Get a free ebook from Red Gate Software and SQLServerCentral from MVP Grant Fritchey. Learn how to read and interpret execution plans.  Read more...

Instructions on how to set up the connection string and SSIS package to allow a 64 bit server to export to a 32 bit version of Excel  Read more...

With Report Builder and SSMS, there isn't much you can't do in the way of the common reports and visualisations. One of the more interesting visualisations uses maps, and that, combined with layers, makes for an impressive way of representing data.  Read more...

I have to support a third party application that periodically creates a new database on the fly. This obviously causes issues with our backup mechanisms. The databases have a particular pattern for naming, so I can identify the set of databases, however, I need to make sure I'm always backing up the newest one. Read this tip to ensure you are backing up your latest database in a series.  Read more...

A free day of training in the US nation's capital. Come join in if you are nearby.  Read more...

How to reset an identity field to the next contiguous value, after deletions.  Read more...

Compares and contrasts tracing using Profiler with server-side tracing, illustrating important performance differences so that one can choose the right tool for the task at hand.  Read more...

My organization is looking at SQL Server 2012 and I know that the ability to create roles at the server level is a new feature. Since this is new and impacts security, how do I handle them and how do I audit them?  Read more...

Quite often, the database developer or tester is faced with having to load data into a newly created database. What could be simpler? Quite a lot of things, it seems.  Read more...

Splitting strings based on patterns supported by LIKE and PATINDEX can be an interesting way to address a wide variety of problems.  Read more...

Get a free ebook that discusses how you can better manage your team development.  Read more...

I have a busy SQL Server and notice that several queries are running in parallel. I know I can set the max degree of parallelism setting, but what MAXDOP should I use?  Read more...

The tenth article of this series starts to look at more advanced events and how we can use those events to better control and enhance our packages.  Read more...

SQL Server 2012 introduced an unified BI Semantic Model (BISM) which is based on some of the existing as well as some new technologies. This model is intended to serve as one model for all end user experiences for reporting, analytics, scorecards, dashboards, etc. In this tip, I will talk in detail about the new BISM, how it differs from earlier the earlier Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) and how BISM lays down a foundation for future.   Read more...

SQL Saturday at the gateway between Europe and Asia. If you are nearby, come join in a free day of SQL Server training and presentations.  Read more...

If you have not been capturing baselines on your production servers, then today is the day you can start. This article provides scripts, valid for SQL Server 2005 and higher, which anyone can use to capture basic information about a SQL Server instance.  Read more...