SQL Server has a rock solid backup routine that works every time. However the schemes used to implement backups with maintenance plans, Enterprise Manager, etc., are not a smooth or as flexible as what most people require. Author Eli Lieba brings us his strategy and code for ensuring that each database is backed up how he needs it to be, whether a full or differential backup.
Typically, access to data is provided via client applications, which increases the range of potential vulnerabilities and places an equal share of responsibility for data security on software developers. This is especially important since application flaws can have just as catastrophic implications as a misconfigured or unsecured SQL Server installation.
SQL Server's Data Transformation Services (DTS) is a fantastic tool for importing data from any type of source. However even with this tool, you sometimes need more flexibility than it appears to have, especially if the data formats are unknown far enough in advance. New author Chris Cathers has developed a technique that allows him to be extremely flexible without causing too many headaches down the road.
Learn how to use the new notification technologies in ADO.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 to handle ad-hoc data refreshes.
If you allow users write access to replicated tables on the subscriber, you can run into cases where a record is inserted on the wrong server - which will result in a replication stopping error if the same primary key is later inserted on the publisher. Find out how to fix it without pushing a new snapshot.
Indexing performance has always been the Achilles' heel of SQL Server's full-text feature. Although the search performance itself is fast (very few customers complain about the search speed), users do complain (often loudly and frequently) about how slow the indexing process is–especially for large tables. Here's a few tips for you.
SQL Server has some great solutions for writing reports easily, ensuring quick service for your customers. However many of the quick ways of generating reports from the database include the column headers in the results. And often clients who expect customized work want to see labels that are more familiar to them. Leo Peysakhovich has developed a way that allows him to easily return custom labels from his stored procedures.
Our longtime member and author, James Travis went with the SQLServerCentral.com crew to the 2004 PASS Summit in Orlando last month. For those of you that don't recognize the name, he goes by Antares686 in the forums and has been generous enough to post over 6,000 times, giving lots of his time and knowledge to helping others. He jotted down a few notes on the conference for those of you that weren't there and are considering going next year.
This series of articles will examine the purposes, uses, and optimization of cursors in SQL 2000.
SQL Server DTS may be one of the best tools ever included with a database server. It makes data movement, copying, any sort of ETL task a breeze. At least for the most part. Bruce Szabo found a place where the Copy Objects task sometimes doesn't work as expected. This article looks a problem he had as well as the solution that you can use to ensure that this task works reliably for you.
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Which of these inputs is the smaller input to a hash join?
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