All production or operational DBAs need to maintain a server / instance list. SQL Server’s Central Management Server (CMS) is a great means of managing that list with auxiliary benefits such as group queries, a central location for managing policies and SQL…
This week I’m excited to announce the reboot of the Hampton Roads SQL Server User Group (HRSSUG). We will be coming back online this Novemeber, holding meetings every third Wednesday of the month. Check out our announcement below and be…
This week I released a two part blog series on SQLShack.com. The series covers automated testing for your backup files and reporting on the results. Many elements of PowerShell, SMO, T-SQL, and SQL Server Reporting Services are covered. Abstract Once your…
Have you ever executed a command with a result set but you didn’t know the exact schema being returned? Have you ever wanted to create a temporary table from a query but don’t want to look up all of the…
There are some operations that we execute in SQL Server which need exclusive access to the database. For everyone who has ever attempted this, I’m sure they’ve seen an error like this at least once. There are a couple of ways to…
SQL Server Management Studio has a decent interface for viewing object dependencies, check out TechNet for those procedures. But, we all know the value of being able to run queries for the information that we need. There are two methods…
A few nights ago my wife and I were talking over dinner. We were discussing her co-worker’s behaviors regarding stress and deadlines. For the sake of this post let us call this person Jill. Jill is responsible for a work…
The end of last year I did a review on ApexSQL Restore, a tool used to attach SQL Server native backup files to a database instance. Check out the full review here if you missed it. Just last month (Aug 12th),…
Often I need to examine an execution plan from a production server. Just as often, I can’t re-run the stored procedure in that environment. There are several techniques for simulating the environment on a test server such as exporting statistics…
This past Saturday, September 6th, I had the privilege of attending SQL Saturday #320, in Raleigh, NC. It was a great day. The highlight of the event was the #sqlfamily. I had several rewarding conversations with members of our community and the…
