Articles

Technical Article

Designing & Maintaining SQL Server Transactional Replication Environments

Microsoft IT protects against unplanned Transactional Replication outages and issues by using best practices and proactive monitoring. This results in increased stability, simplified management and improved performance of transactional replication environments.

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2012-10-12

5,472 reads

External Article

Check SQL Server Virtual Log Files Using PowerShell

In a previous tip on Monitor Your SQL Server Virtual Log Files with Policy Based Management, we have seen how we can use Policy Based Management to monitor the number of virtual log files (VLFs) in our SQL Server databases. However, even with that most of the solutions I see online involve the creation of temporary tables and/or a combination of using cursors to get the total number of VLFs in a transaction log file. Is there a much easier solution?

2012-10-11

3,321 reads

Technical Article

Improve Your Database Unit Testing Skills and Win Free Stuff

As the SQL Developer community grows to embrace the benefits of test-driven development for databases, so the importance of learning to do it properly increases. One way of learning effective TDD is by the use of code kata – short practice sessions that encourage test-first development in baby steps. I have a limited number of licences for SQL Test to give away free – just for practicing a bit of TDD and telling me about it.

2012-10-10 (first published: )

5,923 reads

External Article

Webinar: Temporary Tables in Oracle and SQL Server

Once again Jonathan Lewis (Oracle Ace Director, OakTable Network) and Grant Fritchey (Microsoft SQL Server MVP) will host a live discussion on Oracle and SQL Server, this time in relation to temporary tables. Will they agree on some common ground? Or will it be an out and out argument? Either way, be prepared for a lively exchange that will not only entertain, but will teach you key concepts on Oracle and SQL Server.

2012-10-10 (first published: )

7,268 reads

Technical Article

Getting Started with the New Column Store Index of SQL Server 2012

Column Store Index, a new feature in SQL Server 2012, improves performance of data warehouse queries several folds. Arshad Ali shows you how to create column store index, and how to use index query hint to include or exclude a column store index.

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2012-10-09

3,471 reads

External Article

Importing Data From Excel Using SSIS - Part 1

Recently while working on a project to import data from an Excel worksheet using SSIS, I realized that sometimes the SSIS Package failed even though when there were no changes in the structure/schema of the Excel worksheet. I investigated it and I noticed that the SSIS Package succeeded for some set of files, but for others it failed. I found that the structure/schema of the worksheet from both these sets of Excel files were the same, the data was the only difference. How come just changing the data can make an SSIS Package fail? What actually causes this failure? What can we do to fix it?

2012-10-08

3,887 reads

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Question of the Day

BIT_COUNT() IV

In SQL Server 2025, I run this code:

select bit_count('A')
What is returned?

See possible answers