Kenneth Fisher

My name is Kenneth Fisher and I am Senior DBA for a large (multi-national) insurance company. I have been working with databases for over 20 years starting with Clarion and Foxpro. I’ve been working with SQL Server for 12 years but have only really started “studying” the subject for the last 3. I don’t have any real "specialities" but I enjoy trouble shooting and teaching. Thus far I’ve earned by MCITP Database Administrator 2008, MCTS Database Administrator 2005, and MCTS Database Developer 2008. I’m currently studying for my MCITP Database Developer 2008 and should start in on the 2012 exams next year. My blog is at https://sqlstudies.com/.

What SQL version is my SSIS package?

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

When SSIS first came out there were huge numbers of jokes and posts about all of the problems and how...

2015-04-27

1,102 reads

Remotely shutting down an instance

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

This month for T-SQL Tuesday Mike Donnelly (b/t) decided to pick a topic to fit in with Ed Leighton-Dick’s (b/t)...

2015-04-23 (first published: 2015-04-14)

5,326 reads

Backup before you restore

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

You should always be recoverable. If you haven’t heard that before, take note of it. It’s important.
A while back...

2015-04-22

499 reads

The hidden security of msdb

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

To be fair it’s not actually hidden, just not so well known.
Have you ever wondered how to grant permissions...

2015-04-20

1,508 reads

Adding, altering or removing multiple columns from a table

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

I was recently asked to do some fairly heavy modifications to a table. It involved adding 6 new columns, removing...

2015-04-16

964 reads

Make sure you back up the Service Master Key

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

I’m by no means an expert in SQL Server encryption. What I do know however, is that the Service Master...

2015-04-08

818 reads

What is a CTE

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

CTEs (Common Table Expressions) are one of the most interesting and useful tools added to T-SQL in the last decade....

2015-04-06

697 reads

Port numbers and SQL Server

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

I made a mistake the other day. I’ll admit it. I was wrong. Now I know all of you are...

2015-04-03 (first published: 2015-03-30)

9,026 reads

Microsoft buys the dictionary

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

It seems that Microsoft has finally gotten tired of all the jokes about the word “performant” or using “ask” as...

2015-04-01

485 reads

Clean out all bad characters from a string.

by Kenneth Fisher

SQLStudies

I have a customer who is having a problem with a load. He is getting a fair number of bad...

2015-03-25

1,101 reads

Blogs

Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency

As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...

March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates

By Brian Kelley

On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...

How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025

By Meagan Longoria

When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...

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Forums

Multiple Deployment Processes

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes

How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases

Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...

Upgrading Admin Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

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?

See possible answers