PowerShell Desired State Configuration: DSC Resources

Desired State Configuration (DSC) allows you to automate the way that you manage configuration data for software services as well as the environment in which these services run. DSC uses a set of built-in and custom 'resources' as the building blocks for a configuration. If you have specific requirements you may need to create the relevant resource to make the configuration happen. Nicolas Prigent provides a practical guide to DSC resources.

Expanding the uses of DBCC CLONEDATABASE

Erin Stellato goes into detail about some practical use cases for a new DBCC command in SQL Server 2014 SP2 : DBCC CLONEDATABASE.

Querying Multiple MySQL Tables

It’s been said that one of the drawbacks to normalization to the third form (3NF) is more cumbersome data extraction due to the greater number of tables. These require careful linking via JOIN clauses. Improper table joining can easily result in erroneous results or even in the dreaded Cartesian Product. In today’s article, Rob Gravelle explores how table joins are achieved in MySQL.

Monitor up-time and connectivity with Powershell

Use Powershell to troubleshoot SQL connectivity issues. A way to monitor up-time and connectivity of a SQL server database with some simple Powershell commands.

AT TIME ZONE – a new favourite feature in SQL Server 2016

Rob Farley explains why AT TIME ZONE is his new favourite feature in SQL Server 2016, but also shows that it can make a mess of cardinality estimates.

Byte Me: JavaScripting

Reading the SQL Server log files using TSQL

The SQL Server Error Log is quite large and it's not always easy to view the contents with the Log File Viewer. Greg Robidoux presents an easy way to search and find errors using T-SQL.

An Introduction to In-Memory OLTP Database Objects

In-memory OLTP was introduced in SQL Server 2014, but greatly improved in SQL Server 2016. If you have a heavily-used transaction-processing that is processing a lot of data, it is definitely worth considering the new 'In-Memory' features of SQL Server 2016. Grant Fritchey explains why.

Indexing Foreign Keys

Foreign Keys are one of the fundamental characteristics of relational databases and enforce the referential integrity. Is it a good idea to index a FK relationship? When can it help?

Creating PowerShell Stacks and Expression Evaluators

To demonstrate that dynamic modules in PowerShell can be used to easily create objects with methods and properties, Phil Factor implements an expression analyser written in PowerShell, using a variation of Dijstra's Shunting Algorithm.