No R2

The next version of SQL Server was announced last week and Steve Jones is pleased with the name.

The Importance of Reading Comments

Read when you search for help on the internet. You might miss a very important part of what you must do.

When Windows don’t provide illumination

Microsoft through its various GUIs tries hard to "protect" users from SQL, but Phil Factor argues that we don't need protection from code. We just need a better way to "document" the syntax.

Extend SQL Server DDL Triggers for more functionality: Part 2

A previous tip, SQL Server DDL Triggers to Track All Database Changes, generated a lot of discussion involving ways to make the provided DDL trigger more useful. Check out this tip to expand your knowledge on DDL Triggers.

Help us improve SQL Source Control

We've been working really hard on SQL Source Control, and need your input. We're currently working on suggestions from our user forum and on an updated migrations feature that supports all source control systems and works across branches. We'd love it if you could spare 10 minutes to complete this survey. If you complete the survey by Friday June 14, you could win a $100 Amazon voucher. There are two up for grabs!

Incremental Data Loading Using CDC

Describes a design pattern for using CDC to power fast and efficient incremental data loads.

The Decision to Fail

When a disaster occurs, the response from your organization isn't always pre-determined. There are times when you might not want to failover to secondary systems, especially if you don't expect the disaster to last long. How do you decide when to fail over?

More Uses for Data Explorer for Excel

Microsoft has introduced a new BI product that will help simplify the data discovery phase for Excel users. “Data Explorer” is an Excel add-in that enhances the self-service Business Intelligence experience in Excel by simplifying data discovery and access. Data Explorer is a preview product so these features may appear differently in the final release.

New Custom Metric: Percentage of blocked connections

This metric reports the number of connections that are currently blocked, divided by the total count of current connections.

Most well-balanced SQL Servers will have some degree of blocking. This metric attempts to measure the impact of lead blocking queries against other queries. Higher values indicate that many connections are being blocked, and queries should be tuned to reduce the amount of contention.

Quickly Copy Data

Moving data around can be a challenge as the sizes of our databases grow. Steve Jones talks about some of the challenges and some creative ways you might consider moving data.