Moving to the Heartland
With companies like Microsoft and Google building data centers in small towns, Steve Jones has some comments about how this might affect IT jobs.
Rendering images from a database on SSRS reports
Looking for a way to put images on SSRS reports and allow the business users to change the images every so often? This article explains how to implement this in such a way that you don't have to modify a report when the image is changed.
The Agile Cult
Lots of developers have embraced Agile development, and Steve Jones thinks it's a good way to build software. However, it's not necessarily as easy as you might think.
Are my actual worker threads exceeding the sp_configure 'max worker threads' value?
Tom Stringer (@SQLife) was working on some HADR testing for a customer to simulate many availability groups and introduce significant load into the system to measure overhead and such. In his quest to do that he was seeing behavior that he couldn’t really explain and so worked with him to uncover what was happening under the covers.
SQL Server Central Webinar Series #24: Prepare for When Disaster Strikes
Our next webinar on July 23rd has Steve Jones presenting on some disaster stories with ideas on how you might prevent, or mitigate the effects, of those problem situations.
Survey: Understanding SQL Code
Understanding thousands of lines of code of an existing database is very time-consuming and tedious, prone to inadvertent oversight of key logic points. We are looking at advanced ways to provide greater insight into your code base while reducing the numerous demands placed on the developer. Please help us by completing this short survey to help us define the requirements.
Tables and Clustered Indexes Part 2
A table does not so much 'have' a clustered index as a table 'is' a clustered index.
What Counts for a DBA: Baselines
It is very difficult to pinpoint what ails a server, just by looking at a single snapshot of the data, or to spot retrospectively what caused the problem by examining aggregated data for the server, collected over many months. The answer? Baselines.
SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Top Buffer Cache Object
This metric measures the amount of memory used in the buffer cache by the largest object (based on the number of pages). It checks the sys.dm_os_buffer_descriptors to identify the object, and returns the relative percentage used. You should use this metric if you want to monitor what is in the buffer area, or if you are having performance-related disk read problems.
SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services XMLA
Cube developers often flippantly use the term XMLA in their discussion of maintaining, scripting, backing up, and restoring cubes and other SSAS objects; what exactly is XMLA and how can it be used? Check out this tip to learn more.
Blogs
Flyway Tips: AI Helps with Commit Messages
By Steve Jones
At Redgate, we’re experimenting with how AI can help developers and DBAs become better...
Startup scripts in SQL Server containers
I was messing around performing investigative work on a pod running SQL Server 2025...
Using SQL Compare with Redgate Data Modeler
By Steve Jones
Redgate recently released SQL Compare v16, which included a new feature to work with...
Forums
What is Page Density
Comments posted to this topic are about the item What is Page Density
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Fuzzy String Search II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Azure-SSIS, Self-Hosted Integration Runtime, & Data Gateway?
Looking to confirm my understanding of these three products and how they can be...
Question of the Day
What is Page Density
In SQL Server, there is a concept of page density. This is determined by how much data is stored on each page. What is a page density of 90%?
See possible answers