External Article

How DBAs Can Adopt the Craftsman Mindset

The job of a DBA requires a fusion of skill and knowledge. To acquire this requires a craftsman mindset. Craftsmen find that the better they get at the work, the more enjoyable the work gets, and the more successful they become. Deliberate practice, Specialization and an appetite for overcoming difficulty are good habits to deliberately adopt to successfully grow those craftsmanlike skills to the point that you become “so good they can’t ignore you”.

SQLServerCentral Editorial

QA for Data

Often DBAs and developers might make quick data changes to correct user problems or application shortfalls. Steve Jones notes that we can make mistakes, and perhaps we should ensure we QA, or at least log, our changes.

External Article

Selecting Data Using the TOP Clause

There are times when you don’t what to return a complete set of records. When you have this kind of requirement to only select the TOP X number of items Transact SQL (TSQL) has the TOP clause to meet your needs. In this article Greg Larsen explores how to select a subset of data from a record set.

Stairway to SQL Server Security

Stairway to SQL Server Security Level 8: Data Encryption

This stairway level will explore data protection through encryption, both when the data is in motion across the network or in memory and at rest in a table. You’ll learn about the encryption key hierarchy and the various kinds of keys you can use to encrypt data, as well as how you can manage the keys or let SQL Server do it for you.

External Article

SQL Server Spatial Indexes

Spatial Data in SQL Server has special indexing because it has to perform specialised functions. It is able, for example, to break down an indexed space into a grid hierarchy by using a technique called tessellation. This is a rules-based system that, when you compare a shape to an index, works out how many cells in the the grid hierarchy are touched by that shape , and how deep down the grid hierarchy to search. There is powerful magic in Spatial Indexes as Surenda and Roy explain.

Blogs

Monitoring Fabric Mirroring for SQL 2025

By

I previously wrote about how the underlying technology for Fabric mirroring changed with SQL...

Monday Monitor Tips: Intelligent Alert Thresholds

By

At the recent Redgate Summit in Chicago, I demo’d (lightly) the ML based Alert...

A New Word: los vidados

By

los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with dbt for Visual Studio Code: The Fabric Modern Data Platform

By John Miner

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with...

Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with dbt for Visual Studio Code: The Fabric Modern Data Platform

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Seeding a Fabric Warehouse with...

Doing the Little Things

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing the Little Things

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Historical Data Tracking

If I want to track historical data values, which mechanism should I use?

See possible answers