Regular Columnist: Haidong Ji

With the release of SQL Server 2005, it is more of challenger to Oracle than ever before. Guru Haidong Ji takes a quick look at how these two products compare and gives a few words of wisdom for the next version of SQL Server.   Read more...

SQL Server 2005 has deprecated osql and isql as command line tools and replaced them with SQLCMD. Haidong Ji brings us an introduction to this new tool and a few tricks to make you more productive when using it.   Read more...

Haindong Ji brings us part 3 of his series on Oracle and SQL Server interoperability, this time taking a look at the Oracle Instant Client.   Read more...

There have been quite a few impressions of the PASS conference from our blogs, but here's another from Haidong "Alex" Ji, oneo f our longtime authors and a guest of SQLServerCentral.com at the Summit.   Read more...

SQL Server is a great platform against which to develop, but it can also be used as a code generation tool with a little creativity. Haidong Ji brings us a few techniques that can be used to automatically build T-SQL code and bcp code for importing and exporting data.   Read more...

Taking a break from SQL Server and DTS, author Haidong Ji shares a few tips and tricks to becoming more productive, whether as a DBA or developer. These hints and tips could help you separate yourself from the pack come review, raise, or interview time.   Read more...

Oracle is usually a dirty word in the SQL Server community, but like it or not, lots of data resides in Oracle databases. And SQL Server is often used to gather this data together in a warehouse of some sort for spinning cubes, generating reports, etc. Haidong Ji looks at the various methods that you can connect to an Oracle driver and compares the speed of each. If you need to get data from Oracle, or may need to, this is the place you want to start.   Read more...

Automating SQL Server tasks is the sign of an experienced DBA. One who doesn't waste time on repetitive tasks that can be easily setup in a job, task, or some other scheduling process to run when they need to run. Haidong Ji has written a number of articles on how to perform automation and brings us yet another technique. This time he looks at managing your backup files, something that we all need to do, but all too often forget to do.   Read more...

As much as we're SQL Server folks here, sometimes we do need to connect to other data stores. Hai shares some of his experiences doing so. Might come in handy someday.   Read more...

We've been trying to catch up on reviews lately, Hai was kind enough to give Entegra a try and report back on it. The basic concept is that it lets you do extensive auditing without having to add triggers. If you're trying to find an auditing solution, this is worth considering.   Read more...

Haidong continues to point out ideas that might get you thinking about ways you can do more administration with less work. In this article he demonstrates a couple useful tasks you can do with xp_cmdshell.   Read more...

Get started with using WMI (Windows Mgmt Instrumentation) by seeing two good scripts to start with, one to reboot the server, another to list all the services.   Read more...

This article discusses why VBScript should be one of the tools you use to manage your server. Sample scripts show how to remove files over x days old and how to FTP files.   Read more...

In this follow up article, Haidong explains how to audit DTS packages. While parts of it are specific to DTS, the general technique has many useful applications.   Read more...

DTS logging is a pretty handy feature - if you've got it enabled. Got lots of packages and want to turn it on for all of them? Thats a lot of point and click using EM, but with the code Haidong has put together, it's a snap. Other possibilities to this code as well. After all, it uses a DTS package to modify other DTS packages.   Read more...

Haidong discusses the importance of monitoring disk usage over a period of time and has some great TSQL code to help you do the monitoring!   Read more...

In the second of a series of articles that targets the DBA new to an organization, this article looks at how to manage DTS packages.   Read more...

As a new DBA, you will probably walk into an environment that is poorly documented and nobody has any idea of how many SQL Servers are on the network. In the first series of articles, Haidong Ji talks about how to audit logins in your SQL Server.   Read more...