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IT Management in the Era of AI
Throughout my 26-year professional journey, I've had the unique opportunity to experience leadership from multiple perspectives across two distinct careers. My first chapter spanned 11 years in education, where I served as a teacher and department he... -
Automate Testing Your Backups with DBATools
We’ve all heard, "You need to test your backups!" To be honest, in any of the shops I’ve worked in, we never tested our backups. It wasn’t high on the priority list, until I came across a situation where compression was added to a f... -
Join me for Optimizing Database Performance—a Webcast on LinkedIn
Allow me to take a moment to introduce you to the upcoming Optimizing Database Performance webcast on LinkedIn, Feb 26, 10:00 a.m., U.S. CT. This is the first in a planned multi-part series. A Gentle Introduction Episode one featur... -
Database Monitoring - From SysAdmins to Database Zen Masters Part One
In 2022, I had the pleasure of hosting a series of webinars on the subject of how different IT technologist persona’s can best utilise tooling to monitor business critical database applications. I was joined by the inimitable Kevin Kline and de... -
Automate testing your Backups with Dbatools
We’ve all heard, "You need to test your backups!" To be honest, in any of the shops I’ve worked in, we never tested our backups. It wasn’t high on the priority list, until I came across a situation where compression was added to a f... -
Do You Consider SQL Server a High Priority in Your Environment?
Is your SQL Server estate virtualized on VMware? More than likely, the answer is yes, unless you have already moved on to the cloud. How often do DBAs get input into how SQL Server is virtualized? In my experience, I never had input into how SQL VMs ... -
Pester is my Co-Pilot
When I was a senior in high school, I got my pilot’s license. One of the things I remember about my flight training was the preflight checklist. Before we started up the engine, we did a walk-around of the aircraft, checked the landing gear, ai... -
SolarWinds Database Observability Self-Hosted: 2024 Updates
This year, we’ve been hard at work bringing you a lineup of new features and enhancements across our database observability solutions. Each release in 2024 was designed with a clear goal: to make database monitoring, troubleshooting, and opti... -
The Role of the DBA in AI
In our recent paper, “Tuning In to AI,” we examine the role of DBAs and database monitoring tools in AI. How your company systematically stores and manages its corporate data, including the vast datasets needed for complex AI syst... -
Multi-Tasking in the Modern Database Environment
Note: This is an edited version of an article on SolarWinds Orange Matter. Every database manager understands the complexities involved in maintaining and optimizing multiple enterprise databases. Businesses today use a wide range of database system... -
PostgreSQL: Turning the Tables on Poor Database Performance
In our webcast “Turn the Tables on Poor Database Performance”, SolarWinds database expert, Kevin Kline, met with Kellyn Gorman, director of data and AI at Silk. Together they discussed one of the most popular opensource databases on the... -
Comprehensive PostgreSQL Monitoring with a Unified Vendor Approach: Part 2
SolarWinds Observability In Comprehensive PostgreSQL Monitoring with a Unified Vendor Approach: Part 1 we delved into the capabilities of SolarWinds® Database Performance Analyzer (DPA). We looked at DPA integration with our self-hos... -
Using Wait Time Analysis to Troubleshoot Oracle-to-PostgreSQL Migration
If you have a cost-saving strategy to replace legacy Oracle databases with open-source PostgreSQL, you’re likely asking yourself questions such as: How do I pinpoint where (and why) my PostgreSQL workload is performing better or worse than it... -
Using SolarWinds Database Tools to Optimize PostgreSQL Tables
In my first blog on THWACK, I wanted to write a little about PostgreSQL instance optimization and how a monitoring solution (like the products that SolarWinds produces ) can make the process of table tuning and optimizing your PostgreSQL operati... -
Database Monitoring in Healthcare
Database teams across healthcare industries must maintain consistent access to their applications and prevent interruptions that could affect the front line. There are unique challenges database professionals in healthcare industries encounter. Serve... -
THWACKcamp 2024: See What’s in Store at This Year’s Educational Extravaganza
The news is out – THWACKcamp is returning April 17 - 18! This year, we're excited to present our most engaging and informative agenda yet, designed to help you decomplexify IT in your organization. The life of a DBA is one of infinit... -
Unified Alerting via PowerShell for ServiceNow and Microsoft Teams
SQL Sentry has traditionally relied on email for alerting going out of the program. This is simple and effective, but it also lacks flexibility if you want to customize the message. It can add undesired (depending on your exchange admin) load to th... -
A Simplified Introduction to Azure Database for PostgreSQL Flexible Server
I find it amazing how much opportunity and flexibility cloud environments are creating for organizations of all sizes. I’m seeing more and more companies experimenting with open-source software (OSS) relational database systems, which years ago... -
What To Know About Microsoft Azure PostgreSQL Hyperscale
As organizations adopt cloud technologies and modernize their applications, the data they generate and ingest often grows exponentially, leaving them with difficult choices for storing and using this data. Customers are beginning to explore moving aw... -
Everything to Know About SQL INNER JOINs
As a follow-up to my introduction to SQL Server joins, in this T-SQL tutorial, I’m going to take a closer look at the most used type of joins in SQL Server – the INNER JOIN. What is an INNER JOIN? An INNER JOIN is a join type used to retu... -
What is SQL CROSS APPLY? Guide to T-SQL APPLY Operator
Introduced by Microsoft in SQL Server 2005, SQL CROSS APPLY allows values to be passed from a table or view into a user-defined function or subquery. This tutorial will cover the incredibly useful and flexible APPLY operator, such as how the CROSS AP... -
An Introduction to PostgreSQL Concurrency Control
As a long-time database consultant, I’ve fixed more blocking problems in database systems than I can count. Often this blocking has resulted from conflicts between processes needing to read rows while those rows are being modified. PostgreSQL u... -
An Introduction to B-Tree and Hash Indexes in PostgreSQL
This article explores the PostgreSQL implementation of the B-Tree (the B stands for Balanced) and hash index data structures. As PostgreSQL grows in popularity as an open-source database system for developers and as a target for migrating from Oracle... -
An Introduction to the SQL Server T-SQL DATEADD Function
The DATEADD function adds (or subtracts) a whole-number increment to a specified date value. DATEADD is an incredibly useful and flexible built-in function to programmatically generate date values in your Transact-SQL (T-SQL) code. Before I start, I ... -
An Introduction to SQL Server Logical Joins
The JOIN syntax is an optional part of the FROM statement and is used to specify how to return data from different tables (or views). Generally, when we think of joining tables together, we think of returning data from two tables with an equality mat... -
An Introduction to SQL Server T-SQL ORDER BY Clause
Like the previous T-SQL SELECT DISTINCT tutorial, the ORDER BY clause is an optional part of the SELECT statement and orders the result set of a query by one or more columns in the ORDER BY list. This post will discuss the ORDER BY clause, including ... -
SQL Server T-SQL SELECT DISTINCT Clause Tutorial
The DISTINCT clause is an optional part of the SELECT statement and returns a set of unique records based on the columns included in the SELECT list. When it comes to optimizing SQL Server performance, using the DISTINCT clause in queries where it is... -
T-SQL UNION Operator: A How-To Guide
What exactly is a UNION operator? A UNION operation is defined as concatenating the results of two or more queries into a single result set. I remember a client struggling to bring data from several tables into a single result set using a complex OR ... -
How to Perform Point-in-Time Recovery of a SQL Server Database
In a previous post in the backup and restore series, How to Restore Databases From Native SQL Server Backups, Tim mentioned some more advanced options when restoring a database backup, including performing point-in-time recovery of a SQL Server datab... -
How to Restore Databases From Native SQL Server Backups
In my previous post, Native SQL Server Backup Types and How-To Guide, I discussed the main types of native SQL Server backups and various backup options. Backups are critical to restoring databases quickly, but there isn’t much benefit to havin... -
How to Quickly Identify Performance Issues in Azure SQL Database
Moving your database to the cloud using a PaaS option such as Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance reduces the maintenance overhead required from the database administrator (DBA). The DBA no longer must worry about managing backups or con... -
Daily SQL Server Performance Checklist for DBAs
A main focus for database administrators (DBAs) is to ensure server environments are optimized and performance is at its peak. Whether you’re a DBA starting in a new role and are evaluating an existing environment for the first time, or you&rsq... -
Native SQL Server Backup Types and How To Guide
When a disaster occurs, the ability to successfully restore SQL Server databases is fundamental for avoiding data loss. It’s not enough to rely on hardware and software technologies to replicate data because these technologies can go wrong or t... -
Finding the Gaps in Your Data Causing Data Drift
When drift happens within a database, it can occur at a couple of different levels. Drift refers to entities—tables, views, or even data—out of synchronization with each other. This could be a difference in schema structure, data, or even... -
Investigating the Database Family Tree
Investigating your family tree can be an interesting experience. For example, what if you discovered you were related to a famous person who won a Nobel Prize or performed a heroic act? Conversely, what if you realized you had an ancestor who was an ... -
An Overview of Intelligent Query Processing in SQL Server
When you issue a query to SQL Server or Azure SQL, it internally tries to optimize a query plan through calculations such as whether to use an index. Much of SQL Server’s query plans are based on its best guess of what will happen at run time w... -
How Query Execution Plans Work
An important skill in database performance tuning is capturing, reading, and understanding query execution plans. The query execution plan is a roadmap of the resources allocated and operations performed when the database engine gathers the results o... -
Generating DDL Statements to Recreate Single Objects
Every database administrator (DBA) is—first and foremost—human. And everyone makes mistakes. It’s not the absence of mistakes but rather how you prepare for those mistakes that makes you a great DBA. Luckily, there are many ways to ... -
Choosing the Right Storage for SQL Server
Storage performance is key to the health and performance of a SQL Server database. When storage performance begins to slow down, queries suffer from more waits on disk. These waits can show up as a variety of SQL Server wait types, including WRITELOG... -
Overcoming SQL Server Blocking and Locking Challenges
One of the most common performance problems with SQL Server databases in production is the blocking of queries, which happens because database resources are locked. Understanding why locking happens is just half the battle. Being able to resolve lock... -
Getting Maximum Performance From Always On Availability Groups
Since Microsoft first introduced the Always On Availability Groups (AGs) feature in SQL Server 2012, there’s been a lot of interest in using AGs for both high availability and disaster recovery (HADR), as well as for offloading read-only workloads. T... -
Testing Your Database Backups Using SQL Server on Linux Containers
We recently published a blog post by Shand Glenn titled, "Your Disaster Recovery Strategy Is Useless If Your SQL Server Backups Haven’t Been Tested" that discusses the need for testing your backups and outlines a process to assist in automating... -
Creating a Sales Report Using Dash and Python
In a previous blog post, I showed you how to connect to a SQL Server database using Python, and I mentioned other tools that you can leverage. One of those tools is Dash, a Python framework for creating data visualizations that abstracts a lot of the... -
Azure Table Storage Tips for the RDBMS Developer
Suppose you only have relational database management system (RDBMS) experience and are new to Azure Table storage. It's common to find yourself "thinking in SQL" and trying to solve database modeling requirements with a SQL approach before translatin... -
Restoring an AdventureWorks Database on a SQL Server on Linux Container
I find myself continually needing a database to execute tests, generate a workload, and more. I typically create an AdventureWorks database since there are plenty of resources for it. This need pushed me to create a container with AdventureWorks prec... -
Table-Valued Parameters Vs. SqlBulkCopy for Bulk Loading Data Into SQL Server
In Using SqlBulkCopy in .NET for Faster Bulk Data Loading , I talked about SqlBulkCopy and how it's been a useful part of my toolbelt as a .NET developer since I first discovered it in 2010. I touched on some other common approaches to... -
How Does SQL Server 2019 Accelerated Database Recovery Affect TempDB
You might have heard me talk about tempdb parasites in the past, or maybe you've read my blog post on the same topic, Be Mindful of SQL Server TempDB Use (AKA TempDB Parasites) , I know that at least one person did, because they recently as... -
Finding Available SQL Server Images in the Major Cloud Providers
When creating virtual machines (VMs) using the portals provided by the different cloud providers, you are presented with a list of SQL Server image names. However, when you start automating the creation of VMs, you are usually required to provide the... -
Using SqlBulkCopy in .NET for Faster Bulk Data Loading
There are times when .NET developers need to bulk load data into SQL Server. If there's one thing I've learned over the years when it comes to data access patterns, it's that us .NET developers like to make the same kinds of mistakes over... -
Recovering an Azure SQL Database During a Region Outage
Today we are going to discuss what to do if the Azure region in which you host your Azure SQL Database suddenly becomes unavailable. Many automatically start thinking about active geo-replication and leveraging fail-over groups for your Azure SQL Dat... -
SQL Server DBA Interview Questions and Topics
So, you’ve got an interview lined up for a sweet new gig as a SQL Server DBA. What interview questions will you be asked? How can you make sure you ace the interview? What will make you stand out from the other candidates? There are no concrete... -
What's the Difference Between INNER JOIN, the OUTER JOINs, and CROSS JOIN?
Over the course of my career, when interviewing people, I tend to ask questions that locate the edge of a candidate’s knowledge. One of the questions I often ask is about the different types of JOIN, and it’s still relatively rare that so... -
Keeping DRY in SQL Server With Scalar User‑Defined Functions
No one likes to keep repeating themselves. As software engineers, we're often encouraged to follow the DRY principle: Don't Repeat Yourself. We look to refactor repeated blocks of code out into reusable units that encapsulate that logic, and the... -
Is MAXDOP (Max Degree of Parallelism) Configured Correctly?
What is MAXDOP in SQL Server? Max degree of parallelism (MAXDOP)is a setting in SQL Server that controls how many processors may be used for parallel plan execution. Parallel plan execution is good—it lets SQL Server make the best use of all th... -
Be Mindful of SQL Server TempDB Use (AKA TempDB Parasites)
This post is a refresh of the "tempdb parasites" topic I was covering back in 2014. Microsoft has done a lot over the last several years to help SQL Server professionals with tempdb concerns. The most recent was enabling a shift of tempdb metadata to... -
Data Loading Azure Synapse Analytics and the New COPY Statement
For most of my career in data, the conventional process for loading data warehouses was Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL). In the Microsoft world, this process is primarily handled by SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), with the data warehouse r... -
SQL Server Support for TLS 1.2: Read This First!
In January 2016, Microsoft announced that TLS 1.2 would now be supported in specific builds of SQL Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised to see this support back-ported to 2008 and 2008 R2; I was convinced that... -
Visualizing Data Compression: See It for Yourself
In my previous post on compression, Entry Level: Compression and Data Types, I demonstrated how to get a feel for compression effectiveness based on data types and repeating values. I'll be providing some examples that expand on the information ... -
My First PowerShell: A Simple Story With Dramatic Flair
Recently, I needed an automated way to restart remote servers in my test environment for SQL Sentry. I knew that this sounded like a PowerShell-ish thing, but I lack what most people call experience when it comes to PowerShell. Maybe that's what ever... -
Overview of Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server
As Aaron Bertrand has written about recently, SQL Server 2016 SP1 opens up a lot of new possibilities for Standard, Web, and Express editions of SQL Server, including new options for in-memory technologies such as columnstore indexes and memory-optim... -
BackToBasics: CAST vs. CONVERT
There are several T-SQL language features where you have a choice of two or more approaches. I've talked before about old-style vs. explicit inner joins, how to express the "not equal to" operator, and whether you should use the newer FORMAT function... -
BackToBasics: Why I Use Lower Case for Data Type Names (Now)
This is a continuation of my #BackToBasics series, where I pledged to write an entry-level post at the beginning of each month. I promised the first Wednesday but, well, you'll see. For the longest time, I always considered a data type name to be a T... -
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BackToBasics: Naming Stored Procedures
Back in January, I responded to an article on naming conventions that I found very sensible on balance, but with a few ideas I didn't quite agree with. I addressed most of my concerns in my previous post, entitled, "Subjectivity: Naming Standards." ... -
Dynamic Data Masking: My Thoughts
Recently I have been exploring Dynamic Data Masking. Looking at ways that it can be used and I thought I would share my thoughts with you. My initial thoughts are that there is a lot of potential with this feature, however, it needs to have some gaps... -
Where Do I Get SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition
Back in March, Microsoft gleefully announced that Developer Edition would now be free. But in that time, I've seen plenty of confusion around where to get it. More specifically, where to get it with no strings attached, including questions like, "Can... -
BackToBasics: DATEFROMPARTS()
Just before 2015 drew to a close, I challenged myself - in response to a tweet from Tim Ford (T) - to publish an entry level post on the first Wednesday of every month. Well, today's July 6th, and I apologize for coming in at the 11th hour,... -
BackToBasics: An Updated Kitchen Sink Example
At the beginning of the year, I pledged to publish an entry level post on the first Wednesday of every month throughout 2016. Even when the first Wednesday sneaks up on me as the first day of the month. For June, I wanted to talk about a pattern I se... -
BackToBasics: Dating Responsibly
No, this is not going to be a synopsis of the TV series, "8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter." This is a continuation of my #BackToBasics series, which I pledged after a challenge from Tim Ford. This month, after having yet another conv... -
Security Nuggets: Encrypting SQL Server Connections
In this post we will take a look at how easy it is to see the queries and results that get sent between SQL Server and the applications using it. Simply put, why you should be encrypting your database connections if you are serious about SQL Server S... -
BackToBasics: Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
At the end of last year, I accepted a challenge for 2016: to publish one post per month that makes fewer assumptions about the reader's knowledge. In the first post, which came up rather quickly I might add, I'm going to talk about a concept in SQL S... -
Bad Habits: Being CarELesS About cAsE
As a frequent reviewer of queries, and a regular contributor to our answers site and dba.stackexchange.com, I come across a lot of code that seems to have been written, shall we say, quickly. There are a lot of transgressions of course, but one that ... -
What I Mess Up Whenever I Install SQL Server On a New VM
I travel, I present, I set up demos and repros, I solve customer issues, and I blog about a lot of different scenarios. As you can imagine, I have a lot of VMs lying around on external SSDs, and many of them are different versions/editions of operati... -
I Have an Aversion to @@VERSION
I've been posting about SQL Server service packs, cumulative updates, and hotfixes for years. One of the things that has been sorely lacking in SQL Server all this time is the ability to quickly determine which specific service pack or cumulative upd... -
Making SSMS Pretty: My Dark Theme
Updated November 26, 2019 I've been using a dark theme in SSMS for some time now. For myself, I find it far easier to read light on dark, if you choose the right colors. Here is a code sample: SELECT GETDATE(), N'hello' FROM sys.all_c... -
Tracing Usage of Trace Flags
This morning at SQLintersection, I delivered my session "SQL Server Trace Flags : A Practical Guide" for the first time. I wanted to include the three core links I talked about for getting more information about trace flags (including all o... -
SQL Server 2016: JSON Support
This is not the JSON you're looking for. I was at MS Ignite last week, and attended the Foundational Keynote, entitled "The SQL Server Evolution." In that session they announced a new feature that will be available in the next version of SQL Server (... -
Best Practices: Properly Referencing Columns
Several years ago now, I wrote about people not bothering to specify the schema when creating or referencing objects. While I could argue that always specifying the schema makes the code easier to understand and more self-documenting, the major conce... -
Should I Use NOLOCK Against #temp Tables
Back in September, I wrote about Bad Habits: Putting NOLOCK Everywhere. I highlighted several of the things that can go wrong with its pervasive use, but admitted that it can have its place - as long as you understand the risks. Recently, Kennet... -
Patience and sys.dm_exec_requests
I’m not always the most patient person in the world. I'm better now, but when I first started as a DBA, I'd have a tendency to think that a process had hung when it was actually processing away. Because of that, I made a lot of those mistakes o... -
Bad Habits: Another Case for Semi-colons and Schema Prefix
Over 5 years ago - before I even really started my "Bad habits" series - I gave several reasons why you should start using semi-colons to terminate all eligible statements. It's not really because I believe Microsoft will actually enforce the depreca... -
Bad Habits: Using AttachDBFileName
Just about every time I look through SQL Server-related questions on Stack Overflow, I see someone describing a problem that they are blaming on their code, but is likely caused by their connection string. The pattern is usually something like: Man... -
Bad Habits: Clinging to Old Compatibility Levels
[See an index of all Bad Habits / Back to Basics posts.] I often see people struggling with inexplicable syntax issues, or behavior that works differently on two different servers running the same version of SQL Server (or even two different database... -
Bad Habits: Putting NOLOCK Everywhere
[See an index of all Bad Habits / Back to Basics posts.] I went through the archive above and was quite surprised to discover that I have never blogged explicitly about NOLOCK. Out on the forums, I typically refer to this hint as a "magic, pixie-dust... -
Bad Habits: Looking for Optimizations in All the Wrong Places
Over the years I've come across a lot of common scenarios where people are trying to optimize the wrong things. While many of these could probably make "bad habits" blog posts of their own, they all seemed to fit this same theme, so I thought I would... -
Bad Habits: Using (Certain) Metadata "Helper" Functions
[See an index of all bad habits / best practices posts] For a long time, I was a big proponent of all the metadata helper functions. These are the little one-liners, like OBJECT_ID(), that let you derive properties of an object, usually based on anot... -
A SQL_VARIANT Use Case (No Pun Intended)
I was recently at SQL Bits XII and I attended Itzik Ben-Gan's session, "T-SQL Tips and Tricks." I arrived late, but within about three minutes, I was quickly reminded that no matter how advanced you are in your career, there is always more to learn ... -
Ensuring Maximum CPU Performance Via Group Policy
There has been quite a bit of talk recently about a performance issue I see regularly on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 servers, and that's the use of the default Power Plan setting of "Balanced." Glenn Berry posted about the impact of this setting ...
