Three SQL Server MVPs, and stalwarts of the SQLServerCentral and MSDN community forums, provide fascinating insight into the most common SQL Server problems, why they occur, and how they can be diagnosed using tools such as Performance Monitor, Dynamic Management Views and server-side tracing. The focus is on practical solutions for removing root causes of these problems, rather than "papering over the cracks".
2014-11-11
25,893 reads
Learn how to use SQLCLR to get file system information instead of using xp_cmdshell on your SQL Servers.
2013-11-22 (first published: 2009-02-05)
34,907 reads
As discussed in my previous Getting Started with SQL Server Event Notifications article, SQL Server Event Notifications allow us to capture and handle events that occur inside the SQL Server database engine. Event Notifications execute for DDL Events and Trace Events and we can use to capture information about the event that fired, and automate […]
2012-11-06
9,053 reads
The aim of the new Database Recovery Advisor in SQL Server 2012 is to simplify the task of piecing together a recovery sequence from multiple backup files, comprising full, differential, and log backups. In this article, I'll demonstrate how the tool makes it easier to plan for, and perform, a point in time recovery from a series of backups, in order to recover data that may have been lost due to an application bug, or user error.
2012-07-13
2,633 reads
Occasionally, a DBA may need to restore a database from a multiple backup files that originated from multiple servers. This requirement might arise, for example, in a database-mirroring configuration, where backups may be from either of the servers.
2012-06-27
2,949 reads
Three SQL Server MVPs, and stalwarts of the SQLServerCentral and MSDN community forums, provide fascinating insight into the most common SQL Server problems, why they occur, and how they can be diagnosed using tools such as Performance Monitor, Dynamic Management Views and server-side tracing. The focus is on practical solutions for removing root causes of these problems, rather than "papering over the cracks".
2011-09-29
25,023 reads
Learn how SQLCLR can be used to replace BCP and xp_cmdshell to export data to comma separated and tab delimited flat files.
2011-05-06 (first published: 2009-03-03)
19,790 reads
Learn why ALTER DATABASE should be preferred over Detach/Attach for moving database files on the same SQL Server from MVP Jonathan Kehayias.
2010-09-24 (first published: 2009-05-27)
31,684 reads
MVP Jonathan Kehayias brings us a short article on how to troubleshoot deadlocks in SQL Server.
2010-06-04 (first published: 2009-02-02)
42,109 reads
Learn the basics of Event Notifications from MVP Jonathan Kehayia. This article will show you how to create customized responses to events in SQL Server 2005/2008.
2009-12-22
24,805 reads
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers