Poor Database Design Realities
Steve sees that poor database design is the reality of the world and we have to work around that.
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 3
In part 2 of this series, I showed an example implementation of distributing a long-running workload in parallel, in order to finish faster. In reality, though, this involves more than just restoring databases. And I have significant skew to deal with: one database that is many times larger than all the rest and has a higher growth rate.
Basic Always On Availability Groups in SQL Server Standard
Once Windows Server Failover Clusters have been set up, we can set up Availability Groups in SQL Server. This article will focus on setting up Basic Always-On Availability Groups in SQL Server Standard Edition.
This facilitates High Availability in SQL Server Standard, with three levels of availability and failover:
Asynchronous commit with manual or forced failover,
Synchronous commit with manual or forced failover,
Synchronous commit with automatic failover.
PowerBI premium capacity administration: dataset monitoring and tuning
Over the years Power BI has evolved into a complex and varied ecosystem of tools and solutions, which in its turn demands several supporting roles: there are, of course, developers, data engineers and data scientists, but there is need for one more, i.e. a capacity administrator.
Using AI for the First Draft
What is an AI LLM useful for? Steve thinks a first draft is not a bad way to look at your AI results.
WITspiration - Year 2
A new cohort of WITspiration is strating, the women in technology mentoring circle.
Bridging Snowflake and Azure Data Stack: A Step-by-Step Guide
This article shows how to access Snowflake information from Synapse Analytics.
DBCC CLONEDATABASE is Semi-Discontinued
Microsoft is no longer supporting some uses for DBCC CLONEDATABASE. Read a few of Steve's thoughts on the change.
Who’s Changing the Table? Answers and Discussion
Your challenge for this week was to find out who keeps mangling the contents of the AboutMe column in the Stack Overflow database.
On Being an "Expert"
I had the opportunity last week to present a session at DataSaturdays Stockholm. I can't say enough nice things about the event and the organizers. I presented on Query Store in SQL Server. In my mind, it's an entry-level to middle tier presentation. Most of the room was already working with Query Store, some quite […]
Blogs
What’s New at AWS re:Invent 2025 – Day 1 Highlights
Day 1 is an absolute thrill at re:Invent! I normally dedicate this dynamic day...
Running SQL Server on KubeVirt – Getting Started
With all the changes that have happened with VMware since the Broadcom acquisition I...
Why is shrinking IT budgets a good thing?
Each year around this time, companies enter the familiar ritual of budgeting. For many,...
Forums
Best analysis approach to reduce data type length in multiple tables
Hello SSC, I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season! I...
Do you separate data/log files and TempDB files on different disks using AWS EC2
Hello, I am receiving multiple direction on deploying SQL Servers in AWS EC2. ...
Service account being in local admin in AWS EC2 environment?
Hello, I am working with a company on their database administration. I am trying...
Question of the Day
A New Operator
In SQL Server 2025, what does this code return?
SELECT '1' || '0'See possible answers