Reminiscing
Steve Jones has been working with SQL Server for 10 years. Join him for a stroll down memory lane.
Removing the Builtin Administrators - Some Pitfalls to Avoid
The SQL Server 2000 security model is not the best one of all the RDBMS platforms and requires some work to secure properly. One of the practices that is recommended is removing the builtin/administrators group from accessing the SQL Server. New author Kathi Kellenberger shows us some of the pitfalls she encountered when removing this group from her servers.
Replacing Cursors and While Loops
Get some big performance gains by removing cursors from your code. New author Clinton Herring brings us a couple hints as he shows how two cursors were replaced in his code, resulting in 80 minutes of processing time dropping to 12!
Seamless Upgrade
One of the things mentioned in a keynote at the recent PASS conference was the idea that SQL Server 2008 would be a seamless upgrade. Or maybe I misunderstood and it will seem less like an upgrade 🙂
SQL 2000 to SQL 2005: Where have all the old features gone?
SQL Server 2005 is out and everyone is moving to test and deploy it. However many people are still managing SQL Server 2000 instances. New author Boris Baliner brings us a few tricks to find that information you are used to from Enterprise Manager.
SQL Server and SOX
The Sarbanes-Oxley act has changed many IT jobs, usually requiring more work and documentation. Johan Bijnens brings us a list of some things his team has had to do to comply with SOX regulations.
SQL Server Auditing - Part 1
Our SQL Server Security expert, Brian Kelley, brings us the first part of a new series on auditing. Most of the auditing articles we've had are based on how you audit changes to data. Brian looks at auditing from the server itself, explaining the different levels of auditing built into SQL Server 2000.
SQL Server Security Part 1
In this series of articles, Chris Kempster will discuss some of the finer aspects of SQL Server security and also touch on OS, physical and application security to open up this science for general discussion.
SQL Server Security: Server Roles
As yo probably know, Brian covers security topics for us and does a great job. This week he looks at the fixed roles and points out a few things you may not have thought about.
Stored Procedure vs Triggers
Performance tuning is an ongoing battle in SQL Server, but having a little knowledge up front when designing an application can greatly reduce the efforts. Do you know which performs better: stored procedures or triggers? There aren't many places where the two are interchangeable, but knowing the impacts of each might change the way you build an application. Read about this analysis by Vijaya Kumar.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Pyramid Schemes
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
FinOps for Kubernetes: Leveraging OpenCost, KubeGreen, and Kubecost for Cost Efficiency
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
Forums
Database file shrink issue.
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
The North Star for the Year
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Multiple Escape Characters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
Question of the Day
Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers