The end of an era
Today is my last day working for Liberty Tax Service. Liberty took a chance on me when I was fresh out of the Navy with no experience as a DBA and has been there every step of the way as…
QS-Config v2.0 coming soon
Years ago I found myself frustrated with the SQL Server installation wizard. I was working for an organization where SQL Server installs were needed regularly during points in their operational cycle and often they were not cookie cutter. Tweaks were…
Database Deployment Work Flow with SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
Happy April Fools Day everyone! I hope that you do not spend too much time reading completely false blog posts today. I, for one, promise that this post is not an April Fools Day joke. Feel free to read on…
SQL Saturday #381 – Richmond, VA
Last Saturday I attended #SQLSATRVA, which was SQL Saturday #381. It was a blast! The day started off with the usual registration process. Thankfully, I remembered to print out and cut my SpeedPass in advance. The line to use the…
Statement was run under snapshot isolation but the transaction did not start in snapshot isolation
My organization enabled READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT ISOLATION (RCSI) on one of our major systems before we entered a peaking operating cycle. We had tested the impact to our system and felt that it was pretty safe. About half way through…
Running PowerShell in a SQL Agent Job
When creating a SQL Agent Job to execute a PowerShell script, you have to decide which way that you want the PowerShell to run. Depending upon which version of SQL Server that you are using and which job step type that you…
Stored Procedures, Dynamic SQL and Execution Plans
Question If stored procedure execution plans are cached once and then reused, what version of the execution plan is cached for stored procedures that have dynamically created queries? Answer Dynamic SQL queries and stored procedures generate separate execution plans and…
Transact-SQL COUNT(*) vs COUNT(column) vs COUNT(1)
I have heard a few different beliefs regarding how to write T-SQL queries when using the COUNT() function. Never use COUNT(*), it must read all columns and cause unnecessary reads. Always use COUNT(1) because, generally, the primary key is the…
Derik Hammer Presents, Fun with DATETIME
As my regular readers might have noticed, I get a lot of my ideas for this blog from my daily life. This post is no different. I was helping a co-worker troubleshoot an incorrect result-set. After we had corrected the…
Paul Randal, please mentor me
Today I’m going to go a bit off schedule and deviate from my usual technical content. Paul Randal (b | t) is the owner of SQLSkills which is a consulting and training organization. A few weeks ago Red-Gate announced their Tribal Awards…