SQL SERVER – How to Rename Extention of MDF File? – A Simple Tutorial
The other day while working with a customer during SQL Server Performance Tuning Practical Workshop, I noticed an MDF file with very strange extensions. When I asked the DBA why they have such a large data file with extension PDF (instead of commo …
Best Practices for SQL Server Backup and Disaster Recovery
Sponsored by: IDERA Date: Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 2:00 PM EDT – Duration: 1 hour read more
Should You Enforce Foreign Key Relationships in the Database?
It’s one of those fierce religious wars that divides families and tears loved ones apart. First, if two tables are related, should we tell SQL Server about it? If SQL Server knows that there’s a relationship, then it can make better decisio …
Learning designed for the data professional
– PASS Summit offers five educationally-packed days lead by highly-rated, experienced speakers and sessions focused on the way you work with data. Speaker highlights include Bob Ward, and Sunil Agarwal from the Microsoft Tiger Team. Join us Oct 31 to N …
SQL SERVER – How to Install SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) From Command Line?
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) has been removed from the product release cycle. Now SSMS is shipped as a free tool and doesn’t need to have set up media to install. Earlier I wrote a blog which you can read below. SQL SERVER – Installi …
Upgrading SQL Server– Intel Xeon-W Family
On August 30, 2017, Intel released their new Intel Xeon Processor W Family of one-socket workstation processors (hence the W) based on the Skylake-SP Xeon server processors. These processors are meant as a replacement for the older one-socket Intel Xeo …
Upgrading SQL Server– Database Experimentation Assistant
Another useful, if somewhat complicated, free tool from Microsoft is the Database Experimentation Assistant (DEA). Microsoft released DEA version 2.1 on July 25, 2017, with many new improvements over the earlier preview versions as detailed here. Here …
First Responder Kit Release: Fully Hand Automated
Did you know there are more issues closed in this FRK than there are planets in this solar system? Special thanks to Pluto for making that statement possible, and all the other planets that didn’t form. Also thanks to @mches for making …
SQL Code Smells
Table of Contents Introduction 1. Problems with Database Design 1.1. Packing lists, complex data, or other multivariate attributes into a table column 1.2. Using inappropriate data types 1.3. Storing the hierarchy structure in the same table as the ent …
Things Your SQL Server Monitoring Software Should Tell You
In our work as consultants, we see a lot of shops that have a monitoring tool, and yet they’re still not able to get to the root cause of a SQL Server performance or reliability issue. In many of these cases, the problem isn’t the peop …
10 years ago today…
…the second stage of my life ended, when I left Microsoft on August 31st, 2007. The first stage of my life was education, ending in June 1994, with a Batchelor of Engineering (Hons.) degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering fro …
SSIS as an Execution Engine for Multiple Sql scripts
Learn how you can execute multiple scripts in a restrictive database environment that doesn’t allow any third-party tools.
Resolving could not open a connection to SQL Server errors
Have you ever gotten connectivity errors from SQL Server? Jugal Shah explains the common causes for these errors, and advises on the steps you can take to resolve them.
SQL SERVER – How to Migrate Master Database to New Location?
One of my clients contacted me for On-Demand support with an interesting situation. Their goal was to move ALL databases from C drive to the E drive. They told me that they have done ALTER for all databases (user and system) but it is not working in th …
Can Uber, Lyft, and Waze Save Lives in Natural Disasters?
After working as a registered nurse and volunteer firefighter during hurricane Harvey, I came up with ideas on how Uber, Lyft, and Waze could help. See my article on LinkedIn here ….(read more)