Find Invalid Objects in SQL Server
This article shows how you can find which objects in your database might not be valid after schema changes.
Getting Fired
When should a DBA get fired? Steve Jones thinks it should be rare and gives you two cases.
SQL Server 2025 Makes Memory Troubleshooting Easier.
SQL Server 2025 introduces a new sys.dm_os_memory_health_history view to make it easier for meatbags like you and robots like Copilot to know if the SQL Server has been under memory pressure recently.
Lessons from the Postmark-MCP Backdoor
The Koi Security team recently uncovered the first known, malicious MCP server in the wild: a package called postmark-mcp, downloaded over 1,500 times per week, that silently BCCs every outgoing email to an attacker-controlled domain. So, what happened? High-level, a lot: The attacker cloned the legitimate Postmark MCP repository, made one small but nefarious change […]
Oracle Performance Tuning: Practical Techniques Every DBA Should Master
Here are a few things every Oracle DBA should know about performance in their databases.
Natural Language Query for SQL Server
Data is usually the most important asset in organizations, but only SQL developers can frequently access that data. Technical teams often write queries for non-technical users. This restricts agility, slows decision-making, and creates a bottleneck in data accessibility. One possible remedy is natural language processing (NLP), which enables users to ask questions in simple English and receive answers without knowing any code. Still, the majority of NLP-to-SQL solutions are cloud-based, which raises issues with cost and privacy.
PRs Are Like Trouble Tickets
Adopting a modern development approach brings with it the need to manage PRs, which Steve thinks can be like trouble tickets.
Unlocking High-Concurrency Inserts in SQL Server with OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY
Learn how a setting an improve high concurrency inserts with the OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY option.
Unlocking the Power of FULL OUTER JOIN in SQL: Performance, Use Cases & Examples
The JOIN statement is one of the most common operations SQL developers perform. Yet in a world ruled by Inner and Left Joins, the poor Full Outer Join is like Cinderella before the ball – allowed out on only the rarest of occasions. In an (unscientific) survey I once performed of SQL developers at one Fortune 100 firm, half of the developers had never used a Full Outer Join in production code, and the rest had used it in a tiny handful of occasions.
Blogs
The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
Merry Christmas
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
Self-Hosting a Photo Server the Whole Family Can Use
By Bert Wagner
Until recently, my family's 90,000+ photos have been hidden away in the depths of...
Forums
Database backup job steps
I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services...
SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression...
The Large Encoded Value
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Large Encoded Value
Question of the Day
The Large Encoded Value
I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?
See possible answers