Benjamin Wright-Jones
Exploring Information, Infrastructure and Solution Architecture
Using PowerShell to deploy Windows Azure Virtual Machines and Windows Azure SQL Databases
Date: 03/21/2013
Redux: Using an SSIS package to monitor and archive the default trace file
I’ve recently been asked for details regarding the SSIS package I wrote to copy and archive the...
Date: 07/04/2012
Redux: Using a C# script task in SSIS to download a file over http
A few people have asked for further information about the C# script task which I blogged about...
Date: 07/02/2012
Are you interested in Data Science?
The University of Dundee is now gauging interest in a number of data science focused courses (see...
Date: 07/02/2012
Testing SQL Server HA using Hyper-V in Windows 8 Release Preview
I often find the need to build and test SQL Server clusters to support native two-node or N+1...
Date: 06/21/2012
Transposing Columns onto Rows
After a long period of absence, I have returned to posting some blog articles. This one popped...
Date: 06/07/2012
BI Service Applications in SharePoint 2010
One of my colleagues, Chris Bailiss, has written a number of great articles describing how BI...
Date: 11/29/2011
Two new SQLCAT papers available, Spinlock and Latch Contention
Diagnosing and Resolving Spinlock Contention on SQL Server...
Date: 07/06/2011
Whitepaper Alert: Microsoft EDW Architecture, Guidance and Deployment Best Practices
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh147624.aspx
Date: 05/06/2011
Creating custom reports against the System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 data warehouse
It is possible to create custom reports, using SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, against the...
Date: 01/24/2011
Using SQL Server 2008 R2 Best Practice Analyzer against Analysis Services
SQL Server 2008 R2 BPA is an excellent and often under-used, tool. The title is a little...
Date: 10/04/2010
Debugging Parameters in the SSIS Data Flow (Script Component)
I had unfortunately picked up the (bad) habit of debugging my SSIS packages by using messagebox.show...
Date: 10/04/2010
Editing XML using PowerShell
I recently had a requirement to edit an XML document using PowerShell Fortunately, this is a...
Date: 07/14/2010
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 CTP
Just noticed that we have posted SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 CTP on microsoft.com, here is the...
Date: 07/08/2010
Using Visual Studio Test Tools to troubleshoot and reproduce database performance issues
Visual Studio test suite contains a very useful set of tools to help troubleshoot and reproduce...
Date: 06/24/2010
Best Practice Analyzer is back
BPA is back for SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2...
Date: 06/19/2010
Blogs from Microsoft Consultancy Services
Microsoft Consultancy Services (UK) has recently started blogging. These are team-based blogs...
Date: 06/02/2010
SQL Azure vs. SQL Server
I’ve just read the SQL Azure vs. SQL Server whitepaper...
Date: 05/25/2010
Backing up to NUL(L)?
Some of you may be wondering why you would want to do this. We had a real requirement in a...
Date: 05/24/2010
SQL Server 2008 R2 Cumulative Update 1
Hot on the heels of the RTM release of SQL Server 2008 R2, we have just announced the first...
Date: 05/24/2010
Hotfix Alert: Identifying poor I/O
We have just released a hotfix to help identify poor I/O issues on Windows Server 2008 and Windows...
Date: 05/06/2010
SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM BOL now available
Here...
Date: 04/24/2010
Using SSIS with SQL Azure databases
I’m quite surprised how easy it is to setup an SSIS package to read and write data to a SQL Azure...
Date: 03/08/2010
Performance monitor, SQL Server and PAGE compression
I tend to automate perfmon collection with logman.exe logging to a SQL Server 2008 database via the...
Date: 02/11/2010
New editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 announced
SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse...
Date: 11/04/2009
Processing Excel files in SSIS 2008 – Lessons Learned
I have recently been working on a project where we need to load and transform data held in Excel...
Date: 10/21/2009
Changing the LISTENER_IP address in a database mirroring configuration
This question came up today: how can I change the IP address between the principal and mirror in...
Date: 09/25/2009
New HP Resources on SQL Server 2008 Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence
I haven’t had a chance to look through these yet so I can’t comment on the content but I thought I...
Date: 09/16/2009
Troubleshooting SQL Server Transactional Replication
I often see questions about transactional replication performance problems, especially around...
Date: 09/10/2009
Fusion IO 640GB SSD PCI-Express Cards
We recently had the opportunity to test a couple of the Fusion IO PCI-Express 640GB SSD cards...
Date: 09/10/2009
SQL Server 2008 Books Online (July 2009) Update
Only just noticed that a new revision of the SQL Server 2008 Books Online documentation has been...
Date: 08/29/2009
Using an SSIS package to monitor and archive the default trace file
I find it frustrating that the SQL Server 2005/2008 default trace is continually overwritten and...
Date: 05/13/2009
SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services
In case you missed the Tech-Ed 2009 announcement, you can find the info here...
Date: 05/13/2009
Initializing a Transactional Replication Subscriber from an Array-Based Snapshot
After a few late nights, some coffee and a few review cycles, a new article has just been published...
Date: 05/07/2009
Technet Webcast: An Early look at SQL Server ‘Kilimanjaro’ and project ‘Madison’
https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032413070&EventCategory=4&am...
Date: 04/22/2009
SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 Cumulative Update 3
Just released https://support.microsoft.com/kb/967909/
Date: 04/21/2009
Using a C# script task in SSIS to download a file over http
I recently had a requirement to automate downloading a file from an website and then perform ETL on...
Date: 03/29/2009
Microspotting?
[Non-SQL related] I’ve just discovered an interesting site called Microspotting which came to my...
Date: 03/19/2009
SQL Server 2008 CU4 released
Just published here https://support.microsoft.com/kb/963036
Date: 03/17/2009
Why is sp_dbmmonitorresults failing with invalid object?
I recently setup a simple database mirroring config on my latpop (two instances SQL Server 2005 SP3...
Date: 02/18/2009
SQL Server 2008 System Views Map in PDF or XPS
Just published - download from here...
Date: 01/29/2009
SQLCAT publish new article on transaction log performance..
Read the publication here...
Date: 12/10/2008
Readtrace updated
In case you haven’t seen this, readtrace has been updated to also support the SQL Server 2008 trace...
Date: 11/24/2008
Support for more than 64 logical processors
This is a big announcement made at WinHEC...
Date: 11/07/2008
New performance monitor counters for SQL Server 2008
I have been looking at some of the new performance counters that are shipped with SQL Server...
Date: 10/23/2008
SQL Server 2008 CU1 has just been posted
In case you haven’t seen this…https://support.microsoft.com/kb/956717
Date: 09/23/2008
Making a database clone using SMO
I’ve been playing around with SMO a bit more over the past few days as I’m finding it really useful...
Date: 09/21/2008
How can I generate a T-SQL script for just the indexes?
I was trying to work out the best way to generate a T-SQL script for only the indexes and I thought...
Date: 08/27/2008
Finally some guidance on SQL Server and Hyper-V
Just noticed this KB https://support.microsoft.com/kb/956893 which outlines the support policy for...
Date: 08/26/2008