External Article

MSSQL Server Reporting Services: Black Belt Administration: "Governor"

In working with many reporting tools over my career, particularly within enterprise business intelligence suites and high-end production reporting systems, I have become acquainted with various control features in each that allow administrators to govern the actions of end users. Reporting Services is no different in this aspect of need for control, and the application provides numerous avenues for restraining our users from kicking off resource crippling queries that, unchecked, could disrupt even the most robust systems, as well as to prevent other harmful activities. At various junctures within this series, we will examine ways to effect such controls on an intermittent basis.

SQLServerCentral Article

The Value of A DBA

SQL Server 2000 does an amazing job of running itself to a large extent, much more so in my experience, than the other major platforms. That being said, it isn't designed to run without some sort of DBA, at least not at an efficient level. But what value does a production level DBA bring to your organization? Your manager might wonder, but with many years of experience as a production DBA and manager, Steve Jones brings you a look at the value that a DBA provides.

Technical Article

Teach Old Data New Tricks with the Fully Loaded Advances in ADO.NET 2.

The Microsoft® .NET Framework 2.0 delivers an updated ADO.NET that will streamline your data access development efforts. The ADO.NET team has worked with both the System.Xml team and the SQL Server™ team to provide a consistently rich developer experience, crossing technology boundaries from ADO.NET to XML and back. This will all be apparent as you dig into ADO.NET 2.0. There are improvements on so many fronts that you will certainly be pleased.

Rather than attempt to list every new and updated feature of ADO.NET 2.0, I will discuss in detail some of the more interesting improvements and focus on performance and flexibility.

SQLServerCentral Article

The Multi Phase Data Pump

SQL Server 2000 has an amazing ETL tool in Data Transformation Services that is included at no charge, something none of the other database vendors include. DTS has great flexibility to make your job easier, but it has some quirks in this version. The Multi Phase Data Pump is hidden inside the tool, but can provide a great programming environment and Dinesh Asanka brings us a look at what you can do wit this tool.

Technical Article

Using Source Control to Develop Smarter

Veteran and novice developers alike need source control management (SCM). Also known as asset management, and source code management, SCM helps you (and your team) manage development projects, and the components and code that make up the project.

There are many benefits to using source control management, most notably the ability to develop code faster, smarter and more accurately. Source control management tools help you control your code; especially in multiple developer projects.

Blogs

In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026

By

I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...

EightKB 2026

By

EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...

The FinOps Lifecycle: From Budgeting to Reporting

By

Working in DevOps long enough teaches you two universal truths: That’s exactly why I...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

query to track time spent on individual tasks in SSIS

By water490

Hi everyone I am looking at building a query to determine how much time...

SQL Server Transactional Replication from Always On Availability Groups to Azure SQL Database

By Terry Jago

Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Transactional Replication from...

Hidden Heroes

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hidden Heroes

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Identities and Sequences I

When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which are explicitly linked to increment a number in a table when a new row is added?

See possible answers