Baselining a SQL Change Automation project from an existing database

This article show how to create a 'baseline' for your Visual Studio SQL Change Automation project, from an existing, target SQL Server database, so that the team can start making changes and easily deploy them to the target database. Read more

How to monitor the impact of patching on SQL Server performance

This article uses the Spectre/Meltdown bugs as means to demonstrate how you can use a tool like SQL Monitor to assess the impact of patching on the throughput and performance of your SQL Servers. Read more

How to use the SQL Prompt snippet placeholders for selecting and copying text

Phil Factor demonstrates the power of placeholders in SQL Prompt Snippets, for selecting and copying text. They make it very easy to build queries by dragging-and-dropping from the SSMS object explorer, and also to save queries as reusable views or inline table valued functions. Read more

Realistic, simulated data for testing, development and prototypes

Generating realistic test data is a challenging task, made even more complex if you need to generate that data in different formats, for the different database technologies in use within your organization. Dave Poole proposes a solution that uses SQL Data Generator as a ‘data generation and translation’ tool. Read more

Create, protect and manage non-production databases with SQL Provision

SQL Provision allows users to create copies of SQL Server databases in seconds, using a fraction of disk space, and mask any sensitive data to help address data privacy and protection concerns. It serves as a gateway between production and non-production environments, to ensure the safe distribution of database copies from one central location, without blocking the team's development and release processes. Read more

Finding code smells using SQL Prompt: the SET NOCOUNT problem (PE008 and PE009)

Generally, you should prevent rowcount messages being sent, by adding a SET NOCOUNT ON at the start of every stored procedure, trigger and dynamically executed batch. Phil Factor demonstrates, and explains the nuances and exceptions. Read more

SQL Toolbelt

Introducing database automation with the SQL Toolbelt

For many companies, particularly those in the financial sector, a key technology consideration is risk management because if systems go down, it can cost a lot of money very quickly. Take ABSA Bank, a subsidiary of the Barclays Africa Group. Serving customers in South Africa and Namibia, it provides retail, business, corporate, and investment banking, Read more

Finding code smells using SQL Prompt: old-style join syntax (ST001)

There are no advantages to using old-style join syntax. If SQL prompt identifies its use in legacy code, then rewriting the statements to use ANSI-standard join syntax will simplify and improve the code. Read more

How to automatically provision sanitized data using SQL Clone, Data Masker and PowerShell

Chris Unwin describes a strategy, using data masking, cloned databases and PowerShell, which will allow you to sanitize data before provisioning test or development environments. Read more

Finding code smells using SQL Prompt: procedures that lack schema-qualification (PE001)

SQL Prompt will warn you if it spots use of EXECUTE, without specifying the schema in which the stored procedure resides, because it can cause slower execution times, or even result in running of the wrong procedure. Read more

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