I repeat the phrase “If you aren’t monitoring it, you can’t measure it” all the time. Through my IT career, this has been a constant. If you don’t have a baseline or know what normal looks like, then how can you quantify what isn’t normal when a user starts complaining of performance issues. For SQL […]
Tag: sql server
Stop Using Balanced Power with SQL Server
The OS default Power Plan for Windows is Balanced Power. This can cause degraded overall performance for SQL Server. Balanced Power is a great concept to help conserve energy by scaling the processor performance based on current CPU utilization, however it isn’t conducive to SQL Server workloads. For SQL Server, I always ask organizations to […]
Reasons Why SQL Servers Don’t Get Configured to Industry Best Practices
Throughout my career, I’ve worked on a LOT of different SQL Servers. Many that were installed and configured by application administrators, developers, vendors, and data professionals. I’ve seen servers with straight defaults and others with various industry accepted best practices applied. One of my favorite sessions I present is “Common SQL Server Mistakes and How […]
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Error
I came across an issue with SSMS not loading properly recently. Regardless of launching from the start menu with or without administrator, SSMS would error out. Due to this error, I also could not uninstall SSMS to try a repair. After much trial and error and Google/Bing searches I was able to correct the issue […]
How to Reset the SA Password When Locked Out
Getting locked out of a SQL Server instance can happen due to a number of situations. The most common scenario I’ve encountered is when a SQL Server is moved from one domain to another without the domain being trusted or having a local SQL admin account. I recently encountered another incident where a DBA was […]
SQL Server Backups
I’ve written many blog post and articles over the years about SQL Server backups and restore options. I am constantly amazed at how often I find databases that are not being properly backed up and are critical to the organizations that utilize them. Fortunately, as organizations move to cloud solutions, things are getting slightly better. […]
MVP for Another Year 2020-2021
Early this afternoon I received an email from Microsoft presenting me with the 2020-2021 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award. This is my 7th award and I am just as excited and amazed as I was for my first one. There are so many others in the community that give their time to help others […]
T-SQL Tuesday #126 – Folding@Home and 3D Printing
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by my friend Glenn Berry. Glenn invites us to write about what we have been doing as a response to COVID-19. Glenn shared how he has been dedicating his lab machines to Folding@Home to help understand the COVID19 virus. Glenn with his hardware background has been geeking out on […]