Index Basics: Clustered Indexes
In SQL Server, an index is used to speed the retrieval of data from a table. Indexes are built from one or more columns in the table, and SQL Server uses these Indexes …
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Specifying A Value For An SSIS PackageID
Every SSIS package has a unique ID associated with it. Most of the time it goes unnoticed, and most people don’t even realize (or care) that it’s there. You can …
Online SQL Formatting Service
I stumbled upon this last week and thought I would share it. SQLFormat is a free online formatter for SQL statements. It’s pretty straight forward and easy to use. You …
Call Multiple SQL Jobs In Sequence Via PowerShell
Recently I had an issue come up where I needed to run about 15 SQL Agent Jobs in a specific order, bouncing back and forth across multiple SQL Servers, ensuring …
Tool For Parsing Ouput from Statistics IO and Statistics Time
I’ve been using this tool for quite for some time and thought it was worth passing on. Statistics Parser allows you to paste in the output of Statistics IO and/or Statistics Time …
Checking The Status Of Email Sent From SQL Server
When sending email via sp_send_dbmail, SQL Server will log the status of each message processed by Database Mail. Below is quick list of Database Mail Views you can query to …
Why you should not prefix your stored procedures with “sp_”
One nasty habit that seems to persist throughout the ages with developers (I even did it myself) is the tendency to put “sp_” at the beginning of stored procedure names …
NOLOCK may not be doing what you think it does
When working with developers, I’ve noticed that some have a tendency to put WITH (NOLOCK) on every table in a SELECT query. When I inquire about this, the typical response I …
Useful Tools: sp_whoisactive
One incredibly useful SQL Server tool that I often forget about is Adam Machanic’s sp_whoisactive procedure. The reason I say I forget about it is that it is not something that I …
SQL Server Maintenance Scripts
When it comes to everyday routine maintenance of your SQL Server databases, you can’t beat Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution. Focusing on SQL Server Backups, SQL Server Integrity Checks, and SQL Server …
Using Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance Solution with SQL Server Express Edition
This post is just a quick extension of my earlier post on Automating backups for SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition. If you’d rather use Ola Hallengren’s SQL Server Maintenance …
Standalone SQL Server Management Studio
Microsoft has released a new standalone version of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). As with previous versions of SSMS, you still get it bundled with your SQL Server install, but with this …
Playing with MongoDB
I am currently going through the M102: MongoDB for DBAs course offered at MongoDB University. I just started my third week of the seven week course, and so far I’m enjoying it. …
Automating backups for SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition
One of the limitations of SQL Server Express is that you can’t automate backups in it via the SQL Server Agent like you can the other versions of SQL Server. …