SQL Server Upgrades
I’ve had this conversation at least a 1000 times over the course of my career working with SQL Server and teaching classes. Is it better to upgrade in place...
2025-10-14
1 reads
Tim Radney
How to Reset the SA Password When You Get Locked Out
Getting locked out of a SQL Server instance can happen due to a number of situations. The most common scenario I’ve encountered is when a SQL Server is moved...
2025-09-15 (first published: 2025-08-27)
784 reads
The “Kill” Command: What to Consider Before Stopping a SQL Server Process
Whether you’re troubleshooting on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Managed Instance, or Amazon RDS, you will eventually encounter a “lead blocker”—that one high-cost, long-running session holding every other process...
2025-09-12
4 reads
SQL Server Best Practices
Many technologists dislike the term ‘Best Practice’ because what works for one environment might not work for another. I prefer the term ‘Industry Best Practice,’ prefaced with the caveat: ‘For...
2025-07-15
1 reads
SQL Server error 18456
Working with thousands of instances of Microsoft SQL Server, I often encounter users having issues. A common error is 18456 which indicates a login failure.
The post SQL Server error...
2025-06-18
102 reads
How To Restore Change Data Capture – CDC Tables When Restoring a SQL Server Database
I have recently had the privilege of working with multiple clients who have been taking advantage of Change Data Capture “CDC”. Change Data Capture is a feature that utilizes...
2025-05-14 (first published: 2025-04-28)
689 reads
Can You Restore Multiple Differential Backup Files?
Can you restore multiple differential SQL Server backups
The post Can You Restore Multiple Differential Backup Files? appeared first on Tim Radney.
2025-05-07
53 reads
Hidden Killers of SQL Server Performance
I’ve been working with SQL Server for a very long time. Out of the box, SQL Server works great, however there is regular care and feeding that needs to...
2025-03-17
17 reads
How to Protect Against Ransomware as a DBA
Over the years I’ve been called in to work with numerous clients that were hit with ransomware. Even the times that the customer paid the ransom to unlock their...
2025-02-10
24 reads
SQL Server Error 9002 – Full Transaction Log
A full transaction log can occur for a number of reasons. Typically it is due to the log not being truncated with regular transaction log backups, or something else...
2025-01-15
43 reads
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers