SQL Server Patching – A Primer
December 10, 2020
With some of the CU and SP misses that happen, what’s a good schedule for patching a SQL Server? What are some things to do before applying a CU to a SQL Server? How can we verify our SP or CU didn’t break anything? And what CU should I apply? The latest? The even number … Read more
Presenting – What I’ve Learned
December 9, 2020
So I totally missed the boat on a GREAT T-SQL Tuesday topic – “What’s something you’ve learned while presenting?” But with a twist – something technical, you’ve learned that you didn’t learn. Well, mine is a bit embarrassing… I’ll share that. Also – I totally skimmed the topic and some of the post titles. I … Read more
The Sound of Silence
December 6, 2020
Oops. I missed a blog post yesterday (Saturday). In fairness, I spent the night running around in the first snowstorm of the season trying to get ready for it (somehow caught off guard – again – by the first storm.) We had to move our cows around and deal with some limbs down and a … Read more
On Intentionality and Making Paths
December 4, 2020
Yes. I’m writing a short blog post about a simple topic. At least simple at first glance. There’s a certain irony in this being the post topic I’m writing about tonight. You see, I set out a goal for myself in December – write a blog post every day. At some point, try and write … Read more
“Are you Overpaying for SQL Server Licensing” Webinar Recap
December 3, 2020
Earlier this week, SIOS invited me to join them in a webinar over at MSSQL tips. You can watch the webinar recording if you register for it in “OnDemand” mode on their site here. Dave Bermingham joined me on the webinar – he’s a great technologist and a long time Microsoft MVP in cloud and … Read more
VMware and SQL Server Best Practices.
December 2, 2020
I wish you knew a few things about VMware and SQL Server best practices. If you’ve ever asked yourself “Why does my storage seem slower on my SQL Server VMs?!”, this post may help. We love VMware in our SQL Server consulting practice. But there are some things you should know and do first. These … Read more
SQL Server: Standard vs Enterprise Edition
December 1, 2020
Do you need SQL Server Enterprise Edition? Maybe. Maybe not. This blog post will help you figure out if you can make the move from SQL Server Enterprise Edition to SQL Server Standard. Lately, we’ve been finding more and more folks who can answer that probably not. I’ve lost track of the number of clients … Read more
Cluster Validation – BEWARE!!!
June 27, 2020
Subtitle: SHAME ON YOU MICROSOFT! This is not a new behavior. It’s not a new risk. It’s the same old risk that’s been in Windows Failover Clustering for quite some time. But it’s worse for SQL Server environments that use a Windows failover cluster for an Availability Group – since you are not sharing storage … Read more
Inspect Early. Inspect Often.
April 16, 2020
I almost didn’t get to write this post tonight about a lesson from my farm life for us DBAs. I could have been dealing with a massive headache or a hurt daughter – or worse. But. I get to write it so that you can learn from our near incident… First A Question How are … Read more
SQL Server In Place Upgrades: Too Expensive?
April 9, 2020
About eight years ago, I wrote a (kind of long) answer to a DBA. Stackexchange question, “Are SQL Server In-Place upgrades as ill-advised as they used to be?” My summary answer on the top of my tome was: Short Answer – In Place is okay. You can review your configuration afterward and implement the best practices … Read more