Do you understand the value of your time? I mean really understand it. Time is your absolute number one most valuable asset. Once it’s gone, that’s it, gone forever. As a Database Administrator (DBA) your skills, services, expertise and ultimately your time will always be in demand. You can only ever deliver on a finite amount of time, that’s […]
Checkout SQLMonitor live in action right now
Did you see the editorial post from SQLServerCentral this morning? It’s very cool and I wanted to bring it to your attention. Those clever chaps have gone and deployed the latest edition of SQLMonitor from RedGate on the SQLServerCentral website and made the dashboards available for you to interact with online, in real time. Take […]
How does the sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats DMV work?
Every so often whilst going about my DBA business I encounter a Blog post that is just too good not to share. There are stacks of excellent resources available on the interweb and those that I wish to keep for future reference I add to the SQL Server Resources area of this site. On this […]
Simplify Your DBCC CHECKDB Output
If you’re a SQL Server Database Administrator and you don’t know what CHECKDB is then you need to stop whatever it is your are doing right now and read this. Seriously, just go ahead and do it now. It will only take you ten minutes to get to grips with the basics and it could […]
The Politics of SQL Server Performance
Like most DBA’s I’m sure you often find yourself delivering information to the business concerning the performance of your SQL Server platform but have you ever stopped to consider the wider implications of your actions? As a SQL Server Database Administrator you are responsible for the overall health and well being of your SQL Server […]
How much memory is each SQL Server database using?
Whilst perusing the forums over at SQL Server Central today I stumbled across an interesting question regarding how to identify how much memory is being used by SQL Server on a per database level. As you know SQL Server stores database data and index pages in memory in an area know as the Buffer Pool. […]
DBA Survival Skills – Think Defensively
No matter how much of a Super Hero DBA you consider yourself to be, I can guarantee you that there that there will come a time when you have to deal with either a disaster scenario or some form of mistake. Interestingly however, it is what happens next that separates the Pro’s from everyone else. Things Can […]
TLC and SQL Server Error Log Management
One of the very first tasks I like to do when presented with a new SQL Server Instance is to review what’s been happening of late in the SQL Server Error Log file. Doing so can often provide a quick insight into items that require my attention. It’s not uncommon to encounter backup failure messages, […]
SQL Snippet: Who owns that SQL Server Job?
Here is a handy T-SQL script that will list all SQL Server Agent Job owners by job. From an administration perspective, this query can come in handy when you need to ensure/validate the job owners on your server. One common mistake that I have seen is that when a user creates a new SQL Server […]
SQL Snippet: What SQL Server Agent Jobs were running at that time?
Here is a SQL Snippet that can be used to identify the SQL Server Agent Jobs that were running on a server at a particular point in time. This can come in very handy if you need to troubleshoot a performance issue after the fact and want to find out if there were any jobs […]
SQL Snippet: SQL Server Wait Types
Here is a handy little SQL Snippet that will return information about those all important SQL Server Wait Types for your server. It uses the SQL Server Dynamic Management View (DMV) sys.dm_os_wait_stats in order to extrapolate the desired information. A column has also been added to provide details of the percentage of total wait time […]
Why I beleive the Microsoft BI Stack seems unfinished
Simon Sabin shared a great post with the SQL Server Community recently where he asked Where is the intelligence in Business Intelligence? This really got me thinking and I wanted to share some further thoughts with you on the subject. To me it seems as if the Business Intelligence solution stack is only three quarters […]
SQL Server Essentials – Part 2: Why you should be using the FULL Recovery Model
In Part 1 of the “SQL Server Essentials” series we discussed the Database Administrator’s primary responsibility. Given that your data is so important, how can you manage and ensure it’s safekeeping? Should a data loss event occur, you want to be in a position to enable you to protect the majority, if not all, of […]
The Database Administrator’s Primary Responsibility
You’re busy coding away at your workstation when all of a sudden your manager walks over to you all excited and begins discussing with you, the details of this great new application your company has just aquired. It turns out that he wants you to look after and administer this newly aquired application platform, which […]
SQL Server Reporting Services Tip: email subscription tweak
What’s the problem? How to configure SQL Server Reporting Services 2005 to permit users to assign the delivery email address for their own subscriptions. Why does SQL Server work this way? When you subscribe to a report, the e-mail delivery settings you work with vary depending on whether your Role includes the “Manage individual subscriptions” […]
Solutions to common T-SQL problems
Some of the moderators over at the MSDN SQL Server Forums have got together and collated a reference of solutions to common T-SQL problems. As always, all quality resources get added to the SQL Server Resrouces area of this site.
The Definitive Introduction to SQL Server Indexes
It normally is not my style to write a blog post solely about a particular article someone else has published. Typically I just go ahead and add quality resources to the SQL Server Resources area of this site that I have either found myself or had recommended to me. In this case however an exception […]
SQL Server Index Defrag Script: Update
Michelle Ufford (aka SQLFool) has released an update to her excellent index optimisation script. If you are not already using something similar to simplify your index optimisation database maintenance processes then you will find this to be extremely useful. Check it out here: Index Defrag Script, V3.0 Michelle Ufford (aka SQLFool) has released an update […]
Superb listing of free SQL Server tools
Paul Randal pointed me in the direction of an awesome resource list of FREE SQL Server tools. There is an absolute mountain of quality stuff here and I wanted to share it with you all. Free SQL Server Tools that might make your life easier Be sure to me know which resources you use and […]
Generate a SQL Random Number in SQL Server
One of my favorite SQL Server authors, Michelle Ufford recently posted her method for generating a sql random number, in the post Random Number Generator in T-SQL. This got me thinking and I decided to do a little investigation of my own to identify what is indeed the best method to generate a random number in SQL Server. What is […]