PowerShell the SQL Server Way
Although Windows PowerShell has been available to IT professionals going on seven years, there are still many IT pros who are just now deciding to see what the fuss is all about. Depending on your job, you might find PowerShell an invaluable tool. Microsoft's plan is that PowerShell will be the management tool for all of its servers and platforms. For most IT pros, it's not a matter of if you'll be using PowerShell, only a matter of when.
Data Farming
Another spy story involving data that's not true, and perhaps not plausible, but it makes Steve Jones think about data shadows.
AlwaysOn in SQL Server 2014 CTP1
AlwaysOn encompasses the SQL Server solutions for mission-critical high availability and disaster recovery. Two solutions were included under the AlwaysOn umbrella in SQL Server 2012: Availability Groups and Failover Cluster Instances. Each solution has different characteristics, making them appropriate for different scenarios, and both can be combined in the same deployment.
Disaster Recovery Tip #6 - Monitor Your Systems
Today's complex systems are too large to be able to rely on any DBA's memory for knowledge of each component, and its configuration options and settings.
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.
Blogs
Claude AI Convinced Me Not to Build an iPad App
By Steve Jones
I coach volleyball and I do a lot of stat stuff on paper. I...
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
Forums
Data Warehouse Toolkit meets Star Schema: The Complete Reference
Is there a good syllabus for reading these two together? (Yes, it's called the...
GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item GPX distance and time analysis...
The DBA is Dead; Long Live the DBA
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead; Long...
Question of the Day
Changing the AG Listener
In SQL Server 2025, if I want to remove an IP from a listener, what do I do?
See possible answers