Driving The Database Engine

SQL Diag is a very useful diagnostic tool that will help capture performance information from SQL Server. This tool is shipped with the SQL Server product. Howerver there is not an easy way to configure the tool - it requires the hand editing of an XML...

There are several undocumented stored procedures that many DBAs rely on to do their day to day work - namely sp MSForEachDatabase and sp MSForEachTable. This project is a SQL-CLR assembly that provides equivalent functionality to those two stored procedures...

An astute member of the SQL Server community has observed the presence of SPIDs with a negative number. These anti-SPIDS were noted in SQL Server 2000 and appear to be generated by MSDTC. I'm wondering if they behave like anti-matter and cancel out...

One of my colleagues, Rob Carrol, has uncovered a way to use the Performance Dashboard Reports on SQL Server 2008. Here's a link to his blog post on the topic: http://blogs.technet.com/rob/archive/2009/02/18/performance-dashboard-reports-for-sql-server...

A new security patch for SQL Server has been announced. You should pay close attention to this one since it may not be immediately obvious that you have a server that requires this patch. The system I'm working on currently has SQL Server 2005 with Service...

I'm in Miami for the next couple of weeks. They issued a "sweater alert" last night because the temperatures are going to stay in the high 60's for the next week. I'm sorry I didn't bring my sweater with me on this trip. I'll probably get frostbite. ...

Upgrading a database from SQL Server 2000 to 2005 is not a difficult task. Microsoft provides the Upgrade Advisor tool to scan databases and report on SQL statements that will not execute in full compatibility code (9.0). But what about SQL code embedded...

It's interesting how many companies are suddenly interested in upgrading from SQL Server 2000 to 2005. I can understand a legacy third party application that requires 2000 for compatibility. But many of these situations involve custom apps that would...