"I can't help thinking that unless you have a good DBA on a development team and use him or her as a consultant on all database matters, we're all losing out. I end up having work thrown at me that I could teach a trainee to do, which is a waste of my talents, and the development team's database skills might be 'good enough' but could be so much better." Doug Burns assesses the role of the Development DBA and its increasing importance to the success of software projects.… Read more
In part 3 of Dan Sullivan's in-depth exploration of PowerSMO, the versatile command line utility for managing SQL Server databases, he describes how to control the identity that SMO uses to login to SQL Server, how to set up Server activity monitoring, and how to create standalone PowerSMO scripts, suitable for use in a production environment.… Read more
If database design is done right, then the development, deployment and subsequent performance in production will give little trouble. A well-designed database 'just works'. There are a small number of mistakes in database design that causes subsequent misery to developers, managewrs, and DBAs alike. Here are the ten worst mistakes
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In most relational database implementations. Update and Delete commands destroy the data that was there prior to their issue. However, some systems require that no information is ever physically deleted from or updated in the database. In this article, Arthur Fuller presents a solution to this requirement in the form of a Point-in-Time architecture: a database design which allows a user to recreate an image of the database as it existed at any previous point in time, without destroying the current image.… Read more
If you've ever had brain meltdown trying to understand SQL Server users, roles, permissions, logins etc. then Robyn Page's security cribsheet might be just be your Panacea.… Read more
Dan Sullivan delves deeper into PowerSMO, the versatile command line utility for managing SQL Server databases. Using a certificate strategy, he provides a step-by-step guide to creating and deploying secure, signed DBA scripts. He then describes how to use PowerSMO functions to manage the extended properties of SQL Server objects.… Read more
Most DBAs don't have time to perform routine processes manually. Everything has to be scripted, automated and scheduled. Here, Dan Sullivan describes how a combination of PowerShell and SMO ("PowerSMO") can provide a familiar but powerful command line tool for managing common SQL Server tasks.… Read more
Most companies have long since jettisoned the role of the grizzled old data architect, whose job it was to ensure a common understanding of the meaning of all data entities in the enterprise, and the actions carried out on it. Many are just now coming to realize what a costly mistake that might have been...… Read more
Database refactoring can greatly improve the efficiency of your database code. However, even a seemingly simple database refactoring such as "Move Column" can be tricky to implement correctly in a production environment. In this article, Scott Ambler and Pramod Sadalage describe a rigorous process for the correct implementation of an appropriate refactoring. … Read more
Nigel Rivett demonstrates some core techniques for extracting SQL Server data into CSV files, focussing on a stored procedure approach that gives complete control of the format of the extracted data.… Read more
This article discusses three common problems DBAs are likely to encounter when columns have an identity property that will auto-increment its value when data is inserted. These problems are humorously referred to as the identity crisis.
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