Modeling the Earth
Microsoft Research has a variety of interesting projects underway, including one to try and model the Earth. Many of these involve lots of data in some way, and would be interesting projects to work on, according to Steve Jones.
Managing SQL Server Statistics
Accurate statistics about the data held in tables are used to provide the best execution strategy for SQL queries. but if the statistics don't accurately reflect the current contents of the table you'll get a poorly-performing query. How do you find out if statistics are correct, and what can you do if the automatic update of statistics isn't right for the way a table is used?
dbWarden - A Free SQL Server Monitoring Package
dbWarden is a comprehensive monitoring and alerting solution for SQL Server 2005 or newer. It features an emailed Health Report and includes email and text notifications with customizable metrics for alerts such as Blocking, Long Running Queries and SQL Jobs, CPU %, Log file and TempDB growth.
The DBA Office
The environment in which we work can have an affect on the way in which we work. Steve Jones asks today if you have a preference for your environment.
Comparing Multiple Rows Insert vs Single Row Insert with Three Data Load Methods
The performance of 'extract, transform, load' (ETL) processes for large quantities of data can always be improved by objective testing and experiment with alternative techniques. The cause of poor performance can sometimes be surprising.
Do you regularly run queries and scripts in SSMS?
SQL Server Management Studio is where most SQL scripts and queries are run, and although it does a decent job, it doesn't provide much help storing, sharing and managing the scripts particularly in the context of a team. Red Gate is considering building functionality into SSMS to help its users consume and share queries and scripts. Please help us by completing this short survey to help us define the requirements.
Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008
SQL Server 2008 has hundreds of new features and improvements for Production DBAs, Developer DBAs, and Business Intelligence specialists…in this book I focus on what I thought were the ten most important new features for Production DBAs.
Don't Accept Defaults
All software has default values, some of which might not suit your environment. This is especially true with regards to security settings.
Tracking Business Metrics
There can be more to managing a SQL Server instance than just examining the performance metrics. There are times when understanding how your system is performing for the application is important.
Partitioning in SQL Server: Managing Sliding Window Scenario
The concept of a sliding window scenario is to manage and keep the same number of partitions on a partitioned table over time. Learn how in this step-by-step from Arshad Ali.
Blogs
Moving On-Prem PostgreSQL to the Cloud: Picking the Right Path for Big Tables
Every PostgreSQL migration eventually hits the same fork in the road. The database is...
A Spread of Vacation
By Steve Jones
I’m off on vacation today. Which is a little weird as I just got...
How AgentDBA Identifies Backup Failures
By Arun Sirpal
Every DBA has a box like this. Sitting untouched for months. Nobody’s proud of...
Forums
Have you done a Mid year check in?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Have you done a Mid...
From SQL Server On-Premises to Claude Desktop: How I built a Full MCP Pipeline
Comments posted to this topic are about the item From SQL Server On-Premises to...
Independence Day 2026
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Independence Day 2026
Question of the Day
Independence Day 2026
In the original Independence Day movie (1996), what type of computer did Jeff Goldblum use to connect to the alien mainframe? Take a guess, don't look it up or ask AI.
See possible answers