Updates and improvements to sp_CheckSecurity
October 15, 2025
It’s been a while since we made some improvements to the public version of sp_CheckSecurity, but internally we’ve been busy fine tuning checks and adding even more to discover potential vulnerabilities in your SQL Server instances. Today we’re announcing a new version that includes additions, corrections, and a few other adjustments that should be helpful. … Read more
SQL Just Stops When Running OPENROWSET Query
October 15, 2025
Sometimes people install Office onto a SQL Server to get the drivers for the ability to import data from Excel into SQL Server Tables. This should never be done on a production, or any, server because it can cause many other problems for SQL, one of which is the purpose of this blog. For example, … Read more
SQL Server Backups and the Illusion of Safety: Confusion
October 14, 2025
With the recent data center fire and missing government data in South Korea, it felt like a good time to continue with the SQL Server Regrets series of blog posts. We’ll talk about the confusion of thinking you are covered for recoverability – when you just aren’t. This “Regret” comes up far too often when … Read more
SQL Server Partition Management Job Failure After Migration to Availability Group.
October 10, 2025
This is the first post in our new Case of the Week series — short write-ups from the real SQL Server issues our team of 17 SQL Server experts helps clients solve every day. Case of the Week: SQL Server Partition Job Failure after Migration from AWS FCI to AWS AG. Quick Summary A client … Read more
Joining Straight Path Solutions as Chief Data Officer
October 10, 2025
Recently, I announced that after almost 20 years at Microsoft, I was moving to a new company and role. I’ve been in the Information Technology industry for over 40 years, and I believe that experience, combined with the various companies, organizations, and roles I have held, has led me to this place. Why Straight Path … Read more
The Age of Data Advocates Has Begun
October 7, 2025
I watched Bob Ward demo vector search in SQL Server at the NYC PASS road show in late August, and I have a confession that I’m not proud of. I felt that little knot in my stomach that every DBA knows too well. His pre-recorded PowerPoint videos typed a few commands, asked questions in natural … Read more
Our Next Chapter – Welcoming Buck Woody and Launching CDO as a Service
October 6, 2025
You can also read from Buck in his own words in this post, published here. “Oh, hi, don’t mind us – we’re just having a little conversation about SQL Server. I’m so glad you can join us. There are seats up front here…” That was the first time I ever heard words from Buck Woody … Read more
PowerShell Splatting 101: Clean Up Your Commands
September 17, 2025
Have you ever written a PowerShell command so long that it stretched across the screen? Or had to update a script and hunt through a long parameter list to change a single value? Splatting solves that problem by letting you pass multiple parameters to a command using a single variable. What Is Splatting? Splatting allows … Read more
Deploy SQL Server With This One Script (dbatools)
September 3, 2025
In this and the next two blog posts I will be bringing diverse dbatools commands into scripts that can handle a complete deployment, do a checkup of major health and configuration metrics, and do a true up of a pre-existing instance. This post will cover the complete deployment, which if you have been reading the … Read more
Speaking at PASS Summit On Tour: NYC
August 18, 2025
I’ll be speaking on Tuesday, 8/19, at the PASS Summit on tour in New York City. I’ll be giving a talk in the “professional development” world this time.. And I’ll be doing the same session at the PASS Summit in Seattle this fall. This time, rather than talk about SQL Server DBA tips, upgrades, migrations, … Read more