March 15, SQLServerCentral's Steve Jones and many others (including Kalen Delaney, Kevin Boles, and Karen Lopez) will be presenting at SQL Saturday Silicon Valley. This is a free, one-day learning event about SQL Server, Microsoft Business Intelligence, and Big Data. Register soon while spots are available.  Read more...

Steve Jones looks back at the T-SQL Tuesday topic this week.  Read more...

All DBAs need to engage in a little project management to help make sure everything runs smoothly. In this extract from the book Tribal SQL, David Tate explains his system for managing workload, colleagues, and projects, and how not to be just "the guy who says no".  Read more...

Has the SQLCLR system impacted your SQL Server environment? Steve Jones wants to know if it has or has not today.  Read more...

Show the results for a date even if there is no data.  Read more...

A Hyper-V replica will provide a rapid disaster-recovery by simply replicating to a standby site a VM running at the primary site. Is it, therefore, ideal for running SQL Server in high-availability? Well, it depends on the type of HA you require, and whether you need the features that aren't supported.   Read more...

SQL Saturday is coming to Vienna on March 6 with a full-day of technical training and networking, featuring international speakers. With over 20 sessions on SQL Server, the event is aimed at all those interested in SQL Server - from pros to beginners. In 2014 the event is held for the first time in Austria, Vienna, organized by PASS Austria.  Read more...

Telecommuting and remote work are growing in many fields, but especially technology. However the practice needs to be balanced with the notion that you still have a life outside of work.  Read more...

Learn how to create a SQL Server execution plan. This article explains the basics used in performance tuning, an important skill for DBA's and SQL developers alike.  Read more...

SQL Server security related tasks can be divided into four main categories: physical security, operating system level security, SQL Server configuration and user management. Here is your SQL Server security checklist.  Read more...

There are times when retrieving data for complex business requirement requires you to temporarily store one or more results sets for a short period of time. Typically these temporary tables are stored in the scope of the current connection, but they may also need to be available across multiple connections.   Read more...

The perils of the connected office...  Read more...

In the second level of our Stairway to SQLCLR, we look at how to enable the SQLCLR in SQL Server. We then build an assembly, store procedure, and a function that can be called from your T-SQL code.  Read more...

Three SQL Server MVPs (Jonathan Kehayias, Ted Krueger and Gail Shaw) provide fascinating insight into the most common SQL Server problems, why they occur, and how they can be diagnosed using tools such as Performance Monitor, Dynamic Management Views and server-side tracing. The focus is on practical solutions for removing root causes of these problems, rather than "papering over the cracks".  Read more...

The SEQUENCE statement introduced in SQL Server 2012 brings the ANSI SQL 2003 standard method of generating IDs. This is a great relief to database professionals as it solves some problems what are awkward to solve with the IDENTITY property. Joe Celko explains the basics of using a SEQUENCE.  Read more...

We are interconnecting more and more computer systems and applications all the time. Security becomes a problem when one of these systems hasn't been properly configured, secured, or coded. Steve Jones notes this is becoming a real problem.  Read more...

Understanding execution plans is a good basic skill for all DBA's and SQL developers. Darren White gives us an overview of what execution plans are in SQL Server and how they are used.  Read more...

Recently we presented a procedure for uploading data to a Windows Azure SQL Database from an on-premise SQL Server instance. Today we will accomplish the same objective by employing a more traditional approach to data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) that relies on SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).  Read more...

SQL Saturday is coming to New Haven, Connecticut on March 01, 2014. SQL Saturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. This is a free event, so register early to secure your place.  Read more...

Get an idea of how to handle the housekeeping tasks associated with backups, like removing old backup and log files.  Read more...