The PFE Chronicles
Some advice and experience for you from SQL Server PFEs
Variables, Literals, Procs and Stats
This post by US PFE Susan Van Eyck goes through considerations when developing stored procedures...
Date: 07/07/2018
Previewing file content
Windows Explorer is a common tool for anyone working in the Windows environment and sometimes being...
Date: 07/02/2018
Keeping your important files safe and secure
We all have important files of some sort or another but do we all look after them correctly?...
Date: 06/26/2018
Somewhere to put that data while your script runs
Ever writing a script and want to quickly place some data in a file while in the middle of your...
Date: 05/21/2018
How to find out what you need to know
For as long as I can remember I have come across problems where I need to know the range of valid...
Date: 05/07/2018
Fill Factor and Data Compression
Another post by our excellent US PFE Susan Van Eyck goes though Fill Factor and Data Compression! I...
Date: 04/30/2018
Microseconds Or Milliseconds
While working with a customer on creating some Extended Event to collect performance trace, I was if...
Date: 04/23/2018
You really need to look out for msdb security
So msdb, we don't really think about it that much right? We know it holds the metadata for our Jobs...
Date: 04/16/2018
Troubleshooting Using Ring Buffers
Working at a customer site, and I happened to notice that the Exception ring buffer contained a lot...
Date: 04/09/2018
Advantages and Annoyances of Filtered Indexes
This weeks great post by our US Senior PFE Susan Van Eyck talks about the wonders of filtered...
Date: 04/02/2018
Instant File Initialization–Do You Know It’s Value?
This weeks post by our US Senior PFE Susan Van Eyck is about the value of using Instant File...
Date: 03/26/2018
Install SQL Server Books Online - Offline
Many of my customers run production environments which have never, and will never, be able to...
Date: 03/22/2018
SQL Data Discovery & Classification in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5 [Behind the Scenes]
In my previous post on the new Classify Data function in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5 -...
Date: 03/19/2018
SQL Data Discovery & Classification in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5
In the latest version of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5, the new SQL Data Discovery &...
Date: 03/13/2018
Assess an Enterprise With Data Migration Assistant–Part 4: Report on an Assessment
In my previous post I took you through how to consume the assessment data into the DMAWarehouse. In...
Date: 03/08/2018
Assess an Enterprise With Data Migration Assistant–Part 3: Loading an Assessment
In my previous post I took you through how to run a scaled assessment using the dmaDataCollector...
Date: 03/08/2018
Assess an Enterprise With Data Migration Assistant–Part 2: Running an Assessment
In my previous post I took you through the prerequisites for successfully running a scaled...
Date: 03/08/2018
Assess an Enterprise With Data Migration Assistant–Part 1: Prerequisites
In my previous posts How to Consolidate JSON Assessment Reports and Report on Your Consolidadted...
Date: 03/08/2018
Presenting with SSMS
Whilst presenting at a Microsoft Operations Day in Reading last Tuesday, I was giving a demo on some...
Date: 02/25/2018
SELECT *, Indexes, Data Access, and the Optimizer!
Another great “Database Byte” by our US PFE guest writer Susan Van Eyck! This time on the pitfalls...
Date: 02/15/2018
VSCode custom snippets
Blog – VSCode – Custom Snippets Hopefully you are aware of the new lightweight script editor VSCode....
Date: 01/30/2018
Implicit Conversions – Ouch!
Today we have a guest post from one of our excellent Premier Field Engineers from the United States...
Date: 01/29/2018
New in SSMS 17.4 - Vulnerability Assessment
[Guest post by Oren Buoni EMEA SQL Server PFE) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) version 17.4...
Date: 12/29/2017
SQL Server 2017 GA Announced!
Short But Sweet It's finally been announced! Scott Guthrie and Rohan Kumar announce at Ignite SQL...
Date: 09/26/2017
Recover the SSISDB to a New Machine Without a Database Backup
It's Not Pretty! Imagine your SQL Server instance, which contains your very important SSISDB fails....
Date: 08/23/2017
SQL Performance Counters are Missing
There was one time when I was delivering a Service using a tool that gathers performance data...
Date: 08/03/2017
SQL Azure DW – What is it? How it works?
Azure DW what is it? Is it the same as SQL Azure but bigger? No. It is kind of…different. It is a...
Date: 07/25/2017
SQL Azure troubleshooting, some ideas and scenarios.
While I was working in a customer request about SQL Azure troubleshooting, I noticed sometimes when...
Date: 04/19/2017
SQL Server 2016 new features to deal with the new CE
It is no news that SQL Server 2014 changed the Cardinality Estimator (CE). Ok. Even if it is not...
Date: 03/22/2017
Report on your consolidated Data Migration Assistant Assessments With PowerBI
In a previous post How to consolidate Assessment Reports we looked at a method to consolidate the...
Date: 03/18/2017
Oh it's that time again ! - SQLBits!
It's almost that time again! Christmas day for data professionals! SQLBits !!! Hopefully a lot of...
Date: 03/16/2017
Database Startup Times
Have you have ever wondered what your database is doing as it starts and works through the various...
Date: 03/15/2017
xp_cmdshell - Naming, Shaming and Taming
I think most people dealing with SQL Server understand that xp_cmdshell can be a bit of a security...
Date: 03/08/2017
How to Consolidate Data Migration Assistant JSON Assessment Reports
Starting from Data Migration Assistant (DMA) v 2.1, DMA provides command-line support for running...
Date: 03/03/2017
Query Store: How it works? How to use the new Query Store Catalog Views?
Part 2 /Fix 2017.03.28: Not Query Store DMVs but Catalog Views. Thanks Kalen Delaney for point it/...
Date: 03/02/2017
Deconstructing Extended Event XML
In a recent engagement, I had need of an Extended Event to gather range scans on my target instance....
Date: 02/28/2017
SQL Server 2016 HA Series Part 2 – SSIS and Availability Groups
This series is intended to provide a short focused write up on some of the key new SQL Server 2016...
Date: 02/15/2017
The mysterious case of why your procedure has two query plans & the bitwise AND
Have you ever been looking at your plan cache and found that you have more than one plan for any...
Date: 02/06/2017
Query Store: How it works? How to use it?
Part 1 “The SQL Server Query Store feature provides you with insight on query plan choice and...
Date: 01/31/2017
Query Data Store Size Cleanup Retention
SQL Server's Query Store introduced in SQL Server azure and SQL Server 2016 provides you with...
Date: 11/22/2016
Set your PowerShell session to automatically log into Azure
[Edit 18 July 2017] - A recent update in the PowerShell command line tools for Azure has broken my...
Date: 11/16/2016
SQL Server 2016 HA Series Part 1 – 3 Auto Failover Targets
This series is intended to provide a short focused write up on some of the key new SQL Server 2016...
Date: 11/07/2016
Query Store - Settings and Limits
SQL Server 2016 and SQL Azure represent the biggest leap forward in Microsoft data platform history...
Date: 10/25/2016
How To: Use the Azure Key Vault to Manage the Key for a TDE enabled Database
There are many posts available showing the steps to create an Azure Key Vault and to use it for TDE,...
Date: 07/13/2016
Using ‘R’ Services within SQL Server 2016
Using 'R' Services Within SQL Server 2016 ‘R’ Services in SQL Server 2016 is a new technology within...
Date: 06/28/2016
Log Ship SSISDB in SQL Server 2012
Recently I’ve been helping out on an SSIS consolidation project and was asked to help understand how...
Date: 05/24/2016
Incremental Statistics and Trace Flag 2371 in SQL 2014
Over the last few days I've been asked a few times if trace flag 2371 works in SQL2014 with...
Date: 04/12/2016