Mike WalshMike Walsh

Mike loves mentoring clients on the right Systems or High Availability architectures because he enjoys those lightbulb moments and loves watching the right design and setup come together for a client. He started Straight Path in 2010 when he decided that after over a decade working with SQL Server in various roles, it was time to try and take his experience, passion, and knowledge to help clients of all shapes and sizes. Mike is a husband, father to four great children, and a Christian. He’s a volunteer Firefighter and EMT in his small town in New Hampshire, and when he isn’t playing with his family, solving SQL Server issues, or talking shop, it seems like he has plenty to do with his family running a small farm in NH raising Beef Cattle, Chickens, Pigs, Sheep, Goats, Honeybees and who knows what other animals have been added!

Don’t Touch that SQL ServerShrink Database Button!

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Updated [2016] This post continues to be a popular destination for searches like “How do I shrink a database?”  I made some copy edits. I also wanted to reiterate a default position: It isn’t usually a good idea to shrink your SQL Server database. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions. This post is part 1 in a series … Read more

Good use for WITH RECOMPILE

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Haven’t looked into all of the details underneath but at the surface probably a good reminder of where WITH RECOMPILE can be helpful… Using SQL Server Reporting Services, a workaround was used (this is the part I want to look into more) to basically get a blank report showing when a user first links to … Read more

Rolling Back (or is it??)

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Interesting Issue Today/Yesterday – A query was using a linked server to grab data from DB2 via an ODBC connection. Normal execution time is about 15 minutes. This had run on for at least 7 hours when it was decided to kill it, appeared to be doing nothing but causing blocks (due to Intent Shared … Read more

Troubleshooting Methodology

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What is a troubleshooting methodology? A lot of the technical problems I encounter with clients or in various roles are not really the fault of the technology at hand. They are either the result of rushed work, apathetic work or botched troubleshooting. Before talking about what troubleshooting is, let’s talk about what it is not. … Read more

First Entry

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Hello,  This is the first post on the new site. I am hoping to make this blog a useful one. I hope to post here regularly and am promising myself I will only post something if it meets some of the following criteria: It is something I spent time researching/investigating to discover the tidbit I … Read more