A Personality Test
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren as Steve Jones is on vacation. Today Andy talks about personality tests and what they might tell you about yourself.
Managing and Connecting to AlwaysOn Availability Groups
From the previous AlwaysOn Availability Group article, we provided a name for the availability group listener which is simply a unique DNS name as a Virtual Network Name (VNN) to direct read-write requests to the primary replica and read-only requests to the read-only secondary replica.
Basics of XML and SQL Server, Part 3: Transform and Shred XML in SSIS
This SSIS package performs multiple XSL transformations on an XML document, then shreds the transformed document and inserts its data into a SQL Server table.
Data Growth
Today Steve Jones talks about the pace of data growth looking to outpace the IT budget changes. As data professionals, we need to learn to do more with less.
Stairway to SQL Server Replication - Level 9: The Replication Monitor
Introducing the replication monitor and how to use it to monitor replication health. It also introduces tracer tokens.
Attracting Talent
How can a company attract talent? First, be a good company to work for, and then be real.
SQL Saturday Precon - SSIS Design Patterns
SQL Saturday is hitting Dublin for the first time on March 24th.
Tips for Upgrading a Cluster to SQL 2008 - Part 2
This article describes my experience in upgrading a four node cluster with three active instances to SQL 2008
SQL Server Ranking Functions
SQL Server includes a subset of four ranking functions that can be used to rank the rows of your result set over a partition. This article presents those functions and examples of their use.
Disconnected database development: solving a problem that needn't exist
A disconnected model is only really needed in the absence of a properly-defined database interface. We, as developers, create a rod for our own backs by insisting on treating a database in a way we wouldn't treat an object, let alone an assembly or namespace.
Blogs
A New Word: los vidados
By Steve Jones
los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...
In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB 2026
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
Forums
query to track time spent on individual tasks in SSIS
Hi everyone I am looking at building a query to determine how much time...
SQL Server Transactional Replication from Always On Availability Groups to Azure SQL Database
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Transactional Replication from...
Hidden Heroes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hidden Heroes
Question of the Day
Identities and Sequences I
When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which are explicitly linked to increment a number in a table when a new row is added?
See possible answers