Adding a column is one of the simpler tasks you'll ever do as a DBA, yet danger lurks! All too often we add columns without going through some type of check list to make sure we're safe. What could adding a column break? You might be surprised!   Read more...

We can only guess that someone somewhere put spaces in an object name that Andy works with and gave him the idea for this worst practice. Funny as the topic may sound, we agree - why make your lifer harder?   Read more...

Andy returns to the Worst Practice series this week with a short article looking at how connection strings in applications affect what you see in sysprocesses. Perhaps less controversial (in our opinion) that some of the other worst practices, this is something easy to fix and definitely worth fixing! Read the article and post a comment - explore other points of view! Readers posting a comment will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit.   Read more...

We're curious to see what our readers have to say about this one! How many of us have tables accruing data that won't be used and/or isn't of any value? At what point do we get rid of it to free up resources?   Read more...

If you've been with us for a while you know that Andy started a series last year on worst practices. As he says, maybe you can't always do best practices, but at least dont do the worst ones. Read the article and add a comment, participate!   Read more...

In this article by Neil Weicher, he talks about encryption of data and files for SQL Server.   Read more...