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 …
Hello, reader! Today, I’m going to walk you through a scenario that many DBAs encounter: accessing a SQL Server instance when you don’t have the SA password, and no login has SysAdmin privileges. Problem Have you ever inherited a SQL Server instance or been called in to troubleshoot, only to discover that no one has Read More …
This blog comes to you from the home office after three days of caring for my sick six-year-old son. Yay for stomach bugs… Have you ever needed to install SQL Server for a quick test of a feature, stand up a fresh instance for a team, or automation? Like anything with technology, there are multiple Read More …
Are you starting to experiment with Azure SQL Databases? Is your company interested in moving to the Cloud and asking you to investigate different options? This blog will show you three options to connect to an Azure SQL Database using the same tooling you would use for on-premises SQL Databases. I will demonstrate the three Read More …
As you sit and wonder about when the next Star Wars movie is going to come out, do you ever get the thought of “I wonder if all my SQL Servers are configured the same?” Occasionally, I get a thought like that run through my mind. Or I might see something on Twitter or Blog Read More …
Have you ever opened the SQL Server Error Log and wondered, “where are all the errors?” Digging through the Error Log to find what you need can be a pain. Sure, you could use several methods to parse through the Error Log to find what you are looking for, but sometimes you want to take Read More …
This week we are going to launch a blog series geared towards folks that are new to PowerShell. The growing popularity of automation is seeing people getting started with the PowerShell scripting language. The Start-Transcript is a built-in command that allows you to quickly build a log of actions being taken by your script. There Read More …
Is your SQL environment prepared for a disaster? There are big and small disasters and depending on your perspective big and small can mean different things. Preparing your environment for these special events by exporting SQL Server Configurations for DR purposes is essential. I am not going to talk about your backup/recovery, HA, RPO, or Read More …
Have you ever been asked to make a schema only copy of a database? What is your preferred method to complete this request? Below we will discuss how to create a schema only database copy. Here are three approaches that are easy to understand and perform. One approach will use PowerShell and the dbatools module. Read More …
