This post is part of a blog series which focuses on translating compatibility views in SQL Server to their respective dynamic management objects.  You can find a list of all of the deprecated views in the introduction post.

The compatibility view sysperfinfo returns rows for all of the… Read more

My Dad died horribly three weeks ago in a fall after the power got knocked out during Hurricane Sandy. I am barely able to talk about it and may never be for all I know.

My Dad was a very special man. One that I did not appreciate until I… Read more

The 1st cumulative update release for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 is now available for download at the Microsoft Support site.

SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU1 contains fixes released in SQL Server 2012 RTM CU 3 & 4. For those who are upgrading to Service Pack 1 from SQL… Read more

The 8th cumulative update release for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 is now available for download at the Microsoft Support site. Cumulative Update 8 contains all the hotfixes released since the initial release of SQL Server 2008 SP3.

Those who are facing severe issues with their environment, they can… Read more

This post is part of a blog series which focuses on translating compatibility views in SQL Server to their respective dynamic management objects.  You can find a list of all of the deprecated views in the introduction post.

The compatibility view sysobjects returns one row for every object… Read more

Back in the old days before this blog when I was publishing a website instead that has long been consigned to the website dustbin I had a newsletter. It had a few subscribers and was generally well received, since I moved to the blog platform back in 2009 I let… Read more

I read a blog a few months ago by Ramkumar Gopal (blog) in which he had setup a Facebook page to record and post things that he doesn’t want to create a blog post for. I thought this was a really good idea for a whole host of… Read more

ParallelPeriod() function is very useful when we need to present data side-by-side for two parallel periods

ParallelPeriod() function is often used when we need to present data side-by-side for two parallel periods, such as in the example below where daily data needs to be presented side-by-side for each day in… Read more

Need to check the last time when our ETL processes ran successfully

Data warehouse developers routinely query the last data date (the last date when we have fact data) to check the last time when our ETL processes ran successfully.

It’s not hard to do it in TSQL. It just… Read more

I made a quick trip to Tampa for #168 this past weekend. It was a “BI Edition” and it felt less intense but still a great value, four tracks of content and about 150 attendees. I arrived in time to sit through most of a presentation by Mike Antonovich, and… Read more

1. Create sample db

use master
go
CREATE DATABASE [test] ON  PRIMARY
( NAME = N'test', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master\test.mdf' , SIZE = 2048KB , FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
 LOG ON
( NAME = N'test_log', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA\master\test_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , FILEGROWTH =…

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This post is part of a blog series which focuses on translating compatibility views in SQL Server to their respective dynamic management objects.  You can find a list of all of the deprecated views in the introduction post.

The compatibility view sysusers returns a row for every Windows… Read more

Here are the most interesting people I met at PASS Summit 2012

 

Mickey Stuewe (sqlmickey)

Neil Hambly (neil_hambly)

Bob Hovious

Gail Shaw (sqlinthewild)

Ed Watson (SQLGator)

 

 

 

 

 

This is the short list of the many many many… Read more

Continuing on my recent trend of using undocumented stored procedures, this week I thought we can cover using xp_delete_file to purge old backup files from a folder.  This is stored procedure used by the maintenance plans to clean up old backup files, but it makes for a handy purge tool…

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This post is part of a blog series which focuses on translating compatibility views in SQL Server to their respective dynamic management objects.  You can find a list of all of the deprecated views in the introduction post.

The compatibility view syspermissions returns rows that describe permissions granted… Read more

There’s still a little time left in the year. I know some businesses have allocated training budgets and if they don’t spend the money, they lose it from their budget. So a few of you might still be looking for opportunities to get your learn on. I’ve got one more… Read more

This weeks blog posts have been focusing on books that I have read, like and recommend for learning SQL Server 2008. I’m often asked what books do I recommend for learning SQL Server 2008 and I nearly always reply with a question “What area of SQL Server do you want… Read more

@PsychzNetworks is spamming me non-stop. Every minute of every day.

I googled them and it seems Psychz Networks are famous for spamming people.

I have removed non-moderated comments (I didn't want to do this and have since added non-moderated comments back) - didn't stop Psychz Networks' spam.

I have… Read more

Did you attend PASS Summit and miss out on some sessions because there were so many or you were busy networking?  Good news!  The recordings are now available for free to watch streaming for all those who attended the conference now here.

If you weren’t an attendee you can… Read more

The other day I was writing a query to pull some DMV information and I ended up using several CTEs in my query before I was done. My plan was to dump the information into a table to process it further. I’m used to just throwing an INSERT INTO command… Read more