The Backup Myth (WMV)
Running backups is enough for disaster recovery, right? That's a myth that could get you into trouble. Steve Jones explains there's more that's needed.
A New MVP
Tony Davis offers his congratulations on a new MVP at SQLServerCentral.com and DatabaseWeekly.com.
Myths
Every profession has its share of myths about how it works. IT might have more than its share and Steve Jones comments on a few of them.
Searching Syscomments Accurately
As a SQL Server DBA you should know that your code is stored in syscomments by default. While most DBAs use version control systems, there are times you might want to look through the code on the server for comparison purposes. Robert Cary brings us an article on how you can do this in 2000 and 2005.
Building a Localized Report on a SQL Server 2005 Analysis Service Cube Data Source
Learn how to use an Analysis Services cube as a data source by using parameterized MDX queries, as well as how to localize label strings in a report, in SQL Server 2005.
SQL Server 2005 Encryption types
SQL Server 2005 provides four methods of encryption. Part one of this article covers encryption and decryption by passphrase.
College Life
Life at college is good. It's a time in many people's lives that they'll never forget. Steve Jones asks if you'd want to go back to your adult roots.
Predeployment I/O Best Practices
The I/O system is important to the performance of SQL Server. When configuring a new server for SQL Server or when adding or modifying the disk configuration of an existing system, it is good practice to determine the capacity of the I/O subsystem prior to deploying SQL Server. This white paper discusses validating and determining the capacity of an I/O subsystem. A number of tools are available for performing this type of testing. This white paper focuses on the SQLIO.exe tool, but also compares all available tools. It also covers basic I/O configuration best practices for SQL Server 2005.
Set Functions: The .AllMembers Function
Business Intelligence Architect Bill Pearson introduces the useful .AllMembers function, reinforcing the basic concepts, as always, with hands-on practice examples.
Blogs
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
SQL Server Journey Part 2: Modern Era (2017 – 2026) – AI/Cloud First
By Vinay Thakur
Following up on my Part 1 baseline, the journey from 2017 onward changed how...
Forums
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
An Unusual Identity
Comments posted to this topic are about the item An Unusual Identity
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers