We’re in the first of the database-level reports in this series of the Standard Reports that ship with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) . To get to these reports, navigate from the server object in Object Explorer, move down to the Databases object...

OK, it's a shameless giveaway! See if you can fill out this puzzle, made with words you'll find in SQL Server Management Studio. Mail me the answers and I'll send out a small gift to one lucky reader with the right answers, chosen at random at the end...

We’re in the final server-level reports in this series of the Standard Reports that ship with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) . Don’t worry, there are plenty more reports coming in the database and other objects; but this one is the last of the reports...

I was thinking about something this morning on the ride into work that I’d like to ask your opinion about. It has to do with the amount of data that could be absorbed and acted on by a unit or system in a given period of time. The idea is that there...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio . Today I'm covering a report on a feature you might not have used yet – the Service Broker. This feature, which you can read more about here , allows you to set up a messaging...

Steve Jones, my friend over at SQLServerCentral.com had a podcast the other day (Voice of the DBA) where he commented that blogs should be blogs - not a form of corporate communication. I agree. It's not that you can't have corporate content on an RSS...

I've met a lot of DBA's that don't do a lot of coding. Sure, they know basic T-SQL, and are probably pretty handy with a scripting language, but they don't write code for a living. In some shops where I've worked (usually larger ones) we had separate...

You probably access SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) using an icon somewhere in your Start menu or on your desktop. But did you know that there are several command-line switches that you can use to start SSMS and end up right where you want to go?...

I’ve run into quite a few DBA’s who aren’t using the Templates feature we provide with SQL Server Management Studio. If you spend a little time becoming familiar with them, I think you’ll find they are a powerful tool. Templates are really just a series...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio . Today I'm covering four reports at a time – the performance reports that are broken down by average and total times. The reason I’ll cover all four of them is that they...

I got back from vacation ( more here if you want to read about where we go and what we do every other week) and we released SQL Server 2008 CTP5. If you have been waiting for a bit to install and learn more about it, this is a good release to try. Make...

I'll be offline for about a week. For those of you reading this blog outside of the US, we have a holiday called "Thanksgiving" where we are all encouraged to be thankful for the things we have. I think this is a great tradition, and one of the things...

I spoke with Andrew Fryer yesterday via e-mail when I noticed he was also covering some of the same information we're looking at here on the Standard Reports in SQL Server. I think that's great - I had been wondering if there were many people using these...

We're in the performance section of the series of Standard Reports you get with SQL Server Management Studio . The report we're covering today, located in the "Server" level of reports is another Performance Report, and it is interesting because it brings...

As I've mentioned, I've only been in my current role a few months. I've inherited a lot of things from the Program Managers who have gone before me, so I can't take credit or blame for everything I'm now responsible for. But going forward, I want to do...

I’m working my way through the Standard Reports you get in SQL Server Management Studio. I’ve gone through several of them already, and today we finally move out of the locking and blocking reports. The next report in the list, and we’re still only on...

Since I didn't blog about anything very technical in my last entry, I thought I would post a little something about what we're hearing about the "Connection" dialogs. We have quite a few places in Management Studio that we pop up a place for you to connect...

(OK – this has almost nothing to do with technology – something I read really irked me) I use the time on the unbelievably long bus ride home (don’t even get me started about the traffic up here. Only California compares to this mess) to clear out...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today I'm covering a report that shows more about locking activity, by transaction. Before I begin describing the columns and values in this report, it might make...

We get a lot of suggestions for our tools here at Microsoft. We get some really good tips about how people are using the tools, and we get some instructions about what we can do to make them better. And we also get requests for features in the tools that...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today I'm covering a report that shows the transactions on an instance that block others. I’ve described some of this blocking activity here , but this report orders...

The Program Managers here at Microsoft get work from three main buckets. There are things that we have that are broken (bugs), things that we have that people want more/different/other features in (enhancements), and new features (Improvements). As with...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today I'm covering another "Activity" report. This report shows more information about transactions, which I’ve covered in some of the other reports. This one, however...

I’ve mentioned before on this blog a little about how we write software here at Microsoft. I think it’s great that we are allowed to talk about it – in fact, we’re encouraged to be open about it. That’s very different from many other software firms I...

I'm continuing my series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio , and today I'm covering another "Activity" report. I covered other activity reports, most from the viewpoint of users or sessions. This report shows much of the same information...