Blog Post: Minimizing SQL Server DBCC CHECKDB Performance Impacts
Overview SQL Server is the most popular relational database management system, which is used by many organizations to maintain their data. Every user expects that data should be stored in a consistent...
View ArticleBlog Post: It’s the cloud, it’s highly available. Do I need to worry about HA...
Short answer: Yes. While yes the cloud is highly available and services that are taking offline due to hardware failures, host server reboots due to patching, etc. can your application survive being...
View ArticleForum Post: Toad for SQL Trial version get an exception when tables tab is...
I installed Toad for SQL trial version successfully. The program works as expected but, suddenly it began to got an exception when the TABLES tab is selected. The error is:...
View ArticleBlog Post: Tricky TSQL: NOT IN (NULL)
We’ve done this before, but we can go one better this time. Let’s take this step by step. NULL means “I don’t know”. It stand for an unknown value. Nothing can be equal to NULL. We simply can’t say...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – Creating a Copy of Database in Azure SQL DB
Recently I was about to undertake an interesting assignment for one of my clients who pinged me for Performance Tuning exercise. Since this is something I have been doing full time in the past couple...
View ArticleForum Post: PDW Support
Hi all, Does anybody know if Microsoft APS (PDW) will be supported by Toad Data Point in the future. I managed to connect via ODBC using Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11 but Toad freezes after a...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – Installation Fails With Error – A Constraint...
In my recent past, I have helped around 10 customers who have had similar problems while installing SQL Server Cluster on windows. So I thought it would be a nice idea to pen it down as a blog post so...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – A Timeout (30000 milliseconds) was Reached While...
Recently I was contacted by a client who reported very strange error in the SQL Server machine. These consulting engagements sometimes get the best out of you when it comes to troubleshooting. They...
View ArticleBlog Post: #0381 – SQL Server – Table design – Is it better to use NEWID or...
In most cases, an INTEGER based key on a table is sufficient. However when a GUID is required to be used, it is important to keep in mind that using NEWID() causes more fragmentation in the underlying...
View ArticleBlog Post: Join me at DellWorld 2016 in Austin, TX
I will be attending DellWorld 2016 as an influencer/media/analyst participant. This means that I’ll get access to the regular sessions, plus special engagements with product teams to see what they’ve...
View ArticleBlog Post: PowerShell – SQL Server Paging of Memory Identification
In one of my recent consultation visits to a customer, there was deep performance related problems. They were unclear to what was happening and what was the actual problem. But these are some of the...
View ArticleBlog Post: Everything Old Is New Again: 5 IT Headaches That Never Go Away
Here is a list of the continuing problems that exist in every IT shop around the world. And they aren't all new, either. The post Everything Old Is New Again: 5 IT Headaches That Never Go Away appeared...
View ArticleBlog Post: Database Sharding – How to Identify a Shard Key?
I have written a number of posts in the past working on shared databases and the concepts around these can be read at Sharding or No Sharding of Database – Working on my Weekend Project for the...
View ArticleBlog Post: Making Azure PowerShell Scripts Work in PowerShell and As RunBooks
Runbooks are very powerful tools which allow you to automate PowerShell commands which need to be run at different times. One of the problems that I’ve run across when dealing with Azure Runbooks is...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL Saturdays and Why We Have Them
There has been some recent controversy over SQL Saturdays after PASS HQ announced some new changes. The changes introduced a new 600 mile radius for SQL Saturdays on the same day, an expansion from the...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – False Error – Cannot bulk load because the file could...
Yes, it’s possible that SQL Server can raise false and misleading error. I was trying to do some pretty straight forward stuff – import data from text file to SQL table using the BULK INSERT command of...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – Backup to URL Fails in Azure Resource Manager (ARM)...
During my previous consulting engagement, I learned something new with SQL Server feature called back up to the URL. Since it was not so clearly documented, I am sharing this with you. In this blog...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – SSMS Error During Restore: No Backupset Selected to...
There are various ways of learning in my current role. Along with client engagements, reading others blog, I also learn from comment/interaction of my own blog. One of my blog readers sent below email...
View ArticleBlog Post: Controlling a dacpac deployment
I have been thinking quite a lot recently (ok not that much but my thinking has changed) about how to deploy dacpac's. In particular I am talking about how to control the deployment, what tool is used...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL SERVER – Understanding Basic Memory Terms of Physical Memory...
Recently I had been to an institute to talk about some database concepts to computer science students. Most of these academic engagements get me closer to young minds and this is an awesome way for me...
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