SQL Server Case of the Week: Repetitive Login Failures from Local Computer Account
February 20, 2026
Summary – Repeated Login Failures in SQL Server At Straight Path, we regularly inherit SQL Server environments after someone else completes the initial install. Most of the time the server configuration just needs a tweak or two and everything is good to go. Other times, we encounter odd behavior that sends us down a research … Read more
Reporting Metrics That Matter
February 19, 2026
Row counts, pipeline up-time, and platform spend are comfort metrics. Most business leaders aren’t focused on them. Here’s what to replace them with. Information Technology – a Tale of Two Functions Information Technology is exactly that: Technology dealing with the acquisition, processing and management of Information. The end result of all computing activities is to create, manipulate, serve … Read more
SQL Server Case of the Week: When Availability Group Replica Communication Issues Cause Log Drives to Fill
February 13, 2026
Summary – Log File Filling up on the Availability Group Networking firewall changes made over the weekend resulted in the client’s three disaster recovery (DR) replicas to not be able to communicate with the three High Availability (HA) replicas in their SQL Server Always on Availability Group (AG). This resulted in log files growing out … Read more
What I Learned by Bugging Everyone at My New Job
February 9, 2026
Note from Mike Walsh: When I checked in with Jared after his first couple of weeks here, I was impressed by how proactive he was in reaching out to the team to say hi, and especially by the question he asked each team member and the insights he gleaned. I said, “Man, this could be … Read more
SQL Server Case of the Week: Migrating away from a Contained Availability Group.
February 6, 2026
Summary A client was running a Contained Availability Group in SQL Server 2022, but wasn’t using the AG Listener for their application connections. This negated most of the benefits the Contained AG was designed to provide. They also had some security misunderstandings and missteps, as this was built for them without any real knowledge transfer … Read more
SQL Server Case of the Week: Login Complexity When Using Contained Availability Groups in SQL Server 2022
January 30, 2026
Summary of the Login Issue After building a contained availability group in SQL Server, a customer was experiencing intermittent issues connecting to their primary database. Our investigation revealed that the SQL Authentication login being used had been created both within the context of the contained AG as well as directly on the primary node but had different SIDs in … Read more
SQL Server Case of the Week: The tempdb Data File That Couldn’t Be Removed
January 23, 2026
Summary of tempdb data file issue It’s important to keep the data files in tempdb equally sized, because SQL Server’s internal algorithm wants to use tempdb files that have the most space. Equal sizes help you get equal distribution across all files, reducing the likelihood of contention on a single file. Context: Mismatched tempdb data … Read more
Introducing sp_CheckAG: Check Your SQL Server Availability Groups for Availability Issues
January 21, 2026
SQL Server Availability Groups can be a great feature to help support your High Availability needs, but what happens when they fail to work as expected? Do you have an expiring certificate on used by an endpoint? Do you have timeout settings that could contribute to unexpected failovers? Are you suffering from a high number … Read more
SQL Server Case of the Week: Windows Server 22 Update Possibly Breaking SQL Agent & SSIS Packages
January 9, 2026
We started receiving alerts that a client’s SQL Server Agent was not running. Upon further investigation, we found that the server was recently restarted after Windows updates were applied. While reviewing the installed updates, we encountered an issue with KB5071547 on Windows Server 2022. After some troubleshooting, which included trying to start the agent from … Read more
A Look at the Straight Path Ahead
January 7, 2026
I have been wavering for two weeks between one big, Walsh-sized, long post trying to wrap up our 2025 and talk a bit about the early tea leaves for 2026 and beyond, and two separate posts. But this will be fun – I’m going to try and sum up a year and talk about some … Read more