Have you ever had the problem where a user ran a query against your SQL Serer and crashed it or made the server unusable since the CPU was spiked at 100%? A SQL Server black box is the equivalent of a flight data record. The black box records all queries being passed to your SQL Server and other useful information like errors.   Read more...

This week we have another article from Andy that discusses some changes he made at work in conjunction with clustering all his database servers. Not a how-to, just comments about what was changed and why. Worth reading just for the reminder about the potential gotcha that @@ServerName can represent.   Read more...

There may be more ways than you realize to determine the version and service pack of SQL Server. This quick article by Dinesh Priyankara will show you 3 of those methods.   Read more...

As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.   Read more...

Jobs are pretty basic aren't they? They are until you get a couple hundred, or a thousand. Andy continues talking about managing jobs by standardizing how you handle notifications and failures, and talks about an interesting idea to monitor jobs separately from SQL Agent. Worth reading!   Read more...

Although there are legitimate reasons for using filegroups, Chad Miller recently encountered a situation where they were used too much. He shows you in this article why and how to remove excessive filegroups.   Read more...

In SQL Server 2000, there is a database option to close the database when it is not in use. Every wonder what this is? Or when it should be used? Steve Jones takes a look at this seldom used option.   Read more...

How many jobs do you have? 10? 100? 1000? Andy makes the point that what works to manage for a small number of jobs doesn't work when that number doubles or triples (well, unless you only had 1 job to start with!). In part one of two, this article looks at ideas for using categories and naming conventions to get things under control.   Read more...

Andy had a semi-disaster similar to the one he wrote about last year. Interesting to see the kinds of problems that happen to other people. This article raises some interesting points that are outside the scope of basic disaster recovery, looking at how/when to move databases to a different server and how to reduce the server load dynamically.   Read more...

Continuing on looking at demo servers, this article presents an interesting solution to ensuring consistent demos that was deployed out in the field for a client company.   Read more...

With SQL Server 2000 you are able to create databases or columns with a different collating setting than the server. This article will explain a couple of methods Greg has used to successfully change collation settings.   Read more...

A few months ago Greg Larsen ran across a big problem with SQL Server collation when querying. He shares his bruises in this quick article.   Read more...

Everyone does demos. You need them to sell your software, but the demo server presents some challenges. Continuing this series, this article looks at moving data between servers.   Read more...

Andy discusses reasons why he thinks setting the default database to anything other than master is a mistake. We think he does a good job of covering the pros and cons, read the article and join the discussion!   Read more...

The third part of a series in moving system databases.   Read more...

Andy takes a look at the new book on DMO and likes what he sees - "great book for beginner and intermediate DMO users!". We've been supporters of DMO for a while and we're glad to see a new book on the subject. Read the review, add your comments, buy the book!   Read more...

How often do you move your master database? Hopefully never, but this article looks at an easy technique should you need to perform this trick.   Read more...

This article explains how to use a simple batch file and script file to manage multiple databases on multiple servers.   Read more...

Following up on a question posted in our discussion area, Andy looks at how to use DMO to add and remove linked servers. Along the way he points out a couple 'gotchas' and throws in a cool tip about how to save a little time when you experiment with DMO.   Read more...

Part 4 examines more ANSI options that are available in SQL Server. A simple setting with some unexpected (for the author) results.   Read more...