When was my SQL Server Database Last Accessed?
Your boss walks up to you one morning and says, “Hey, I wanna list of all of our databases and when they were last accessed”. If you’ve got some...
2024-04-15 (first published: 2024-04-02)
1,135 reads
SQL Undercover
sp_snapshot – The easy way to take database snapshots of one of more databases – Version 2.0
Presenting you with an updated version of our sp_snapshot procedure, to easily create database snapshots. This new version adds more flexibility to the procedure, allowing you to specify the...
2024-02-14 (first published: 2024-02-01)
405 reads
Write to backup block blob device failed. Device has reached its limit of allowed blocks.
Picture this, you’re happily backing up your database to a Azure blob storage until suddenly it starts mysteriously failing with the error… Write to backup block blob device https://******...
2023-12-13 (first published: 2023-11-27)
441 reads
Penetration Testing your SQL Server, Part 1 – The Recon Mission
Since witnessing a rather nasty cyber attack around a year ago, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about security. Do we really know how secure our SQL Servers are?...
2023-10-09 (first published: 2023-09-26)
761 reads
Finding a History of Database Snapshots, Taken and Restored
This is a question that’s come up twice this morning, firstly where can we find a history of database snapshots and secondly where can we find a history of...
2023-08-30 (first published: 2023-08-14)
199 reads
I’ve Got 99 Problems But xp_cmdshell Ain’t One
xp_cmdshell is an extended SQL stored proc that allows users to run Windows command prompt commands from within SQL. Sound scary? It might, but is xp_cmdshell really a security...
2023-04-26 (first published: 2023-04-12)
573 reads
Using SQL Alerts to Spot Suspicious Activity in SQL
SQL doesn’t really give us too many tools out of the box to allow us to spot when someone may be up to no good. We can look at...
2023-04-12 (first published: 2023-03-29)
537 reads
Encryption, Comparing your Options in SQL Server
The question of encryption seems to be coming up a lot recently. I’ve had a number of people asking me about how to go about encrypting SQL Server. SQL...
2023-01-25 (first published: 2023-01-17)
422 reads
Database Mirroring login attempt failed with error: ‘Connection handshake failed. An OS call failed: (80090302) 0x80090302(The function requested is not supported).
Here’s a quick one for today and is an issue that had me stumped for a while. It’s not one that I’d come across before and there isn’t really...
2022-11-28 (first published: 2022-11-16)
290 reads
DELETE TOP x rows with an ORDER BY
This was an interesting question that I was asked yesterday and something that I’d never really thought of before. Can you delete the top x number of rows based...
2022-09-30 (first published: 2022-09-15)
874 reads
Blogs
Learning Database Design and Power BI Performance
I spend my days working on and managing SQL Server instances—working days at least,...
Free SQL Training: Dive into Databases This December!
Want to learn SQL and get some real practice this December? Check out the...
Monday Monitor Tips: CIS Compliant
By Steve Jones
A new feature added to Redgate Monitor Enterprise automatically. CIS compliance is something many...
Forums
sqlbackups through veeam not updating msdb tables
We have veeam backups happening everyday on a server where all sql databases are...
Testing whether TRY_CONVERT is losing precision
Hello All, I am using TRY_CONVERT to parse character data into a decimal column....
need help with assigning a value to a variable
Hi I am trying to assign the value of the variable using the output...
Question of the Day
The Reindeer Count
How many reindeer does Santa have pulling his sleigh? (according to the famous song) Hint, the answers are not base 10.
See possible answers