Rob Sewell

Rob was a SQL Server DBA with a passion for Powershell, Azure, Automation, and SQL (PaaS geddit?). Now he just helps people. He is a Cloud and Data Center MVP and a Data Platform MVP, an officer for the PASS DevOps Virtual Chapter, co-leader of Data South West and PSConf EU organiser and has spoken at and volunteered at many Data and PowerShell events all over the world. He is a proud supporter of the Data and Powershell communities.

He relishes sharing and learning and can be found doing both via Twitter and his blog. He spends most of his time looking at a screen and loves to solve problems. He knows that looking at a screen so much is bad for him because his wife tells him so. Thus, you can find him on the cricket field in the summer and flying a drone in the winter.

He has a fabulous beard

Twitter: @@SQLDbaWithBeard
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/robsewellsqldba

Using Twitter with VS Code

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

So today I saw this tweet from Mathias in reply to Stefan and Amanda

That looks cool. Twitter in VS Code, one...

2017-04-28 (first published: 2017-04-19)

1,004 reads

PowerShell Function – Validating a Parameter Depending On A Previous Parameter’s Value

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

I was chatting on the SQL Community Slack with my friend Sander Stad b | t about some functions he is writing for...

2017-04-26

441 reads

Testing SQL Server Access to a share with PowerShell using dbatools

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

A good security practice is to backup our SQL Servers to a network share but not allow users to be...

2017-04-13 (first published: 2017-04-08)

1,325 reads

Why VS Code Increases my Productivity

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

Last week I was showing a co-worker some PowerShell code and he asked what the editor was that I was...

2017-04-13

463 reads

Using Pester with dbatools Test-DbaLastBackup

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

In previous posts I have shown how to use Test-DbaLastBackup from dbatools and how you can make use of the...

2017-04-11 (first published: 2017-03-25)

1,656 reads

Why Volunteer at SQLBits ?

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

WARNING – Contains Orange and light-hearted photos
I have returned home from SQLBits 2017 The Disco Edition. I am exhausted, my...

2017-04-11

546 reads

Export SQL User Permissions to T-SQL script using PowerShell and dbatools

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

There are times when DBA’s are required to export database user permissions to a file. This may be for a...

2017-04-10

2,354 reads

Testing the Identity Column usage in SQL Server with PowerShell and dbatools

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

SQL Server uses identity columns to auto generate values, normally keys. When you create an identity column, it has a...

2017-04-07

561 reads

Backing up SQL Server on Linux using Ola Hallengrens Maintenance Solution

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

With the release of SQL Server vNext CTP 1.4 SQL Agent was released for use on Linux. To install it...

2017-04-06 (first published: 2017-03-22)

1,845 reads

Using Pester with Get-DbaLastGoodCheckDb from dbatools

by Rob Sewell

SQL DBA With A Beard

In my last post I showed Get-DbaLastGoodCheckDb from dbatools. This module is a community based project written by excellent, brilliant...

2017-04-06

523 reads

Blogs

Why I stopped using MCP for AI coding stuff

Something has shifted quietly in 2026. The developers I know/respect—the ones actually shipping, not...

AI: Blog a Day – Day 5: Notebooks, Hugging face models and Fine Tuning

By Vinay Thakur

Continuing from Day 4 where we learned Encoder, Decoder, and Attention Mechanism, today we...

AI: Blog a Day – Day 4: Transformers – Encoder, Decoder, and Attention

By Vinay Thakur

Continuing from Day 3 where we covered LLM models open/closed and their parameters, Today...

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Forums

Dynamic Unpivot

I have a table I didn't design that has tons of repeating groups in...

Writing as an Art and a Job

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Writing as an Art and...

String Similarity II

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item String Similarity II

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Question of the Day

String Similarity II

What is the range for the result from the EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY() function in SQL Server 2025?

See possible answers