I agree with Andy that SQL Server backups are very reliable, and not usually the problem.

It is our backup/restore procedures that need to be tested.

You want to be confident...

Ken,

Nice article. I will be adding some of the items you mentioned.

Some of the things we do may be of interest.

6. Determine Drive Structure and move system databases if necessary.

We...

Managment Studio 2008 Activity Monitor is connecting to SQL 2008 and 2005 Servers, but it is giving me a message that it does not support SQL 2000 servers despite Managment...

Reviewing Jeff’s test results again, it seems that the CLR option ran even faster that the set based solutions, before the helper indexes were added.

Does this mean that CLR...

I just converted a little cursor script that generates ‘sp_grantdbaccess’ commands from syslogins.

The cursor script ran about 7 seconds, but the converted script runs in less than a...

Ken,

It was interesting to see how to reestablish users on a different instance of SQL Server by changing the SID.

I’ve wondered for a long time if this was as good,...

Is anyone using Symantec Backup Exec™ Continuous Protection, Server Continuous Protection for Microsoft® SQL Server Databases to replace their SQL Server backups and if so how does it compare to...

Kevin,

Please state which edition(s) of SQL 2008 include the feature you are discussing in the series.

Thanks.

I agree with the comments that we need both a natural key and a surrogate key.

We need the correct natural key or the table is not normalized, but we...

This is a very good article.

I just have one question or clarification. When you say

“In...

Are the people that have been complaining that it took Microsoft 5 years to get out a new release of SQL Server now the same people...

I would like to add some weight to the idea that one of the greatest benefits of upgrading to SQL 2005 is 64 bit.  I’m...

I read an article in SQLServer Standard yesterday that made me think that we should, perhaps, move to 64 bit when we upgrade to SQL...

I also agree with you that each table should have a primary key and a clustered index. 

The clustered index...

We are looking at upgrading to SQL2005, probably in the next six month of so.

I have been using Management Studio to do most of my database work, and I like it...