Making Complex Data Simple: Transforming Your Data Transformation
This article examines the problem of complex data in integration projects and presents solutions for handling this data to create seamless integration throughout the enterprise.
Spotlight on SQL Server
After a bit of a hiatus, the interviews are back. This time we take a few minutes with Dan Jones of the SQL Server development team.
Testing SQL Server restores
Testing is key to ensuring a process actually works when it comes time to implement, rather than finding out when time may be of the essence. This holds true for testing SQL Server restores as well.
Troubleshooting SQL Server with the Sysperfinfo Table
Joe discusses why he prefers command line tools over GUI, then launches into a how-to about querying sysperfinfo to resolve performance issues. Couple nice sample queries included!
Customer Database Update A Practical Solution
If you deliver applications to a customer, then you have struggled with the challenges of updating schemas as they change. New author Serhiy Snisarenko brings us his comprehensive process and code to make this task easier.
Constructing XML Using FOR XML
A SELECT query returns results as a rowset. You can optionally retrieve formal results of a SQL query as XML by specifying the FOR XML clause in the query.
To Stage Or Not To Stage
The second part of a great data warehousing series from Vincent Rainardi looks at the decision to stage data prior to moving it into the warehouse versus directly loading it. This is a must read for those contemplating a data warehouse.
SQL Server 2005 - SQL Server Integration Services - Package Management
Throughout our series of articles dedicated to SQL Server 2005 Integration Services, we have been working mainly with packages using the Business Intelligence Development Studio interface (although more recently, we also discussed SSIS-related functionality available in SQL Server Management Studio). Even though, as part of our exercises, we have worked with a number of packages, we have not yet explored the various options related to their storage. We will cover them in this article
SQL Server 2005 Logon Triggers
One thing that many people tried to implement in SQL Server 2000 is the auditing of logins. However getting this to work was a complex process. In SQL Server 2005, however, there are a few ways you can handle this and new author Frederik Vandeputte brings us a method using Service Broker for handling this.
SQL Server 2005's EXECUTE AS statement
In SQL Server 2005, you can explicitly or implicitly define the execution context. As we all know, a session starts when a user logs on to SQLServer or a connection to SQLserver is made. All operations in that session use the logon credentials used for connecting to SQL Server. When an EXECUTE AS statement is run, the execution context of the session is switched to the specified login or user name.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Knots
By Steve Jones
Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
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...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
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Upgrading Admin Queries
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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?
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