In this tip we cover the basics of what needs to be done to setup a process to automate refreshing a dev or test environment with a recent database backup.

How Far Back?

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Today Steve Jones discusses the need to restore older backups.

PowerShell Day-to-Day Admin Tasks – Part 6: Real-Time IT Dashboard

by Additional Articles

SimpleTalk

PowerShell

Creating a real-time IT dashboard is essential for IT professionals for managing their environments and to be proactive. A Few months ago, a great tool called ‘PowerShell Universal Dashboard’ or ‘PoshUD’ was officially released. In this article, Nicolas Prigent describes PoshUD, and how to use it to monitor your infrastructure using PowerShell.

No More Downtime

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

Windows is improving its ability to be patched without downtime.

TRY_CONVERT

by Matthew McGiffen

SQLServerCentral.com

TRY_CONVERT()

An introduction to the TRY_CONVERT function, introduced in SQL Server 2012.

Tables Without Clustered Indexes

by Additional Articles

Database Journal

clustered index

When databases are being designed and developed, your developers might have overlooked creating clustered indexes on some of your database tables. Having a useful clustered index on your tables will improve the performance of your queries. Here Greg Larsen shows a simple script to identify those tables in your database that don’t have a clustered index.

Are you GDPR Ready?

by Steve Jones

SQLServerCentral.com

Editorial

With the GDPR in effect, Steve Jones talks about the changes that are taking place for many organizations.

Configuring R Services in SQL Server 2016

by Nick Burns

SQLServerCentral.com

RevolutionR

R Services provides in-database analytics in SQL Server 2016. In this article we step through configuring R Services and get you started with in-database analytics.