Many clients are using custom stored procedures or third party tools to backup databases in production environments instead of using database maintenance plans. One of the things that you need to do is to maintain the number of backup files that exist on disk, so you don't run out of disk space. There are several techniques for deleting old files, but in this tip I show how this can be done using PowerShell.
2012-07-02
3,232 reads
PowerShell is becoming a great tool for managing SQL Server tasks, but like most tasks that are coded there is always the need for error handling to deal with the unknown. PowerShell has several options for handling and capturing error details and in this tip we will explain these options using PowerShell for SQL Server examples.
2012-06-28
3,684 reads
A deceptively simple solution to a business re-engineering problem can beguile companies into selecting a compromise that doesn't actually meet all their needs. Simple is great, but not at the expense of functionality. Some IT solutions are complex because the problem is complex, but they can be made conceptually clearer.
2012-06-27
3,279 reads
Not only is the process of normalization valuable for increasing data quality and simplifying the process of modifying data, but it actually makes the database perform much faster. To prove the point, Peter Larsson takes a large unnormalised database and subjects it to successive stages of normalisation.
2012-06-25
4,835 reads
Planning on patching my SQL Servers to the latest service pack, but not sure how to complete this for a environment that is using database mirroring? In this tip, will outline the environment and then walk through the process of patching mirrored servers.
2012-06-22
3,569 reads
Joe Celko delves into the main uses of views, explains how the WITH CHECK OPTION works, and demonstrates how the INSTEAD OF trigger can be used in those cases where views cannot be updatable.
2012-06-21
4,945 reads
To prepare a database for mirroring, you need to perform the following steps: Script the restore of the latest full database backup, script the restore of every transaction log backup that has been made after that full database backup, copy the full database backup and transaction log backups to the mirror server, and run the restore scripts on the mirror server.
In this tip I will walk through these steps and provide sample scripts to prepare a database for mirroring.
2012-06-20
3,662 reads
On Tuesday June 19th 12PM noon Central, Neil Hambly will discuss "Leveraging the power of constraints to improve both data quality and performance of your databases."
2012-06-19
3,690 reads
Why would you ever need to automatically monitor the SQL Servers in your care? What is the business value of doing so? What are the important features that a DBA should look for in a performance-monitoring tool? Rodney Landrum gives answers based on long experience.
2012-06-19
3,685 reads
Sometimes it would be helpful to run scripts from a command line for Analysis Services. This would be useful for things like creating backups, processing data or running other tasks. Is there a command line tool like sqlcmd for multidimensional databases and Data Mining?
2012-06-18
3,219 reads
By Steve Jones
I was looking over the CHOOSE() function while editing an article at SQL Server...
By Brian Kelley
Here is another short video (~ 15 minutes). This is by the author of...
By Steve Jones
I had a briefing for the 2026 PASS Data Community Summit, which is just...
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In SQL Server 2022+, what does the ##MS_DatabaseConnector## role allow?
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