Top free add-ins for SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) September 13, 2018 by SQLShack This collection of content presents an overview of free SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) add-ins, with product page links for each of the tools and screenshots if available. SSMS add-ins are presented in alphabetical order. If you noticed a free tool we missed, please let us know in the comments below. Read more »
SQL Server Execution Plan Operators – Part 1 September 12, 2018 by Ahmad Yaseen In the previous articles of this series, SQL Server Execution Plans overview , SQL Server Execution Plans types and How to Analyze SQL Execution Plan Graphical Components, we discussed the steps that are performed by the SQL Server Relational Engine to generate the Execution Plan of a submitted query and the steps performed by the SQL Server Storage Engine to retrieve the requested data or perform the requested modification operation. Read more »
How to Analyze SQL Execution Plan Graphical Components September 7, 2018 by Ahmad Yaseen In the previous articles of this series, SQL Server Execution Plans overview and SQL Server Execution Plans types we went through the different stages that the submitted SQL Server query followed and how it processed by the SQL Server Relational Engine that generates the Execution Plan and the SQL Server Storage Engine that performs the requested data retrieval or modification operation. In addition, we described deeply the different types and formats of the SQL Server Execution Plans that can be used for queries performance troubleshooting purposes. In this article, we will discuss the graphical query plan components and how to analyze it. Read more »
4K resolution and high DPI: What you need to know about it to have great visuals April 26, 2018 by Bojan Petrovic 4K resolution, AKA Ultra HD, refers to a horizontal screen display resolution in the order of approximately 3,840 pixels. On two-dimensional display devices such as computer monitors, it represents display resolution of 3840×2160 pixels which is four times as many pixels as regular Full High Definition (1920×1080). What this means for users is the more pixels per inch (PPI) the higher resolution on the monitor. In other words, you can be closer to the monitor and still enjoy a crisp, clear picture. Read more »
What’s new in SSMS 17.5; Data Discovery and Classification and more April 16, 2018 by Ahmad Yaseen SQL Server Management Studio aka SSMS is the default integrated graphical user interface tool that is used to access, administrate, configure, manage, query and monitor the different SQL Server instances that are hosted locally at the user machine, remotely on a server or anywhere in the cloud. It is a comprehensive environment that allows us to edit, debug and deploy scripts written in different languages such as T-SQL, DAX, MDX, XML and more. In my previous articles, we followed the enhancements to the existing SSMS features, the fixes to the bugs found and reported in the previous SSMS versions and the new features added to each new release. These new features that are introduced in the previous versions include the Connections dialog box new options, the embedded Performance Dashboard, Showplan node search, Import Flat File Wizard, the XEvent Profiler and Always On Availability Group dashboard new additions, which are described deeply in these articles. Read more »
How to enable High-DPI in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) – Tips, tricks and issues April 11, 2018 by Bojan Petrovic SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is getting better and better with each new release but Microsoft seems to ignore one big issue affecting a group of users that grows rapidly as the technology moves forward and we move on to modern workstations and laptops. Read more »
SQL Server data compression using the SSMS Data Compression Wizard April 3, 2018 by Marko Zivkovic Every DBA knows that database grows over time and that the growth never stops. The more data is in the database, the more time (work) SQL Server is needed in order to deal with it. From SQL Server 2008 on, new tools are available in order to help DBAs to reduce the size of database. This article will describe SQL Server data compression and the SSMS Data Compression Wizard will be explained. Read more »
Debugging stored procedures in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) February 20, 2018 by Ben Richardson Debugging is one of the most important but painful parts of any software process. To find some errors you have to run the code step by step to see which section of the code is responsible for the error. This is called runtime debugging. Luckily, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) comes with automated debugging capabilities to help developers debug their scripts. In this article, we will explain practically how SSMS can be used to debug stored procedures in SQL Server by working through a very simple example. Read more »
SQL Server Query Store – Overview December 29, 2017 by Marko Zivkovic The SQL Server Query Store is a relatively new feature introduced in SQL Server 2016. It is basically a SQL Server “flight recorder” or “black box”, capturing a history of executed queries, query runtime execution statistics, execution plans etc. against a specific database. This information helps in identifying performance problems caused by query plan changes and troubleshooting by quickly finding performance differences, even after SQL Server restart or upgrade. All data that SQL Server Query Store capture are stored on disk. Read more »
What’s new in SQL Server Management Studio 17.4; Always On AG dashboard enhancements and more December 27, 2017 by Ahmad Yaseen As all other database engines that require a GUI too to interact with, Microsoft built SQL Server Management Studio as a tool that provides an environment to manage, configure, monitor and administrate the SQL Server infrastructure for different kind of instances, that are installed locally at your machine, on a remote server with Windows or Linux operating systems or hosted in the cloud such as SQL Azure or Azure Data warehouse. Recall that the SQL Server Management Studio consists of the Object Explorer, which is used to view and manage all objects within the SQL Server instance, the Template Explorer, that is used to deal with the scripting text files and the Solution Explorer, that is responsible for building the projects that contain list of T-SQL scripts in SQL Server. Read more »
What’s new in SQL Server Management Studio 17.4; SQL Vulnerability assessment and more December 26, 2017 by Samir Behara Microsoft released the latest version of the SQL Server Management Studio 17.4 a few weeks back. This release brings in exciting new features and bug fixes to the SSMS IDE for SQL Developers and DBAs. In this article, we will look at a new inbuilt tool for identifying security vulnerabilities in your database. We will also understand the improvements made to the XEvent Profiler and ShowPlan features. Read more »
How to export data from SQL Server to a Flat file December 7, 2017 by Marko Zivkovic In this article, we will illustrate how to export SQL Server data into a Flat file, by using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard. We will also explain some of the problems that may appear during the process of exporting SQL Server data into a Flat file. To start the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, use one of the following ways form the How to import/export data to SQL Server using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard page. Read more »
How to import data from an Excel file to a SQL Server database November 10, 2017 by Marko Zivkovic There are many ways to import data from an Excel file to a SQL Server database using: SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) the OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE functions SQL Server linked servers the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard In this article, steps for importing data from an Excel file to a SQL Server database will be explained using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard including some of problems that can occur during the processes. Read more »
What’s new in SQL Server Management Studio 17.3; Import Flat File wizard and XEvent Profiler November 1, 2017 by Ahmad Yaseen SQL Server Management Studio is an integrated graphical user interface tool that is used to perform wide range of administration and development tasks on the SQL Server instances, hosted locally on the user machine, remotely on a Windows or Linux server or on SQL Azure or Azure Data warehouse instances hosted in the cloud. You can use SQL Server Management Studio to easily administrate, develop, deploy, configure and monitor the SQL Server instances. Read more »
How to import/export data to SQL Server using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard October 27, 2017 by Marko Zivkovic This article will explain the steps for importing and exporting data using the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard. Depending on the options that are selected in the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, some steps may be different than those described in this article. For the purpose of this example, exporting data from the SQL Server database to an Excel file will be shown. Read more »
How to import a flat file into a SQL Server database using the Import Flat File wizard October 19, 2017 by Marko Zivkovic Import Flat File wizard is a new feature implemented in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) v17.3 for importing a .csv or a .txt file into a SQL Server database. The latest SSMS version can be found on this link Read more »
How to configure Always Encrypted in SQL Server 2016 using SSMS, PowerShell and T-SQL October 2, 2017 by Prashanth Jayaram In an era of remote storage and retrieval of data, including the cloud, data security plays a vital role, especially since it’s vulnerable during the transit. Situations like database backup or copy from or to the cloud, there is always a risk of data exposure to outside world lurking around one corner or the other. We have seen a noticeable surge in the technologies around protection and security of data from the world full of unsafe hands. Efforts are being made to protect data at a very granular level of the encryption hierarchy. Protection of business data cannot be stressed upon more. Read more »
Setting up the dark theme in SQL Server management studio September 28, 2017 by Bojan Petrovic In SSMS 2016 Microsoft introduced visual setting option to choose between Blue and Light color theme. In both SSMS 2016 and the latest SSMS 17, the user can switch between the Blue or Light theme by going to Tools > Options > Environment > General > Color theme: Read more »
How to connect to the Azure Storage Account with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) September 25, 2017 by Daniel Calbimonte Introduction In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), it is possible to connect to the Azure Storage. The Azure Storage Account is useful because it creates replicas automatically in the cloud. You only need to upload your file to the Azure Storage Account and the replication is automatic. You can have multiple replications in different regions and Datacenters with few clicks. Read more »
What’s new in SQL Server Management Studio 17.2; Authentication methods, scripting options and more August 31, 2017 by Ahmad Yaseen SQL Server Management Studio is an integrated graphical interface that is used to configure, manage, monitor and administrate the SQL Server instances hosted on the local machine, on a remote server or in the cloud. It provides us with editing, debugging and deploying environment for the T-SQL, XML, MDX and DMX languages. Read more »
