SQL Server Tacklebox

Inside the SQL Server Tacklebox you'll find day-to-day tools, scripts and techniques to automate and standardize SQL Server installation, document...

15 July 2009 3 min read

Tony Davis

Working within Constraints

There are many good reasons for building your data integrity logic into constraints. When such business rules become part of...

09 July 2009 3 min read

Brad McGehee

Do Not Forget to Maintain Your Indexes

Index Maintenance Plans are essential for the well-being of a database. However, there is more to the process than just...

09 July 2009 15 min read

Bob Cramblitt

William Durkin, Serial Red Gate Beta Tester

An interview with William Durkin. When he has the time, William finds it useful to work as a pre-release software...

09 July 2009 4 min read

Nick Harrison

Code Deodorants for Code Smells

Code Smells have become an established way of talking about indications that things may be wrong with your code. Nick...

09 July 2009 11 min read

Michael Francis

The ‘Evidential Weight’ of Emails

In European, and American law, there is a wisdom that can, on first glance, look perverse. You take a digital...

07 July 2009 3 min read

Ben Lye

An Introduction to Messaging Records Management

There are a number of features in Exchange that can be used in creative ways to solve problems in Exchange...

07 July 2009 5 min read

Robert Sheldon

Working with Precedence Constraints in SQL Server Integration Services

In SSIS, tasks are linked by precedence constraints. A task will only execute if the condition that is set by...

07 July 2009 11 min read

Richard Morris

Niklaus Wirth: Geek of the Week

It is difficult to begin to estimate the huge extent of the contribution that Niklaus Wirth has made to IT...

02 July 2009 11 min read

Louis Davidson

Best Thing I Learned at PASS Summit

I have learned many things at every PASS Summit I have attended. First off, all of the people who are...

30 June 2009 2 min read

Matt Simmons

Manage Stress Before it Kills You

The key to a long career in IT is in learning how to cope adaptively with stress. Matt Simmons, like...

29 June 2009 8 min read

Jaap Wesselius

Building an Exchange Server 2007 environment

Of course, changing a 32,000 mailbox system, based in 40 Exchange Servers, to a centralised 25,000 mailbox solution is not...

29 June 2009 11 min read

Tony Davis

The Fall and Rise of Log Shipping

When Database Mirroring was introduced in SQL Server 2005, it seemed reasonable to assume that log shipping would gradually go...

25 June 2009 3 min read

Laila Lotfi

The Exceptional DBA – A Developer’s Perspective

What makes an exceptional DBA? It depends on who you ask. In his book, How to become an Exceptional DBA,...

22 June 2009 3 min read

Phil Factor

To Boldly Ask IT for Development Work

Phil has always been mystified by the way that, in Science-Fiction films, the crew of space-ships are able to reprogram...

22 June 2009 10 min read

Louis Davidson

Read/Write Ratio versus Read/Write Ratio?

So, Jason Massie (http://twitter.com/statisticsio) had a blog post (http://statisticsio.com/Home/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/324/Is-8020-a-90rsquos-Estimate.aspx) that Kendal Van Dyke (http://twitter.com/sqldba) alerted me to at SQL Saturday...

20 June 2009 5 min read