SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 6: Variable Length Data

Welcome back Dear Reader to Part 6 on our series of how to read a Data Record.    In Part 1...

Writing About SQL Server

I.              Introduction I recently submitted my entry for a writing competition as part of my continuing education.  While I was...

A Pattern for PIVOT

Use of the PIVOT operator in T-SQL has always been tantalizing yet confounding to me.  It offers the promise of...

Baton Rouge SQLSaturday #150 & Tech Day–DBA 1 track

August 4th of this year will be the forth annual Baton Rouge SQL Saturday and Tech Day. Patrick LeBlanc got...

Identifying Long Running SQL Agent Jobs Script

I’m usually pretty hesitant to share scripts I write because inevitably it will get torn to pieces, but in this...

Securing Database Contents with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

Introduction
Microsoft SQL Server has many security features available within the database, but until release of SQL Server 2008 there has...

SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries (July 2012)

Here is the latest version of my SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries, with some minor tweaks and improvements to...

5 Reasons Why I Need To Go To SQLskills Immersion Training

I was thinking about the contest that SQL Sentry is running for a week of SQLskills Immersion Training, and the...

Backup Master Database

The story came from a question someone asked me.

Does Master database support full recovery mode?

As I remembered, by default,...

Basic SQL Interview Questions

We decided to add blog post that covers only basic SQL Interview questions and answers. The blog currently provides only...