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)
1,715 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)
402 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
24 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
Catching Up On SQLOrlando
By Andy Warren
Somehow two years have elapsed since my last update; hopefully it won’t be that...
Advice I Like: Pyramid Schemes
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
Forums
Switch partition: NULL boundary id
I have table: t1 in schema1 with 19 billion records. I have another table...
Minimally Viable Security
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Minimally Viable Security
Encoding NULL
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Encoding NULL
Question of the Day
Encoding NULL
What is returned from this code in SQL Server 2025?
SELECT BASE64_ENCODE(NULL)See possible answers