I’ve been working with a number of XML documents recently. Basically I’m trying to expose configuration values stored in XML configuration files in an object-oriented structure. I’m using an in-memory XML document and just referencing values as needed from that document. The XML reading does not need to be super-high performance because it does not … Read more
I’ve been knee deep in Active Directory Federation Services for the past three months now, and when helping one our clients deploy a single-sign-on (SSO) application, we ran into a nasty error: The request has been rejected because it appears to be a duplicate of a request from this same client browser session within the … Read more
DBAs are often put in a difficult moral position in the course of doing their work because they have a uniquely privileged access to corporate data. The ridiculous stories that have recently been put about by security firms concerning the dishonesty of DBAs miss the point entirely. In twenty years of work in the database … Read more
Information about how queries have been optimized since the server has been restarted. Note that counters are only affected when there is some sort of optimization event, not on every query. Type: View Data: Accumulating reset at restart Columns: counter – Name of the query occurrence – Number of times the counter was recorded to … Read more
When does the static constructor of your .NET class actually get called? Sounds like it should be pretty obvious really – at least going on the side of “how late can it possibly be called”. Most of us are used to the idea that static constructors are called before any other methods on that class … Read more
This question comes up time to time. SQL Compare compares two database schemata, and in order to do so it needs to read the system tables and system views. On the other hand, some organizational policies can be rather restrictive about who and with what permissions are allowed to connect to a production system. The … Read more
Excellent dmv that shows, for each file that SQL Server uses for the databases, stats on how frequently the file has been used by the database. This is one of the primary dynamic management views I use almost daily (well, not usually when I am on vacation, but even sometimes then!) The file can be … Read more
Well, this is it, it’s finally out there. Download it from http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Prompt/index.htm Improvements include: Visual Studio 2005 database project support Cross database queries Distributed queries across linked SQL Server instances Correlated subqueries 3 – 5 times faster metadata retrieval Large script support 40 – 95% decrease in memory footprint And plenty more. I’ll be carrying … Read more
After over 3 months of hard graft we’re getting ready to give you the chance to get your fingers on the Alpha of the next version of SQL Data Compare. We’re currently just doing some final install testing and hope to release it next week. Bear in mind the product is an Alpha and as … Read more
I knew there would be trouble the moment she walked in the room. Like many IT people, I have an instinctive aversion to HR people. She looked briskly at me and waddled importantly to the desk. I’d come for an interview with a firm in Cambridge running an IT consultancy from an office quite near where … Read more
This object gives statistics on how an index has been used to resolve queries. Most importantly it tells you the number of times a query was used to find a single row (user_seeks), a range of values, or to resolve a non-unique query (user_scans ), if it has been used to resolve a bookmark lookup … Read more
Well it’s taken me slightly longer to get around to writing this than originally planned, however… Visual Studio 2005 support, along with cross-database/linked server support was one of our top two requested features for SQL Prompt 3.5. It got to the point where not a day would go past without somebody emailing sales or support … Read more
Well I said I’d post some more detailed information about the new version of SQL Prompt so I thought I’d better get down to it. I wanted to do this to coincide with getting the release candidate out there, which we’d planned on being this Friday, however we all had a bit of a rush … Read more
Give space usage of objects in tempdb (most likely this will be extended to more than just tempdb in a future edition of SQL Server.) Can be used to see how and why space is being used in Tempdb, on a file by file basis. Type: View Data: temporal, reflects the current state of the … Read more
This is a simple way of saving SQL Server text to a file. I’ve used it for years. Just pass it a string and all should be well, just as long as your database allows command-line access and you user has sufficient rights To allow xp_cmdshell to be used you might need to do this. … Read more
I’m sure you all make changes to your schema over time adding columns to tables and occassionally dropping them. But were you aware that even though you drop a column from a table the space in the row continues to be taken up by the ghost of the column that you deleted. So if you … Read more
For the current database, gives you space oriented statistics for each partition of indexes (even if you only have one partion), like row count, page counts, etc. Resembles the sysindexes in previous versions of SQL Server, with more information. Type: view Data: accumulating, refreshed at server restart Scope: Reset on server restart (or object/partition drop … Read more
Well, I am working on a project that is going to be a book on dynamic management views (and functions, but DMF is an interesting acronym, and objects, as in DMO, has a well known other meaning. What I will post will be one object in the following format: Name of object Type: Function or … Read more
In my history as a programmer there are a few occasions that stand out when I feel I’ve written something truly special (yes there’s a Red Gate bit but that comes later). The difficulty I generally find is how to quantify special. Mainly I think of this of the user being able to use the … Read more
I love to go around junk shops and second hand bookshops looking for quirky second-hand books. It was whilst browsing through all the more dog-eared fiction (always a sign that the contents are good), I once came across a book of romantic fiction. I wish now that I’d bought it, because I have, unfortunately, to relate its … Read more
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