Not Pulling the Plug Out
Phil Factor on his renewed appreciation for the "customer-focused" culture of the Data Platform Group at Microsoft
Still 32
There is likely still a lot of 32-bit software out there, even as the x86 platform appears to be dying away. Steve Jones notes that you'll likely be dealing with 32/64 bit issues in your career.
Update statistics in parallel
This articles shows a technique that generates and launches an SSIS package to update statistics in parallel.
Beating Backup Corruption
The most critical task for all DBAs is to have a Backup and Recovery strategy that ensures, every day, that in the event of a disaster they can restore and recover any database, within acceptable limits for data loss and downtime. Even with all the required backups in place, it's easy to miss subtle failings in the overall plan that can, and eventually will, defeat your recovery plans.
Geeky Oscars
This Friday Steve Jones takes a break from serious technical discussions. With the Oscar nominees announced there were lots of films left out of the awards. Are there some of these you'd recommend?
Free eBook: SQL Server Backup and Restore
You can download a free eBook from SQLServerCentral and Red Gate software on the most important task a SQL Server DBA or developer needs to understand.
We Loaded 1TB in 30 Minutes with SSIS, and So Can You
In February 2008, Microsoft announced a record-breaking data load using Microsoft® SQL Server® Integration Services (SSIS): 1 TB of data in less than 30 minutes. That data load, using SQL Server Integration Services, was 30% faster than the previous best time using a commercial ETL tool. This paper outlines what it took: the software, hardware, and configuration used. We will describe what we did to achieve that result, and offer suggestions for how to relate these techniques to typical scenarios. Even for customers who don't have needs quite like this benchmark, such efforts can teach a lot about getting optimal performance.
Serverless Software
Today Steve Jones talks about the future of software development and how it might not require developers to know anything about servers.
T-SQL Restore Script Generator
A procedure that generates point in time restore database & log commands for your databases.
Securing SQL Server 2012 Integration Services Packages using Digital Certificates
There are several different ways of restricting access to SSIS packages and confidential information they contain. However, preventing unauthorized users from running or viewing the content of your code is not the only security measure that you should take into consideration.
Blogs
Learn about Modern Microsoft Apps in San Diego
By Steve Jones
I wrote about learning today for the editorial: I Can’t Make You Learn. I...
How To Deploy Fabric SQL and Azure SQL Databases with Azure DevOps
By ReviewMyDB
Fabric has CI/CD built in, but if you've tried to use it for database...
A New Word: Attriage
By Steve Jones
attriage – n. the state of having lost all control over how you feel...
Forums
SSRS Reminded Me of the Time Microsoft Retired TMG
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SSRS Reminded Me of the...
Getting results from a Procedure to join to a query
I have a need to execute a stored procedure and return the results to...
Upgrade 2016 Standard to 2022 Express
Title pretty much says it all - can this be done? I've tried several...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT II
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37 4 NULLWhat is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 4;See possible answers