This article demonstrates how to use US Census' TIGER/Line shapefile to display CNN-style map in Reporting Services.  Read more...

Switching from 32 BIT SQL Server to a 64 BIT edition illustrates how removing a bottleneck from a system can have a detrimental affect overall  Read more...

To learn MDX, there is really no alternative to installing the system and trying out the statements, and experimenting. William Pearson, the well-known expert on MDX, kicks off a stairway series on this important topic by getting you running from a standing start.  Read more...

In the first part of this series, learn how to pinpoint missing indexes in your databases.  Read more...

SQL Server expert Wayne Sheffield looks into the new T-SQL analytic functions coming in SQL Server 2012.  Read more...

Why does the transaction log fill up? There are a variety of reasons, and MVP Gail Shaw walks you through the various things to check.  Read more...

Be careful while using the ISNULL function  Read more...

Using Powershell to create color coded backup reports for all servers in your environment.  Read more...

Find out who has been announced as the winner of Red Gate Software's DBA in Space competition.  Read more...

This article presents an approach to perform server-side pagination and display complex hierarchical data in Reporting Services.  Read more...

Step-by-step instructions how to build a stored procedure that dynamically constructs and executes a merge statement within SSIS.  Read more...

The first part of two parts of a paper discussion the implementation of a "real-world" ETL example using SSIS.  Read more...

The Tally Table has proven to be a simple and elegant method for avoiding many varieties of RBAR. Unfortunately, one of its more common uses, that of a CSV splitter, has a well-known and serious performance problem. MVP Jeff Moden shows us what that problem is and how to correct it. (UPDATED with additional info and attachments on 5/12/2011).  Read more...

This article talks about why SHRINKFILE is a very bad thing, and what to do about it if you must shrink a database file.  Read more...

SQL Server architect David Poole sets about exploring sp_prepexec when called from nHibernate.  Read more...

A comprehensive set of scripts to setup and operate TDE for a SQL Server.  Read more...

In my previous article we discussed Change Tracking which is one of the new technologies introduced by Microsoft. This article will focus on Change Data Capture.   Read more...

The 10 things Microsoft got right about SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 (a sister article shows 10 things which aren't quite so good)  Read more...

Learn to simplify date logic using date tables and recursion in T-SQL with this article from David Beardsley.  Read more...

Mind mapping software allows the rapid capture of thoughts and ideas. It is a killer app that can easily help a busy DBA capture their thoughts  Read more...