Query Plan Pop Quiz Answers 2 and 3: I’ve Got Good News and Bad News.
In the Query Plan Pop Quiz, questions 2 and 3 asked you about what the sizes of arrows on query plans meant. The good news is that almost all of you got Question 2 right, but the bad news is that the vast majority of you got Question 3 completely incor …
How to Build an AI-Powered T-SQL Assistant with Python & SQL Server
If you’re a SQL Server DBA or developer looking to harness AI for your everyday scripting workflows, this article will walk you through building an AI-powered T-SQL assistant using Python and SQL Server. We’ll cover how to index your scripts with embed …
SQL EXISTS Use Cases and Examples
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TempDB Filling Up? Try Resource Governor.
TempDB is one of the banes of my existence. Anybody, anybody who can query your server can run a denial-of-service attack in a matter of seconds just by filling it up with a simple query: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #big_problem; CREATE TABLE #big_problem (fi …
Database Ledger in SQL Server 2022
Protecting data from unauthorized access is a major challenge for organizations today. SQL Server 2022 introduces Database Ledger, a new feature that enhances data security. It protects data from attackers and high-privileged users like DBAs, system ad …
T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script
The post T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script appeared first on SQLServerCentral.
Query Plans Pop Quiz Answer #1: Costs are Garbage.
In last week’s Query Plans Pop Quiz, the first question was, someone hands you these two queries and you get their estimated plans to decide which query to tune. Perhaps you get the estimated plans from SSMS, or from sp_BlitzCache, or from your monitor …
Announcing the 2025 Black Friday and Doorbusters Deals!
You’ve been telling yourself, “One of these days, I’ll finally take Brent’s classes.” Get ready, because that day is coming: my Black Friday sales run all November long, and they’re the biggest sale of the year! SQL Server 2025, 2022, and 2019 all dram …
Announcing Free MASTERING Week 2025!
You’ve been working with SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, or Amazon RDS SQL Server for years. You’re jaded. You’re confident. You’re pretty sure you know what you’re doing. You’ve never taken my Mastering classes because you’ve read the blog, watched the live …
Schema Design Basics for Power BI
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Migrate SSRS Reports to a New Server in Just a Few Clicks
Managing SSRS report migrations can be a time-consuming and error-prone process, especially when dealing with large enterprise report servers that contain hundreds of reports, datasets, data sources, and subscriptions. To simplify this process, we crea …
Secure PostgreSQL in Docker: SSL, Certificates & Config Best Practices
The post Secure PostgreSQL in Docker: SSL, Certificates & Config Best Practices appeared first on SQLServerCentral.
Distributed Availability Group Health: T-SQL and Zabbix
After creating a distributed availability group using the steps described in my article, SQL Server 2022 Clusterless Distributed Availability Group, how can we verify if the synchronization between data centers is healthy? In SQL Server Management Stud …
Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for October 2025
This quarter’s release includes new checks for SQL Server 2025’s new memory pressure warnings, Azure SQL DB’s operations in progress, warnings about not using partitioned statistics where appropriate, plus bug fixes. Wanna watch me use it? Take the fre …
Use SQL to Find a String in Database Tables, Stored Procedures, and User Defined Functions
The post Use SQL to Find a String in Database Tables, Stored Procedures, and User Defined Functions appeared first on SQLServerCentral.