Patch Week
This week Steve Jones notes there were quite a few patches from Microsoft for a variety of products. No SQL Server specific security patches, but that doesn't mean that DBAs shouldn't be patching systems.
Slowly changing dimensions using T-SQL MERGE
Of all the technical solutions to the problem of slowly changing dimensions, the T-SQL MERGE statement is one of the most elegant.
A Tale of Identifiers
Identifiers aren't locators, and they aren't pointers or links either. They are a logical concept in a relational database, and, unlike the more traditional methods of accessing data, don't derive from the way that data gets stored. Identifiers uniquely identify members of the set, and it should be possible to validate and verify them. Celko somehow involves watches and taxi cabs to illustrate the point.
SQL Saturday #82 - Indianapolis
Come to Indianapolis on June 25, 2011 for a free one day training event on SQL Server.
Multiple Failures
This Friday Steve Jones has a disaster recovery poll. When you have a true disaster, often there are multiple things that go wrong and cause a cascading failure. Is this common, let us know what your experience is this Friday.
SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Integration Services - Consuming Web Services Using Script Task
Web services can be easily leveraged in SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services by employing Web Services Task.
Lessons Learned from a Large Virtualization Implementation
Microsoft recently asked me to provide a summary of my experience with being part of a large-scale virtualization project. This was my response.
Phrases that Resonate
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren. Are there particular phrases that you use in technology that resonate with you and have particular meanings? Andy shares a few of his favorites.
Raw Materials - Cloud Computing, the Next Generation
The pros and cons of having computing power close at hand.
SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Operations Guide
This white paper describes how operations engineers can test, monitor, capacity plan, and troubleshoot Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services OLAP solutions in SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2.
Blogs
Database AI Agents: The Read-Only Rule
By Arun Sirpal
Fourth in a series on Ai and databases. What Read-Only Advisory Actually Means A...
Creating a SQL Stored Procedure to Load a SCD2
By DataOnWheels
This is a blog that I am writing for future me and hopefully it’ll...
Funny Money: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
While wandering around the documentation looking for some Question of the Day topics, I...
Forums
Pro SQL Server Internals
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Pro SQL Server Internals
SQL ART: Who's Blocking Who? Visualising SQL Server Blocking With Spatial Geometry
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL ART: Who's Blocking Who?...
Running SQLCMD II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Running SQLCMD II
Question of the Day
Running SQLCMD II
I run this command to start SQLCMD:
sqlcmd -S localhost -E -c "proceed"At the prompt, I type this (the 1> and 2> are prompts):
1> select @@version 2> goWhat happens? See possible answers