LDPaC - 10th June 2025: Index Maintenance Basics / Another Brick in the Firewall

*In Person Only MeetUp, Free To Attend*

Thank you to Accenture for sponsoring and hosting this event.

Join us for a In-Person User Group Meeting (LDPaC), where you can network, learn, ask a question, and meet other likeminded folks. These events are a really great opportunity to socialise in an informal learning setting.

Remember to tell your friends and the people you work with; make sure you register as soon as you can. We will need to provide a list of names to Accenture before the event, so to ensure there are no issues with access on the day please make sure you have registered.

17.45 - 18:00 Network 🤝

18.00 - 18:30 Drinks & Pizza 🍕

18:30 - 18:40 Intro🎙️

18:40 - 19:30 Getting Started With Index Maintenance - Liz Hardy
This is a introductory session to provide you with some of the basics in terms of know how and tools to get you started with implementing index maintenance in your own environments.

Imagine we see a database for the first time and know nothing about this it. It You could either be going into a new client or discovering a database you’ve never know known about previously.

There are a lot of things you want to check over in this scenario, for example, are backups being taken, are integrity checks in place and is there any corruption in the database? Another key thing to check is whether there is any index maintenance currently in place.

In this session, we will first take a look at the basics of index maintenance:

• what it is?
• why do we need it?
• where do you start?
• what solutions exist?

Then I'll provide a few quick and easy steps to get you started on implementing index maintenance in your own environments. We will consider the options for index maintenance and focus on the implementation of Ola Hallengren’s Maintenance Solution. This is such an impressive tool and it is open source and free for all to use and yet we still go into clients where no index maintenance is in place.

We’ll look at basic configuration of the indexing maintenance jobs from Ola's solution with some simple parameters. We will then uncover ways to deploy this and outline any gotchas to be aware of along the way. Either if you aren't using Ola's solution or if you weren't aware of some of the configurations, this session will empower you to think more on your index maintenance and improve your process.

19:30 - 19:40 10-min Break 🥤

19:40 - 20:30 Another Brick in the Firewall: How to Secure Your Azure Data Platform - Grace O'Halloran

These days, most people want their Azure Data Platforms to be deployed in a secure network topology. As Data Engineers, we are often the ones that have who make this happen. The cloud has made it easy for us to deploy a virtual network here and a private endpoint there, but what does a good, networked data platform actually look like, and how does it work? Simple things become complex: How will my ADF Integration Runtime talk to my data sources? How do I securely access my resources to do development?

In this session, we will look at some of the core network components which can be used to secure your data platform, what they are, and how to use them effectively. We will also look at some of the decisions that need to be made when moving your data platform inside a private network, which weren't a consideration previously. Some basic knowledge of what a virtual network is is required.

By the end of this session, you should feel more confident in working with network components in Azure and how you can use them to secure your Data Platform.

Come and join the Leeds Data Community and start learning and networking! All are welcome!