TechEd has continued to pick up today. It seems odd to me that Monday and Wednesday were busy days, while Tuesday was so slow. Maybe this is normal, but since this is my first TechEd, it is new to me.

As I write this, there is a major thunderstorm and heavy rain outside the convention center. The thunder is rolling through the convention center, making it sound like a war outside. I guess this is keeping attendees inside, enjoying the conference.

One of the themes I have noticed at TechEd is virtualization of SQL Server. Right now, this appears to be happening on VMWare, not Microsoft Virtual Server. But hopefully, when Windows 2008 comes out, we will have more choices for virtualization platforms. While I fully understand the benefits of virtualization, I am not sure that it is a great platform for SQL Server. I guess time will tell. I spoke to one lady who said that management has mandated that all their Windows servers, including SQL Server, be moved to VMWare, and she was looking how to best do this. I don’t envy her. I would really be worried about performance under VMWare for busy production SQL Servers.

When I was talking to one attendee, he told me that he would love to see a SQL Server tool that would poll SQL Server user connections, and identify “dumb ass” users using up SQL Server resources unnecessarily, and automatically kill the connection. I fully understand his feelings. I hate monitoring active connections in SQL Server, identifying abusers and killing their connections. (Well, secretly, it is fun to kill their connections, but don’t tell anyone that I said this.)

There is a big party tonight for “Microsoft Influencers,” that is the hot party to attend. The only problem is that there are a limited number of tickets available. I happened to walk by the ticket booth about 1:00AM, and there was a long line of people waiting to grab unclaimed tickets. I was invited, but gave my ticket away. Maybe I should have auctioned it on Ebay.

Maxx

4:00 PM Orlando, FL

Wednesday, June 06, 2007