Understanding Fabric MCP
Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is one of those technical ideas that sounds more complicated than it really is. The easiest way to think about it is this: MCP...
2026-05-20 (first published: 2026-05-04)
498 reads
AWS RDS Aurora - our first approach
When starting with AWS RDS Aurora for managing relational databases in the cloud, many data engineers face the challenge of leveraging its cutting-edge features while maintaining performance and reliability....
2026-05-22 (first published: 2026-05-04)
184 reads
PowerShell Strikes Back: Know Your Quotes, Young Padawan
This is Week 1 of PowerShell Strikes Back – a four-week May series for SQL Server DBAs who have dabbled in PowerShell but never stopped to nail down the...
2026-05-20 (first published: 2026-05-04)
495 reads
A Redgate Data Modeler Gotcha with Relationships
This happened to me recently after being busy with non-data modeling tasks for a few weeks. I went to add a relationship and was confused about the behavior. Read...
2026-05-18 (first published: 2026-05-04)
202 reads
Why Claude?
Every major model out there can summarise documents, write code and answer multi step questions – then if you decide to go with a specific vendor based on costs...
2026-05-18 (first published: 2026-05-04)
959 reads
The new release update experience
For about the last … hmmm…maybe decade or more, when you downloaded a release update from MOS for your database, the patch would consist of a single folder which...
2026-05-04
36 reads
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: A Plan
My most recent bout with imposter syndrome was with ISACA’s Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework (DTEF) foundation exam. I’m blogging about it because I know a lot of people struggle...
2026-05-08 (first published: 2026-05-01)
352 reads
Advice I Like: Celebrate Success
“On the way to a grand goal, celebrate the smallest victories as if each one were the final goal. That way, no matter where it ends, you are victorious.”...
2026-05-15 (first published: 2026-05-01)
154 reads
My APEX installer / patcher
Hopefully you have just seen that APEX patchset bundle 16 has just been released for 24.2. Of particular note is that a well-publicised Chrome change to deprecate the unload...
2026-05-01
47 reads
Programmatically Retrieving MLV Lineage and Refresh Times
Materialized lake views (MLVs) in Microsoft Fabric are an effective way to implement medallion architecture declaratively, but once you have a pipeline of MLVs in production, you need visibility...
2026-05-13 (first published: 2026-04-30)
168 reads
Blogs
Measuring RAG Solutions: Are We Retrieving the Right Information?
A RAG pipeline that answers questions in the demo is not the same thing...
Advice I Like: Lots of Ideas
By Steve Jones
“A multitude of bad ideas is necessary for one good idea” – from Excellent...
Building a DBA Agent for Your SQL Server Estate with MCP
Yesterday I gave a talk for MSSQLTips called “Building a DBA Agent for Your...
Forums
How do I connect to a SQL Server database on my ISP?
I've got a web application for my side business. I've added a SQL Server...
Looking for New Blood
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Looking for New Blood
Server-Level Row Counts for Tables and Views
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Server-Level Row Counts for Tables...
Question of the Day
Hyperscale Replicas I
What types of secondary replicas are available for the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale edition?
See possible answers