SQL Server 2016 Standard – Your Cake. You Can Eat it too.
November 16, 2016
Today Microsoft just made a huge announcement. All of the features you can build into your databases in SQL Server (well the vast majority at least) are no longer just included in Enterprise Editions. There are some exceptions… But the main point here is – you can be on SQL Server Standard – and you can use
Create a SQL Server Baseline with the PAL Tool
July 18, 2016
When we do a SQL Server Health Assessment, we quickly dive into SQL Server performance and Windows/Physical/Virtual resource usage counters. During our kick off interview  we always ask if you have a SQL Server baseline from the past to compare. Usually the answer is no, unfortunately. Like monitoring and alerting, many of the tools vendors make automated baseline collection tools. Also like alerting, though,
Free DBA Tool of the Week – DBATools
July 7, 2016
I need to sync logins.Just the logins? Sure just go find the best version of sp_help_revlogin. Oh wait you want the server roles, okay well you can steal some of this script here. Oh wait you want the server perms also and default databases? Okay then do a search for this script. Here you go.
Safety Gear is Dangerous!
July 3, 2016
Last year, I cut my thigh with a chainsaw at my farm. Except I was okay because I had the right protective gear on. Â I started thinking about that today again while doing a quick chore with the chainsaw. Had that moment of “Hmm.. Do I get the chaps or not for a simple cut”
DBA Lessons From a Snowy Winter
February 19, 2015
I live in New England. I expect snow in the winter. This winter, though, has been a bit of an anomaly from recent winters for us. We started out with very little snow, abnormally little snow. But then it came (and it is still coming) all at once. Over about 4ish weeks we had a
kCura’s k-rad Idea & A Vendor Doing SQL Better
October 15, 2014
k-rad.. K  From kilobyte.. A thousand.. A thousand times Rad.. Back when a 40MB hard drive was perhaps average or maybe around the time of those big 1.6GB hard drives, it meant “really cool”.. Maybe today it would ex-rad or p-rad. Anyway. There’s a reason for this trip down BBS or mIRC memory lane.. We’ll get
Hey DBA Managers, Don’t Be Like the Secret Service!
October 2, 2014
Continuing from yesterday’s advice to DBAs…  Three Four (hey it’s for managers, brownie points…) lessons for management from the Secret Service “issues”. Trust But Verify At the White House “upper management” at Secret Service didn’t realize how bad things were with recent lapses. At least I hope they didn’t and I’m going to assume they
Hey DBAs, Don’t Be Like the Secret Service!
October 1, 2014
Last week, I ripped a story from the headlines to draw lessons for Technologists from – it was about the Secret Service lapses that allowed a fence jumper to get into the threshold of the White House residence. That was bad. This week, though, we’ve learned of some additions to the story that makes it
How to Set Up SQL Server Alerts and Know if SQL Server is Healthy [Quick Tip]
September 30, 2014
SQL Server alerts let you know what is happening on your instance. They let you become a proactive DBA and know about problems potentially before your users do. If you don’t have a monitoring tool and it isn’t in the budget right now, setting up and monitoring SQL Server alerts is a free and very
DBA Reminders from an FAA Fire
September 29, 2014
Last Friday a long time employee set fire to the FAA’s Chicago Control Center. You can read about the fire and the 2,000+ flight cancellations that resulted  here and here. Keeping with the spirit of ripping lessons from headlines like I did in last week’s learning communication skills lesson from a police shooting, I think there are some lessons us