The ever changing nature of the relational database system requires administrators who relish risk and adventure. From the moment that Edgar F Codd proposed his 12 rules that defined the relational database management system, the language COBOL and the VSAM databases that had been so popular vanished as database administrators rushed to adopt the new system, keen as always to adopt the latest technologies, using hardware that had less power than the current middle school math student’s calculator: the relational era was born.

The Chance of Failure

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Do you plan for failure as a possibility or a probability? The difference might mean you take your plans and testing a little more seriously. Steve Jones notes that you might want to plan on the latter.

How to Setup Boot from VHD for a SQL Server test or development environment

by Additional Articles

SQLServerCentral.com

Virtualization, containers, and k8s

I need to setup a virtual environment for development and testing. I've heard about a new feature in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 called boot from a virtual hard disk (VHD) which allows you to create multiple VHDs and select them from the boot menu on startup without having to partition your hard drive to achieve multi-boot. I have a need for SharePoint and SQL Server test and development environments. Can you provide the details of how to set this up?

SQL in the Sun

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Steve Jones talks about the relaxed pace of SQL Server Connections in Orlando.

Maaaaaagic Tables!!!

by Jen McCown

SQLServerCentral.com

Blogs

I had an interview earlier this week. An interview for a SQL developer position. It went fine. But. Question number X...

SQL Server Index Maintenance Performance Tuning for Large Tables

by Additional Articles

SQL Server Performance

Performance Tuning

This article describes a real-world example of performance tuning index maintenance for a large table of approximately 1 billion rows.

Modifying and deleting extended properties

by Adam Aspin

SQLServerCentral.com

Metadata

Continuing the short series on extended properties, this article explains how to turbocharge the creation of extended properties

Tell Me What I Need To Know

by Andy Warren

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren that talks about the problems we sometimes run into when we must work with other people and make decisions. Sometimes getting the information from people, or giving it to them, is not as simple as we would like.

Supporting Large Scale Team Development

by Grant Fritchey

SimpleTalk

software development

With a large-scale development of a database application, the task of supporting a large number of development and test databases, keeping them up to date with different builds can soon become ridiculously complex and costly. Grant Fritchey demonstrates a novel solution that can reduce the storage requirements enormously, and allow individual developers to work on thir own version, using a full set of data.