Posted by The entertainment and education of DB2’s Got Talent on the DB2Night Show continues. I recommend watching the download here: http://www.dbisoftware.com/blog/db2nightshow.php?id=488 Also on that page is an extra discount code for the IDUG North American Technical conference in Phoenix in May – it’s even better than the early enrollment discount, so if you are going, check it out.
Presentations
Rajesh Pandhare – Main Memory Consumers for DB2
Wow, Rajesh packed a lot of content into his presentation, that that was his down fall. I could easily spend two hours on the topics that he covered, and if pressed, probably an entire day. A lot of the information in his presentation was really good, and some of it is advice that I give myself. I might have disagreed with him on a few points. I really would have liked to see him pick either a smaller topic and focus in on it more, or focus more on giving an overview of memory areas. If I were covering many of these topics, I would have shown SQL to calculate the formulas described and also showed accessing locking problem counts via MON_GET table functions or views. These were things he could not do because he had so much other ground to cover. I must admit that some inconsistent capitalization drove me a bit nuts, and this was highlighted by his use of red text in some odd places. His slides were also a bit wordy in places, and he was reading some of the wordy bullet points. I am convinced of Rajesh’s skills in DB2 and he shows real promise in presenting. He did great research for this presentation. I hope he tries out for DB2’s Got Talent again next year with more appropriately sized topics.
Rajesh was not chosen by the judges to move on to the next round.
Rajesh’s Contact Information:
Twitter: @rajeshpandhare
Ian Bjorhovde – Minimizing Risk of Repetitive Strain Injury in DB2 LUW DBAs
Ian is another one of my DB2 buddies, and a guest blogger sometimes here on db2commerce.com, so I’m not 100% confident in my ability to critique him. I liked the speed that he was speaking. His slides seemed to be a bit behind what he was saying. He asked me after presenting how his animations came across, and I went “OHhhh, that’s why they were slow”. Animations don’t tend to come across well in this format. I also wonder if dark slides with light text may cause lag issues in this format.
Overall, I liked his topic, but I have one issue with the method presented. I have used and have seen aliases used, but I prefer not to use them mainly because for the commands I use the most, I need to be able to run them on systems where I not be allowed to change the .profile or add aliases. Client systems where I’m called in for a short period to help solve a specific problem and do not get my own ID. The problem I have with using aliases is that you may forget the most basic of syntax. That can make an advanced database administrator look like a novice in front of client DBAS or can be a crutch for novice DBAs that prevents them from learning the full syntax. But this is a personal preference. I certainly see the possible value in aliases too. Ian also lacked graphics on his slides, but they very clearly showed what he was talking about and like Susan, I may steal an idea or two from how he presented things. It was an interesting tip that some DBAs might not be aware of (or may not have revisited in a while), and a good presentation overall. I also gave Ian a hard time for not even mentioning his twice monthly podcast The Whole Package Cache! DB2’s Got Talent is a great forum for increasing traffic to a blog or podcast.
Ian was chosen by the judges to move on to the next round.
Ian’s Contact information:
Twitter: @idbjorh
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/ian-bjorhovde/0/99/246
Podcast: http://pkgcache.com/
Guest blog posts on db2commerce.com
Swapna – Steps for Migrating Database from Aix to Windows
Swapna’s problem statement was covered on her agenda page, but was a bit more muddled than I would have liked. I liked how she showed the commands she was using and results of them. It was easy to tell that this presentation was based on real world experience. She did a good job of explaining the possible code page differences. When I have to perform this kind of migration, I actually do things in a bit different order. I like to take the db2look file and split it up into two sections – all the stuff before Foreign Keys and then all the stuff from Foreign Keys on. That way I can easily create my objects, IMPORT/LOAD the data in, and then add in the Foreign Keys. I find this easier when dealing with complicated RI. Swapna did run over. I did feel her topic was a bit large for 4 minutes, but her detail was excellent. Running the set integrity statements can be a bit difficult, and I often like to script that part. I also liked her references at the end.
Swapna was chosen by the judges to move on to the next round.
Summary
My two DBA buddies – guys I talk to every work day, and discuss technical issues with ad nausem, and geek out with over new features, and compete with using my FitBit on Matchup.io, Ian and Mike, are both competing this year! Chances are that if you see me at IDUG I will be sitting or standing next to one of them. I’ll be rooting for both of them!
I’ll have a post later this week with some stats from past shows, and some tips for the competitors moving forward. Ian also has a great guest blog post that will be published on Tuesday.
If you missed it, go watch the show for yourself. There was some good material in it. http://www.dbisoftware.com/blog/db2nightshow.php?id=488
Hi Ember,
Thanks a lot for guidance, Yes I got a key now about what is value of 4 Minutes 🙂 , And I learned a lot from my participation. I will sure take part in next DB2 Got Talent and will overcome all my drawbacks. In the mean time I will continue interacting with you and other DB2 Experts as there are great opportunities to encase in teams of learning for me. Who will say no to to learn from GURUs like you.