Check Twice, Update Once
An update to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer tool intrigues Steve Jones as it seems to have been enhanced to better help DBAs manage SQL Server.
Restricting SecurityAdmin on SQL Server 2005/2008
Members of the securityadmin role can escalate to sysadmin rights. Here's how to restrict them back to 2000 levels.
DMVs for Query Plan Metadata
Before you can tackle any performance issues with a working database, you need to know which queries to work on first: The ones that are taking the most time in total, and which are the most expensive in terms of cache, CPU and disk. Although SQL Server Management Studio can help, it isn't long before you need an armoury of DMVs to provide you the statistics to find the culprits.
How Old Are Your Database Statistics?
Unlike fine wine, database statistics do not improve with age. I recently helped out with a client who was having...
Parsing an ADO result set into a comma separated string in SSIS
This article describes a way to parse a result set in SSIS using For each loop container, variables and SQL task.
Where Are the Programmers?
Today Steve Jones has a little fun with titles in technology, and what we might start to call ourselves instead of DBAs.
What Every DBA Ought to Know About SQL Server Cursors (and Their Alternatives)
Cursors provide a means of processing through a set of records row-by-row. However, many companies have a policy against using cursors in their SQL Server standards. This article examines the problem with cursors and alternatives to using them.
Conditional WHERE Clauses and Boolean Algebra
Utilize simple boolean algebra and nullable parameters to implement conditional WHERE clauses without dynamic SQL.
Streaming Profiler Data Through StreamInsight
Using the Trace Management objects API it is possible to capture the events happening on SQL Server or indeed Analysis Services. I got to thinking that this would be a good thing to stream out in real time in StreamInsight and do some analysis “In Flight”. So here is a short video of me doing just that.
I Love the SQL Community
Steve Jones talks about the SQL Community and why it's so great. Hint: it's the people.
Blogs
The 2026 Redgate Summit in New York City
By Steve Jones
We’re coming back to New York, which is exciting for me. I love NYC....
Monitoring Fabric Mirroring for SQL 2025
I previously wrote about how the underlying technology for Fabric mirroring changed with SQL...
Monday Monitor Tips: Intelligent Alert Thresholds
By Steve Jones
At the recent Redgate Summit in Chicago, I demo’d (lightly) the ML based Alert...
Forums
Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with dbt for Visual Studio Code: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with...
Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with dbt for Visual Studio Code: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with...
Doing the Little Things
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing the Little Things
Question of the Day
Historical Data Tracking
If I want to track historical data values, which mechanism should I use?
See possible answers