As a DBA, it is vital to manage transaction log growth explicitly, rather than let SQL Server auto-growth events "manage" it for you. If you undersize the log, and then let SQL Server auto-grow it in small increments, you'll end up with a very fragmented log. This article demonstrates how this can have a significant impact on the performance of any SQL Server operations that need to read the log.
2014-05-27
3,916 reads
Many big data application implementations seem to begin with an existing data warehouse, one or more new high-volume data streams, and some specialized hardware and software. The data storage issue is often accommodated by installing a proprietary hardware appliance that can store huge amounts of data while providing extremely fast data access. In these cases, do we really need to worry about database design?
2014-05-26
5,297 reads
Steve and the rest of the DBA Team are back for round two. In this episode they have to restore all of a business' data using nothing but a set of off-site backups, kanban, and witty repartee.
2014-05-26
3,080 reads
Microsoft Azure Queues are more than just a class or a concept – they're a ready-to-use service that loosely connects components or applications through the cloud. Roman Schacherl provides a helicopter overview of the service.
2014-05-23
2,227 reads
Although SQL Server supports XML well, XML's little cousin JSON gets no love. This is frustrating now that JSON is in so much demand. Maybe, Phil Factor suggests, it is possible to leverage all that XML, and XPath, goodness in SQL Server to produce JSON in a versatile way from SQL Queries? Yes, it so happens that there are plenty of alternatives.
2014-05-22
8,456 reads
Can PowerShell provide an easy way to export Excel as a CSV? Yes. Tim Smith demonstrates that whether you have multiple Excel files, or just multiple worksheets in Excel, PowerShell simplifies the process.
2014-05-21
2,831 reads
Ops and Development people have plenty of ideas for improving the whole software delivery process, but the task of developing, maturing and communicating these ideas isn't often in their...
2014-05-20
5,187 reads
In data mining and machine learning circles, the neural network is one of the most difficult algorithms to explain. Fortunately, SQL Server Analysis Services allows for a simple implementation of the algorithm for data analytics. Dallas Snider explains
2014-05-19
3,590 reads
Having a well thought-out plan for diagnostic data is important for on-premises applications, but it is arguably more important for distributed, highly scalable cloud applications. Michael Collier has provided a clear introduction to Microsoft Azure Diagnostics, including the Diagnostics Agent and how to extract the data.
2014-05-16
2,747 reads
We recently faced an issue where an internal data provider began providing an incomplete or inaccurate files because it lacked the proper length (or didn't exceed a certain size). In our case, we implemented a check on the file before importing using PowerShell, here's what we did.
2014-05-15
2,501 reads
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
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