Microsoft On-Premises Data Gateway Administration
As a Microsoft Fabric Administrator, you have the responsibility to manage all the Microsoft Enterprise gateways installed and deployed across your entire data estate.
2026-04-27
Articles
Introducing the Relational Embedding Retrieval Pattern: Storing and Querying Vector Embeddings in SQL Server
Learn about using SQL Server to support AI-enhanced search queries with the Relational Embedding Retrieval Pattern (RERP).
2026-04-24
1,876 reads
Cross-database ownership chaining in SQL Server: security risks, behavior, and privilege escalation
A dangerous privilege-escalation path exists in SQL Server when cross-database ownership chaining, system database defaults, and overly permissive permissions are combined.
2026-04-24
Find SQL Server Agent Jobs that Start Other Jobs
A SQL Server Agent job can start other jobs. Writing jobs this way makes it easy to compartmentalize jobs: start a “child” job only when the “parent” reaches a certain step. Finding these steps can be challenging. There is no field or property in sysjobs or its associated tables to help find child jobs.
2026-04-22
What Power BI DirectQuery does to your SQL Server (and how to fix it)
Power BI DirectQuery can quietly overwhelm your SQL Server. Unlike Import mode, DirectQuery sends live T-SQL for every visual interaction, multiplying queries and placing heavy analytical load on the database. This article explains how to identify the worst offending DirectQuery queries, why the generated SQL is often inefficient, and what you can do from the database side, including indexing, Query Store, and reporting views, to improve performance. It also outlines practical changes on the Power BI side and when DirectQuery is simply the wrong architectural choice.
2026-04-20
4,602 reads
How to minimize downtime in a cloud migration
Pat Wright details how to plan cloud migration with minimal downtime. Learn key cutover strategies, testing methods, and critical questions to avoid data loss and system failure.
2026-04-20
2026-04-17
1,418 reads
How User-Defined Types work in PostgreSQL: a complete guide
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, sometimes I get sidetracked. In this particular instance, I hadn’t intended to start learning about User-Defined Types (UDT) in PostgreSQL – I just wanted to test a behavior that involved creating a UDT. But, once I started reading, I was hooked. I mean, four distinct UDTs with different behaviors? That’s pretty cool. Let’s get into it.
2026-04-17
How to Draw Line Graphs in SSMS
Ever just need a quick visualization of some numbers to get a rough idea of the trend, like this
2026-04-15
The day-to-day pressures of a DBA team, and how we can work smarter with automation and AI
What a DBA team actually deals with There are many issues a DBA team faces, from servers going down to login access not being requested on time. These are not glamorous problems, but they are the problems that stop everyone else doing their jobs. In a modern environment you would expect a lot of the […]
2026-04-13
2,617 reads
Blogs
Learn about Modern Microsoft Apps in San Diego
By Steve Jones
I wrote about learning today for the editorial: I Can’t Make You Learn. I...
How To Deploy Fabric SQL and Azure SQL Databases with Azure DevOps
By ReviewMyDB
Fabric has CI/CD built in, but if you've tried to use it for database...
A New Word: Attriage
By Steve Jones
attriage – n. the state of having lost all control over how you feel...
Forums
SSRS Reminded Me of the Time Microsoft Retired TMG
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SSRS Reminded Me of the...
Getting results from a Procedure to join to a query
I have a need to execute a stored procedure and return the results to...
Upgrade 2016 Standard to 2022 Express
Title pretty much says it all - can this be done? I've tried several...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT II
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37 4 NULLWhat is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 4;See possible answers