Blog Post: Why worry about CXPACKET
Many people see CXPACKET at the top of their waits and start trying to fix it. I know this topic’s been done before, but people ask me about it enough that it should be done again, and again. In fact,...
View ArticleBlog Post: SSAS Tabular: Transactional Deployment
SSAS has long performed deployment and processing as two very separate occurrences, that happen independently of each other. However, in tabular databases, there is a property that allows you to...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQLSaturday Portugal: Why I'm going for the third year in a row!
Going to SQL Saturday Portugal? It is an excellent event, run by SQL Server MVP and European Community Tech Leader Niko Neugebauer and his awesome team. If you haven't been before, it is a great event...
View ArticleBlog Post: Inside SQLSaturday: Jonathan Allen & SQLSaturday Exeter
In the first of a new and ongoing series of Inside SQLSaturday posts, which I hope will give you an insight into the phenomena known as SQLSaturday, I would first like to introduce you to Jonathan...
View ArticleBlog Post: Tables without Clustered Indexes?
Today, we experienced performance issues with some of the SSRS reports that were deployed as part of the latest application/database release. While investigating this performance problem, I realized...
View ArticleBlog Post: Quick tip: Querying AD with xp_logininfo
We all have blind spots in our knowledge. We don’t know they are there and when we are thinking through an issue our mind quickly rejects some plans because of these blind spots. This happened to me...
View ArticleBlog Post: :CONNECT in SSMS
Those people who are familiar with SQLCMD will recognize this command. It is used to connect to an instance from within a SQLCMD script. What they may not realize is that this command (and other...
View ArticleBlog Post: Real-time query access with PDW
The Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) officially supports Analysis Services as a data source, both the Multidimensional model (ROLAP and MOLAP modes) and the Tabular model (In-Memory and DirectQuery...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL Server XQuery: MORE deleting nodes using .modify()
So after my last post, my developer friend came back to me and noted that I hadn’t really demonstrated the situation we had discussed; our work was a little more challenging than the sample script I...
View ArticleBlog Post: Friday Followup For March 14, 2014
It’s Friday, time to look back at the most popular RealSQLGuy posts of the week. Because it’s Friday and you’re not doing any real work anyway. Posts That Were Popular This Week The Phoenix Project: a...
View ArticleBlog Post: Steel City SQL Users Group–March 18, 2014– @SteelCitySQL
Next Tuesday, I’m loading up Big Blue, and driving over to Birmingham to present at the Steel City SQL Users Group. I’ll be talking about the Agile DBA. Should be fun! http://www.steelcitysql.org/...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL for Everybody
I read a terribly excited blog this morning by a guy who had just discovered Alt-F1 in SSMS. (If you don’t know, it runs sp_help on the highlighted object.) My very, very first instinct – I’m ashamed...
View ArticleBlog Post: PowerShell to list the packages stored in Integration Services...
PowerShell to list the packages stored in Integration Services SQL2008/SQL2008R2; I will come up with a SQL 2012 version soon. # Get SSIS Package List from a Integration Services Server # Created by -...
View ArticleBlog Post: Reblog: March 7 to March 13
Photo credit – Travis Ever go digging through your backyard for dinosaur bones? Maybe not, but it’s worthwhile from time to time to dig out some old posts and find out if there are any undiscovered...
View ArticleBlog Post: User-Defined Conditional Logic In M
Here’s a short follow-up to my last post on conditional logic in M . After that post went live, Ehren Vox of the Power Query team made a good suggestion on Twitter : rather than hard-code the list of...
View ArticleBlog Post: Session review – Brent Ozar at RSSUG
Yesterday (Friday, March 14th, 2014) Richmond, VA’s SQL Server user group was fortunate enough to have Brent Ozar ( @BrentO | BrentOzar.com ) stopped by and present a 101 level session on SQL Server...
View ArticleBlog Post: When is a Data Management Gateway Needed in Power BI?
Recently I've been chatting with some fellow BI professionals about the Data Management Gateway (DMG) in Power BI and when exactly it's required to be used. Before we answer this question, let's go...
View ArticleBlog Post: T-SQL Tuesday #52 Round-Up: Argue Against a Popular Opinion
There were thirteen excellent posts this month. (See the invite post here). I loved reading every one of them. It gave a really good perspective on topics that are typically seen as cut and dry. Thank...
View ArticleBlog Post: Verify a success of database backups
One of the most important tasks on a DBA’s to-do list is backing up databases on a regular basis. This is because reliable backups are the most important tool in ensuring data recovery. Therefore, it...
View ArticleBlog Post: A Tale of Two SQL Server Webcasts
Things have been quiet on my blog of late (hosting issue) but now things are back online. Talking of online, on 20th March 2014 I shall be taking part in not one but two SQL Server webcasts – Dell...
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