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January 2009 - Posts

Friday, January 30, 2009 8:59 AM

Quote of the Day - Trusting the Government to Get Things Done

Because, hey, they have such a great track record, right?   "We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress." -- Will Rogers
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Thursday, January 29, 2009 8:03 AM

SQL Server 2008 System Views Poster

The new poster is here! The new Poster is here!  Get your's while they are hot: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=531c53e7-8a2a-4375-8f2f-5d799aa67b5c&displaylang=en
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 7:54 AM

Data Retention Strategies and Server Consolidation

I deal with a lot of folks that are going through server consolidation exercises. These days everyone immediately thinks of Virtualization - which will consolidate servers onto a single instance. But in many cases it's actually smarter to evaluate the
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 9:13 AM

Versioning the Database

If you write apps that hit a database that you own, then you probably want version control on the database itself. I always script out the initial database, and version that script. I also script the changes, and version those, and then script the entire
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Monday, January 26, 2009 8:40 AM

Which Edition is Right for Me?

I had a discussion the other day with someone who had some questions about Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2008. In many cases, I've seen someone not using the "right size" of SQL Server. Many installations really call for Enterprise Edition
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Friday, January 23, 2009 1:28 PM

Quote of the Day - The Inevitability of Change

The last (incredibly long) election was touted as being all about "change". I think with all the news today, people are finding out that not all change is good change - but it is in fact inevitable: "Change is the price of survival"
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:21 AM

Is a Comprehensive Data Map Possible?

Most of us design a "CRUD" (Create, Read, Update and Delete) matrix for an application's database. And if you are really thorough, you create a data dictionary that shows what data goes where and why. The problem with these documents is that
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:27 AM

Finding the "Real" Problem

I think half of what I do as a DBA is "spelunking" - exploring the situation at hand to see what the real problem is. Nine times out of ten, the thing that was presented to me isn't the thing I end up working on. So where do you start with this
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009 8:27 AM

Posting Comments to MSDN Blogs

I had a ready respond to my post yesterday via e-mail. He asked why I didn't have "Anonymous" comments enabled on the blog, and told me that I would get a lot more responses if I did. And he is correct - I did have the settings on this blog
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
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Monday, January 19, 2009 7:37 AM

Free T-SQL Beautifier

I do love me some good-looking code. Sure, the syntax has to be there, and the code has to be correct and all that, but I'm old-school, and I think pretty code is easier to read. I'd love to have a "code beautifier" built right in to SQL Server
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
Friday, January 16, 2009 7:33 AM

Quote of the Day - Warren Buffet on Risk

Another one of my favorite quotes comes from Warren Buffet - I think about it every time I start a new project: "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing. " -- Warren Buffet
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Thursday, January 15, 2009 7:50 AM

Top Queries DMV

I spoke at the Pacific Northwest SQL Server User Group last night, and we covered Performance tuning. I promised to blog a script that uses the "query_stats" DMV and a CROSS APPLY to find the top queries - there are lots of these on the web, so here's
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 7:49 AM

PowerShell Unleashed

I just finished reading the latest version of PowerShell Unleashed last night. Although there are some really great chapters (like the discussion on security), I don't recommend this book as your first introduction to PowerShell. To be fair, the authors
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009 7:51 AM

Service Accounts Redux

The other day I made a post that mixed a couple of concepts. I mentioned that you should always use a separate set of Windows accounts for the SQL Server Engine and Agent services. I also mentioned security ramifications. The fact that the SQL Server
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Monday, January 12, 2009 6:55 AM

Set The Owner Of all Objects Using SQL Server PowerShell Provider

I'm going to standardize a bit - or at least try - in this blog. On Monday's I'll share something new that I've learned to do with PowerShell - sometimes with the PowerShell Provider for SQL Server 2008, and sometimes just using PowerShell and the SMO
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Friday, January 09, 2009 7:39 AM

Quote of the Day - The Best Method of Learning

Most people know a lot - but they could know a lot more: "Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your mouth is moving." -- My Mother
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:00 AM

PowerShell Provider for SQL Server Script of the Day - Script all objects

If you're using the PowerShell provider for SQL Server, you can quickly script out all of the objects in a "directory" using a simple method. Just navigate to the directory of objects you're interested in, say the "Views" of a certain
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 7:36 AM

Are You Archiving Your Data?

Computer technology has been a fixture of business now for several decades - but I'm not sure it's a "mature" industry yet. Sure, we have a few standards, and some dominant vendors and a strong workforce - all earmarks of a mature industry -
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Tuesday, January 06, 2009 7:33 AM

Have You Backed Up Your Database Master Key?

If you have encrypted columns in a database or certificates used to create them, you need to make sure that you back up the Database Master Key as part of your maintenance, and then protect that backup file. Here's the short version of the command: BACKUP
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Monday, January 05, 2009 7:40 AM

Another Reason to Use A Special Service Account

When I'm asked what the least-used feature of SQL Server is, I often have to reply that it is "good security". Many installations take all the default settings, and most use programmatic security rather than the features built in to SQL Server.
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Friday, January 02, 2009 8:04 AM

Quote of The Day - Salt Water Cures Everything

Just got back (late last night) from our Florida vacation. I really miss "home" - Safety Harbor, Florida - and while I was there I saw a quote from my favorite author, Isak Denison: "Anything can be cured with Saltwater - Tears, Sweat,
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Thursday, January 01, 2009 4:21 AM

This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution Blog Entry

I read a lot of blogs, as I’m sure you do. Many of them lately tell me about the author’s New Year’s resolutions – and I’m sure those are important. But I don’t think you care about mine. Neither do I. In fact, as a
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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