Rethinking Your Design
This week Steve Jones notices some good advice from Brent Ozar and the fastest query in your database.
Move all SQL Server indexed views to a new filegroup
As databases grow, it often becomes necessary to add new I/O paths to accommodate the growing space. Even without growth that requires this scale, it can still be useful to utilize multiple I/O devices to spread out the load. One way that you can make optimal use of new drives is to add a filegroup to the database and move certain objects (say, all of your indexed views) to the new filegroup.
SQL Saturday #198 - Vancouver
SQL Saturday comes back to Vancouver, BC on Feb 16, 2013. Come join in if you can.
Hunting Developers
Steve Jones is up in the Redmond area at Microsoft's HQ looking for SQL Server developers. This editorial was originally published on April 17, 2008. It is being re-published as Steve is on holiday.
Windows Server 2012 Deduplication – Should you use it with SQL Server Backups?
Windows Server 2012 introduces native deduplication functionality. While this is a promising new Windows feature for other file types and characteristics, there are some potential pitfalls that you need to be aware of when it comes to deduplication specifically for SQL Server backup files.
Interviewing Tips for a Database Position
Interviewing for a database position is a careful game of give and take. Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for your interview is important, but it's only half the battle. You'll also need to ask questions to see if the job, and the company, is a good fit for you.
Mastering the Art of Conversation and Making Business Contacts
In NYC on Feb 21 at 6:30, Don Gabor has a short seminar to help with your networking. Whether you are chatting in small groups or one-on-one at a networking event, IT conference or after-hours party, your ability to master the art of conversation will help you find and connect with business contacts.
A Computer Goes to College
IBM is sending a Watson supercomputer to college. We don't know what will happen with this experiment, but it is exciting for those of us looking forward to interacting more with computers in the future.
Exploring the Varbinary Type
A brief look at the Varbinary data type and its uses in SQL Server for beginners.
Evaluating Policies on Multiple SQL Server Instances using Central Management Server
you have created a SQL Server Policy to check database recovery models. Now you need to check the databases on all of your SQL Server instances. In this tip we will show how you can evaluate a SQL Server policy against multiple instances.
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers