A Bad Litmus Test
A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.
What a Data Warehouse is Not
Recently, I was at a conference, and I heard the following discussion about what a data warehouse was. One person suggested that a data warehouse was really all the old legacy systems connected by software that could access the data. By calling such a contraption a data warehouse, the organization could avoid having to do the hard and complex work of integration. There are so many problems with this federated approach to a data warehouse that they are almost not worth repeating here. But (once again!) here goes.
Introduction to the Transaction Log
The transaction log is a fairly complex construct in SQL Server and present in every database installation. New author James Rea brings us a great introduction to how the log works and how to maintain it.
Is The PASS Summit Worth It?
Steve Jones has attended the PASS Summit annually, and found value. But for this Friday's poll, did you find value this week? Or have you in the past? Let others know.
Is The PASS Summit Worth It?
Steve Jones has attended the PASS Summit annually, and found value. But for this Friday's poll, did you find value this week? Or have you in the past? Let others know.
Is The PASS Summit Worth It?
Steve Jones has attended the PASS Summit annually, and found value. But for this Friday's poll, did you find value this week? Or have you in the past? Let others know.
Is The PASS Summit Worth It?
Steve Jones has attended the PASS Summit annually, and found value. But for this Friday's poll, did you find value this week? Or have you in the past? Let others know.
Troubleshooting Reporting Services Performance Issues
The conclusion of our coverage of the Reporting Services component available in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition discusses systematizing the troubleshooting approach by focusing specifically on performance problems (as opposed to those impacting functionality).
Using T-SQL CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY
That said, even though my personal focus is pretty much OO, I still miss stuff. SQL Server 2005 came out with the CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY operators and I have just started learning how to use APPLY in the last month or so. When I think I have it figured out, I am fortunate enough that some of you are interested in reading about my understanding of the technology.
Blogs
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes
How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Upgrading Admin Queries
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers