SQL Server high availability. Log shipping or replication, clustering or some other solution. It's a challenge and as companies grow more dependent on their databases, it's one that more and more DBAs face everyday. Paul Ibison has taken a look at how log shipping and replication can be compared in the quest for high availability.
2008-06-27 (first published: 2004-06-17)
66,439 reads
One of the four high availability technologies in SQL Server is replication, though this can be very cumbersome to setup and get working. Longtime author Paul Ibison looks at how this has changed from SQL Server 2000 to 2005 and what you should consider before setting this up.
2008-04-17
7,792 reads
SQL Server MVP Paul Ibison takes a look at how transactions are handled in replicated environments and the implications of rollbacks.
2008-04-03
6,957 reads
This article explains how to import text files using SSIS in those cases where the text files have different formatted data on different rows. The solution recommended involves minimal coding and is highly maintainable.
2008-03-05
8,891 reads
Longtime author Paul Ibison brings us a short look at a common problem in Integration Services: your source has no column names.
2008-02-27
7,461 reads
Integration Services allows you to import all kinds of data easily into SQL Server as well as transform is along the way. Longtime author Paul Ibison brings us a look at how you should set your transformations to deal with NULL values.
2008-02-13
14,232 reads
SQL Server 2000 replication is usually simple and easy to setup and work with. However there are many restrictions to ensure this, one of which is the alteration of a column which is engaged in replication. Author Paul Ibison brings us two options for altering columns.
2007-11-30 (first published: 2005-01-19)
45,643 reads
SQL Server 2000 replication is a great feature, but it can cause some headaches at times. Since the use of identities is something many people take advantage of, learning to handle these in a replication scenario is critical. Author Paul Ibison has done extensive work with replication and brings us two techniques to help manage the ranges of values.
2005-01-13
12,808 reads
There are many times when you might be concatenating text in a stored procedure to make a where clause, because the input parameters are optional. An alternative is to create many versions of the stored procedure - one for each possible combination of parameters - which can soon become too big. There is a more […]
2001-11-25
4,295 reads
When implementing a pilot study of audit trail triggers, you often want a way of removing all triggers in the database in order to retest your scripts: here it is!
2001-11-08
1,525 reads
By James Serra
Originally published April 2022; substantially updated July 2026. This post is a complete replacement...
The idea behind Azure SQL Developer is for anyone to build, iterate, and test...
By Steve Jones
I’m sure many of you are using AI regularly, perhaps chatting, perhaps using some...
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Where do I check for the existence of a Database Master Key (DMK) in SQL Server 2025?
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