Excellence in SQL Server

Two of the courses that we used to teach at Digital on RDB, where Logical Database Design and Physical Database Design. What I see now,...

I like having a local backup of my databases. It doesn't matter if this is physical disks or a SAN. I just like having them local. I find...

One of the more interesting technical decisions with the whole SQL Server Availability Group set up for this application was the witness...

One of the learnings from this application development was the use of deployment tools and source control. Everything was under source...

This past week, we had to fix a corrupt database. SQL Server 2008R2 but the database in question was in a compatibility level of 9.0...

Dealing with personal and private data is difficult. You just don't need to know about inserts, updates and deletes (see previous blog on...

Acknowledgement. The following information came from the SQLskills Insiders #167 newsletter (Paul S Randal). Microsoft has released SQL...

When dealing with sensitive data, one of the requirements is to know - who changed what and when. This means tracking all inserts,...

After a technical architecture review, it became apparent to the CIO and CTO of the hospital that this was not a simple environment. In...

When dealing with any sensitive data you need to do your best to safeguard it. Having decided that we were using Enterprise edition...

A lot of decisions needed to be made in regard to the redevelopment of the oncology application. Because we are dealing with health care...

The next couple of blogs all relate to an oncology application and the changes required for a more Enterprise approach for the...

In August I blogged about using the new SQL Server 2016 temporal tables for a client requirement. It did everything they required and...

I was invited by a large Microsoft Gold Partner and SQL Server specialist consultancy firm to come in for a chat to see if my skills and...

We had a question the other day with a client trying to install SQL Server 2008 R2 (yes people are still using and installing SQL Server...

Whilst reading a SQL newsletter the other day from a well respected software development company and Microsoft Gold Partner, the article...

Recently we had a client that had to change to all of their IP addresses. This included the DR site which is on another network and not...

I got asked today what SQL Server newsletters do I subscribe to and actually read, then potentially file away for future reference (I try...

I wonder how many SQL Server DBAs have ever heard of the SQL Server Utility Control Point (UCP) or used the Utility explorer. Until...

When you start creating a large number of reports, you need to ensure the consistency in the look and feel of reports. The header and...