Additional Articles


External Article

Schema-Based Access Control for SQL Server Databases

Access-control within the database is important for the security of data, but it should be simple to implement. It is easy to become overwhelmed by the jargon of principals, securables, owners, schemas, roles, users and permissions, but beneath the apparent complexity, there is a schema-based system that, in combination with database roles and ownership-chaining, provides a relatively simple working solution.

2015-04-22

6,866 reads

External Article

Automating Image-Based Deployment of SQL Server on Azure IaaS VMs - Preparing OS Image

There are several different approaches to automating deployment of SQL Server Infrastructure-as-a-Service virtual machines in Microsoft Azure. Marcin Policht examines an approach that involves uploading or creating a custom operating system image which is well suited for scenarios where you want to deploy a custom-configured SQL Server instance to multiple virtual machines with minimal effort and maximum consistency.

2015-04-21

7,452 reads

External Article

How to Get SQL Server Data Conversion Horribly Wrong

One of the most certain ways of going wrong with any relational database is to get data conversion wrong. Implicit data conversion is a good feature for the expert but can cause a lot of trouble to the unwary. These boil down to seven ways of failing to get data conversion right. Rob Sheldon explains and gives sage advice on how to avoid the problems.

2015-04-20

7,337 reads

External Article

How DBAs Can Adopt the Craftsman Mindset

The job of a DBA requires a fusion of skill and knowledge. To acquire this requires a craftsman mindset. Craftsmen find that the better they get at the work, the more enjoyable the work gets, and the more successful they become. Deliberate practice, Specialization and an appetite for overcoming difficulty are good habits to deliberately adopt to successfully grow those craftsmanlike skills to the point that you become “so good they can’t ignore you”.

2015-04-17

9,586 reads

External Article

Selecting Data Using the TOP Clause

There are times when you don’t what to return a complete set of records. When you have this kind of requirement to only select the TOP X number of items Transact SQL (TSQL) has the TOP clause to meet your needs. In this article Greg Larsen explores how to select a subset of data from a record set.

2015-04-16

9,580 reads

External Article

SQL Server Spatial Indexes

Spatial Data in SQL Server has special indexing because it has to perform specialised functions. It is able, for example, to break down an indexed space into a grid hierarchy by using a technique called tessellation. This is a rules-based system that, when you compare a shape to an index, works out how many cells in the the grid hierarchy are touched by that shape , and how deep down the grid hierarchy to search. There is powerful magic in Spatial Indexes as Surenda and Roy explain.

2015-04-15

7,242 reads

External Article

Never Ignore a Sort Warning in SQL Server

It is always bad news if your SQL queries are having to use the SORT operator. It is worse news if you get a warning that sort operations are spilling onto TempDB. If you have a busy, slow TempDB, then the effect on performance can be awful. You should check your query plans to try to eliminate SORTs and never leave a SORT warning unheeded. Fabiano Amorim shows the range of ways of getting information on what is going on with a query that is doing a SORT and when requests are made for memory.

2015-04-13

8,822 reads

External Article

The Internet of Things: A New World Order?

Was the marketing hook 'The Internet of Things' conjured up before the technical definition? Are we being persuaded to spend money on fending off yet another fantasy tsunami of data? Already, we have televisions that listen to, and report, your conversations; so are we facing the Science Fiction future of gadgets that report where you go, who you visit and what medications you take? As Robert Sheldon says; "It's big, almost too big to get your arms around".

2015-04-10

11,037 reads

Blogs

The First Steps: Understanding the Basics of FinOps

By

As a DevOps professional, I’ve seen firsthand how cloud costs can quickly spiral out...

Monday Monitor Tips: AI Query Analysis

By

AI is everywhere. It’s in the news, it’s being added to every product, management...

AI: Blog a Day – Day 8: RAG – Retrieval Augmented Generation

By

RAG — Retrieval Augmented Generation. we have covered so far — embeddings, vectors, vector...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

would it be so terrible to install ssms on a few user desktops?

By stan

Hi, ssms is free here.   I can think of other reasons to do this...

I'm thinking about submitting some articles

By Doctor Who 2

I've written some documentation on using different Markdown types of files on GitHub. It's...

Not Just an Upgrade

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Not Just an Upgrade

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Restoring On Top I

I am doing development work on a database and want to keep a backup so I can reset my database. I make some changes and want to restore over top of my changes. When I run this code, what happens?

USE Master
BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak'
GO

USE DNRTest
GO
CREATE TABLE MyTest(myid INT)
GO
USE master
RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACE

See possible answers