Connecting to AdventureWorks on Azure
A quick guide for connecting to our free copy of AdventureWorks on the Azure platform.
How Maintenance Plans are a Big Plus for SQL Server Administration
SQL Server 2012 makes your database maintenance jobs easy by proving an effective Maintenance Plan Wizard. This wizard does a fair job of creating core maintenance plans for your database.
Morphing Microsoft
Is Microsoft trying to move away from just being a software vendor? It seems they'd like to and that's a goal, but are they moving in the right direction? Steve Jones has a few ideas to help them.
Powershell for DBAs
Powershell is a great tool for helping you work with multiple instances of SQL Server. This week Steve Jones talks about how and why you might want to get started.
SQLServerCentral Hosts AdventureWorks on Azure
SQLServerCentral and Red Gate software have agreed to host the AdventureWorks database on the Azure platform and give free access to anyone that wants to practice querying it.
Azure SQL Database Maintenance
It is increasingly likely that DBAs are now given responsibility for maintaining Azure SQL databases as well as conventional SQL Server databases. What is likely to be required by way of maintenence? What are the differences? Grant Fritchey covers what you need to know.
Powershell Database Backup Script
Learn how to write a script for regular database backups using Powershell and SMO.
Getting Started Formatting SSRS Reports
Once you've prepared an SSRS report, it needs formatting to get it ready for the people who need to read it. This tip covers the basics of formatting SSRS Reports.
Honeywords in SQL Server
There's an idea of using false passwords with real accounts, honeywords, that can help us detect security issues with our servers. Is that worth implementing in SQL Server?
Blogs
Advice I Like: Respect
By Steve Jones
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” –...
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation...
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
Is Fabric a Reliable Service or a Ripped Resource?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Is Fabric a Reliable Service...
locking down agent for new user on our dev machine
hi , a new user wants to be able to add sql agent jobs...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT I
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37What is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 3;See possible answers