For the past several weeks, I have been running a poll on www.bradmcgehee.com, asking visitors if they thought that DBAs should be paid for off-hours work? With 259 votes, its very clear (see the graph below) that most DBAs think they should be paid overtime. Unfortunately, this is usually… Read more

If you are near Cambridge, England, I will be speaking at the Cambridge SQL Server Users Group on Wednesday, March 24, 2010.

The meeting will be held fro 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and I will be spending about 45 minutes discussing “How to Use the SQL Server 2008 Performance… Read more

The upcoming SQLBits 6, to be held Friday, April 16, 2010, will be held at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, London, England. This full day, free event will be themed around SQL Server performance and scalability.

Currently, the call for speakers is open, and if you would like… Read more

I recently had a SQL Server DBA write to me that they were going to be laid off, and they asked me if I had any special insight into what are the best websites to look for SQL Server-related jobs. I haven’t looked for a SQL Server job in a… Read more

Over the past several years, I have given 2-3 live web presentations a year, and I have always found them to be an adventure. In other words, there always seems to be one problem or another.

Sometimes the meeting software used is not very cooperative, connection speeds vary (or drop),… Read more

If you can’t tell what is happening in the above photo, you won’t be alone. Today, at the opening keynote at the 2010 MVP Summit, the audience of nearly 1,400 Microsoft MVPs, from over 70 countries, got to see one of Seattle’s most famous traditions, the Pike Place… Read more

Microsoft has announced that Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 will be released in the third quarter of 2010, and that Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2005 will be released in the fourth quarter of 2010. Find out more here.

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The sessions presented at the PASS Community Summit are selected by volunteers from the PASS Program Committee. If you would like to volunteer some of your time to review session abstracts, and help make recommendations as to which sessions will be offered at the PASS 2010 Community Summit, then you… Read more

SQLServerCentral.com, PragmaticWorks, and Wrox Press are sponsoring a series of free SQL Server webinars in February. Called the SQL Server 101 Series, the sessions include:

• Introduction to Managing a SQL Server Database with Jorge Segarra
• Beginning T-SQL with Patrick LeBlanc
• The Modern Resume with Steve Jones
• How…

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I’ll be speaking in Portland, OR and Tumwater, WA the week of February 8th, 2010. The details, and the session descriptions, are below. Hope to see you there.

Oregon SQL Developers User Group

Topic: Introduction to Graphical Execution Plans
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
When: 6:30 PM… Read more

Post your responses to the above SQL Aloha Question of the Month in the comments section below (at www.bradmcgehee.com if you are viewing this from a syndicated newsfeed). If you have more than one best practice you would like to offer, please enter each one as a separate comment. And… Read more

As a DBA, at one time or another, you will need to quickly find an object within a database, such as a table, view, or stored procedure. In other cases, it is handy to be able to search objects to locate specific text strings. Depending on which version of SQL… Read more

SQL Server backups are a “funny” topic to talk about. If you are talking with experienced DBAs, the topic of backups rarely surfaces, as this is a fundamental skill most DBAs learn early in their career. On the other hand, there are thousands of part-time, accidental DBAs who are tasked… Read more