SQL Server orphaned users are a common thorny issue in auditing. In this post, Jeffrey Yao provides a few different ways of identifying orphaned users covering various scenarios.
2017-12-21
3,707 reads
As the final entry in this series, Robert Sheldon leads you through a group of forgotten features that have been removed from recent versions of SQL Server. In some cases, the features were widely used and often loved, while others had lost their usefulness over the years or were replaced with something much better. In this article, he remembers Data Transformation Services (DTS), a handful of DBCC commands, a few utilities, Active Directory Helper Service, English Query, Web Assistant, SQL Mail, Native XML Web Services, Notification Services, SQL Distributed Management Objects, Surface Area Configuration Tool, and the Pubs and Northwind databases.
2017-12-20
3,745 reads
You can use the Data Migration Assistant (DMA) tool to migrate your SQL Server instance to an on-premise SQL Server 2017 or to Azure SQL Database. DMA analyzes data migration issues and provides recommendations to resolve them. Read on learn about the features of DMA and how DMA eases your SQL Server instance migration as well as reduces overall risks, allowing you to complete the migration successfully.
2017-12-19
3,471 reads
Writing aggregate queries is one of the most important tasks for anyone working with T-SQL. Determining the expressions required in the GROUP BY clause is not that difficult, but what do you do if you need to include different combinations of group by expressions in the same result set? Alfonso demonstrates how to use the GROUPING SETS operator to accomplish this task.
2017-12-18
4,860 reads
Vitor Montalvao explains how to work with the basic configuration settings for a SQL Azure database from the Microsoft Azure portal itself.
2017-12-15
4,054 reads
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will affect organisations in countries around the world, not just those in Europe. The GDPR regulates how personal data is stored, moved, handled, and destroyed. Not following the regulation will lead to dire consequences for your organisation. As a data professional or developer, you may have many questions and might be wondering how it will affect the way you will do your job. William Brewer answers common questions about the GDPR that you were too shy to ask.
2017-12-14
3,329 reads
Erik Darling partitions the Stack Overflow database, then uses sp_WhoIsActive's @get_locks = 1 parameter to demo locking.
2017-12-13
3,150 reads
Policy-Based Management, a feature of SQL Server, is a flexible tool that can help DBAs manage one or more SQL Server instances. It's used for monitoring and enforcing a standard set of policies for SQL Server throughout an organization. While there are many built-in conditions from which to choose, Dennes demonstrates how to set up a custom policy as well as a standard one. Viewing the policy status over many servers can be tedious, so he also explains how DBAs can evaluate the states of multiple servers with just one glance.
2017-12-12
2,640 reads
One of the most commonly requested Azure SQL Database features has been support for more granular control of server-level firewall settings. A recently announced public preview of Azure SQL Database and Data Warehouse VNET service endpoints and rules promises to address this limitation.
2017-12-11
2,346 reads
Have you ever wanted to know how many pages in your database have changed since the last full backup? If so, then you will be glad to hear that the SQL Server 2017 version of the DMV, sys.dm_db_file_spavce_usage, has a new column named modified_extent_page_count, which shows the number of pages that have changed since the last full backup.
2017-12-08
3,696 reads
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What is the range for the result from the EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY() function in SQL Server 2025?
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