SQLBlog.com - Sat, 18 May 2013 06:00
Red Gate rocks. If you didn’t know that already, you know it now. The latest evidence to support this claim is the publication of the schedule for US SQL in the City events. They are: 9 Oct – Pasadena 11 Oct – Atlanta 14 Oct – Charlotte Registration for these events opens 24 May. :{>...(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Sat, 18 May 2013 04:00
When : October 15, 2013 8:45 am - 4:45 pm Charlotte, NC Where : Wake Forest University Charlotte Center 200 North College Street Charlotte, NC 28202 What : Business Intelligence Markup Language (Biml) automates your BI patterns and eliminates the manual repetition that consumes most of your time. Come see why BI professionals around the world think Biml is the future of data integration and BI. Registration is just $69. Register before July 15th and receive early bird discount of just $49. Breakfast,...(read more)
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sat, 18 May 2013 01:30
Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. […]
SQLBlog.com - Fri, 17 May 2013 20:35
I don’t know why but for some reason I have never liked using sp_spaceused. It probably started a long time ago when the results were often inaccurate due to the meta data being out of date. I am pretty sure that was fixed somewhere along the line but the system stored procedure had some other limitations that usually prevented me from seeing the data that I really wanted in most cases. So at some point I created my own stored procedure to view the data I was most interested in almost on a daily...(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Fri, 17 May 2013 12:44
Matt Masson and I are co-presenting Developing Extensions for SSIS 22 May 2013 at 11:00 AM EDT. If you’ve never heard Matt present, you are in for a treat. Matt is knowledgeable (he helped build Integration Services 2012!) and entertaining. This is going to be a good one, folks! Abstract Join Matt Masson and Andy Leonard for a discussion and demonstrations on extending SSIS with custom tasks and data flow components. This code heavy session walks you through the creation of a custom SQL Server Integration...(read more)
sqlservercentral.com - Fri, 17 May 2013 06:00
Learn how to write a script for regular database backups using Powershell and SMO.
There's more than one way to be green.
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. Get alerts within 15 seconds of SQL Server issuesSQL Monitor checks performance data every 15 seconds, so you can fix issues before your users even notice them.
SQLBlog.com - Fri, 17 May 2013 03:50
Fellow MVP Alessandro Cardoso sent me information today about a private cloud and virtualisation event that's running later this month.It's being offered in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.If that's of interest, you'll find more details here: http://virtualisationandmanagement.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/private-cloud-virtualisation-strategy-events-in-brisbane-melbourne-sydney-may-and-june-2013/
Journey to SQLAuthority - Fri, 17 May 2013 01:30
Earlier this week, I asked a puzzle about how REPLICATE works with 8000 and over 8000 characters. I strongly suggest to read the original blog post where I have described the problem in detail SQL SERVER Puzzle – REPLICATE over 8000 Characters. Just quick to summarize the puzzle. Here is the quick recap of the same. Now […]
SQLBlog.com - Thu, 16 May 2013 22:03
Its been a couple of weeks since SQLBits XI happened in Nottingham and I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts for posterity. First the venue. I think its fair to say that the overall consensus was that the East Midlands Conference Centre was the best SQLBits venue these has been so far – I’ve been to more than half of them and based on my experience I would agree with that sentiment. The hotel especially was top quality – I was pleased with my room and the breakfasts were way better than the Travelodge standards I’ve become accustomed to at such events. Perhaps the great weather over the weekend helped lift the spirits but I’d say the bar has been set high, I hope future SQLBits conferences are at similar standard venues. You may have noticed that many of my blog posts over the past year have been related to SSDT and my SQLBits sessions this time around followed that trend. I del
sqlservercentral.com - Thu, 16 May 2013 06:00
This article shows how to change a SQL Server name after changing the Windows machine name.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Thu, 16 May 2013 01:30
Today, I am very happy as the journey I started almost 6.5 years ago has very important milestone. I have stopped blogging about my milestone for a long time as I believe that was just taking up the space in my blog and was not providing any useful information. However, today is a special day. […]
SQLBlog.com - Wed, 15 May 2013 16:42
Imagine that you're moving thousands or millions of rows between two tables . Maybe it's between a staging table and a data warehouse in an ETL process. Maybe you're manipulating some data via a temp table as you're preparing lookup data for your OLTP system. Maybe you're preparing data for an end user. It doesn't really matter what your use case, because there are so many of them. We, as database developers, spend all day moving data back and forth . Unfortunately, sometimes our processes break...(read more)
sqlservercentral.com - Wed, 15 May 2013 06:00
Learn how you can manipulat XML documents solely in memory. No file required.
A free day of training this weekend in Atlanta, GA. ‘Disturbing Development’Grant Fritchey & the DBA Team present the latest installment of the Top 5 hard-earned lessons of a DBA – read it now
When no clustered index is defined on a table, that table is said to be a Heap. Heaps are not ideal when it comes to performance but there are lots of instances where you have heaps.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Wed, 15 May 2013 01:30
We all love puzzles and here is interesting puzzle which you can play with me and win Amazon Gift Cards and Bubble Copter R/C. The contest for Amazon Gift Card is open worldwide, however, Bubble Copter winner will be chosen from USA only. First run following script: SET ANSI_NULLS ON; -- Query1 SELECT 'SQLAuthority' AS Statement11 […]
simple-talk.comGrant Fritchey - Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00
When problems arise in SQL Server, we're faced with a server full of suspects, including disk I/O, memory, CPU, incorrect or missing indexes, badly written T-SQL code, out of date statistics, and full disk drives. All of these have motive and opportunity to murder the performance of our databases, and it's the DBA's job to collar the culprit, quickly without relying on luck or heroics.
sqlservercentral.com - Tue, 14 May 2013 06:00
Eliminate pesky legacy TEXT, NTEXT and IMAGE data types with this handy script.
A free day of training in Redmond, WA this weekend on May 18, 2013.
Unfortunately SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) does not support differential backups and creating full backups for the servers might take too much time. In this tip we are going to show how to synchronize two SSAS servers in order to have a failover server in case something goes wrong with one of the servers.
On Thursday May 16th 12PM Central time, Robert Davis will discuss public facing websites on a global scale when looking at Data Architecture.
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Tue, 14 May 2013 04:17
I now have a red, P85 Tesla Model S. I picked it up at the Denver Tesla Service Center on May 3, 2013. After slightly more than a week of ownership, I am still extremely happy. It is incredibly quick … Continue reading →
Journey to SQLAuthority - Tue, 14 May 2013 01:30
I need your help. I recently came across extended stored procedure xp_sscanf. After reading a lot about it and searching online, I could not figure out how and where in real world, I will use this function. Microsoft documentations suggest that this extended stored procedure reads data from the string into the argument locations specified […]
SQLBlog.com - Tue, 14 May 2013 00:09
The topic for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday is about the journey. Wendy Pastrick’s choice (I’m hosting again next month!). There are a lot of journeys. There are some that just keep going, and others that seem to finish (some in success; some in failure). Of course, many of the ones that finish end up being the start of new journeys, but sometimes they don’t need to continue – they just need closure. There are thi
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 13 May 2013 13:38
A week ago I gave my session on the subject. It is only first part of the two – second will be next time when there is an open slot. Demos from my session are available here ....(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 13 May 2013 13:08
While I was on vacation last week in Scotland Simple Talk published a new article I wrote called Backup and Restore SQL Server with the SQL Server 2012 PowerShell cmdlets. Hope you have as much fun with it as I did writing it. Allen...(read more)
sqlservercentral.com - Mon, 13 May 2013 06:00
Identify orphaned Database Users and differentiate them from "Loginless" Database Users.
Part 4 of the top 5 hard earned lessons of a DBA.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Mon, 13 May 2013 01:30
It has been a long time since we have played a puzzle over this blog. This Monday, let us play a quick puzzle. SQL Server have REPLICATE function which will replicate the string passed as many as times as the second parameter. For example execute following string. SELECT 'Ha'+REPLICATE('ha',20) The script above will return following result: […]
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 13 May 2013 00:51
Hi Folks,On Thursday night, I got to record a podcast with Reza Rad. I was interested to speak to Reza after reading his SQL Server 2012 Integration Services Cookbook.In the show, we discuss SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) extensibility and some aspects of performance tuning for SSIS.You'll find the show here: http://www.sqldownunder.com/PodcastsEnjoy!
SQLBlog.com - Sun, 12 May 2013 05:06
I will be on for speaking next week at SQL Saturday #220 #SQLSATATL. My sessions will be on SQL Server TDE and SMO Internals for High Performance PowerShell. Both are great fun to present and good information to have. Hope to see you there in Alpharetta, GA....(read more)
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sun, 12 May 2013 01:30
Have you ever worked with CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL earlier in your career? If yes, you will find this post very interesting. If you have not worked with this function before I think this post will teach you something very interesting. Before we start please note that as per SQL Server official documentation CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL will be always ON in the […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sat, 11 May 2013 01:30
SQLBlog.com - Fri, 10 May 2013 15:52
I generally do not get involved in high-end SAN systems. It is almost impossible to find meaningful information on the hardware architecture from the vendor. And it is just as impossible to get configuration information from the SAN admin. The high-end SAN is usually a corporate resource managed in different department from the database. The SAN admin is generally hard set on implementing SAN vendor doctrine of "Storage as a Service" and does not care to hear input on special considerations from...(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Fri, 10 May 2013 13:29
Let’s begin with an assertion: “People are more important than process.” – Andy, circa 2008 Whenever an enterprise or institution adopts a new process or policy, that policy should serve people and not shackle them. The nicest thing that can be said about a policy that binds people is, “It wasn’t well thought out.” It’s a bad idea, in other words. What’s the logical thing to do when we encounter a bad idea? Reverse it, as quickly as possible. Is it a good idea to hang on to the bad idea because (hypothetically)...(read more)
sqlservercentral.com - Fri, 10 May 2013 06:00
This article will show you the importance of Indexed Views and how they can help performance.
I have heard about parameterization for SQL Server queries, but what is Forced and Simple Parameterization and which one should I use for my SQL Server database?
This SQL Monitor custom metric tells you if a specific SQL Server Agent job that runs at the same time every day has overrun. The metric is useful when a job can have negative effects on other processes if it overruns. How to automate your .NET and SQL Server deploymentsDeploy .NET code and SQL Server databases in a single repeatable process with Red Gate Deployment Manager.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Fri, 10 May 2013 01:30
Presenting a technical session is a greatest experience one can have and I enjoy doing the same. While I write this blog post, I am presenting at Great Indian Developer Summit in India. The event is a grand success and I am having a great time at this event. One of the questions which I […]
sqlservercentral.com - Thu, 09 May 2013 06:00
Business Intelligence architect, Analysis Services Maestro, and author Bill Pearson exposes the DAX ISBLANK() function, and then provides some hands-on exposure to its use, particularly in combination with other DAX functions, in managing empty values underlying our PowerPivot model designs.
We’re putting together a free eBook of 50 tips for Azure Storage, if you’ve got tips that you’d like to share we’d love to hear from you.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Thu, 09 May 2013 01:30
In a previous article, I wrote about scale-up vs. scale-out architectures using SQL Server and NuoDB as examples. NuoDB recently announced the general availability of their latest product release, 1.1, and it looks like they’ve made significant progress in improving their Microsoft support. NuoDB now supports 64-bit Windows environments, natively integrates with Visual Studio, LINQ […]
SQLBlog.com - Wed, 08 May 2013 16:14
I am super-excited to visit New Orleans next month for Microsoft TechEd; it will be my sixth time speaking at the show. My session takes an in-depth look at some of the techniques I've developed for using SQLCLR modules -- and some of the great performance gains I've been able to achieve. Hope to see you in NOLA! If you're not attending the show, the video will be available on demand a few days after I give the talk....(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Wed, 08 May 2013 14:31
“Case Studies” are a great tool when you’re evaluating a platform. Having evidence that other companies have deployed Windows Azure, in addition to how they did it, is a good way to plan your own deployments or even just evaluate whether Windows Azure would be a good fit. And we have several case studies you can examine here: https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/case-studies/ But there aren’t a lot of them – and there isn’t much detail on some. Why not? Well, as to the first question, we
sqlservercentral.com - Wed, 08 May 2013 06:00
How to render PDF documents using SQL CLR. Also a good introduction on creating SQL CLR functions.
To meet our database configuration standards we want to make sure that we have only one database transaction log file and more than one data file. In this tip we look at how this can be done using a policy.
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Wed, 08 May 2013 02:16
Here is the May 2013 version of my SQL Server 2005 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to several of the existing queries. To go with it is an updated, blank 2005 results spreadsheet, where the tabs … Continue reading →
Journey to SQLAuthority - Wed, 08 May 2013 01:30
This is the 51th episode of SQL in Sixty Seconds Video and we will see in this episode how to RESEED identity of the table column. Identity column is every increasing (or decreasing) value based on the interval specified in its property. In today’s SQL in Sixty Seconds video we will see that how we […]
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Wed, 08 May 2013 01:06
Here is the May 2013 version of my SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to several of the existing queries. I have decided to split off this into a separate version just for SQL … Continue reading →
SQLBlog.com - Tue, 07 May 2013 20:57
SQL Server Dynamic Management Views (DMV's), or more appropriately termed Dynamic Management Objects (DMO’s), have been around for quite a while now. They made their first appearance in SQL Server 2005 and they unlocked a wealth of information that was either impossible to get, or would take extremely complicated queries to get the information that you were looking for. Since I began learning about DMV's I have been a big advocate for using them. After the discovery of two new DMV's that were added in SQL Server 2008, my love for DMV's has grown even stronger. These two DMV's in question are used to track down objects that are referencing a specific SQL Server object(sys.dm_sql_referencing_entities), or objects that are referenced by a specific SQL Server object(sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities). DBA's are often tasked to identify all objects that may be depending upon a specific object or to find all objects that a specific object depends on. For exampl
SQLBlog.com - Tue, 07 May 2013 12:54
In June I and Alberto will deliver a pre-conference seminar at both TechEd North America (New Orleans, LA) and TechEd Europe (Madrid, Spain).This day is a very good quickstart for those of you that still didn't complete one of our books, or those of you that missed one of our workshop about Tabular or PowerPivot. If you are planning to go to TechEd, you might also consider attending a full day about DAX, following the From 0 to DAX one-day seminar. Here are the links:TechEd North America – From 0 to DA
sqlservercentral.com - Tue, 07 May 2013 06:00
Learn how to simplify deployment and maintenance of SQL CLR assemblies by using T-SQL instead of Visual Studio.
The easiest ways to maintain and manage slowly changing dimensions is using Slowly Changing Dimension Transformation in the data flow task of SSIS packages.
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Tue, 07 May 2013 02:10
Here is the May 2013 version of my SQL Server 2008 R2 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to several of the existing queries. I have decided to split off this into a separate version just for … Continue reading →
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Tue, 07 May 2013 01:51
Here is the May 2013 version of my SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to several of the existing queries. I have improved the formatting of the results to make many of the queries … Continue reading →
Journey to SQLAuthority - Tue, 07 May 2013 01:30
Recently I came across situation where database sharding was once again a suggested solution by architectures. Everytime I hear the word sharding I remember my earlier article about NuoDB on Shard No More – An Innovative Look at Distributed Peer-to-peer SQL Database. Sharding requires developers to think about things like rollbacks, constraints, and referential integrity across tables […]
simple-talk.comDavid Atkinson - Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00
Once databases are placed in source control, it is possible to integrate them into the existing build automation process. This will ensure that the whole development project, including the database, can be integrated regularly and tested by an automated build system. This, in turn, leads to opportunities for more frequent, reliable deployments.
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 06 May 2013 16:43
Definitions Read-Uncommitted Isolation Level The read-uncommitted isolation level is the least restrictive isolation level within SQL Server, which is also what makes it popular for developers when looking to reduce blocking. Blocking is “typically” not an issue when using this isolation level because the query will not request shared (S) locks on the tables that it is reading. In addition to this, other processes are still allowed to read and modify data within any table that your query may be accessing under this isolation level. I say this is “typically” not an issue because there are some locks that are still generated and can cause certain types of blocking. A schema-stability (Sch-S) lock will be placed on the table(s) being accessed and a shared (S) lock will be placed on the database. The (Sch-S) lock on the table will only prevent DDL actions from occurring on the accessed t
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 06 May 2013 14:57
In this portion of the series on database benchmarking, I want to tell you about one of my favorite aspects of the TPC benchmarks – CHEATING. ...(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 06 May 2013 12:16
I published an article describing how to implement the grouping of sales transactions by age of customer at the moment of the transaction by using PowerPivot or Analysis Services. The same pattern can be used also for any kind of banding operation, this specific case is useful also to recycle the formula that gets the exact age of the customer for each transaction. An interesting point is related to performance optimization. The technique is based on adding a calculated column in a table that might contain millions of transactions. This is less expensive than adding a column that contains a foreign key and then a relationship between a table containing group definitions and the transactions table. Every relationship is expensive and generates additional structures (you can see more files in the Analysis Services database, too). Adding one or two columns
sqlservercentral.com - Mon, 06 May 2013 06:00
Using SQLCMD Mode in SSMS is easy. This short piece will show you how to get started.
SQLBlog.com - Mon, 06 May 2013 01:57
On Friday, May 10 I will be speaking for the Knoxville SQL Server User Group, and on May 18, I will be speaking at SQL Saturday in Atlanta. Both days, my session is my old chestnut “Database Design Fundamentals”. It is my favorite session to do because of two things. 1. I love to talk about database design 2. No demos :). The abstract is: In this session I will give an overview of how to design a database, including the common normal forms and why they should matter to you if you are creating...(read more)
Journey to SQLAuthority - Mon, 06 May 2013 01:30
Azure SQL database backup used to be a difficult task. Not any more. With SQLBackupAndFTP with Azure it became trivial. Here’s what you basically need to do: Once SQLBackupAndFTP with Azure is installed, click at “Connect to SQL Server / Azure” button and specify connection properties for your Azure SQL Databases: Then click “Run Now” to […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sun, 05 May 2013 01:30
Sometime I feel I know a lot about SQL Server and very next moment, I realize that honestly I do not know much about this product. Earlier today, I had similar moments. I was playing with few DMVs and suddenly I ended up on the DMV sys.dm_xe_map_values. There are only four columns and one of the […]
SQLBlog.com - Sat, 04 May 2013 14:01
Yesterday I gave my session to the fine folks in Nottingham, UK. Below is a zip file containing the deck and samples: Bertrand_BitsXI_BadHabits.zip...(read more)
SQLBlog.com - Sat, 04 May 2013 05:49
I'm so happy that DAX Studio finally supports Excel 2013! As Darren Gosbell described in his blog, this release has a few internal changes that will better support future enhancements. I will port the code to capture the query plan for a query in this new release, but unfortunately it will require some weeks because I'm traveling a lot in these days.If you write DAX formulas and queries for PowerPivot or Analysis Services Tabular, DAX Studio is a must have tool: do you really want to live without a DAX Editor? There are a lot of possible improvements and I hope other contributors will give their help to this Codeplex project.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sat, 04 May 2013 01:30
sqlservercentral.com - Fri, 03 May 2013 06:00
Learn how to dynamically load data from ETL load files using SSIS as a shell. The code downloads files from FTP, parses them and loads them into the database.
This tip will demonstrate how to monitor SQL Failover Cluster Instances if they become unbalanced using Windows PowerShell.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Fri, 03 May 2013 01:30
This blog post is inspired from my earlier blog post of UPDATE From SELECT Statement – Using JOIN in UPDATE Statement – Multiple Tables in Update Statement. In the blog post I discussed about how we can use JOIN and multiple tables in the UPDATE statement. There were plenty of the emails after this blog […]
simple-talk.comMichael Sorens - Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00
Although SQL Compare, for SQL Server, is one of Red Gate's best-known products, there are also 'sister' tools that allow you to compare and synchronise MySQL and Oracle databases. MySQL Compare was originally a 'down-tools' project, so never had the extra features or lavish documentation of its siblings. In respect for a highly useful tool, we publish simple instructions of how to use it.
simple-talk.comAllen White - Fri, 03 May 2013 00:00
There are plenty of occasions when it makes a lot of sense to do backup and restore scripts in PowerShell. Microsoft have put effort into making it much easier, as Allen demonstrates.
Journey to SQLAuthority - Thu, 02 May 2013 01:30
I will be presenting once again 3 Technical Sessions on SQL Server and Performance Tuning at Great Indian Developer Summit on May 7, 2013. If you are going to attend the event, you do not want to miss the technical sessions at any cost. Here is the generic theme for every session I will be […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Wed, 01 May 2013 01:30
Here are few of the question I often receive - Do you know anything besides SQL Server? So how does it feel when the only thing which you know is SQL Server? Have you worked in the past with any other programming language? Actually, I find these questions very interesting as I do work with […]
SQLBlog.com - Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:31
In his article Healthcare's Big Problem With Little Data , author Dan Munro raises salient points about the state of health-related data. Electronic Health Records (EHR) were promoted as the end-all-be-all solution for the industry – a standardization that, I suppose, many thought would organically and naturally occur, stabilize, and be maintained. It hasn’t. At least not yet. My doctor and I speak about this almost each time I visit with him. The corporation that operates his practice nowadays seems...(read more)
Journey to SQLAuthority - Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:30
This is one of the most interesting questions I keep on getting on this email and I find that not everyone knows about it. In recent times I have seen a developer writing a cursor to update a table. When asked the reason was he had no idea how to use multiple tables with the […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:30
Here is an email I received during the weekend. “Hi Pinal, I am a senior tester in the leading organization and we have two different environments 1) Testing 2) Production. As a part of the testing we want to insert garbage data into the database system and see how the application behaves in this scenario. However, […]
simple-talk.comFeodor Georgiev - Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00
In most databases, very small percentage of data changes between SQL Server backups. We tolerate this because it keeps things simple, and we have grown used to cheap storage and fast networks. To exploit the value of Cloud services, should we be rethinking this in favour of backup strategies that optimise resilience and minimise downtime?
One way of getting the advantages of the Cloud without having to migrate the entire database is to just maintain a copy of the data that needs to be accessible to internet-based users in Windows Azure SQL Database. There are various ways of keeping the two in sync, and Feodor describes a solution based in using SSIS
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:30
Earlier this week Microsoft have released two very interesting downloads which got my attention. Haddop, PowerPivot and PowerView all three are not directly related to traditional RDBMS but their important is growing in the industry as big data is taking over market. The Microsoft SQL Server SQOOP Connector for Hadoop is now part of Apache […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:30
Journey to SQLAuthority - Fri, 26 Apr 2013 01:30
I have previously written about the difference between UNION ALL and UNION multiple times over this blog but it seems like this question never gets old and I keep on getting the question again and again. UNION ALL and ORDER BY – How to Order Table Separately While Using UNION ALL Difference Between Union vs. […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:30
“How do I return a few of my resultset rows at the bottom of the entire resultset?” I was previously asked this question and my response was that we can do this by using the CASE statement in the ORDER BY clause and I wrote a blog post describing the same over here SQL SERVER – […]
Journey to SQLAuthority - Wed, 24 Apr 2013 01:30
This journey of SQL in Sixty Seconds we started almost a year ago and today we are at very interesting milestone where I am recording 50th episode. Thought I wanted to keep the length of each video to sixty seconds, sometimes it went up by a few seconds. Due to this we are also at very interesting milestone as well – […]
simple-talk.comSeth Delconte - Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00
SQL Server filtered indexes can save space and improve performance if they are used properly. Under what circumstances can they be used? When are they most effective, and what sort of performance gain or space-saving is likely? How does a filtered index affect the choice of execution plan? Seth explores these questions with practical experiments
simple-talk.comHolger Schmeling - Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00
When you need to present the same SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) report in eight or more different languages, or in different formats for different recipients, and the boss demands last-minute changes, it suddenly makes sense to use the Report Definition Cusomisation Extension (RDCE) .NET class library to create the final reports automatically. But how?
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:17
Here is the April 2013 version of my SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to several of the existing queries. I have added some new columns to several of the queries, and improved the … Continue reading →
simple-talk.comGrant Fritchey - Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00
SQL Monitor comes with plenty of metrics, but there are always going to be things that you want to measure that can't be done 'out of the box'. Taking database mirroring as an example, Grant shows that custom metrics can be used to monitor and alert whatever aspect of SQL Server or database that you need.
simple-talk.comBuck Woody - Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00
Although every computer language is suitable for data, some languages lend themselves especially well for working with certain types or sources of data, or processing the data in certain ways, and so are of particular use to the data scientist.
Glen Berry's SQL Server Performance - Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:37
Microsoft has released three new Cumulative Updates for SQL Server today, two for SQL Server 2008 R2 and one for SQL Server 2012. The first one is SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 CU12, which is Build 10.50.2874. This CU has … Continue reading →
simple-talk.comFrancis Hanlon - Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00
If you are using replication in SQL Server, you can monitor it in SSMS, but it makes sense to monitor distribution jobs automatically, especially if you can set up alerts or even set up first-line remedial action when a problem is detected. Francis shows how to do it in TSQL as an agent job.
Kalen Delanay - Wed, 10 Apr 2013 01:39
I just started using a new DMV (one that’s actually an ‘F’ not a ‘V’, as in Function) that gives us more info about distribution statistics. It returns info about the last statistics update date (which is also available with a function STATS_DATE())....(read more)
simple-talk.comAdam Machanic - Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00
It is easy to get database monitoring wrong. There are several common-sense rules that can make all the difference between a monitoring system that works for you and helps to avoid database problems, and one that just creates a distraction. Adam Machanic spells out the rules, based on his considerable experience with database monitoring.
simple-talk.comRobert Sheldon - Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00
There are several frameworks for assisting with the testing of SQL Server databases, but tSQLt is popular because it is written in TSQL and is simple for a database developer to set up and use. It doesn't get in the way. Rob Sheldon shows you how to get started.
simple-talk.comGrant Fritchey - Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00
Many SQL Server metrics tell their story best when displayed together on the same graph, so you can see how the things you're measuring vary against each other, over time, in order to gain a summary of the stresses on the server. So what six metrics should you choose? Grant comes up with his six favourite diagnostic metrics.
simple-talk.comFeodor Georgiev - Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery (DR) are IT tasks that seldom get the same level of attention as development… until disaster strikes. Only if planning is adequate can an organisation be resilient in the face of unexpected problems. There are several steps that are needed to achieve an adequate DR process and the ability to restore business operations after a disaster.
simple-talk.comErin Stellato - Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00
Accurate statistics about the data held in tables are used to provide the best execution strategy for SQL queries. but if the statistics don't accurately reflect the current contents of the table you'll get a poorly-performing query. How do you find out if statistics are correct, and what can you do if the automatic update of statistics isn't right for the way a table is used?
simple-talk.comHugh Bin-Haad - Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:00
Pivoting SQL Server tables is always awkward, even with the PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators. If you want to get the job done without GROUP BY or PIVOY, here is a way to do it using only REPLACE.