Content in the Cloud
Steve Jones has some concerns over new options in SQL Server 2014 that might lead some customers to experiment in a way that causes them unexpected pain.
Vendor Value
Software maintenance is often required when purchasing software packages. But do the vendors deliver value for this charge? Steve Jones has a few thoughts on the subject.
SQL Server Operations from Set Theory
SQL Server provides the UNION, EXCEPT, and INTERSECT set operations. How do they work and how can they be used in SQL Server? Can you provide any examples? Check out this tip to learn more.
Trading in xp_cmdshell for SQLCLR (Part 1) - List Directory Contents
Learn how to use SQLCLR to get file system information instead of using xp_cmdshell on your SQL Servers.
Script to Set the SQL Server Database Default Schema For All Users
You may come across or even inherit a system where many of the users have different default schemas. Usually, this is easy to remedy - you go into Management Studio, right-click the user, and change the default schema through the UI. Or you write an ALTER USER command manually. But what if you have hundreds of users, across all of your user databases, that should all have the same default schema?
SQL Saturday #233 - Washington DC
SQL Saturday is a free day of SQL Server training and networking coming to Washington DC on December 7. Paid pre-con sessions for this SQL Saturday are available.
What is SQL Server not good at?
Today Steve Jones talks about some of the problems in SQL Server. Should we be documenting the situations in which features don't work well?
Migrating SQL Server Database to Windows Azure - Resolving Incompatibility Issues
In this series on implementing data services in Azure, Marcin Policht turns his attention to the remediation of incompatibilities resulting from of limitations inherent to Platform as a Service (PaaS) based deployments, which will need to be addressed as part of the migration process.
It Starts with Version Control
Steve Jones knows that good development practices require lots of skill and practice, but the basis for stability with your code is version control. He talks about some reasons why you might want to implement it.
Microsoft's Log Parser Utility: Swell ETL
For loading text, CSV or XML files into SQL Server, the Log Parser utility, with its amazing SQL engine, is likely to be the obvious choice. Although initially developed purely for converting IIS logs, the Log Parser can turn its hand to a range of formats including even event logs or the Windows registry.
Blogs
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...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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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