Do you know which of your databases are being backed up? Everyone answers "Yes", but I'm sure that there are times that someone creates a new database and you don't know about it. I know in my job, with hundreds of servers, it happens. Here's a technique for keeping track of those databases from Leo Peysakhovich.
Production DBAs may be a dying breed. At least according to some sources. While we're not sure that we agree with that, there is definitely a trend that should have you working on your career. The day of the DBA that only manages the operational data store is waning. Today's DBAs need to be flexible and have a number of other skills. Brian Knight looks at a few of the skills that you might to add to your arsenal to be prepared for the future of SQL Server.
Quest Central® for SQL Server is an integrated database management solution designed to enable administrators to manage complex database environments and simplify everyday tasks. Quest Central for SQL Server provides DBAs with a set of tools to achieve higher levels of availability and reliability, leverage and extend native SQL Server administration capabilities, and adds multi-server and change management capabilities to make database management easier.
Creating a system stored procedure isn't hard. You're always cautioned from making changes to the system, depending on the system for a particular functionality, etc., and you should be cautious. However adding system stored procedures to your servers can be beneficial and make your administration much more convenient. Read on the see how easy this can be to do.
The ORDER BY clause is one of the basic keywords that defines the SQL Language. And it can help prevent strange results from being returned to the average user. Read on to see how and why this addition to your queries can help ensure more "ordered" results 🙂
Apex SQL Tools has released Apex SQL Script 3.0, database Tools for database scripting. Apex SQL Script scripts both database structures (tables, views etc) as well as database data, which it converts to insert
scripts. The new release has a completely redesigned user interface, faster database scripting engine and many more database scripting options.
Do you have to refresh a test or QA server from the production system? Do you have a good process or is it a spur of the moment, let's get it done thing? Here's a look at Steve Jones' process, which was used weekly for well over a year.
What happens when you have a day job, a web site, a new job at work, and a baby? Chaos! See what Andy's been up to the past few months. It's off topic from SQL of course, but it contains an interested bit or two.
Do you run an anti-virus product on your SQL Servers? After all, it's recommended, more and more, that you run anti-virus on ALL machines you have. There's just too much stuff running around out there. But putting this on a SQL Server creates some interesting issues. Our resident security guru, Brian Kelley, looks at some of the things you need to consider when deploying anti-virus products on your servers.
How can you tell if your code if performing well? Do you know what you want to look for when starting to analyze code? Here's an article from Leo Peysakhovich that looks at some of the things that you can use at a high level to improve the performance of your code.
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
By HeyMo0sh
Working in DevOps long enough teaches you two universal truths: That’s exactly why I...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Changing Data Types
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Answering Questions On Dropped Columns
I have some data in a table:
CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100),
birth_date DATE
);
-- Step 2: Insert rows
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
(
SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
)
) t1
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2; See possible answers