I'm speaking at two user groups next week.

Tuesday - Midlands PASS - May 14

I'll be giving a presentation on PowerShell to help folks get started and to further along those who are already on the path. This will be very similar to the presentation I gave at… Read more

On May 9, 2013, at 3 PM EDT I will be presenting on 5 Steps Every DBA Should Take to Secure Their SQL Server. We'll look at five areas:

• SQL Server configuration
• Database security
• Backup security
• Auditing
• Maintaining and deploying your security model

If you're interested, please register… Read more

As promised, here are the presentations and sample code I used at the 2013 Carolina Code Camp. If you attended one of my sessions, thank you for choosing to spend your time sitting through my presentation. Hopefully I was able to share something you can use in your career.

  Read more

On Saturday, May 4, the Enterprise Developers Guild in Charlotte will hold their annual Carolina Code Camp. There's a number of great speakers across a wide range of topics, including some of us SQL Server folks like Melissa Coates, Rafael Salas, Javier Guillen, and Wayne Snyder. The location, Central… Read more

Last week I had the following error message repeating over and over again in the SQL Server log of one of my servers. It was repeating so much that the logs were growing very large, very fast:

Message
An exception occurred while enqueueing a message in the target queue. Error: 15517,… Read more

For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, Bob challenges us to discuss how we came to love presenting. Here's my story.

I developed a love of presenting during my sophomore year at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. I was a part of a group that existed pretty much… Read more

This should go without saying, because most of us have been on the receiving end of poor customer support. However, it needs to be said because we constantly see (or commit) examples of poor customer service. For instance, there is this report from Kotaku:

Microsoft Creative Director 'Doesn't Get… Read more

Here are some training events you might be interested in for the coming week:

Tuesday, April 2

• 11:00-12:00 EDT, Introduction to SQL Server Analysis Services, Devin Knight - Pragmatic Works

Thursday, April 4

• 11:00-12:00 EDT, Unit Tests for SSIS Packages, John Welch - Pragmatic Works
• 12:00-13:00…

Read more

There was an interesting conversation on Twitter today about security awareness and why the training so often fails. From my perspective, here's what I've seen:

• Most people know the basic rules.
• People will follow the basic rules until it interferes with something they want.

This is why security awareness generally fails.… Read more

When it comes to workstations within most organizations, the solution when one gets infected is to wipe it and re-image it. However, when we're talking about servers, sometimes that's not a viable business option. I've been in that position. In those cases you do your best to remove any traces… Read more

If you're located relatively near the Atlanta, Georgia area, I wanted to bring your attention to data warehousing training on March 14th that will benefit a private, not-for-profit elementary school. Audrey Hammonds and Julie Smith of DataChix.com are offering a full day of data warehouse training at a low price:… Read more

I used to compile a list of online training for the following week and posting it on Fridays. I stopped for whatever reason, but I've decided to start back. I'm moving it to Thursday, though, because some of the webcasts require registration. Here are the webinars I've found for next… Read more

I was recently asked by a project manager to lay out when DBAs would accomplish certain tasks for a particular project. The primary DBAs would be me and a co-worker. We're under a tight schedule with respect to the project, so I fell into a trap that I should have… Read more

When you are troubleshooting, the rule is if you've checked the obvious possibilities and still haven't solved the problem, it's time to expand to the unlikely ones. This is true even if the evidence would seem to rule out a possibility or if what you have for facts seem to… Read more

What does cash over credit have to deal with security? An awful lot, as it turns out.

Personal Story: Mere days after my family and I enjoyed a meal from this eating institution, I learn that there has been a potential data breach.

Let's assume the organization… Read more

Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter) was giving a presentation and he remarked on how the SQL Server Management Studio shortcuts have the same name. If you're like most of us, you're working with multiple versions of SQL Server and have to have multiple versions of the tools installed… Read more

Cross-posted from The Goal Keeping DBA blog:

As a worker in information technology, I’ve always been a big proponent of studying systems when they are working. I’ve also said that doing so helps me immensely when troubleshooting. However, I’ve never studied why that’s true. There’s a scientific explanation… Read more

On February 12th I'll be giving a SQL Server Security Refresher for Midlands PASS at Microstaff IT in Cayce/West Columbia, SC.

Register here to attend (so we know how much food to bring)

I'm dropping SQL Server 2000 from my presentations as it's end of life. We'll… Read more

Yesterday (January 1) I received the email indicating I was re-awarded as a Microsoft MVP, once again in SQL Server. I enjoy participating in our great community and recognition as an MVP is a bonus.

As others have indicated, obtaining an MVP award is based on subjective criteria not made… Read more

Most folks make New Year's resolutions of things they want to do over the course of the next 364/365 days. Let me challenge you not to do that. Most of the time when folks make resolutions, they are simple, wishful statements that are effectively meaningless. For instance, "I want to… Read more