Ad Hoc SQL Server Help
I just need a few hours of your time… We get a variation of this request a LOT. So now it’s time to do something about it! Ad Hoc...
2026-03-02
60 reads
Dallas DBAs
SQL Server Upgrades: In-Place or New Server?
This isn’t a religious debate. I have a client right now debating how to handle SQL Server upgrades across all of their dev and test environments. And it’s...
2026-02-18 (first published: 2025-12-31)
449 reads
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
52 reads
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)
309 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
58 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
51 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)
371 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
224 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)
1,768 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
40 reads
Blogs
Using AI to Build Semantic Models, Ontologies, and Fabric Data Agents
By James Serra
(This is the third post in a three-part series on how AI is changing...
SSMS Is Getting Smarter—and This Isn’t Just About Writing SQL
Continuing with my takeaways from SQLCon and FabCon Europe in Barcelona, let’s talk about...
Yippee-Kai-Yay 2027 Summit in Denver
By Steve Jones
Next year the PASS Data Community Summit is in DENVER! and London, but Denver...
Forums
Pay for Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Pay for Performance, which is...
Life hack that has worked well for me
I wrote about this several years ago but will contribute again a life hack...
Trying to make this faster using not exists
Hi I have this query that is slow during the 'not in' part of...
Question of the Day
Switching Schemas I
I run this query:
SELECT s.name AS schemaname , o.name AS objectname FROM sys.objects o INNER JOIN sys.schemas s ON s.schema_id = o.schema_id WHERE o.name = 'Beer'I get one row back for an object named dbo.beer. There is an ETL schema and both of these are nonpartitioned tables. I run this code:
ALTER TABLE dbo.beer switch TO etl.beerWhat happens? See possible answers