This is Week 1 of PowerShell Strikes Back – a four-week May series for SQL Server DBAs who have dabbled in PowerShell but never stopped to nail down the fundamentals. New posts every Monday in May. May the 4th be with you. A long time ago, in a query window far, far away, a DBA Read More …
If you’ve been here before, you know this blog is usually about SQL Server, PowerShell, and the day-to-day work of being a DBA. Execution plans, availability groups, dbatools scripts – that’s my lane and I’m happy in it. So fair warning: this one is a little different. No T-SQL. No code blocks. Just something that’s Read More …
It’s 2 AM. Your phone is going off. Users can’t connect to the application, and when you open SSMS to investigate, the connection spinner just keeps spinning. SQL Server is alive; you can see the process running, but it’s too overwhelmed to let you in. You need to get in there and kill something, but Read More …
Hello, dear blog reader. Today’s post is coming to you straight from the home office, ready to talk about a topic that comes up more than you’d think: storing PDF documents inside SQL Server. Whether it’s invoices, reports, scanned forms, or contracts, applications often need somewhere to park files. You could store them on a Read More …
In SQL Server environments where transactional replication runs alongside Always On Availability Groups (AGs), DBAs sometimes face a frustrating scenario: replication stalls when a secondary replica or subscriber is offline for maintenance, patching, or unexpected downtime. By default, SQL Server’s Log Reader Agent is cautious. It only marks transactions as ready for replication once they Read More …
Whether you’re a seasoned DBA or just exploring database tools, DBeaver offers a powerful, cross-platform GUI for interacting with PostgreSQL and many other databases. As a continuation of the previous blog post on installing PostgreSQL, this guide will walk through installing DBeaver and setting up a connection to the PostgreSQL instance we created. Step Read More …
Are you diversifying your DBA skillset? My recent job search made one thing clear: the database landscape is broader than just SQL Server and Oracle. More and more companies are seeking experience with open-source platforms like PostgreSQL and MySQL. While I’ve always focused on SQL Server, I recently deployed PostgreSQL for a project and Read More …
Have you ever received the dreaded error from SQL Server that the TempDB log file is full? Only to open SSMS and be greeted with a message that prevents you from connecting. Oh no.. my number one troubleshooting tool is not usable. Time to fire up a command prompt and connect via DAC, right? Well, Read More …
Recently, I was in a technical interview where the topic of running PowerShell at scale came up. Although I’ve worked with PowerShell for quite some time, I realized I’d grown comfortable with “my” environment. Script runtimes and long-running processes were not a significant concern. I’d encountered PowerShell jobs and parallel execution before, but never Read More …
We’ve all been there. Someone walks up and asks, “Is SQL Server having issues?” What’s your first move? For me, it starts with the SQL Server Error log. I zero in on the timeframe the requester mentioned and begin my investigation. Quick Review via SSMS For a fast, no frills check: Connect to the server Read More …
