As a data nerd who’s spent the last 25+ years helping organizations keep their databases running smoothly, I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count: “We’re moving to Postgres to save on licensing costs.” It sounds great on paper, open source, no vendor lock-in, and those big SQL Server license fees go away. […]
Category: Azure
DBCC CHECKDB: Why It Matters and What It Means for Your Azure SQL Environments
Hey everyone, Tim Radney here. Over the years I’ve seen far too many organizations learn the hard way what happens when you ignore database integrity checks. In traditional SQL Server environments—whether on-premises or in IaaS—running DBCC CHECKDB regularly is non-negotiable. It’s your frontline defense for verifying the logical and physical integrity of every object in […]
SQL Server 2025: What’s New and Why It Matters
SQL Server 2025 is Generally Available
SQL Server Upgrades
I’ve had this conversation at least a 1000 times over the course of my career working with SQL Server and teaching classes. Is it better to upgrade in place or do a side by side upgrade. There are pros and cons to each method, however I’ll say upfront that my preference is a side-by-side upgrade […]
The “Kill” Command: What to Consider Before Stopping a SQL Server Process
Whether you’re troubleshooting on-premises SQL Server, Azure SQL DB, Managed Instance, or Amazon RDS, you will eventually encounter a “lead blocker”—that one high-cost, long-running session holding every other process hostage. While your first instinct might be to issue a KILL command, the consequences vary wildly depending on what that session is actually doing. Here is […]
Hidden Killers of SQL Server Performance
I’ve been working with SQL Server for a very long time. Out of the box, SQL Server works great, however there is regular care and feeding that needs to be done to ensure it is running optimally. One of the best analogies is to think about an automobile or airplane and how they need to […]
How to Protect Against Ransomware as a DBA
Over the years I’ve been called in to work with numerous clients that were hit with ransomware. Even the times that the customer paid the ransom to unlock their encrypted files, there were still issues. Often times there were still issues with the files where they will not restore or data/log files can’t attach to […]
Risk with Not Patching and Upgrading SQL Server
Working with SQL Server over the past 25 years for various organizations all over the world, I usually always find a database server that is well outside of support. I’d be willing to be that anyone reading this blog post in 2024 knows of a SQL 2000 or SQL 2005 instance out there. I hear […]