Problems With Database Problems
The GitLab crisis has Steve Jones thinking about two things: competence and care.
The Second Career
From a well-built cockney who knew how to avoid wheel clamps, to an ex-member of an elite anti-riot unit, some of the best DBAs have a surprising diversity of skills and experiences, according to Phil Factor.
How to Build Your First SQL Server Virtual Lab in Windows Azure
If you are a DBA who hasn't so far dived in head-first into using Azure, it is worth setting up an Azure 'Virtual Lab' environment the easy way, using a template. This will then allow you to experiment, try things out with SQL Azure, and get familiar with Resource Groups. Joshua shows how to build a virtual lab, from the ground up in the first of a series that aims to give you a grounding in Azure.
Moving Through Five Years
An updated editorial. The five years are almost up for the prediction that IT departments would be eliminated. Read Steve Jones thoughts on where we are today.
Query Performance Tuning – A Methodical Approach
Learn how to approach performance tuning in this piece from SQL Server MCM and MVP, Gail Shaw.
Wildcard Searches
Using wildcard to find patterns in strings going from the basics to some more complicated conditions.
Reconciling Data Across Systems Using a Reconciliation Hub
In many enterprises, where there are a number of separate systems engaged in processing data, there arises the daunting task of checking and reconciling data as it flows between systems. Discrepancies in data must be detected, tracked and corrected as quickly as possible: there is no room for error in doing this. A Reconciliation Hub can provide the answer, as Rahul Gupta explains.
Fix Commvault Backup Failures After an Upgrade
In this article, you will learn how to troubleshoot backup failures in SQL Server 2016 when you run using commvault backup tool
Why Devops? For Better Security
DevOps is supposed to help us build better software, faster. Steve Jones looks at one of the other benefits: security.
How Incorrect SQL Server Table Statistic Estimates Can Cause Slow Query Execution
Ben Snaidero explains that if you are updating your SQL Server table statistics nightly, but still seeing occasional poor performance with some of the queries being executed against my database, statistics could be the issue.
Blogs
Microsoft Build 2026 announcements
By James Serra
Once again there were a number of Microsoft Build announcements related to data and...
T-SQL Tuesday #199: Roundup
A good week ago I hosted the monthly T-SQL Tuesday blog party. I invited...
No Shortcuts for the SQLCMD Batch Terminator: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I was messing around with SQLCMD and I realized something I hadn’t known. I’ve...
Forums
Increment a number in a SQL Query based on a value
I have an issue where I have a Bill of Material list of items...
Follow Your Hunch
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Follow Your Hunch
What Happens When You Ask a Local AI to Query Your Database?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item What Happens When You Ask...
Question of the Day
Detecting Characters
I have a SQL Server 2022 English default installation on a server. I want to detect if there are any upper case characters in rows and I have this code:
SELECT CustomerNameID,
CustomerName
FROM dbo.CustomerName
WHERE CustomerName = LOWER(CustomerName)
Here is the sample data I am testing with:
CustomerNameID CustomerName 1 John Smith 2 Sarah Johnson 3 MICHAEL WILLIAMS 4 JENNIFER BROWN 5 david jones 6 emily davis 7 Robert Miller 8 LISA WILSON 9 christopher moore 10 Amanda TaylorHow many rows are returned? See possible answers