SQL Server Index Primer
Indexes 101: What, Why, and When? “What Is an Index?” I get this question a lot, especially from developers and sysadmins who’ve been handed a SQL Server and told,...
2025-05-12 (first published: 2025-04-23)
263 reads
Blog Posts
SSMS 21
Just a quick one this morning. I’m on the road and haven’t worked up a full blog post, apologies. I’ve been using the preview for SQL Server Management Studio...
2025-05-12
207 reads
A New Word: Lookaback
lookaback– n. the chock of meeting back up with someone and learning that your mental image of them had fallen wildly out of date – having grown up or...
2025-05-09
19 reads
Secure Azure SQL Server Backups Using Managed Identities
I do believe most people know about the ability to backup your SQL server databases to URL (from Azure VMs). If you recall you would use the storage key...
2025-05-09 (first published: 2025-04-23)
373 reads
Can AI Read Execution Plans?
Yeah, yeah, second AI post in a row. I promise not to make a habit of it. But I saw someone else mention that you can feed them XML...
2025-05-07 (first published: 2025-04-21)
554 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
52 reads
Speaking at the NYC Lunch and Learn–May 23
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be in New York City for the Redgate DevOps Devour Hour Lunch and Learn. This is at the Industrious office at 730 3rd...
2025-05-07
20 reads
Using a Local Large Language Model (LLM): Interacting with Local LLMs Using PowerShell
As AI continues to evolve, many of us are looking for ways to leverage large language models (LLMs) without relying on cloud services. As we learned in my previous...
2025-05-07 (first published: 2025-04-22)
562 reads
Your SQL Server Is Whispering…Are You Listening?
Early Warnings of a Meltdown (and How to Catch Them) Most SQL Server crashes don’t come out of nowhere. They leave breadcrumbs – red flags that something’s not right....
2025-05-07
91 reads
On “Leisure Crafting”
I wrote not too long ago about planning out downtime, but I found a great article from the Harvard Business Review about the importance of doing so. The article...
2025-05-06
25 reads
Blogs
SQL Server Journey till 2025 (brief)
By Vinay Thakur
Quick Summary for Microsoft SQL Server till 2025, I am fortunate to be part...
Building Power BI Reports: Desktop vs Fabric
By James Serra
Why this comparison feels confusing If you’re a Power BI report author who’s just...
Identity Columns Can’t Be Updated: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I’m not sure I knew identity column values could not be updated. I ran...
Forums
Can someone please explain what happens?
I have mentioned this several times over several years. Can someone please help me...
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT) returns null when nothing is found instead of 0
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Component) AS Found FROM tblComponents WHERE(Component NOT LIKE '%[a-z]%') AND(LTRIM(RTRIM(Component)) = 'GM13622')...
Remotely Engineer Fabric Lakehouse objects: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Remotely Engineer Fabric Lakehouse objects:...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON III
In a SQL Server 2025 table, called Beer, I have this data:
BeerIDBeerName 1Becks 2Fat Tire 3Mac n Jacks 4Alaskan Amber 8KirinI run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG(
BeerID: BeerName )
FROM beer;
What are the results? See possible answers