This script leverages master.sys.server_principals and xp_logininfo to return accounts, domain groups, and members in a SQL Server admin fixed role.  Read more...

A great article that should answer all your questions about the transaction log from MVP Gail Shaw. A must read for all DBAs.  Read more...

Recently I encountered a situation where the backup drive was short of space on the production server. The policy on the production server was that as soon as soon as the Full Backup is complete, a copy of the production backup is transferred to the staging server using RoboCopy  Read more...

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

A table that does not have a clustered index is referred to as a Heap. While a lot has been written about index fragmentation and how to defrag indexes, there is not much that talks about how to defrag a heap table.  Read more...

It's easy to create a database nowadays with point-'n-click, but if you've left your database's autogrowth settings at their default, you may hit problems in the future. Why? What to do about it? Read on!  Read more...

This article will help to get some basic information from your databases that may help you in different situations.  Read more...

Today Steve responds to a blog post from Microsoft that talks about the viability of placing our database files on network shares.  Read more...

Enabling TDE is simple to do, but it can be more complex when you look to remove the feature from SQL Server. Steve Perry brings you a procedure you can use to help you.  Read more...

The database recovery model plays a crucial role for the recovery of a database. With several DBAs having access to a SQL Server instance there are bound to be changes that are not communicated. In this tip we cover a monitoring solution we deployed at our company to alert the DBAs if a database recovery model is different than what it is expected.  Read more...

If you have a requirement to install multiple SQL Server instances with the same settings, you most likely want to do it without following the numerous manual installation steps. The below tip will guide you through how to install a SQL Server instance with less effort.  Read more...

This article lists the essential TCP/UDP ports that an administrator running SQL Server or a cluster should know.  Read more...

This article shows an automated reorg/rebuild index for remote servers with notifications for the DBA.  Read more...

Learn the basics of recovery models in this short article from SQL Server guru and MVP, Gail Shaw.  Read more...

This article will help to get some basic information from your databases that may help you in different situations.  Read more...

Find out what you need to learn for the SQL Server 2008 Administration certification exams.  Read more...

This article has a description of an index utilization tool that Ron Johnson uses to analyze the effectiveness and use of indexes in a system.  Read more...

I have seen several tips on SQL Server Central Management Server and I want to implement the technology for my team. The only thing holding me back is security. Can you explain how security works with Central Management Server? What security access is needed to manage CMS? How about connecting to CMS? How about running a query using CMS? Check out this tip to answer these questions.  Read more...

We all know how important tempdb is and know that tempdb gets recreated every time SQL Server is restarted. Here we dig a little deeper to focus on how space is used inside tempdb.  Read more...