Kimberly Killian

Kimberly Killian
Latest posts by Kimberly Killian (see all)

How to automatically refresh a SQL Server database

October 4, 2017 by

As a DBA, I am often asked to automate tasks. In addition to this, I generally work with a lot of developers that need to test with data refreshing on a regular basis. A lot of the time, I am asked to either stand up a new test environment or overwrite/refresh an existing one. Now, these tasks are not difficult to complete, but why not just automate them into a SQL Agent job and just run it whenever you need it or schedule it and let the job do all the work? If you have read some of my previous articles (What is causing database slowdowns or Simple SQL Server automated user auditing), you will know I am a big proponent of automating repeatable tasks. The best part of this is if you have multiple clients like I do is that you can script out the job, change the variables and use it over and over again. I cannot tell you how many times I say “I have a job for that” when a client asks me to automate a task.

Read more »

SQL Server Index vs Statistics a consultants woes…or rants

December 29, 2016 by

As a DBA, I am often asked why is something performing slow, what and why statistics need to be updated or what will cause them to be “off”. My initial question to clients when they pose these questions to me is what changed on your end? Did the data change significantly and did the rebuild or reorganize index job run? Before I get into the answers to these questions from my clients, let me give you some background. So, just to clarify, for most of my clients, I work as a remote part-time DBA, that being said, I manage their database from every aspect including setting up servers, backups/restore, troubleshooting, managing their index’s, etc. and again remotely. So normally, I have setup jobs that will manage their index’s ranging from a weekly rebuild or even sometimes I use one that I’ve designed that makes a choice to either rebuild or reorganize an index based on fragmentation level. The “general rule of thumb” is reorganizing the index for fragmentation from 5% to 29% and rebuild when 30% plus. Those are pretty standard numbers I did not make them up.

Read more »

How to Split a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file into SQL Server Columns

December 29, 2016 by

Receiving a comma delimited file is not new technology nor is it difficult to deal with in SQL Server. As a matter of fact, it is extremely easy. There are many cases as to why you would want to do this. For example, you have an external data source that needs to be imported into your database/table. There a couple ways to do this, however the quickest and easiest way is to use the native “import” feature within SQL Server Management Studio and you can even save it to an SSIS Package at the end of the process. The end result of using this method is that the external CSV file is loaded into a SQL Server table where columns are created and rows are populated.

Read more »

What is causing database slowdowns?

February 2, 2016 by

Why is my database so slow? This query used to be so much faster. Why does it take so long to rebuild my index? How come it was fine last month? Every day I am asked these types of questions by clients. Every day! A lot of database developers and application developers do not realize that indexes are ever changing entities within your database or rather they need to be monitored closely and managed periodically to remain efficient. I cannot even count the times someone tells me “but we have index’s on this or that column and it was fine last month” and so on. All while they fail to realize or even tell me that the database just took on, updated or deleted 1,000,000 records for example, which would definitely change the footprint of the data, making the index’s unsound or in need of help. Even adding 50 new users that use the data differently could require new indexes. That being said, I decided to automate a quick and easy data gathering and reporting job that helps to answer these questions. Most of the time query performance questions can be answered by determining the fragmentation levels of index’s, if there are missing index’s, duplicate index’s, unused index’s and what are the heavy hitters in regards to queries and are queries running in memory or to disk and how many executions. My favorite thing to do with SQL Server is automate, automate and automate the tasks that are asked of me over and over.

Read more »

Simple SQL Server automated user auditing

January 25, 2016 by

As a DBA I am often asked to provide lists of all active users ID’s or groups for a specific server or database. In addition to this, I am also asked to provide a list of failed logins. These requests are frequent enough that I decided to automate the process of gathering this data and provide two nicely formatted HTML emails. I am not going lie, manager types love these reports, and anything that makes managers love my work I am all about! I’m also all about automating anything that makes my job easier. Call me lazy or call me prepared, I hate having to do something over and over that I could easily throw into an SSIS package or Agent Job and just schedule it to do it for me. This entire process consists of using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), 4 tables and a SQL Agent Job containing 2 reports (Failed Logins and Active SQL Server Users). The SSIS package, along with all of the queries and scripts are attached at the end of the article.

Read more »