In this next article of the SQL Server in the Enterprise Series, we'll explore how to cluster Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 in a step-by-step manner. After this article, you should be able to cluster a SQL Server 2000 machine for failover availability in an Active/Active cluster.   Read more...

In this article, Brian Kelley focuses on learning the various services in SQL Server. He also covers the security needed to make them work.   Read more...

Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2000 is huge. There are significant changes in it and they apply to all three products: the core SQL Server, MSDE, and Analysis Services. Because there are so many changes, this first article in the series will only focus on the security changes.   Read more...

As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.   Read more...

When installing SQL Server, regardless of versions and editions, SQL Server database administrators tend to choose the default collation and sort-order, which is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Though case insensitiveness makes the life of the database developers and database administrator's easy, there are situations where case sensitivity should be enforced just as password checking is enforced. In this article, I would like to discuss different methods for achieving case sensitivity in a case insensitive database/server.  Read more...

Mindy explores the metadata stored in SQL 2000 to show you how to produce a simple and useful data dictionary!   Read more...

In this next article of the SQL Server in the Enterprise Series, we'll explore how to cluster Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 in a step-by-step manner. After this article, you should be able to cluster a SQL Server 2000 machine for failover availability in an Active/Active cluster.   Read more...

Clustering a SQL Server machine was one of the most frustrating tasks a DBA and Windows administrator had to accomplish in SQL Server 7.0 and Windows NT 4.0. With the maturity of both the OS and the DBMS in Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000, this operation has been simplified tremendously. This first article in the series of article on clustering SQL Server will explain the general architecture of clustering.   Read more...

Everyone does demos. Selling software relies upon people viewing your software in action and being confident it will work. Managing a demo server can be a challenge and this series will look at different problems and options you have.   Read more...

This article by Andy Warren offers a free utility that will generate DSN's for all or just a subset of the databases on a server in seconds.   Read more...

Is Windows 2003 really faster for a SQL Server/IIS environment? Let us do all the leg work for you! We are about to upgrade the SQLServerCentral.com web and SQL Server from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003. As part of the case study, we are going to capture a baseline of the server's overall performance before the upgrade and then again after the upgrade. We will then document the experience and benchmark numbers.   Read more...

Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2000 is huge. There are significant changes in it and they apply to all three products: the core SQL Server, MSDE, and Analysis Services. Because there are so many changes, this first article in the series will only focus on the security changes.   Read more...

A monster book at 980 pages, it's written in 'how-to' format and has a ton of good material. Andy gave it the once over for us and reports back - see what he thinks!   Read more...

This article is the first of a multi-part series detailing the SQL Server Upgrade process from the technical, logistical and business perspective.   Read more...

There may be more ways than you realize to determine the version and service pack of SQL Server. This quick article by Dinesh Priyankara will show you 3 of those methods.   Read more...

As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.   Read more...

Your software has passed all testing phase(s) and it is time to install your database into production. Andy Jones will outline below how he accomplished this task. This article is concerned with an evolving system and how to migrate it to production.   Read more...

In this next article of the SQL Server in the Enterprise Series, we'll explore how to cluster Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000 in a step-by-step manner. After this article, you should be able to cluster a SQL Server 2000 machine for failover availability in an Active/Active cluster.   Read more...

Andy sits down with an entry level book to see if he should use it at work as a teaching aid. Did he like it? Should you buy it? Read the review now!   Read more...

Whether you are a developer, IT professional, or a database administrator, whether you are just developing and testing or are ready to deploy in production, there is a SQL Server 2000 edition for you and your organization. This paper will inform you about the differences among the various editions of SQL Server 2000, and how you can save time and money by choosing the right one for the job.   Read more...

As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.   Read more...

Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2000 is huge. There are significant changes in it and they apply to all three products: the core SQL Server, MSDE, and Analysis Services. Because there are so many changes, this first article in the series will only focus on the security changes.   Read more...

When installing SQL Server, regardless of versions and editions, SQL Server database administrators tend to choose the default collation and sort-order, which is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. Though case insensitiveness makes the life of the database developers and database administrator's easy, there are situations where case sensitivity should be enforced just as password checking is enforced. In this article, I would like to discuss different methods for achieving case sensitivity in a case insensitive database/server.  Read more...