Data Conferences – Worth Every Dollar
Some of the best career enhancers you can buy. Why I Go to Conferences I go for two big reasons: Learning from the best. The folks teaching at...
2025-12-01 (first published: 2025-11-12)
269 reads
Kevin3NF
- Interests: Cycling, family, sci-fi, DBA stuff
SQL Server Reliability: Clearing the Fuzzy Thinking
The terminology around reliability is a mess If you’ve ever said, “We’re covered, it’s replicated,” you’re in good company. SQL Server is a massive, 35+ year-old product that...
2025-11-19
15 reads
SQL Server Alerts
Don’t Let Trouble Sneak Up on You Most SQL Servers run quietly. Until they don’t. By the time someone notices an application outage or a failed backup, you’re...
2025-11-03 (first published: 2025-10-15)
321 reads
SQL Server Versions: Out With the Old, In With the Supported
If your production SQL Servers are still running 2016 (or older) you’re basically banking on inertia. Sure, it’s been stable. But that doesn’t guarantee it’ll stay safe or compliant....
2025-10-29
25 reads
SQL Server is Slow, part 3 of 4
In parts 1 and 2 of this series, we’ve gathered info and done the triage just like anyone in almost any industry does At this point you’ve: Defined what...
2025-10-27 (first published: 2025-10-01)
1,708 reads
SQL Server Migration Overview
It’s Not Just Backup / Restore At some point every company faces it: the SQL Server that’s been quietly running for years is due for retirement. Maybe the hardware...
2025-10-22
16 reads
SQL Server Is Slow (part 1 of 4)
How should you respond when you get the dreaded Email/Slack/Text/DriveBy from someone yelling at you that SQL Server is slow? Stop. Don’t Open SSMS Yet. You’ve heard it...
2025-10-08 (first published: 2025-09-17)
401 reads
“SQL Server Is Slow” Part 4 of 4
Parts 1, 2 and 3 got you to the (SQL) engine room. Now we use community-trusted tools to find what’s going on, fix it safely, and hopefully keep it...
2025-10-07
188 reads
SQL Server Is Slow – Part 2 of 4(?)
The 10-Minute Outside-In Triage Don’t Blame SQL First It’s 9:05 AM and your helpdesk lights up: “The SQL Server is down. Nothing works.” By 9:07, everyone is staring at...
2025-09-24
23 reads
SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances
Old Reliable Still Matters If you’ve been around SQL Server for a while, you’ve heard of Failover Cluster Instances (FCIs). They’ve been part of SQL’s high availability toolbox since...
2025-09-19 (first published: 2025-09-03)
208 reads
Blogs
2025 Wrapped for Steve
By Steve Jones
I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...
The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
Merry Christmas
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
Forums
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SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm
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Question of the Day
The Large Encoded Value
I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?
See possible answers