SQL Server Blog

Free DBA Advice eBook

December 10, 2013

John Sansom recently completed a great project of his- an eBook with 20 DBAs offering advice and tips to those starting out as a DBA.  There are 19 authors I look up to and myself sharing tips and advice to DBAs looking to make into the DBA world or looking to go further once already … Read more

Check Your SQL Server Configuration

November 27, 2013

I blog a lot about best practices, defaults and paying attention to your installations. It’s a huge pet-peeve of mine to see improperly configured instances. One of the things I always do when doing a health check is review an instances configuration options. On quite a few client environments, just a couple quick knob turns … Read more

If You Like Your Query Plan, You Can Keep Your Query Plan

November 18, 2013

Period(*).  I have two motives here. One – I liked the title and I’ve been having fun with titles lately (A couple weeks ago it was the true story of a SAN Failure with “Yes, Virginia, SANs Can Fail“). Two – it’s a good reminder and a couple recent conversations brought it up so I … Read more

How Do You Prevent a SAN Failure?

November 14, 2013

… Well, prevent a SAN failure from ruining your week anyway. Because you can never fully prevent a failure 100% – even in a SAN, even when your SAN vendor says it’ll never happen (hint: anytime a vendor tells you never – be afraid.. Be very afraid). So that’s what this whole post series is … Read more

Yes Virginia, SANs Can Fail

November 7, 2013

“Well that’s on the SAN, so it’s good,” better never be a part of your recovery plan. If it is? You just lost. As I type this I’m on the way home from a city from an old client that just lost their SAN – their SAN that every VM was on, their SAN that their company … Read more

PASS Board Elections

September 23, 2013

Wow. It’s that time already. We have a lot of great candidates to choose from this year. It’s tough picking. It’s even tougher recommending. That said – I think there are three candidates worth mentioning and who I plan on voting for. And it was really tough to single any out! One candidate however, I … Read more

Bad news . . .

March 30, 2013

This is another post on the Bible, it isn’t technical content, you’ve been warned. Back to technical posts next week. Yesterday, for resurrection weekend a blog post of mine went live about the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the Good News. That was going to be it. Last night, however, I attended a simulcast of … Read more

Good News!

March 29, 2013

This is a post about my faith and the “Easter” holiday. As long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve written about the resurrection of Christ on “Easter” weekend. This will be my 4th post on Easter. The first one was about one of the words Christ proclaimed from the cross, “Tetelestai” (An accounting term for it is … Read more

We’re Here to Help

March 26, 2013

Sometimes we bicker in this SQL Family.. Sometimes we get frustrated with each other.. But we participate in this family because of comments like the one below. Let’s all make it a goal for the rest of this year to remember that.  A Short Disclaimer… I’m not the father of this SQL Community – and … Read more

Memory Prices Changed – Have Your SQL Servers?

February 27, 2013

Psst – My services are likely more expensive than the memory your SQL Server needs and wants. Your CIOs and Directors need to stop thinking they are buying servers and components in 2004, or even 2010. I do all sorts of consulting gigs for all different reasons, but a lot of tuning gigs and wellness … Read more

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