Xp_cmdshell Use Cases
Today Steve asks for the ways in which you use xp_cmdshell in your environment.
Prevent Duplicate Records in SQL using Filtered Index
In this article, I share how an SQL Server filtered index solved the problem of preventing duplicates for new rows in a table.
Getting Your DBA Teams Scripts into Git
In this article, you will learn how a team can start to better manage the scripts they use for their daily work.
The Cost of Rework
Steve notes that we're always better doing things better the first time. That takes some effort.
Concepts and Issues in Test Data Generation
Data generation is the science and art of providing data for database development work that is as realistic and controllable as possible. The skills of generating realistic data are an essential part of being a database developer. It is important: you need plenty of data of exactly the right type, size and verisimilitude
Shout Your Successes
I was at a customer this week (sorry, can't share who). I spent the day talking about Redgate Monitor and how it can help with query tuning, server management, and estate management. Through the day, the data pros at the company were sharing how they were managing hundreds of servers and several thousand databases. They […]
Set up a Windows Server Fail-over Clusters (As a Precursor to High Availability in Standard Edition)
Setting up High Availability in SQL server has some prerequisites. One of these is that the database servers must be members of the same Windows Server Failover Cluster. In this article I show how to succesfully set up WSFC and activate Cluster Aware Updating
What Metrics Do You Collect?
Monitoring and observability are becoming more important in today's 24x7x365 environment for applications. Steve asks what data helps you solve problems today. Tell us what's important to you.
Build Chatbot with Large Language Model (LLM) and Azure SQL Database
In this article, we look at how to enable a large language model (LLM) to answer questions based on data stored in Azure SQL Database.
Configure Extensible Key Management Using Azure Key Vault - Level 3 of the Stairway to TDE
In this third level of the Stairway, we examine how to store your encryption certificate in the Azure Key Vault.
Blogs
Stupid Things I Did With AI: ASCII Art
By Steve Jones
I ran across this article recently (https://www.gatesnotes.com/meet-bill/source-code/reader/microsoft-original-source-code) and it has a great opening piece...
Simple Talks Podcasting in 2026
By Steve Jones
I’m in the UK today, having arrived this morning in London. Hopefully, by this...
SSMS 22 still inserting tabs instead of spaces
I’m not trying to start up a debate whether you should use tabs or...
Forums
Script Task execution error with HTTP request
I have a script task that tries to execute a HTTP request, which seems...
SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer...
URL Safe or Not?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item URL Safe or Not?
Question of the Day
URL Safe or Not?
If I use BASE4_ENCODE() in SQL Server 2025, is the output URL Safe by default?
See possible answers