A key function of a DBA is to plan, test, and implement disaster recovery policies for the databases they maintain. DBAs lacking these skills may also find themselves lacking a job if they are unable to recover data when necessary. For all these skills we apply in the workplace, I have still heard via Twitter a few …

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A few days ago Tim Ford (blog | twitter) put forth a challenge to describe a transaction in a non-technical fashion. I could have replied to the post directly, but I figured it would be rather wordy. Instead I decided to follow the lead of Janice Lee (blog | twitter) and write a post about it, providing Tim with a neat …

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No more than an output to me, but it sure was to SQL Server! This issue kept me busy over the weekend, and most definitely gave me a case of Saturday Night SQL Fever (as opposed to "SQL Saturday Night Fever", for which the only cure is more karaoke). When executing a stored procedure with an OUTPUT parameter, …

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I've never been a fan of Apple. Despite making a living off SQL Server, I don't consider myself to be a Windows fanboy by any stretch of the imagination either, but I never imagined that I would buy a Mac. One of the easiest arguing points back in the day was the availability of software. Games on a mac? There was that …

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This post is my contribution to T-SQL Tuesday #007, hosted this month by the SQLChicken himself, Jorge Segarra (Blog | Twitter). Since I'm a bad DBA and have yet to get my hands on a copy of R2, I'll make use of the rule that we can discuss any feature from 2008. My favorite is filtered indexes, as they were the …

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At my previous employer I took part in several projects that involved migrating databases not only to new hardware but also to new versions of SQL Server. We upgraded machines running the 2000 and 2005 versions of SQL Server to 2008. Here's how we went about doing it, and some helpful hints we figured out along the …

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Every once in a while I hope to use this blog to investigate the lighter side of database/computing topics. After all, redundancy can (and should!) exist in many more places than corporate network architectures. One of the places you may be surprised to hear about redundancy is college marching bands, which I feel more …

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I think all of us who sit in front of a computer for a living have a few free programs that we're particularly fond of. Here's what I'm liking as of late. Notepad++ My favorite general-purpose text editor. Along with pretty much anything else, I find myself writing a lot of T-SQL code in here and then copying/pasting …

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When preparing to take certification exams, I always purchase test preparation materials no matter how ready I feel that I am. I do this for two reasons: There's no such thing as being too prepared (being a Boy Scout taught me this many times over) I can be sure of what topics will be covered As I was getting ready to …

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A little over a week ago, Wendy Pastrick (blog | twitter) had a blog post, Attack of the Killer Maintenance Plan, where she crafts a horror story from her experience checking out some maintenance plans designed by a former employee. After reading this, I was inspired to come up with my own tale, blended with classic …

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