The Problem Is You
Why doesn't SQL Server just run smoothly after it's installed? Steve Jones thinks the problem is you.
The Problem Is You
Why doesn't SQL Server just run smoothly after it's installed? Steve Jones thinks the problem is you.
The Problem Is You
Why doesn't SQL Server just run smoothly after it's installed? Steve Jones thinks the problem is you.
Why I Say Something about Running as Administrator
On a couple of recent webcasts, I pointed out the folks were running with the local Administrator account. To start this out, I'm not a big fan of security by obfuscation. Security by obfuscation (not code obfuscation, but security by obscurity, if...
Making Mistakes - Database Weekly (June 1, 2009)
We all make mistakes, even when we are trying to help others. What should you do about it? Steve Jones has a few thoughts on advice online.
No More SOX
A legal challenge to the Sarbannes-Oxley act is being heard this fall. Steve Jones doesn't necessarily think this is a bad law.
Writing Dynamic Stored Procedure
In this article I have shown a way of writing queries in which WHERE clause of the query is executed dynamically depending on values of input parameters.
Configuring Auto-Retry on SQL Server Agent
The goal of this post is to explain how to take advantage of Auto-Retry and why you will want to use it. I hope to clarify in which circumstances an auto-retry works best and when not to use it also. The (disclaimer!) point is that every job has its own constraints, requirements, and has to be evaluated individually for whether an auto-retry will work. I will try and keep this summary short and crisp, but still with enough detail to understand auto retry best.
We Loaded 1 Terabyte in 30 Minutes with SSIS, and So Can You
In February 2008, Microsoft announced a record-breaking data load using Microsoft® SQL Server® Integration Services (SSIS): 1 TB of data in less than 30 minutes. That data load, using SQL Server Integration Services, was 30% faster than the previous best time using a commercial ETL tool. This paper outlines what it took: the software, hardware, and configuration used. We will describe what we did to achieve that result, and offer suggestions for how to relate these techniques to typical scenarios.
Making Mistakes - Database Weekly (June 1, 2009)
We all make mistakes, even when we are trying to help others. What should you do about it? Steve Jones has a few thoughts on advice online.
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers