Jonathan Allen

Jonathan Allen has been a SQL Server DBA since 1999, most enjoying performance tuning and development but also working with SSIS, SSRS to provide suitable business solutions. He is SQLSouthWest PASS Chapter Leader, blogs for Simple Talk, is a forum moderator at ask.sqlservercentral.com and is on Twitter. If you would like to find your nearest user group or just want to say hello then he would love to get an email from you.

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26 September 2014
26 September 2014

Web page titles from URL

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Nothing wholly SQL Server-related this time but this is something that I have been meaning to write for ages. While searching on the internet for content I gather loads of URLs that might be useful to me and not long after this I lose track of what content is to be found at each location. … Read more
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03 September 2014
03 September 2014

How to set PowerShell_ISE as your default PowerShell editor when working with files in tfs projects

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Every good DBA and Developer keeps their code under source control. What? You don’t? Well, read this and then go and investigate it, there are plenty of options, some free, some you need to pay for. Getting that all sorted is content for another blog (or two!) so let’s get back to editing PowerShell files … Read more
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06 February 2014
06 February 2014

Learning by doing (or not)

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I have spent a lot of today repeating steps that I followed months ago and it is hopefully through writing it down here that I will remember the steps needed if it happens again. I was building a VM environment on my laptop (using VMWare but that is irrelevant) and it went like: Create VM … Read more
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30 January 2014
30 January 2014

Quick Tip: Windows directory file list

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In a previous version of Windows (circa Windows95 or older) there was a button in the toolbar of it’s equivalent of Windows Explorer that generated a list of files in the open directory, in a text file. Despite searching through http://toastytech.com/guis/indexwindows.html I cant locate an image of it or find a demo of it in … Read more
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23 December 2013
23 December 2013

Tribal SQL Awards

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This is likely to be my last blog for 2013 and it is one that is going to give you something to do. Yep, you actually HAVE to click a link and do some thinking. Don’t Panic though, it will take maybe 1 minute and a load of people that have given waaaay more than … Read more
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15 July 2013
15 July 2013

Keeping an Eye on Your Storage

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There are plenty of resources that advise you about looking for signs that your storage hardware is having problems. SQL Server Alerts for 823, 824 and 825 are covered here by Paul Randall of SQL Skills: http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/a-little-known-sign-of-impending-doom-error-825/ and here by me: https://www.simple-talk.com/blogs/2011/06/27/alerts-are-good-arent-they/. Now until very recently I wasn’t aware that there was a different way … Read more
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08 July 2013
08 July 2013

News From EAP Testing

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There is a phrase that goes something like “Watch the pennies and the pounds/dollars will take care of themselves”, meaning that if you pay attention to the small things then the larger things are going to fare well too. I am lucky enough to be a Friend of Red Gate and once in a while … Read more
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18 June 2013
18 June 2013

Working With Extended Events

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SQL Server 2012 has made working with Extended Events (XE) pretty simple when it comes to what sessions you have on your servers and what options you have selected and so forth but if you are like me then you still have some SQL Server instances that are 2008 or 2008 R2. For those servers … Read more
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12 June 2013
12 June 2013

Preparing to Upgrade your SQL Server

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It isn't a problem to use deprecated TSQL features until it comes to the time to move the database to a server with a newer version of SQL Server, because The Upgrade Adviser tool will tell you what needs to be changed. An alternative is to flush out the use of archaic features via scripting during the development process so there are no surprises later. Jonathan Allen shows how… Read more
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