How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
The vendor file arrived twice overnight, Snowflake loaded both copies without complaining, and finance found the problem before the pipeline did.
2026-07-01
641 reads
Articles
Add New Disk to Windows Failover Cluster for SQL Server
I have a 2-node failover cluster instance running on Windows Server 2019 Standard edition. I have a requirement to add a new SAN disk to the SQL Server failover cluster instance (FCI), and then I need to move a user database to that newly added shared disk. Can you show the steps required to add a new disk to the FCI and move the user database?
2026-07-01
Parameter Sniffing in Production: How a 200ms Query Became a 90-Second Outage
Learn how parameter sniffing appeared in a real system and how the issues were solved.
2026-06-29
3,427 reads
SQL Server 2025 Build List
This is a list of the builds for SQL Server 2025. There are other build lists available here. A list of all the builds that I can find and install on my Build VM. If you find a build not listed here, please let the webmaster know (webmaster at sqlservercentral.com). All builds are listed in reverse […]
2026-06-29 (first published: 2025-11-24)
1,224 reads
Never ship a broken semantic model again: how to build automated tests in Power BI with user-defined functions
User-defined functions (UDFs) in Power BI let you build reusable, automated tests for your semantic models — so you catch broken measures, duplicate rows, and faulty relationships before they reach your reports. This article walks through how to use UDFs alongside PQL.Assert to standardize testing across your team, and how to automate those tests with Power Automate or a Fabric Notebook.
2026-06-29
SQL Server Enum Implementation: A Single-Row View Strategy for Avoiding Magic Values
Learn about an alternative strategy for avoiding hardcoded literal values in SQL Server queries by using single-row views designed to mimic enum behavior.
2026-06-26
2,418 reads
Add Nodes to SQL Server 2022 and Windows Server 2022 Failover Cluster
I used the guide in a previous tip on Install SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 Cluster Part 1 to install a SQL Server 2008 on a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster (WSFC). Now, I would like to upgrade and migrate my SQL Server 2008 failover clusters to SQL Server 2022 running on Windows Server 2022. What is the process for installation and configuration?
2026-06-26
GENERATE_SERIES() Breaks Minimal Logging
tl;dr The title says it all. Prologue One of the keys to my personal learning is that, very early in my database career, I taught myself how to make lot’s of rows of Random Constrained Data in a comparatively short time. With the help of a few good folks over time, the method has been […]
2026-06-24 (first published: 2023-09-18)
4,095 reads
How to host an AI text embeddings model for SQL Server using Ollama
When we want to use AI-based comparisons of text, via vector search in SQL Server, we need to first generate embeddings for the text. An embedding is a numeric representation of meaning, usually represented by vectors. In this article, I’ll show you how to use Ollama to host a server locally that can be used to generate embeddings.
2026-06-24
Index Fragmentation Explained: Page Splits, Logical Reads, and What to Do
Index fragmentation can silently degrade your query performance over time. Learn what happens at the page level, how to measure it, and how to fix it.
2026-06-22
2,498 reads
Blogs
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers