20 May 2020
20 May 2020

Key Insights from the 2020 State of SQL Server Monitoring Report

This marks the third year that Redgate have launched a survey to better understand how organisations monitor their databases. This year, 971 database professionals from around the world responded. Here are some of the key insights from the survey: Estates are growing more than ever Companies who reported over 1,000 SQL Server instances grew 9% … Read more
20 March 2018
20 March 2018

Mount SQL Server DMVs and Custom Queries Using DBFS on Linux

With SQL Server now supported on Linux, traditional SQL Server DBAs will need to learn how to work with Linux, and Linux administrators will need to learn how to work with SQL Server. Fortunately, there are several tools available to assist. In this article Prashanth Jayaram describes how to work with the DMV tool which treats queries as files. … Read more
18 December 2017
18 December 2017

A Walk Around SQL Operations Studio

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SQL Server Management Studio has been the default tool for working with SQL Server for over a decade. It’s not, however, compatible with any operating system outside of Microsoft Windows. SQL Operations Studio (SQLOPS), the open source program originally called ‘Project Carbon’, is now available for users of Linux and macOS as well as Windows. Robert Cain demonstrates the features of SQLOPS.… Read more
02 August 2017
02 August 2017

Automated Database Provisioning for Development and Testing

If your development team needs to work on anonymised copies of the current production database, and if changes are being delivered rapidly as well, that could mean a lot of time and routine DevOps work copying databases. SQL Clone was designed for tasks like this. Grant Fritchey investigates whether you save time, effort and scripting over the more traditional approach, and at what point it makes sense to use it.… Read more
03 May 2016
03 May 2016

Automatically Creating UML Database Diagrams for SQL Server

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SQL Server database developers seem reluctant to use diagrams when documenting their databases. It is probably because it has, in the past, been difficult to automatically draw precisely what you want, other than a vast Entity-relationship diagram. However, you can do it without buying any third-party tool, just using some existing Java-based open-source tools; and can even automate it entirely, using SQL and PowerShell.… Read more
16 November 2015
16 November 2015

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and Database References

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SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) provides, via the DacPac, interesting support for verifying not only those references within the database, but also those to other databases even if they are on other servers. Although it is adds an extra level of complexity to deployments, it can increase the probability that deployments will succeed without errors due to broken references or binding errors.… Read more
25 September 2015
25 September 2015

SQLXML Bulk Loader: The Sequel

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SQLXML isn't exactly new technology, and parts of it aren't pretty, but if you need to heave vast quantities of XML data into a SQL Server database then you may come to appreciate the raw speed of which it's capable. Adam Aspin shows how to configure the SQL XML Bulk Loader tool for optimal data loading performance.… Read more
02 June 2015
02 June 2015

SQLXML Bulk Loader Basics

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SQLXML isn't exactly new technology, but like the even more venerable BCP, it remains the quickest and most reliable way of heaving large quantities of data into SQL Server databases. SQLXML is very versatile, and once set up is wonderfully reliable ETL system, but isn't trivial to learn. Adam Aspin comes to the rescue with a simple guide.… Read more
10 December 2013
10 December 2013

SQL Enlight for SQL Server Management Studio

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The process of doing SQL code-reviews used to be tedious and error-prone. Until SQL Enlight, it was a process that was difficult to automate for release and deployment. As it is now both a Command-line utility and an SSMS add-in, the database developer can see immediately the parts of the code that would raise eyebrows with the vigilant production DBA.… Read more
02 December 2013
02 December 2013

SQL Server tablediff utility

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Rob Sheldon continues on his quest to explain all those command-line tools such as SQLCMD, Logparser, SQLIO and tablediff that are part of SQL Server. TableDiff can be used for comparing tables, as when you run automated tests that check a result against a table of expected values. The best way to learn TableDiff is to see it in action and Rob talks you through several examples.… Read more