On Learning from Experience and Misfortune
Phil Factor on learning from mistakes. Preferably other people's.
Optimizing Your Query Plans with the SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator
This paper provides an overview of the primary changes made to the cardinality estimator functionality by the Microsoft query processor team, covering how to enable and disable the new cardinality estimator behavior, and showing how to troubleshoot plan-quality regressions if and when they occur.
Webinar: Redgate Database Lifecycle Management (DLM) Demo
SSC's Steve Jones will show you how Redgate's DLM solution works to improve your database development and deployment processes. You'll see how to version control your databases from SSMS to track and understand changes, include your database in your Continuous Integration process to get quick feedback, automate your database deployment process to have safe, reliable, repeatable deployments, and more.
An Introduction to the SQLCMD Mode in SSMS (SQL Spackle)
Using SQLCMD Mode in SSMS is easy. This short piece will show you how to get started.
SQL Solutions Group Marks 5th Anniversary with SQL FreeCon
To mark five years in business helping companies across the United States with their SQL Server needs, SQL Solutions Group will host a day of free SQL training Tuesday, Oct. 27, in Seattle.
Where should middle tier business logic be stored?
The age old question of where should business logic be stored
Idle Connection Resiliency
Describes the idle connection resiliency feature, which allows ODBC and SqlClient data access applications to maintain their connections to SQL Server 2014 or an Azure SQL Database.
The Poor Soul
What should those accidental DBAs do when they don't get any training, but they are responsible for database servers? Steve Jones has a few pieces of advice today.
Integration Services Logging Levels in SQL Server 2016
At the time of writing, SQL Server 2016 preview (CTP 2.3) has been released and there are some changes for the Integration Services (SSIS) Catalog logging levels.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Knots
By Steve Jones
Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes
How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Upgrading Admin Queries
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers