It sometimes pays to go back and look at what you think you already know about SQL. Joe Celko gives a quick revision of the GROUP BY and HAVING clauses in SQL that are the bedrock of any sort of analysis of data, and comes up with some nuggets that may not be entirely obvious.
2016-03-08
6,672 reads
Hear from Microsoft engineering experts on the latest features in SQL Server 2016 before the live event. Learn about new business intelligence capabilities like built-in mobile BI, fully integrated advanced analytics, security innovations, mission critical in-memory performance and new hybrid cloud solutions.
2016-03-07
3,159 reads
Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand) revisits the impact that eliminating DONE_IN_PROC messages using SET NOCOUNT ON may or may not have on query performance
2016-03-07
5,657 reads
A UDF is very convenient for centralising business logic as we can specify a set of business logic in one UDF which references multiple stored procedures and ad-hoc queries. However, they can lead to significant performance degradation due to their demands on the CPU
2016-03-04
4,848 reads
One of the most important features of the SQL Server 2016's new Query Store is the reporting. With these features, it is now possible to get a wealth of information on how your query workload is performing, either aggregated for the entire query workload or for a single query. With this information, you can see the effects of 'forcing' an execution plan for specific queries and get feedback of the consequences.
2016-03-03
3,901 reads
Siddharth Mehta walks through how to automatically migrate reports from MS Access to SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) without having to rebuild anything from scratch.
2016-03-02
3,889 reads
Greg Larson looks at how to hide the value of sensitive data by applying Dynamic Data Masking.
2016-03-01
5,302 reads
Redgate is in an early research phase of a tool that helps provision production-like databases for dev and test in a way that saves both time and storage. The team involved are looking for volunteers to provide feedback on the product as it's developed. If you think you'd be interested in trying out the tool, sign up for the beta program now.
2016-02-29 (first published: 2016-02-19)
8,788 reads
Any SQL Server monitoring tool must gather the metrics that will allow a DBA to diagnose CPU, memory or I/O issues on their SQL Servers. It should also provide a set of accurate, reliable, configurable alerts that will inform the DBA of any abnormal or undesirable conditions and properties, as well as specific errors, on any of the monitored servers. This article provides an in-depth guide to the monitoring and alerting functionality available in one such tool, Redgate SQL Monitor. It focuses on the latest edition (5.0), which includes several key new features, such as performance diagnosis using wait statistics, the ability to compare to baselines, and more.
2016-02-29
3,147 reads
Although SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) encourages 'disconnected' database development, it also provides the SQL Server Object Explorer (SSOX) tool in SSDT’s Visual Studio shell to connect to a live development instance or view an SSDT project once all references have been resolved.
2016-02-26
3,520 reads
By Brian Kelley
During COVID, I attended training on software/enterprise architecture given by Mark Richards. One of...
For me, the objective is straightforward: have a backup strategy that is reliable, understandable,...
By DesertDBA
Note: This post is the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #204 on November 3rd, 2026....
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Planning for Change
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Importing Excel files into SQL...
On SQL Server 2025, I run this code as a sysadmin:
CREATE LOGIN Demo WITH PASSWORD = 'Demo1234567' GO ALTER SERVER ROLE ##MS_DatabaseConnector## ADD MEMBER Demo GOI then login as Demo and run this:
USE sandbox go SELECT CURRENT_USERWhat is returned? See possible answers