DBAs on ACID
Any DBA who has been bitten by these subtle data integrity issues, or reports that erratically produce the wrong results, will know how much careful testing is involved in mitigating them.
Real World Foreach Loop Container example
Describes different uses of the SSIS Foreach Loop container in one practical scenario.
The Value of Data
What value can you place on data? It can be hard to determine, especially when so many sites on the Internet want data to be free. However the New York Times is going to a subscription model, with the idea that there is some value to their data and people will pay for it.
TSQL Challenge 53 - Finding empty and non-empty intervals
A SQL Server instance is set up to log the session start time and end time into a table. Given this table, your job is to find all time intervals in which no one is logged in.
SQL Server Service Broker Poison Message Handling
Have you ever figured out why your Service Broker queue gets disabled automatically? What causes your Service Broker queue to get disabled in the first place? What is a poison message with respect to Service Broker? Is there anything new in SQL Server 2008 R2 for managing poison messages in Service Broker?
The DBAs Guide to Expectation Management
Your customers expectations are their primary measure of your success. How well are you managing them?
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Improving SQLServerCentral
Today Steve Jones talks about changes that are coming to SQLServerCentral.
Open Source SQL Server
There's a new product out that is an alternative to Microsoft SQL Server. The new HummyBase product from Kenneth Ingols SQL Software gives you another platform for your databases applications with no re-coding and at a fraction of the price.
Improving Comparison Operators and Window Functions
It is dangerous to assume that your data is sound. SQL already has intrinsic ways to cope with missing, or unknown data in its comparison predicate operators, or Theta operators. Can SQL be more effective in the way it deals with data quality? Joe Celko describes how the SQL Standard could soon evolve to deal with data in ways that allow aggregation and windowing in cases where the data quality is less than perfect.
What Counts for a DBA: Adventurousness
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.
Blogs
ISACA AI Material/Exam Prep Discount (May 18 – June 30, 2026)
By Brian Kelley
If you are considering any of the ISACA AI certs like the Advanced Artificial...
A Fabric solution can be very cost effective
By ChrisJenkins
Are you currently using Microsoft Fabric or considering migrating to it? If so, there...
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log
By SQLPals
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log If you...
Forums
Before Using AI with Business Data, Read This
Artificial intelligence tools are quickly becoming part of daily business operations, from document analysis...
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines...
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
Question of the Day
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
In the Database Engine, when a deadlock is detected, what does the detection interval shrink to (in time)?
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