If you’ve ever had to format dates and times in SQL, you’ve probably come across one of the most jarring realities of working across platforms: every major RDBMS does it differently and sometimes confusingly. What’s a TO_CHAR() in Oracle becomes FORMAT() or CONVERT() in SQL Server, and its sort of the same in PostgreSQL… but […]
With the ever-increasing pace of the digital era, companies are continuously looking for opportunities to enhance efficiency, cut costs, and optimize operations. The most viable way to accomplish these is through Custom Automation Software Development.
Get a quick glimpse of using AI in SQL Server by implementing a machine learning system.
This article explores how to securely clone the master user permissions in Amazon RDS for SQL Server using a custom stored procedure, usp_rds_clone_login. It outlines a step-by-step process to generate, review, and apply a script that replicates server- and database-level access from the master user to a new login without directly exposing elevated credentials. The guide emphasizes the principle of least privilege, supports named account management, and enables transparent, auditable permission handling for DBAs and applications. Designed for secure and scalable environments, this solution enhances operational security while maintaining administrative flexibility in Amazon RDS.
There’s a moment I experience all too often in tech meetings, presentations, or vendor demos where someone starts talking, and instead of clarity, I get hit with a tidal wave of jargon: “synergizing AI-driven orchestration pipelines for real-time actionable insights using cloud-native microservices and agentic AI to serve as a digital twin.” And somewhere in […]
Overview In this article we will go through the various in built aggregate functions available in PostgreSQL. Aggregate functions perform a calculation on a set of rows and return a single value. COUNT Function The COUNT function is a simple and very useful function in counting the number of records, which are expected to be […]
Zero-Trust Architecture (ZTA) emerges as a strong security paradigm for cloud-based AI systems, fundamentally operating on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” Unlike conventional security models, ZTA assumes potential compromise exists within the network and requires continuous verification of every access request regardless of origin.
Sometimes, while working on something as foundational as SQL Server Central, (which is a temporary responsibility for Grant, John and I while Steve is on sabbatical) I catch myself falling into an old, familiar loop double-checking my choices, second-guessing even the most minor decisions, as is the norm for anyone who’s a database administrator (or […]
This article dives deep into cxpacket and cxconsumer in sql server, explaining how to simulate each, when they appear, and why they matter. Using live execution plans, wait monitoring, and worker thread diagnostics, we uncover how uneven parallelism triggers thread sync waits—and how SQL Server sometimes hides real issues behind innocent-looking CXCONSUMER waits. Includes step-by-step queries, tuning tips, and a real-world scenario where repartition streams quietly ruined performance.
About two decades ago, I introduced the concept of transition constraints to show Data Validation in a database is a lot more complex than seeing if a string parameter really is an integer. In October of 2008, I did an article called Constraint Yourself! on how to use DDL constraints to assure data integrity. One of the topics in that piece was a look at state transition constraints via an auxiliary table.
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If I create a multiple column Primary Key constraint, what is the most number of bytes I can include in the constraint?
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