The Danger of Custom Software
Is it worth writing your own software? Steve Jones says you ought to really think about it and perhaps spend time looking to buy something before you build a new application.
A first look at SQL Server 2012 Availability Group Wait Statistics
If you are trouble-shooting an AlwaysOn Availability Group topology, a study of the wait statistics will give a pointer to many of the causes of problems. Although several wait types are documented, there is nothing like practical experiment to familiarize yourself with new wait stats, and Joe Sack demonstrates a way of testing the sort of waits generated by an availability group under various circumstances.
SQL Server Central Webinar Series #19: Proactive Data Growth Management
Our 19th webinar will feature Brad McGehee talking about storage challenges, costs, and potential solutions for better managing your data. Tuesday, June 12, at 4:00pm GMT.
13 Disasters
This editorial that was originally published on Aug 15, 2007. It is being rerun as Steve is traveling. This editorial looks at the issues that happen in production and how you should perhaps plan for disasters.
The Database Recovery Advisor in SQL Server 2012
The Database Recovery Advisor in SQL Server 2012 will aid the ability of DBAs to recover their databases to a point in time in a crisis. Read about this new feature and how it can speed the process of recovery.
Tuning People?
Database people are used to changing the hardware of the server on which a problem database resides, or making changes to indexes and database settings, but humans and their organisations are far more difficult to tune and optimise than databases.
FileTable in SQL Server 2012
Among the many new features released in SQL Server 2012 is FileTable, which facilitates database storage of file and directory storage.
Comparing Table Variables with Temporary Tables
This articles brings a comparison of temporary tables with table variables from SQL Server author, Wayne Sheffield. In includes an in-depth look at the differences between them.
Interns
Today we have an editorial from Aug 8, 2007 that is being republished as Steve is on holiday. This piece looks at interns and how it's a good idea for finding new employees.
Handling Deadlocks in SQL Server
In this excerpt from his book Troubleshooting SQL Server: A Guide for the Accidental DBA, Jonathan Kehayias provides a guide to identifying the causes, reacting to, and ultimately preventing the dreaded deadlock.
Blogs
A bespoke reporting solution doesn’t have to cost the earth
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers