As some of you know, I am really excited about the data appliances Microsoft and HP have released this year.  I really believe that they make it even easier to get MSBI projects up and running while minimizing the complexity of building out servers. Read more about my thoughts on…

Read more

Here is a situation I ran into recently concerning using a fact table in SSAS.  This experience may help you out if you run into something similar:

A data warehouse has an advertising table that has these four fields: Product Type, Inches, Lines, Pieces. The Inches, Lines and Pieces fields… Read more

Welcome to the Friday Re-Blog summary post.  The aim of these posts is to bring some old posts that newer readers may not have had a chance to see.  Also a chance to bring back to the forefront posts that some may have seen but forgot about.

If you have… Read more

Generate SQL Server INSERT statements with Excel Concatenate.

A developer requested  access to a Production database. The details were to COPY and PASTE from a Excel spreadsheet into Access , which then updated SQL Server.  Upon asking him , why he used this method , he said “It’s the way… Read more

I took an interest in building  a blog/website several years ago when I first started my company and working for myself. Over the years I have tried many different approaches and over the last few years I have settled on using my blog to build my brand.

More recently a… Read more

In my previous blog, I introduced the “X on XMLA” series.  In this blog, I will do more of an introduction to XMLA by discussing how I have used XMLA in my experience with SSAS. What is XMLA? XML for Analysis or XMLA is the API used to interact with…

Read more

This is the second part of a 3 part blog which will attempt to show some different ways of how you can use the xml modify() method to update the contents of an XML document. This part, starting at the absolute basics, will cover the ability to update data in… Read more

Move over Poseidon.  I’m hitting the sea with my own trident (assuming I can get it through the TSA).  My trident is made from the culmination of my favorite three things.  My wife, SQL Server, and cruising.  Let me explain.

Back in October of last year, Idera ran a contest… Read more

Read more

I was trying to acquire a license for a product I was trying to look at using a free program. Now, because the organization is providing the license for free, I expect some strings to be attached. Want me email? Yup, how else would you send me the license? You… Read more

In a previous post I wrote about how you can use embedded custom code to extend the capabilities of Reporting Services.  This week I will show you another method of using custom code but this time with external assemblies.  Ideally when using custom code you would choose to do so… Read more

If some long running error situation , the Error Log can become very big. In those situations , it can be time-consuming to search for specific Messages. 

It is a good idea to recycle the SQL Server Error Logs . To create a new Error Log file without restarting SQL… Read more

I wrote recently about capacity planning, with an item near the end about disk usage. Someone pointed out to me that compression can dramatically affect your baseline, and as you implement it, or de-implement it, you need to update your baseline.

That’s an important point, and if you make… Read more

As your SSAS cube gets bigger, cube processing time will become a problem.  This is especially true as more and more companies want cube processing during the day instead of the usual off-hours time when no one is using the cube.  Partitioning the cube can help to reduce the processing… Read more

Read more

I saw this write up about the built in ability to both restore to factory settings as well as just refresh (basically a clean install but preserves your data). It’s not a dumb idea, it solves a common problem that has been already a long time. Way way back when… Read more

 

Last week, I sat in on Putting a Better SQL Server in Production - this is an ideal pre-prod checklist from Robert L. Davis.

The original slide deck available here (on demand), from his January 19th presentation:

I have placed a copy that includes my notes here… Read more

 

Congratulations to Philippe Falardeau - he has made the official Oscar Nominations!

http://www.monsieurlazharmovie.com/ tourné à Montréal – Filmed in Montreal! The hilarious Algerian comedian Fellag is the star who plays the teacher.  Watch Fellag's joke about getting a Visa for France :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgGEZCdVqI un des meilleurs comédiens d’Algerie J… Read more

So I went to present at Charleston PASS on Thursday night and of course I had my standard contact information on my slides. This included the web site I have (had) as my brochure site: truthsolutions.com (it's not up, so no link). I hadn't checked it in a while because… Read more

Slammer

By now you must have heard of the SQL Slammer worm.  It was quite an infectious little nuisance.  The harm it caused came largely due to unpatched, unprotected SQL Servers.

We are now 9 years out from the initial discovery of this worm.  The worm has made its way… Read more