Using the UPTIME Utility to Monitor Servers
Learn how to use a free utility to quickly monitor the uptime of your SQL Server instances.
Voting opens for Exceptional DBA of 2010
The voting for the 2010 Exceptional DBA opens today, and you can read about the finalists and prizes inside.
Making your SQL Server database changes backward compatible: Adding a new column
As multi-tier architectures grow over time, it is often challenging to coordinate those changes across the data, logic and presentation tiers. Unless planned and implemented carefully, an act as simple as adding a column to a table can grind all of the components of your application to a halt. While some of us have comfortable 12-hour maintenance windows every weekend, many of us are bound by service level agreements that are much more strict. So we must find ways to introduce fixes and new features with zero downtime, and without requiring every single component to be refactored at the same time.
Expert Systems – an SSRS Approach
An interesting approach to solving a complicated problem using SSRS. Users have too much documentation to read about a process, so Jonathan Spink introduces a better way to do things.
The Schema Debate
There was quite a bit of debate over the use of schemas recently on the Internet. Steve Jones talks about some of the reasons why you might want a schema, and a few reasons why you might not.
Creating XML in SQL Server
XML has become a common form of representing and exchanging data in today's information age. SQL Server introduced XML-centric capabilities in SQL Server 2000. That functionality has been expanded in later releases. One aspect of working with XML is creating XML from relational data, which is accomplished utilizing the FOR XML clause in SQL Server.
Making Your Career Go Further
Steve Jones comments on a few things that can help you, and are worth keeping in mind as you interact with people.
Moving to the Cloud
There has been a lot of talk about moving to cloud based computing, and cloud based services. Steve Jones comments on what this might mean today.
Using Certificates to Sign Stored Procedures
How to sign stored procedures with certificates, this is useful if the procedures use dynamic SQL.
Configure Windows Firewall for SQL Server 2008 Integration Services in Windows Server 2008 R2
I have installed SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and I am unable to connect to SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Instance from SQL Server 2008 Management Studio which is installed on another remote server. As I am new to Windows Server 2008 R2 it would be great if you can let me know the step by step approach to enable the default port of SQL Server 2008 Integration Services in Windows Firewall for user connectivity.
Blogs
Red Flags in Your Query (T-SQL Tuesday #200)
By Zikato
When I'm looking at a query, I bet it's bad if I see... a...
T-SQL Tuesday #200: When I Look at a Query …
By Steve Jones
This month is a milestone for T-SQL Tuesday. It’s number 200, which doesn’t sound...
Reflections on the Life of a DBA
The DBA life is fraught with pain. Those battles that we endure are mostly...
Forums
A Quick Second Opinion
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Five Intelligent Query Processing Features in SQL Server 2022 That Quietly Tune Your Workload
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Five Intelligent Query Processing Features...
Checking the Error Log I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Checking the Error Log I
Question of the Day
Checking the Error Log I
On my SQL Server 2025, I want to search the error log from my T-SQL code for potential issues and then inform an administrator. What is the current way to easily query the error log?
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