Guest Columnist: Jonathan Kehayias

Three SQL Server MVPs, and stalwarts of the SQLServerCentral and MSDN community forums, 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...

Learn how to create a certificate signed stored procedure to solve common permissions problems using sp_send_dbmail. MVP Jonathan Kehayias brings us a short tutorial that discusses your options and code to show you how to implement certificate security.  Read more...

Learn the basics of Event Notifications from MVP Jonathan Kehayia. This article will show you how to create customized responses to events in SQL Server 2005/2008.  Read more...

Learn how to minimize downtime while moving databases using Backup/Restore in SQL Server.  Read more...

Learn why ALTER DATABASE should be preferred over Detach/Attach for moving database files on the same SQL Server from MVP Jonathan Kehayias.  Read more...

Learn how to get deadlock graphs from the SQL Server 2008 default system_health session with Extended Events.  Read more...

Learn how SQLCLR can be used to replace BCP and xp_cmdshell to export data to comma separated and tab delimited flat files.  Read more...

Learn how to use SQLCLR to get file system information instead of using xp_cmdshell on your SQL Servers.  Read more...

MVP Jonathan Kehayias brings us a short article on how to troubleshoot deadlocks in SQL Server.  Read more...

When excessive blocking occurs in SQL, performance degrades. Learn how to use the Blocked Process Report to rapidly resolve excessive blocking scenarios in SQL Server 2005/2008.  Read more...

This short article shows how to run the same query against multiple servers and aggregate the results into one set with SSMS 2008  Read more...