This is an uncommon task but one that does turn up every once in awhile. A SQL login has to be moved from a development server to a test server, test to prod etc. Or maybe a lateral move to a new server. And frequently the DBA doesn’t and/or shouldn’t… Read more

Templates are one of those really handy tools that most DBAs I know of have either never heard of or just don’t use much. I have to admit I fall into the second category myself. I will break out templates occasionally when I’m working with something I don’t do much.… Read more

While I was at the 2011 Pass Summit I was given the following piece of code to create a comma delimited list.

 SELECT files.database_id, db.name AS DatabaseName,
		STUFF((SELECT ', ' + names.name
				FROM sys.master_files names
				WHERE names.database_id = files.database_id
				FOR XML PATH(''),TYPE).value('.','VARCHAR(MAX)')
			, 1, 2, '') AS NameList
FROM sys.master_files…

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If you are lucky you’ve never seen an error along the lines of:

The SELECT permission was denied on the object 'sysobjects', database 'mssqlsystemresource', schema 'sys'. 

But let’s face it, luck runs out. So you may want to know what on earth this mysterious fifth system database is. As of… Read more

I was scanning http://dba.stackexchange.com and ran across the following question:

http://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/31478/sql-server-script-to-delete-accounts-no-longer-in-active-directory

Basically the OP wanted to know how to get rid of “Windows” or AD logins. Mike Fal answered with a very cool script I just had to blog about. Basically it scan’s through the Windows logins in sys.server_principals and… Read more