Got SQL Server Questions?

A Great Idea – #SQLHelp hashtag on Twitter I was following a conversation today between Brent Ozar, who is @BrentO on twitter and Aaron Nelson, who is @SQLVariant on twitter. A great idea was discussed: A twitter hashtag that, as Jorge Segarra (or @SQLChicken on twitter) describes it in his blog post, can act like … Read more

How do -you- (I) use SQL Server?

I was recently tagged in an interesting blog post by A Misplaced New Englander, David Taylor. (dyfhid on twitter). The question sounds simple enough, “How do you use SQL Server where you work?” Of course the answer is not simple. I echo Grant Fritchey’s response in his blog post that it would be easier to … Read more

Worked fine in development…

How many times have you heard or uttered those words? You work hard and understand the business requirements, you try and get the logic to work to make the procedure return what was expected or update the data as expected. You do some unit tests in your environment, it may not scream but it comes … Read more

Manage Your Transactions (So They Don’t Manage You – Part 2)

This is the final in a series on shrinking and transactions. You can see them all in the Shrinking & Transactions category. In part 1, we talked about factors that affect transaction log growth. We talked about what a SQL Server transaction is and the various modes SQL interacts with a transaction (Autocommit, Implicit Transactions and … Read more

Manage Your Transactions (So they don’t manage you – Part 1)

This is part 3 in a series on shrinking and transaction management. Click here for part 4. You can see them all in the Shrinking & Transactions category. If you are one of the people who have been reading this blog, you know where I stand on shrinking databases/log files. I don’t like the practice (Post 1, … Read more

What SQL instances are installed on my network?

Find All SQL Server Instances On Your Network! It’s been awhile since a tool has given me that giddy, starstruck feeling but it’s happened this week… If you ever struggle with instance discovery and management, I hope you get excited and try this tool out as well. Bear with me as I walk through it. … Read more