SQL Server Blog

Is Your SQL Server Ready for a Compliance Audit?

September 4, 2023

Compliance audits ensure that organizations adhere to regulatory guidelines, industry standards, and internal policies. As SQL Server DBAs, you can be prepared for most audits if you already check all of the boxes outlined in this blog post. Each of these points could be its own blog posts, so take your time as you go … Read more

Adding SQL Server Access When You're Locked Out

Adding SQL Server Access When You’re Locked Out

August 29, 2023

As consultants we are sometimes asked the following question: “We have an old version of SQL that we can’t turn off and no one has access to it. Is there a way to create an account on a server you don’t have access to?” The answer is YES, and it isn’t as difficult as you … Read more

Maximizing SQL Server ROI in M&A

August 25, 2023

The Hidden Goldmine: SQL Server Due Diligence in Acquisitions Whenever I’m chatting with folks in the investment world, especially those eyeing product or “… as a service” companies that use Microsoft SQL Server, I’ve realized there’s a real need for clear, actionable insights on what to look for in a SQL Server environment. It’s not … Read more

sql server maintenance tasks every dba sould know

Essential Database Maintenance Tasks Every DBA Should Know

August 23, 2023

(Note from our founder, Mike Walsh in March of 2025: Since this post has gone live, I want to say we’ve probably made at least $70,000 in buckets of hours specifically related to clients reaching out about issues that could have been avoided and addressed simply be following the advice from David here… While we … Read more

easy sql server database restores

Make SQL Server Database Restores Easy With sp_DatabaseRestore

August 16, 2023

If you’ve read the Straight Path blog for any period of time, you’ve probably noticed more than a few posts about database backups. You may have also noticed we’re big fans of the Ola Hallengren Maintenance Solution for backups, which creates stored procedures and jobs to handle your regular backups. These scripts and jobs are … Read more

How to Setup a Standalone SSRS Server As Part of an Availability Group

How to Setup a Standalone SSRS Server As Part of an Availability Group

August 9, 2023

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is a useful tool that can be installed on a standalone server (a license is required), or it can be installed on an existing SQL Server host (this shares the existing license of SQL Server). This blog post covers how SSRS is installed on a standalone server and how to … Read more

investigating sql server threadpool waits

The Curious Case of THREADPOOL Waits

August 3, 2023

Featured image photo by alexey turenkov on Unsplash A client reached out for help with a performance problem that had been going on for over a day. The application was performing so slowly that it was nearly an outage to their users. I love working on production emergencies where there’s a severe performance problem. I … Read more

How UNsafe Is Your SQL Server? – Vulnerability Assessment and Access Audit

July 10, 2023

SQL Server is a repository of critical data, attracting potential threats from malicious individuals seeking financial gains. As a SQL Server DBA, it is essential to assess the security vulnerabilities of your SQL Server and perform an access audit to ensure the safety of your data SQL Server Vulnerability Scan I recommend you start with … Read more

How to Enable Transparent Data Encryption for Databases in Your Availability Group

May 23, 2023

Transparent data encryption is the built-in method for at-rest data encryption in SQL Server. Taking steps towards security has always been important, but it is becoming even more important every day as there is a looming cyber threat industry hungry for easy high-profit data. We should also remember that not all threats are from the … Read more

How to Provision a Low-Cost SQL 2022 Testing Lab

April 10, 2023

This month we will be covering some features in SQL 2022. Specifically, I will create a new SQL 2022 Development instance and connect it to Azure Arc. Azure Arc is not primarily for SQL 2022, but connecting it to on-premises and cross-cloud SQL servers is a very useful skill to have for managing hybrid environments, … Read more

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