SQL SERVER – Installation Error: The Specified Value ‘Install’ for ACTION is Invalid
I was helping a client to install SQL Server using script/automation (without using UI). They wanted to do command-line install rather than hitting next, next, fill values in the UI as they have to deploy more than 100 servers with SQL installed on it. …
Announcing “Great Post, Erik” – A Book of Erik’s Best Work
Erik Darling blogs a lot. Not lightweight stuff, either, but ambitious posts with a lot of demo scripts, screenshots, and detailed explanations about why SQL Server does what it does. So as he approached his 300th blog post, we decided to build a best- …
Segment Data into Deciles
This short article shows a simple example of how to segment data into deciles
Making the database key to DevOps with comprehensive, customizable monitoring
The speed of business today demands that the development and deployment of applications is fast-moving, with frequent yet error-free releases. That’s why the adoption of DevOps is trickling down from Amazon, Facebook, Google and the other usual s …
SQL SERVER – Backup Error: 3636 – An Error Occurred While Processing BackupMetadata
Recently one of my old clients contacted me and informed that they are having an issue with database backup on the secondary replica. In this blog we would learn about how to fix error 3636 – An error occurred while processing BackupMetadata. I h …
SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU2 Available
On July 16, 2018, Microsoft released SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU2, which is Build 13.0.5153.0. There are 21 fixes in the public fix list, including a number of fixes in the SQL performance, SQL Engine, and High Availability fix areas. Microsoft has also rel …
A Quirk In Parallel Hash Join Plans
Bailing, Takes Me Away Both of these queries will return zero rows, in the 2010 version of the Stack Overflow database.SELECT COUNT(*) AS records FROM dbo.Votes AS v JOIN dbo.Posts AS p ON v.UserId = p.OwnerUserId WHERE v.CreationDate >= ‘2011-01-01 …
Creating a Logical SQL Server: Level 2 of the Stairway to Azure SQL Database
In this second level of the Stairway to Azure SQL Database, we cover the basics of building a logical server using the portal and PowerShell.
SQL Server Reporting Services Rest API
What functionality is available in the SQL Server Reporting Services REST API and how should you use it?
SQL SERVER – Backup to URL – Script to Perform Stripped Backup using Shared Access Signature (SAS)
Here are my previous blogs about Backup to URL, I have share scripts to take backup using Access Keys and SAS Token. One of my blog readers wanted to take stripped backup to Azure Blob. In this blog, I am sharing the script to perform a stripped backup …
Power BI Introduction: Working with SQL Server data in Power BI Desktop — Part 5
The series so far: Power BI Introduction: Tour of Power BI — Part 1 Power BI Introduction: Working with Power BI Desktop — Part 2 Power BI Introduction: Working with R Scripts in Power BI Desktop — Part 3 Power BI Introduction: Workin …
A New tempdb Trace Flag Appears!
Coming Around Microsoft has been doing a good job of taking stuff that used to be Wizard Hat and making it part of out of the box functionality. Starting with SQL Server 2016, you didn’t need to keep these in your setup checklist: Trace flag 1118 …
Setting Permissions to Drop a Database
Learn which permissions are required to drop a database and see a test to show that these apply.
Using SQL Server’s Default Trace to Identify Autogrow Events in tempdb
We all know that you should try to size tempdb appropriately, so it doesn’t need to autogrow shortly after starting up SQL Server. It isn’t always easy to do this. Therefore, when you first implement a new server and/or add new databases yo …
SQL SERVER – Backup to URL – Script to Generate Credential and Backup using Shared Access Signature (SAS)
As I mentioned in my earlier blog, backup to URL is one of the common methods used in SQL Server performs a backup to Azure Blob Storage. In this blog, I am going to share a script to generate the create credential and backup command using Shared Acces …