Since Microsoft is moving to core-based licensing for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition, with a minimum of four physical core licenses per physical socket, I have had a few questions about what is the “best” quad-core processor to choose for SQL Server 2012 (in order to minimize your SQL… Read more

As we have done for the last several years, SQLServerCentral.com will be offering its own track at SQL Server Connections (a part of the greater DevConnections event) in Las Vegas, NV, on March 26-29, at the MGM Grand Hotel. This is in addition to the SQL Server tracks that are… Read more

It's amazing to me how the herd mentality works in Technology (and many other things) sometimes. I get the idea that since there are so many new things happening in Technology all the time, it is automatically assumed that "new = good" and "old = bad". I believe that this… Read more

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC 0) has a confirmed issue with Master Data Services configuration. The following error is raised by the Master Data Services Configuration Manager when launched:

Before creating an MDS web application, you must correct the following errors:
Internet Information Services (IIS) is not…

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SQL Server 2012 is coming to 12 cities next year.  Is your city on the list?  It can be – or could be – take a few minutes to complete the survey at www.specialopstour.com and you will help determine where the tour will be heading.  Personally, I hope everyone puts… Read more

Welcome to the first of a few sponsor interview posts from SQL Saturday 99.  After reading Arnie Rowland’s (Blog | @ArnieRowland) Paying For Free post, I thought it might be worthwhile to do a little bit more to interview our attendees and others to the sponsors… Read more

This is a continuation of my DBA in Space journal.

Episode seven is filmed at the “Animals in Space” exhibit at the Roddenberry Launch center, and alien Brad is becoming more comfortable in his human skin, although he thinks he is better than he really is as he impersonates the… Read more

I was astounded to see this blog at #4 on the list from the recent SQL Server Magazine Community Choice Awards.

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Back in August, I published a post on exporting SSRS report files en masse.  That article (which can be read here) detailed an SSIS package I created to export the files.  As it is published, it is only good for exporting the actual report files and not the data… Read more

Formatting numbers in an SSRS report is a common task. For example, you may want to format a number as currency or percentage.

You can select a format from the number page of the properties window.

You can let sql handle the formatting, so data in the result set is… Read more

Recently I was troubleshooting a report issue where in one of the column was empty in the report. I started by checking the report body to ensure that the corresponding column was called appropriately, then looked into the dataset fields to see whether there was any mapping issue. Both of… Read more

Description:-

Yesterday, we discussed what happen when tempdb data file grown very high, now what if log file of any user database has grown high and occupying most of its space. Please see the great blog post to know about what is log and how log file works here by… Read more

In my previous posts (here and here), I showed examples of some of the execution plan warnings that have been added to SQL Server 2012.  There is one other warning that is of interest to me : “Unmatched Indexes”.

Firstly, how do I know this is the final… Read more

Day 29: Fatal Errors 823, 824, 825, 832, OS error 23

1. Error 823: IO error OS cannot read the data
   

Error: 823, Severity: 24, State: 2.
The operating system returned error 21(The device is not ready.) to SQL Server during a read at offset xxxx in file ‘xxx.mdf’. Additional messages… Read more

With SQL Server 2012 a new string function is born – CONCAT(). The output is a string, as the result of the concatenation of two or more strings – if the input is another type than string a conversion will be done implicit. The CONCAT() function takes between 2 and… Read more

SQLRockstar Thomas LaRock has updated his blogger rankings this month, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had moved me up from the Model group to the Master group. This is quite an honor, since Thomas spends quite a bit of time monitoring and evaluating the content from… Read more

In the world of SQL Server, a process is either running, runnable, or waiting. A running process is, obviously, running; it’s the one getting CPU time. A runnable process has everything it needs to run, it’s just waiting for its turn on the CPU. A process that’s waiting, however, is… Read more

If you are a DBA in Space fan, and in case you missed them, there have been two items published on Simple-Talk.com that you may be interested in reading.

The first is “Stars of the DBA in Space Webisodes Revealed”. This is a spoof interview where Miss Friday… Read more

Dimensions are often recycled for multiple purposes within the same database.  For instance, a “Date” dimension can be used for “Date of Sale”, as well as “Date of Delivery”, or “Date of Hire”.  This is often referred to as a “role-playing dimension”.

Basically, if the same dimension is used more… Read more

Do you have $5 you could re-direct from a cup of coffee to a donation on men’s health issues?

If you weren’t aware, for the past few years the month of November has been re-dubbed Movember.  A facial hair movement to help raise awareness for men’s health issues – such… Read more