Bug: Local View + Synonym + Remote Query
Recently I came across an interesting bug when upgrading a SQL Server 2000 box to 2008 R2. With SQL Server 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2, there is a situation where you are calling a local view that is also using…
Detach and Attach User Databases
The Need I’ve found myself, more times than once, needing to change disk drives that my user databases are found on. This could come up because you are moving a server and need to switch SANs, migrate from local storage…
SQL Server 2008 R2 – Service Pack 2
Quick Announcement: I just wanted to throw a quick announcement out that SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 is available. Service Pack 2 includes Cumulative Updates 1 through 5 from SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 and is registered as version # 10.50.4000.0….
How to: Transfer Logins to a New Server
Often enough we encounter a situation where we need security to be migrated. Microsoft hasn’t made this task as easy as moving other things such as SQL Agent jobs since restoring the master database to another server is tricky at…
PowerShell SQL Connection Test
In the interest of providing minimal surface area exposure to my servers I have taken on the common practice of not installing development tools on any of my Production servers. In almost all cases this is no big deal because…
Huge distribution database
The Problem: Today I noticed the data drive of one of my Production servers growing. It wasn’t growing overly fast and it had been quite some time since the last SAN drive expansion so I gave the thumbs up to…
Automated Unattended (Silent) SQL Server Installs with PowerShell
Last time we covered the basics of unattended installs in my post, Unattended (Silent) SQL Server Installations. Here I will be providing and explaining my PowerShell script for facilitating these installations. UPDATED: Click here for the QS-Config product page. Where you can…
Unattended (Silent) SQL Server Installations
As promised from my last post, Relocating SQL Server System Databases without Access to the Instance, today I will be blogging about ‘unattended’ or ‘silent’ installations of SQL Server. I will be discussing the concept and uses of the unattended…
Relocating SQL Server System Databases without Access to the Instance
Recently I wrote myself a PowerShell unattended AKA silent installation script. I had thoroughly tested this script on clustered installations and stand-a-lone named instances but my tests for stand-a-lone default instances fell short. I will share the details of my…
Welcome to my blog!
Welcome to my first post on the new sqlHammer blog site. My name is Derik Hammer and I’m a believer in sharing knowledge. Few people understand how powerful the old saying, “Feed a man a fish, he’ll eat for a…