July, 2008

I've mentioned this driver for SQL Server before, but in case you have any boxes out there that you're using PHP on, make sure you check out this update. Here's the announcement, straight from the team: Version 1.0 RTM of the SQL Server 2005 Driver for...

As I rode home on the bus yestereday a young lady sitting next to me noticed me typing on my laptop, and asked me a question about, of all things, backups! She worked in a medical facility, and wondered why their backups took longer by the end of the...

This past Saturday my family and I went to the Bellevue Arts Festival near our home here in Washington. I'm constantly amazed by the "artist's eye" - someone gifted with being able to see what they want to draw, or paint, or make art out of any material...

You may have seen the announcements yesterday, but in case you haven’t, we had a pretty big acquisition announced at Microsoft yesterday that is great news for SQL Server. DATAllegro Inc. , a provider of data warehouse appliances. DATAllegro specializes...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 4:00pm - "Need for Speed": Now it’s time to tune my systems. Before I can tune them, I need to track them. Sure...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 1:00pm - "New and Shiny": There are a few features in SQL Server that can be complex to implement...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 1:00pm - "New and Shiny": Sometimes it can be, well, a bit challenging to locate the objects you want to work on...

If you attended TechEd Developers week you may have encountered the of the SQL Server Data Programmability team were announcing the Microsoft Sync Framework , or Project “Velocity” .  As a DBA or developer, you’re likely to run...

It's Friday already - wow, where did the week go? OK, I promised a "Quote of the day" every week, so here it is: If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room - African proverb

I answer a lot of questions about SQL Server - on forums, in newsgroups, in presentations and so on - and many are "101", or basic questions. That's great! I don't have a problem with that at all - I enjoy helping someone that is new to SQL Server learn...

I was asked about the post I did on the multi-server query feature we put in SQL Server Management Studio 2008. Because it seems to render on the screen in a sequential fashion, the user thought the queries were issued one at a time from the Registered...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 1:00pm - "New and Shiny": With the stored procedure I created ready to go, I need to test it - in case it's long...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 1:00pm - "New and Shiny": In my DBA day I finally get a break to do something I really enjoy - new development....

I collect quotes - I think I'll start sharing those on Friday. I got a new one today: If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957)

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Real-World-DBA-Episode-18-Connecting-to-SQL-Server/ This week: In the news, the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack for RC0 is now available. In this week’s feature, we’ll talk about accessing SQL Server. The web link...

You might notice that I blog quite often about security here, even though I'm on the management team. The reason is that over the years as a DBA I've seen so many shops that don't take care of the basics, so I think you just can't talk about it enough...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 10:00am - "Panic Button": While I'm examining the state of performance on my system, I discover that one set of...

If you're installing the latest release of SQL Server 2008, you'll probably immediately start looking for the Surface Area Configuration (SAC) tool. It's been removed, and replaced with new Policies that we ship with the Policy Based Management feature...

I gave a presentation at TechEd 2008 where I covered our new features in "A Day in the Life of a DBA". Here's more of what I showed for 10:00am - "Panic Button": All of us get called from our cubes to come take a look at a performance problem. You...

The SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack for RC0 is now live - if you haven't downloaded this and played with it yet, shame on you! :) OK - just kidding - it's not like you don't have a day job. However, if you'll take a few moments and look this download over...

Have you noticed a preponderance of new blogs and blog entries from the Microsoft teams lately? Well, there's a reason... During a release we get so "heads down" on the code that there is little time to talk about it. As the code solidifies and we...