Transaction Replication Latency Diagnosis
Identify resource bottlenecks in a stressed transaction replication topology using PERFMON/PAL and system wait stats
How to Create an Indicator and Gauge Report in SSRS
SQL Server Reporting Services provides several ways to analyze the data; a few of them are creating reports with indicators and Gauges. Indicators are minimal gauges that convey the state of a single data value at a glance and are mostly used to represent the state value of Key Performance Indicator (KPI, a measurable value which has business significance with a specific target or goal that indicates whether things are going good or bad).
The Colocated Dangers
An outage at SQLServerCentral reminded Steve Jones that it's not "if" a disaster will occur, but "when" it will occur that should have you preparing for a disaster at some point in the future.
Deciding between COALESCE and ISNULL in SQL Server
When writing T-SQL, a lot of developers use either COALESCE or ISNULL in order to provide a default value in cases where the input is NULL. The two functions do have quite different behavior and it is important to understand the qualitative differences between them when using them in your code.
An examination of bulk-logged recovery model
This article looks at the bulk-logged recovery model in depth and examines how it affects disaster recovery and logging.
Mobile Password Protection
Security is becoming more of an issue for mobile devices as we store and access more information on them all the time.
Responsibility for Security
Steve Jones talks about security, and the developer's role in ensuring secure code.
Big Data is Just a Fad
The Term 'Big Data' is nothing more than a fad, and we'll soon be cringing with embarrassment at the thought that we ever used it. However, the data, and the challenges to processing it that it presents, will stay with us. If jargon like 'Big Data' helps us focus on the problems, then let’s use it: temporarily, perhaps.
Red Gate releases SQL Backup Pro 7
Red Gate Software has released SQL Backup Pro 7 with pioneering new features focused on SQL Server backup verification. SQL Backup Pro 7’s step-by-step scheduling wizards aim to simplify the process of restoring and verifying backups.
The Best Way to Learn
This Friday Steve Jones is looking to see how you might like to improve your educational materials. With the success of our Stairway Series, we are looking to find better ways to teach people about SQL Server.
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