Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 6: Workflow within Jobs - Drilling into Job steps
How to configure and optimize job steps. Topics such as process flow between steps, security, and more details of the job subsystems are examined.
Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 7: Working with the SQL Server Agent Job Activity Monitor
The Job Activity Monitor is the system administration tool to run jobs, view job history, and enable/disable jobs. This article will also review some of the stored procedures run by the Job Activity Monitor that you can also use directly to do your own custom job monitoring.
Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 8: Using External programs with SQL Server Agent
One common usage of SQL Server Agent historically has been the ability to shell out to the operating system and run command line programs, using SQL Server Agent primarily as a job scheduler. This article will examine the pros and cons of using the SQL Server 2008 & 2008 R2 Powershell subsystem versus the CmdExec subsystem to perform tasks in the Operating System.
Stairway to SQL Server Agent - Level 9: Understanding Jobs and Security
Security is a confusing topic to many, especially when it comes to understanding what rights are needed to monitor and use SQL Server Agent. This article will examine the rights and roles used for SQL Server Agent, as well as the security context requirements for jobs.
Stairway to SQL Server Extended Events Level 4: Extended Events Engine - Essential Concepts
In this level, we're going to dig a little deeper into the Extended Events engine, its architecture, and fundamental components. It will give you a deeper understanding of why, in general, an Extended Events session is inherently lower in overhead than an equivalent SQL Trace. We'll also investigate how to design our event sessions to minimize any unnecessary overhead during event data collection, even when we need to create relatively complex event sessions to investigate difficult performance problems.
Stairway to SQL Server Virtualization Level 1: What is Virtualization?
The first level in the Stairway to Virtualization introduces the concept of virtualized servers as well as the terminology and benefits of implementing the technology.
Stairway to SQL Server Virtualization Level 4 - Building the Hyper-V VM
In this level of the Stairway to Server Virtualization, learn how to build a Hyper-V virtual machine for SQL Server.
Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 12: Using the MERGE Statement
The final level of this stairway looks at the MERGE statement in detail, focusing on how to perform insert, update and delete logic using the MERGE statement.
Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 3: Implementing a Relational Model in SQL Server
This level of the stairway details the creation of a relational database, as well as filling in some of the history of the relational database model.
Stairway to T-SQL: Beyond The Basics Level 1: The TOP Clause
The first topic in this stairway will be discussing the TOP clause. The TOP clause allows you to control the number of rows to be returned or affected by a query.
Blogs
How AgentDBA Identifies Backup Failures
By Arun Sirpal
Every DBA has a box like this. Sitting untouched for months. Nobody’s proud of...
Tip: Expanding a SQL statement
In all recent versions of the database you can call DBMS_UTILITY.EXPAND_SQL_TEXT to get the...
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
Forums
From SQL Server On-Premises to Claude Desktop: How I built a Full MCP Pipeline
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Independence Day 2026
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Independence Day 2026
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Independence Day 2026
Question of the Day
Independence Day 2026
In the original Independence Day movie (1996), what type of computer did Jeff Goldblum use to connect to the alien mainframe? Take a guess, don't look it up or ask AI.
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