Longtime SQL Server author and expert David Poole takes a break from SQL Server to bring us a few life lessons for software development.  Read more...

This article describes what the dimension manager and fact provider do, and how to configure business intelligence tools to use the integrated EDW.  Read more...

In a previous tip we saw how easy it was to link to SQL Server tables from Microsoft Access. As is the case with all systems, how does Access manage the changes? What happens when you modify the structure of the underlying SQL Server table? What happens to the SQL Server table if you delete the linked table in Access? We will look at each of these situations in this tip.  Read more...

Steve Jones talks a bit about the upcoming SQLServerCentral.com event at the 2008 PASS Summit and asks for some ideas.  Read more...

The PASS Summit is being held in Seattle on November 18-21, 2008. Read about a few of the reasons that you might want to ask your boss if you can go.  Read more...

This article examines the built in reports called SQL Server Management Studio Reports and an additional add-on called Performance Dashboard.  Read more...

This article provides guidance to what an integrated EDW is and what design elements are needed to achieve integration.  Read more...

One developer's journey through PIVOTing incorrectly.  Read more...

SQL Server trainer and longtime expert, Andy Warren brings us a great article on one basic skill that every DBA should know.  Read more...

A short review of the WROX red covered book that looks at Integration Services for the DBA.  Read more...

SQL Server MVP Kevin Kline focuses on PerfMon counters for SQL Server and shares best practices for tracking IO intensive access methods and buffer manager activity.  Read more...

ckup compression is a new feature in SQL Server 2008 that can help provide smaller sized backups and reduce backup time. This document provides guidance related to tuning options for backup performance. All of the information and test results presented here were done specifically by using the backup compression feature of SQL Server 2008; however, they apply broadly to any backup scenario whether backup compression is used or not  Read more...

Two weeks ago Andy started his wildly successful series on Worst Practices. This week he continues that series discussing why failing to use primary keys and clustered indexes are worst practices. Agree or disagree, read the article and join the discussion. One thing you'll have to admit, reading an article by Andy is a lot more interesting than reading Books Online!   Read more...

Often developers are tasked with not only developing functional code, but also with ensuring that the code they develop scales well and performs in the application environment.  Read more...

Some useful undocumented extended and stored procedures in SQL Server 2005  Read more...

How to use XML to pass Multi-Select parameters from Reporting Services to SQL Server.  Read more...

In this article we will share some of the common reasons for slow-running queries and what your approach should be for identifying and fixing them.   Read more...

The need to test a program that accesses and manipulates a back-end SQL Server® database is very common. In many such cases, the application interacts with the back-end data through the use of SQL stored procedures. In this type of scenario, you can think of the stored procedures as auxiliary methods of the system under test; and they must therefore be tested just like any other module in the system.  Read more...

Over the past few years, software developers have used various kinds of technologies to retrieve data from relational databases. SQL Server 2000 is the first Microsoft DBMS to fully support XML. In this article the author concentrates on the FOR XML clause in SQL Server versions, 2000 and 2005. Click on title for more  Read more...

This article explores the options available in SQL Server 2005 for Slowly Changing Dimensions.  Read more...

Many people have used a "Numbers" or "Tally" table without really knowing what it does. This is an introduction as to how a Tally table replaces a loop.  Read more...