One of our desktop support technicians noticed the following error from a 3rd party vendor application in an error log:

"9/22/2010 1:02 AM (GMT-06:00): The xxxxx Maintenance Service has reported an error. (200) CCmd: [DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

Our technician e-mailed the error message (along…

Read more

If you read my blog or follow me on Twitter, you know that I have a strong interest in database server hardware. Having properly selected and sized database server hardware gives you a strong foundation to architect and implement a scalable, high performance database solution. Of course, a bad… Read more

Dear Users,

We, the tech people, understand that you just want technology to work so you can get your jobs done.  We really, really understand that.  When your technology doesn’t work, you turn to us so we’ll make it behave. We like making technology behave – we got into this… Read more

 The below is a republished version that has been released officially on the Canadian Federal Liberal Party's web site.  Finally get some use out of that old History and Politics degree :)  L'originale en français est disponible ici.

When the Bloc Québécois is a Nuisance for Quebeckers’ Interests: The… Read more

An expert roundtable discussion hosted by SQL Server Expert Kevin Kline and featuring speakers from Microsoft, EMC, Avanade, HP and Quest Software.
With the release of SQL Server 2005 and its focus on Business Intelligence, SQL Server professionals are faced with unprecedented amounts of data to manage. How are you… Read more

/* Have you ever come across the problem where you have to remove spaces from a string that has too many? You'll know that if you do the obvious ...*/
SELECT REPLACE ('this         has            too                          many                               spaces' ,'  ', ' ')
-- ... you end up with your problem… Read more

Some of my clients and I have been waiting on this for a little while – SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 has been released.  It includes resolutions for 21  issues and the inclusion of fixes for 61 issues previously resolved.

Along with the resolution of those issues, Service… Read more

This morning we made some changes to the database.  We realized that as part of a re-factor we needed to move 2 columns from table A to table B.  We made the changes and immediately a lot of unit tests began failing.  As we worked on it we found out… Read more

I spent this past weekend traveling to and attending SQL Saturday Colorado in the outskirts of Denver.  This was the first such event in this area, and was arranged and cohosted by volunteers from the local SQL Server user groups including Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs.  Marc Beacom, chapter… Read more

Sometimes spending some time with your spouse watching TV is right up there with comfort food, the challenge is often finding something that you’ll both find interesting and relaxing. We watched West Wing when it was originally aired, and somewhere along the line acquired the entire set of DVD’s which…

Read more

Earlier this week, PASS opened up the Schedule Builder for the those that are registered for the PASS Summit.  You can also take a look at the full schedule with the At A Glance schedule.

This is your opportunity to find out what sessions are going to be when… Read more

The keynote for SQL Saturday #52 in Denver, that didn’t go as smoothly as I’d like due to technical difficulties, however I am hoping I got my point across. Here’s what I wanted to say:

Who does p90x? Body for Life? Some other exercise routine?

Do you think these programs… Read more

Lots of events in Florida, easy to lose track! The Tallahassee Code Camp is October 23, 2010, details at http://www.tallycodecamp.org/ (nice looking site!). The Tampa Code Camp was just announced for November 13, 2020, and the web site should be live by tomorrow at www.tampacodecamp.com.

Read more

Sean’s latest rant – about a vendor with a dangerously small amount of SQL knowledge – has spurred me to talk about a common theme I’ve been seeing lately: Proving facts to ignoramuses*.

How to Prove Facts to the Unbeliever

1. State the fact.
2. Explain the fact.
3. Restate the fact.…

Read more

Every now and then you may have had to move nonclustered indexes between filegroups. There are two ways it can be done: drop the existing indexes first then create new ones or execute a create statement with the DROP_EXISTING = ON option. At face value it may appear that SQL… Read more

Many IT Pros can relate to the the Lone Ranger. With the aid of but one trusty side kick, the Lone Ranger stands to protect the unsuspecting townsfolk from the wayward derelicts that plagued the American frontier. He also ate bacon three meals a day.

Like the Lone Ranger, IT… Read more

I had a question come up during my “Getting Started with SQL Azure” presentation at SQLSaturday #52 in Denver last Saturday that I did not know the answer to. It had to do with how you could see what your data transfer usage was in and out of a SQL… Read more

It’s getting close to the time for the SQLServerCentral party events this fall, and time to start gathering up SWAG to give to people. In the past, I’ve hosted a SQLServerCentral party at the PASS Summit, and it’s always been a good time. Our first year, 8 years ago, we… Read more

Years ago I was part of a heated discussion about the ability/inclination of a team I was on to build a requested feature. The ‘other team’ insisted on 100% accuracy, something that just wasn’t possible – a point we considered both obvious and easy to demonstrate, and we wanted to…

Read more

If one index helps speed up queries, than more indexes should help more, right? They do, but they also come at a price. Both in performance during data modifications (insert/update/delete), and in terms of space since each index must be stored somewhere.

I have never bothered to index every column… Read more