In the previous article SQL unit testing with the tSQLt framework for beginners in this series, we covered tSQLt framework essentials and installation. we also demonstrated basic SQL unit testing through the tSQLt framework. In this article, we will continue to explore SQL unit testing and we will also discuss the benefits of SQL unit testing. Additionally, we will learn how we can use the tSQLt framework in a SQL Server Database Project.
Read more »How to setup image based SQL Server database provisioning with PSDatabaseClone
March 22, 2019This article will provide information about requirements and step-by-step instructions on how to set up automated image based database provisioning including configuring the host environment to fulfilling basic requirements.
Read more »SQL Server database migration to Azure SQL Database using SQL Server Transactional Replication
March 22, 2019In this guide, we’ll discuss more about migrating a SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database using SQL Server Transactional Replication.
Managing Data in SQL Server FILETABLEs
March 22, 2019SQL Server FILETABLE is a next generation feature of SQL FILESTREAM. We can use it to store unstructured objects into a hierarchal directory structure. SQL Server manages SQL FILETABLE using computed columns and interacts with the OS using extended functions. We can manage SQL FILETABLEs similar to a relational table.
Read more »Accelerated Database Recovery and Long Running Transactions with Transaction Log Growth
March 21, 2019In my previous article in this series Accelerated Database Recovery; Instant Rollback and Database Recovery, we talked about a potential DBA painkiller to resolve long waiting times for database recovery and rollback scenarios using Accelerated Database Recovery. In this article, we will look at one more painful challenge for DBAs, Long Running Transaction with Transaction log growth.
Read more »SQL Database Backups using PowerShell Module – DBATools
March 21, 2019This article will be first article of series for SQL database backup and restoration using DBAtools, a powerful open source library of PowerShell automation scripts.
Read more »SQL Server Transaction Log and High Availability Solutions
March 21, 2019In the previous article of this series on the SQL Server transaction log, we discuss the SQL Server database recovery models, Full, Simple and Bulk-Logged, and the how the recovery model option of the database affects the way the SQL Server Engine works with the transaction logs. In this article, we will discuss the different types of high availability and disaster recovery solutions and the role of the SQL Server transaction log in these technologies.
Windocks; Database cloning for SQL Server dev/test on “live” production data
March 19, 2019Introduction
Today, with DevOps, the need for database cloning is urgent. The development and testing process is shorter and it is required to work and test the data faster.
Working with PowerShell’s Invoke-SqlCmd
March 18, 2019PowerShell features many one-line commands for working with SQL Server, one of which is Invoke-SqlCmd. This tool can be useful in many development contexts where we need to quickly execute scripts or test code and it helps to know some of the parameters we’ll often use. In addition, because we may want a custom script using some of the underlying .NET objects, we’ll look at an alternative where we will be able to create a custom PowerShell script that connects to SQL Server in order to run commands. The latter can be useful because one-line scripts have a tendency to change in future versions of PowerShell and working with the library directly can sometimes avoid this challenge.
Read more »SQL unit testing with the tSQLt framework for beginners
March 18, 2019tSQLt is a powerful, open source framework for SQL Server unit testing. In this article, we will mainly focus on how to create and run SQL unit testing with help of the tSQLt framework. Before we begin to learn tSQLt framework details, let’s discuss essentials and importance of the database unit testing approach, in general. SQL unit testing is a vital and inseparable part of the modern database development approach and it makes possible to prevent errors before producing the release deployment process. Some database developers are still discussing the needs of the SQL unit testing concept; however, database unit testing is very significant to control and check the behavior of the individual parts of the database. For this reason, we cannot ignore the need to write unit test cases.
Read more »Choosing and Setting a PowerShell Execution Policy
March 18, 2019The PowerShell execution policy was developed with a vision to be friendly to administrators, and at the same time, be accessible to end users. More than the former, the latter goal was a little challenging to pull off, considering that convenience is, more often than not, inversely proportional to security.
Read more »Change Data Capture for auditing SQL Server
March 18, 2019This article on Change Data Capture will provide an overview, notes on installation, architecture, enabling and disabling, auditing DML statements and limitations
Read more »SQL Server replication: Configuring Snapshot and Transactional Replication
March 15, 2019In this article of the series on SQL Server replication, we will explore ways to configure SQL Server Snapshot replication and Transactional replication step by step.
SQL Server replication configuration: Peer to Peer and Merge Replication
March 15, 2019This article will cover SQL Server replication configuration including Peer to peer replication and merge replication, initial configuration, adding nodes and data verification.
Read more »PowerShell SQL Server Validation Utility – DBAChecks
March 15, 2019In this article, we will explore the DBAChecks PowerShell SQL Server Module. We can use the DBAChecks module to validate SQL Server instances using the various modules. We can also perform more than 100 configuration reviews using it.
Read more »Simulating a Multi Subnet cluster for setting up SQL Server Always On Availability Groups – lab setup
March 14, 2019In this article, we are going to see how to create a multi subnet cluster spanning across multiple subnets for lab purposes. Creating such an environment should help creating Availability groups simulating a far replica residing in a different Data Center (Subnet) acting as a disaster recovery site in your lab for learning/experimenting real world scenarios.
Read more »Accelerated Database Recovery; Instant Rollback and Database Recovery
March 12, 2019Accelerated database recovery will be the topic of this article, including killing an active query, abnormal shutdown and the accelerate recovery feature itself, in SQL 2019
tSQLt – A Forgotten Treasure in Database Unit Testing
March 12, 2019This article is an overview of tSQLt, which is one of the best SQL unit testing frameworks, due to number of reasons, including the ease of writing unit tests in the same language (T-SQL) in which the database objects themselves are written.
Read more »DBATools PowerShell Module for SQL Server
March 12, 2019This article will provide an overview and introduction to DBAtools, a powerful open source library of automation scripts.
Read more »How to get a SQL database restore history
March 11, 2019This article will review how to get information on your SQL database restore history, including the metadata in MSDB that can be queried, as well as value added tools and features to the group, sort, report and export this critical information.
Read more »SQL Server FILETABLE – the next generation of SQL FILESTREAM
March 11, 2019This SQL Server FILETABLE article is the continuation of the SQL Server FILESTREAM series. The SQL Server FILESTREAM feature is available from SQL Server 2008 on. We can store unstructured objects into FILESTREAM container using this feature. SQL Server 2012 introduced a new feature, SQL Server FILETABLE, built on top of the SQL FILESTREAM feature. In this article, we will explore the SQL FILETABLE feature overview and its comparison with SQL FILESTREAM.
Read more »SSIS interview questions
March 11, 2019These SSIS interview questions cover many of the top topics that you will be asked when applying for your next SSIS developer job. Each question has links to articles that cover the topic in depth.
Read more »DevSecOps: Security Testing Around Builds and Shared Information
March 11, 2019One big component of DevSecOps surrounding security testing involves how we build and deploy with shared information access of details that may be valuable to an attacker. In order to understand these risks, we must think like attacker who wants to compromise an environment that is focusing on quickly writing code, building the code, testing it, and deploying it across multiple environments. An attacker’s ultimate target will be the highest environment – often a production environment, but some attackers may target lower environments because they may be able to inject code that is deployed to production. In addition, an attacker may only be trying to learn about how an environment is laid out to attack in other ways, such as using social engineering with key information.
Read more »Configuring a SQL Server AlwaysOn High Availability Group
March 6, 2019In this article, we will learn the step by step configuration of SQL Server AlwaysOn High availability Group for two nodes. Once nodes are added to the cluster group, we will able to use the AlwaysOn feature in the SQL server.
DevSecOps: Developing with Automated Security Testing
March 6, 2019A key component of DevSecOps and identical to running unit tests to validate code after a build, running automated security testing after an application has been deployed (such as automated penetration tests) can provide us with a tool that identifies security risks. As we’ve seen recently, there’s been a growth of many companies experiencing information being compromised and with the development culture of “move fast and break things”, I expect this trend of successful attacks will continue. Before we look at our options for automating this testing, we want to be aware of its limits, evaluate the requirements, and consider common designs that are useful.
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