PCI Best Practices Guide for SQL Server DBAs
Tibor Nagy has put together some best practices to help SQL Server DBAs navigate the many different requirements around PCI compliance.
Controlling Alerts
Being on call is not much fun for anyone, but it can certainly be hard on those that receive lots of calls for systemic issues. Are there better ways to manage this?
DevOps and the DBA
Michael Fal is a huge advocate of automation and many ways it can improve the lives of developers and DBAs alike, but you can’t just automate all your problems...
Free Guide: Eight Steps to Effective SQL Server Monitoring
This free guide includes worked examples, practical advice, and covers the hows and why of SQL Server monitoring. Download the guide and get a 26 monitoring tips as well.
A Complex Database Project in Visual Studio SSDT
One Way to Handle a Very Complex Database Project with Several Databases and Cross References
Database Source Control Workshop - London, UK
Redgate's workshops are coming to London on July 8, 2015. In this workshop, you'll learn how to source control your database, deploy your databases from source control, and monitor and track database changes across development, testing, and production environments. Register while space is available.
Testing SQL Server Backup Performance with Trace Flag 3042
Starting with SQL Server 2008 a new feature which allowed us to create compressed backup files by pre-allocating space. This tip will look at the performance impacts of disabling pre-allocation of space using the 3042 SQL Server trace flag.
Awareness
This week Steve Jones looks back at the T-SQL Tuesday blog part and its theme of monitoing.
Testing Simple Calculations and UDFs with tSQLt
This article will give you a basic look at how you can test your user defined functions with the tSQLt framework.
Documenting your SQL Server Database
One of the shocks that a developer can get when starting to program in T-SQL is that there is no simple way of generating documentation for routines, structures and interfaces, in the way that Javadocs or Doxygen provides. To embed the documentation in the source is so obvious and easy that it is a wrench to be without this facility. Phil Factor suggests a solution.
Blogs
Learn about Modern Microsoft Apps in San Diego
By Steve Jones
I wrote about learning today for the editorial: I Can’t Make You Learn. I...
How To Deploy Fabric SQL and Azure SQL Databases with Azure DevOps
By ReviewMyDB
Fabric has CI/CD built in, but if you've tried to use it for database...
A New Word: Attriage
By Steve Jones
attriage – n. the state of having lost all control over how you feel...
Forums
SSRS Reminded Me of the Time Microsoft Retired TMG
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SSRS Reminded Me of the...
Getting results from a Procedure to join to a query
I have a need to execute a stored procedure and return the results to...
Upgrade 2016 Standard to 2022 Express
Title pretty much says it all - can this be done? I've tried several...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT II
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37 4 NULLWhat is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 4;See possible answers