The SQL Server Loadfest on March 27, 2009 was a big success.  There were more than 100 people in attendance and most of them installed SQL Server 2008 on their laptop and one desktop. 

The slides are available:

Lesson 1 - What is SQL Server
Lesson 2 - Before the Install
Lesson 3 - Installing SQL Server 2008
Lesson 4 - Completing the Install
Lesson 5 - Preparing for Production

Thanks to our speakers and proctors Sunil Kadimdiwan, Phil Denoncourt, Pete Tassmer, Adam Machanic, and Igor Moochnick.

Special thanks to Ron Thibeau for wiring all the desktops and for being one of the driving forces behind the Loadfest.  Also thanks to Dan Stolts of Microsoft and John Ross and the other members of the BUG Board of Directors.

Sponsors for the pizza and swag were:

• NTierty

• O'Reilly Media

• Pearson Publications

During the session there was mention of this page: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc966412.aspx  on predeployment I/O best practices.  You might want to check this out before beginning an installation.  Also, a great directory to SQL Server Whitepapers can be found here: http://www.sqlskills.com/whitepapers.asp

There was only one code snippet, the Surface Area Configuration Snippet from the Security talk.

Please send any questions or comments to Andy Novick  anovick @ novicksoftware.com

Andrew Novick is a developer/consultant with 25 years in the computer industry and a focus on SQL Server and Microsoft .Net.  His practice includes designing databases, query optimization, analysis of performance problems, and building business applications.  His writings include the books Transact-SQL User-Defined Functions and “SQL Server 2000 XML Distilled.  You can find additional articles on his web site: http://www.NovickSoftware.com