Database snapshot is a great feature that offers virtual read only consistent database copy. When we create the database snapshot in the live operational database, it takes a database point in time static view and Rollback all uncommitted transactions in the snapshot database so we will not be having any inconsistent data that is yet […]
In this article we will review migration from disk-based tables to in-memory optimized tables. This article assumes that you already understand the pros and cons about In-Memory Technology, for more articles about this, please refer here. There are some options available on SQL Server 2014 and SQL Server 2016 that will help you to identity, […]
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 […]
As database professionals, we are often in very close proximity to important processes, data, and applications. While we adopt the mantra of “Do no harm”, many maintenance or reporting tasks that we create carry unseen risks associated with them. What happens when a drive fills up during daily differential backups? What if an index rebuild […]
SQL Server indexes are created to speed up the retrieval of data from the database table or view. The index contains one or more columns from your table. The structure of these keys are in the shape of B-tree distribution, enabling SQL Server to find the data quickly.
Database maintenance is very important, a critical part of our database administrators’ daily tasks. However, this aspect is frequently underestimated which could lead to performance problems and respectively angry, unhappy customers. In this article, we will take a look at the different maintenance operations we have in SQL Server and how we can optimize them […]
SQL Server provides you with a good solution to automate a lot of your administrative tasks using the SQL Server Agent jobs. These jobs are handled from the operating system side by a Windows service that is responsible for executing these jobs and feeding the SQL Server systems tables with the metadata about these jobs. […]
One of the more difficult challenges we face when analyzing data is to effectively identify and report on boundaries. Data sets can contain any number of significant starting and stopping points that may indicate significant events, such as missing data, important business events, or actionable changes in usage. Regardless of the use case, knowing how […]
Introducing the Problem Gaps existence in automatic sequenced columns occurs all the time. Missing identity values (or other sequencing values) occur for a variety of Reasons. The most common reasons include: roll backed transactions, failed inserts and Deletes, large row deletes after delete commands that occur after many inserts to a sequenced table and so […]
Introduction Many times the people focus on the user databases to improve the performance, but sometimes the problem is not the user database itself. Sometimes the problem is the tempdb. In this article, we will give a brief introduction about the tempdb database, show how to create some temporary objects there and show how to […]
When talking about performance and scalability inside SQL Server, I don’t see anyone missing out on the fact to mention how locks get involved. I often see DBA’s complain to developers that their code is not scalable and they are experiencing heavy locks in the system because of the way the code has been written. […]
The Problem Checking the many SQL Servers health conditions is one of the DBA basic tasks. Monitoring many servers and databases, day after day can be a very tedious job. There are many aspects to look for when checking the server performance figures. Such aspects include among others: CPU, Read and Write Disk counters, Various […]
The Problem The Problem demonstrated here describes a very common scenario. The IT Security group orders all programmers that all the dynamic input strings that comes from user input to be checked for suspicious SQL injection intentions. SQL injection is a code injection technique used to attack data-driven applications. During the attack, malicious SQL statements […]
Because databases aren’t always designed efficiently, data is sometimes stored in ways that make sorting and searching extremely difficult. Requests for meaningful, informative reports from such data, however, still must be fulfilled.
Introduction In Part 1 of this article, we built a case for the benefits of documenting our schema via the use of a stored procedure, as well as the ways this information can be used for DML operations on a relational database. Below, we will continue where we left off by speeding up our SQL […]
Introduction In a typical OLTP environment, we want to maintain an acceptable level of data integrity. The easiest way to do this is through the use of foreign keys, which ensure that the values for a given column will always match that of a primary key in another table. Over time, as the number of […]
Every organization, whether large or small, imposes some security measures to protect its confidential data. Such data usually includes contract details, project planning reports, employee information, financial account details and more. More often than not, firewalls, anti-viruses, and other data security techniques are applied to keep unauthorized users or programs from accessing such sensitive company […]
Azure is a simple and cheap way to have a Database. You can rent your Azure Database of 2 GB per 5 USD per month. That is a very cheap price. You can also administer your Database from your Android or your iPhone, which is very interesting. It is also possible to create your Windows […]
Here we are with the last part of this series of articles! In this article we are going to see two curiosities: How does in-memory OLTP work with Availability Group? Can I migrate from Log Shipping or Database Mirroring to Availability Groups? So, let’s start!
In continuation to the Availability Groups series, here you have another curiosity coming to make your job easier and help you to provide a solution to your customers 🙂 This time we will be talking about listeners. Basically, we will be talking about the limitation of one listener per Availability Group. If you never tested […]
In continuation to the previous article, where we talked about what happens when I add a readable secondary and why there are different options to control connections to the AG, it’s time to continue and demystify more curiosities about the beloved Availability Groups!
Introduction In this new article, we will use Visual Studio to connect to a SQL Server Database Installed in a Virtual Machine in Azure. Visual Studio is one of the most popular development tools in the world and connecting to Azure with Visual Studio is a very common need. We will modify an existing SQL […]
We all love Availability Groups! Since its introduction in the SQL Server 2012, some things changed. In the beginning it was seen as “just a replacement for the database mirroring”, but when we discovered that this would support readable secondary’s, the possibility of having a listener and get rid of the shared storage – even […]
Introduction There are great Microsoft tools to access to SQL Server in Azure. However, as a Database Developers and Administrators we need to help the end user to access to the information using a familiar and intuitive interface. Most of the end users have a good knowledge in MS Excel. That is why it is […]
With the release of SQL Server 2016 comes many great new features. One of these is the implementation of row level security in the database engine. This blogpost will cover the aspects of this new feature – including: Setup Best practice Performance Possible security leaks
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