How Do You Determine How Much Disk Space You Need If You’re Handed 18 SQL Server Backups and No History? Happy last day of June, dear reader. Today’s post comes from one of those real-world DBA situations where someone hands you a folder full of SQL Server backup files and asks what should be a Read More …
This is it. The final chapter of PowerShell Strikes Back. Over the past four weeks, you’ve built a real foundation. You know that single quotes are literal and double quotes expand variables. You know how to store and use data in variables – strings, integers, booleans, and hashtables. You know how to loop over a Read More …
Welcome back to PowerShell Strikes Back. We’re three weeks in, and the training is paying off. In Week 1, we learned that quotes are not interchangeable. In Week 2, we put variables to work – storing server names, config values, service objects, and boolean results. If you’ve been following along and running the examples in Read More …
This is Week 2 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. If you missed Week 1 on single vs double quotes, start there first – it’ll make this post land better. Last week, we learned that Read More …
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 …
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 …
