Releasing Databases in VSTS with Redgate SQL CI and Octopus Deploy
You can still do Database Lifecycle Management (DLM) workflows in the hosted version of Team foundation Server (TFS) in Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) . If you are doing your database development in SSMS, you can use a mix of tools to set up the functionality in VSTS. Jason Crease demonstrates how to build and deploy a simple database into the test environment using SQL CI, SQL Source Control, Octopus Deploy, tSQLt, SQL Cop and SQL Release, all with the minimum of hassle and effort.
Five Online Database Modelling Services
To design, or redesign, a database of any complexity, the Entity-Relationship modelling tool becomes essential. The specialized tools that have dominated the industry for a long while are expensive and are installed on a workstation. Now that browser technology has progressed so rapidly, the online database modelling tools have become viable and are starting to attract the attention of database designers. Are they good enough to use now? Robert Sheldon finds out.
Building Better Software
Steve Jones discusses the idea of building software better, and why that's a challenge for many of us.
Find a String in a String in SQL Server
Learn how you can find data in a string and extract it, no matter where it's located.
Getting Started with JSON Support in SQL Server 2016 – Part 2
Arshad Ali talks about using OPENJSON to read and parse JSON data and looks at how to convert it to tabular format.
The Slack Integration
Slack has become a popular phenomenon in the technical world, especially for software developers. Should we join in?
Disabling SQL Server Optimizer Rules with QUERYRULEOFF
Daniel Farina shows how to disable the optimizer rules by using QUERYRULEOFF, an undocumented hint.
The Data Driven Event
In a couple of days, Microsoft is holding Data Driven, an event that will highlight SQL Server 2016.
Blogs
ISACA AI Material/Exam Prep Discount (May 18 – June 30, 2026)
By Brian Kelley
If you are considering any of the ISACA AI certs like the Advanced Artificial...
A Fabric solution can be very cost effective
By ChrisJenkins
Are you currently using Microsoft Fabric or considering migrating to it? If so, there...
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log
By SQLPals
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log If you...
Forums
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines...
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
SQL Server Showing Out of Space But Plenty of Drive Space
We have a SQL Server installed. We have a 500GB drive for the database....
Question of the Day
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
In the Database Engine, when a deadlock is detected, what does the detection interval shrink to (in time)?
See possible answers