This guide walks through how to pull login failure data using sys.xp_readerrorlog, filter it by time and error type, parse it into readable columns, aggregate repeat offenders, and automatically email a summary report — turning a passive log file into an active security and troubleshooting tool.
Recently the Azure service had an outage and Steve Jones has a few comments on this and why it might not be worse than your own company's IT group.
See how SQL Server 2025 uses Optional Parameter Plan Optimization to create separate plans for selective and unfiltered searches, how to verify the dispatcher and variants, and when dynamic SQL or recompilation is still the better choice.
Normally when you're looking at an execution plan, and you see an index seek followed by a key lookup, that means it's running relatively quickly.
Earlier this week, I recorded a talk called “AI: The Good, Bad, and the Future.” I talked about some of the good things that have happened with AI and some of the Bad. But what I really wanted to focus on was the future. I think many of us have heard the two letters AI […]
This Friday Steve is looking for those things you wish you didn't have to handle at work. Let us know what tasks you avoid and would rather hand off to others.
Learn how the bitwise functions SET_BIT() and GET_BIT() can be used to manage data stored inside a single column.
Anyone who’s spent years writing T-SQL has a mental list of “why doesn’t SQL Server just do this already?” moments. Here are 9 of those from Louis Davidson’s perspective – a wish list of practical, coding-oriented feature requests drawn from real-world pain points.
If you've spent years writing SQL for a living, you already know how this goes. Someone pings you on Teams asking, "How many active customers do we have in the Midwest this quarter?" There you are, back in the query editor, writing a JOIN you've written fifty times before. Genie Spaces in Databricks is built […]
Lots of organizations use multiple database platforms. Steve notes there is a cost to choosing to allow this.
By Steve Jones
This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...
You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...
By SQLPals
How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...
Where to download earlier version of SQL server express 2022? Thanks
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Risk Vs Reward, The never...
Hi, to all of you who are using CA certs on SQL Server boxes...
If I want to run sp_readerrorlog on SQL Server 2025, what permissions do I need?
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