Peter Larsson The Road to Professional Database Development: Set-Based Thinking Under the pseudonym of 'SwePeso', Peter Larsson is famous on SQL forums for the amazing performance he can get from... 21 February 2012 7 min read
Feodor Georgiev Exploring SSIS Architecture and Execution History Through Scripting When you are using SSIS, there soon comes a time when you are confronted with having to do a tricky... 16 February 2012 12 min read
Phil Factor PowerShell SMO: Automate SQL Server Script Generation Automate SQL Server database scripting with PowerShell and SMO. Covers Transfer objects, scripting options, and generating build scripts for tables,... 03 February 2012 24 min read
Dave Green Using SQL Test Database Unit Testing with TeamCity Continuous Integration With database applications, the process of test and integration can be frustratingly slow because so much of it is based... 02 February 2012 22 min read
Robert Sheldon Converting String Data to XML and XML to String Data We all appreciate that, in general, XML documents or fragments are held in strings as text markup. In SQL Server,... 01 February 2012 18 min read
SQL Server Brad McGehee in SQL Server How to Document and Configure SQL Server Instance Settings Learn how to document and configure all ~70 SQL Server instance-level settings using T-SQL and PowerShell, with best-practice guidance for... 30 January 2012 74 min read
Rob Garrison What’s the Point of Using VARCHAR(n) Anymore? The arrival of the (MAX) data types in SQL Server 2005 were one of the most popular feature for the... 30 January 2012 11 min read
Phil Factor Confessions of a DBA: My worst mistake Over the next few months, we'll be asking various well-known DBAs to describe their worst disaster caused by a mistake... 23 January 2012 6 min read
Grant Fritchey SQL Cop Review Static code analysis is used a lot by application programmers, but there have been surprisingly few tools for SQL development... 19 January 2012 7 min read
Jonathan Kehayias Great SQL Server Debates: Buffer Cache Hit Ratio One of the more popular counters used by DBAs to monitor the performance, the Buffer Cache Hit Ratio, is useless... 18 January 2012 15 min read
Robert Young Relational Databases and Solid State Memory: An Opportunity Squandered? The relational model was devised long before computer hardware was able to deliver an RDBMS that could deliver a fully... 17 January 2012 6 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Close Those Loopholes: Lessons learned from Unit Testing T-SQL Alex has done some pioneering work on the testing of stored procedures over four years, and has learned a great... 09 January 2012 23 min read
SQL Server Fabiano Amorim in SQL Server SQL Server Window Function Performance: Execution Plans for Running Aggregates, LEAD, LAG, FIRST_VALUE, LAST_VALUE Performance analysis of SQL Server window functions - comparing execution plans for running aggregations (OVER + ORDER BY), LEAD and... 04 January 2012 12 min read
Robert Sheldon Incorporating XML into your Database Objects XML data can become a full participant in a SQL Server Database, and can be used in views, functions, check... 04 January 2012 14 min read
Sam Bendayan Constraints and the Test-Driven Database Bad data always seems to appear when, and where, one least expects it. Sam explains the great value of a... 14 December 2011 13 min read
Feodor Georgiev Administrating SQL Server Integration Services – Planning, Documenting and Troubleshooting SQL Server Integration Services is an essential component of SQL Server, and designed to perform a variety of routine and... 12 December 2011 15 min read
Jonathan Kehayias Great SQL Server Debates: Lock Pages in Memory There has been much debate over the need for the Lock Pages in Memory privilege, on 64-bit versions of SQL... 12 December 2011 19 min read
Robert Sheldon SQL Server XML Methods: query(), value(), exist(), nodes(), modify() The five SQL Server XML methods - query(), value(), exist(), nodes(), and modify() - explained with working AdventureWorks examples. Covers... 08 December 2011 23 min read
Grant Fritchey Backup Verification: Tips for Database Backup Testing A Backup system is merely part of a recovery system. If your backups can't be used to recover the database,... 06 December 2011 4 min read
Grant Fritchey Faster Restores: Best Practices to Increase Speed Backups are an everyday part of DBA life, whereas restores tend to happen on call at 3 a.m. In this... 02 December 2011 5 min read
