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
7 Common SQL Server Transaction Log Myths
March 28, 2023
SQL Server is a complicated piece of software, so it’s understandable that some of us have some misconceptions about what the transaction log is and what it does. This post is designed to not just tell you about these myths, but also to show you a few ways how to prove (or rather disprove) some … Read more
18 Misconceptions: Your Database is [NOT] Secure!
March 7, 2023
Welcome to Myths and Misconceptions Month, or “Mythconceptions Month,” as we have lovingly referred to it in our internal discussions preparing this month’s content. We will have posts about the major Myths and Misconceptions we met as SQL Server DBA consultants. We hope you learn a lot from it! On to the content! Many companies … Read more
Ask Us Anything Webinar (March 2023)
March 7, 2023
This month’s webinar is an opportunity to ask us anything related to SQL Server. Our team will hold a panel-style webinar to answer your questions (click here to submit a question before the webinar). Mar 22, 2023 01:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada) Click here to register:
10 Free SQL Server Resources We Love
February 16, 2023
Featured image photo by Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash Everybody loves freebies, and the SQL Server community is full of them. Free scripts, stored procedures, blog posts, books, and helpful advice from some of the smartest minds are all available to you right now. So whether you’re just starting your career as a Database Administrator … Read more
SQLwatch.io as a Free Monitoring Tool for Your SQL Servers: A Jr. DBA Review
February 9, 2023
I have been working for Straight Path for a while, and I have grown comfortable with the monitoring tools we use and what we look for on a daily basis. I thought I would branch during our second “Community Tools Month” and try out SQLWatch since it is a free community tool designed to help … Read more
5 common Problems to Troubleshoot with sp_WhoIsActive in SQL Server
January 31, 2023
If there were a Mount Rushmore of SQL Server community tools, Adam Machanic would have to be one of the four faces. You may not know his name, but you more than likely know the free troubleshooting tool he created over a decade ago: sp_WhoIsActive. Fix your performance problems, fix your blocking, fix a bunch. … Read more
SQL Server Maintenance With Ola Hallengren’s Maintenance Solution.
January 12, 2023
Perspective from a Junior DBA. Welcome to our month of community tool blog posts! We will discuss some of our favorite and most used tools and how we use them in the coming weeks. Our first post is on Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server maintenance solution. For some, this will be old news; this will be … Read more
6 Common Mistakes Made With SQL Server Backups
December 12, 2022
People are always saying things about the importance of data, like how it is the lifeblood of a business. It sounds cliché, but there’s a lot of truth to that. You and I can’t survive without any blood, and there’s a good chance your business wouldn’t exist for long if they suddenly lost all their … Read more