Microsoft SQL Server articles
Last updated: November 14th '06 | Best viewed with: All popular browsers | Best viewed at: 1024x768 | Links to external sites will open in a new window

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Keep a check on your IDENTITY columns in SQL Server New
This article shows you how to keep an eye on your IDENTITY columns and find out before they run out of values, and fail with an arithmetic overflow error.

Scripting permissions of a database user or role in SQL Server 2005 New
This article shows you how to script or copy the permissions of an existing database user or role, using the new SQL Server 2005 security catalog views.

Making SQL Server 2005 SSIS packages portable New
This articles shows you how to use the new XML package confuguration files to make SSIS packages portable. It also provides you with downloadable templates for different XML configuration requirements.

Review of AdventNet SwisSQL Data Migration Tool 3.0 New
A review of an exciting new database migration product from SwisSQL.

SQL Server 2005 Replication Error : The Distributor has not been installed correctly New
This short article introduces you to a little bug in SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) replication. Though it is not a critical defect, it makes one of the SQL server replication jobs fail.

Review of Adventnet SwisSQL Sybase to SQL Server Migration Tool 2.1 New
A review of AdventNet SwisSQL Sybase to SQL Server Migration tool, that automates the migration of database objects from Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise to Microsoft SQL Server.

Book Review: A Guide to SQL Server 2000 Transactional and Snapshot Replication New
As the title suggests, this is a book about SQL Server replication, and just about SQL Server replication. Yes, at last, there is a dedicated, comprehensive book, that covers all aspects of SQL Server 2000 transactional and snapshot replication. After reading all the important and interesting chapters from this book, I can happily say that, this is the definitive book on SQL Server 2000 replication, and a must have and must read for any SQL Server DBA, interested in learning the ins and outs of SQL Server replication.

Review of Adventnet SwisSQL SQLOne Console, SQL Query Converter New
This automated SQL converter can convert SQL from one dialect to another and the supported database management systems include: SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Informix, MySQL, PostgreSQL etc. Read this review, and see how an automated query converter can help in migrating database applications.

SwisSQL Helps Major ERP Vendor in Database Migration from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server New
A Major ERP Vendor saved an estimated $200K and 52 person months using SwisSQL to migrate 2.5 million lines of mission critical module from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server.

Case Study: Migrating from Oracle to SQL Server at AIM Healthcare Services, Inc. New
A real world case study from DBBest.com on how their "DB Best SQL Converter" and consulting helped AIM Healthcare migrate their databases from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server

Database Migration: The Key to Unlocking your Business Assets New
This is an interesting white paper from DBBest.com about the complete process of migrating from one RDBMS to another (Oracle to SQL Server). DBBest provides services related to all aspects of database migration from one platform to another, for enterprise market.

sp_who_3 : An enhanced and efficient version of sp_who and sp_who2 New
This is a slick piece of code from Mike Barzilli. It helps you better monitor processes and users connected to your SQL Server instance.

What is the difference between SET and SELECT? New
Both SET and SELECT can be used to assign values to variables. But when to or when not to use SET or SELECT? Or does it matter? This articles shows you how SET and SELECT are different in various scenarios, along with examples. You will also find a test script that you can run, to identify the performance differences between SET and SELECT

Microsoft SQL Server Yukon Information Center New
Book mark this page for all the latest information about SQL Server Yukon. This page will contain links to latest information about Yukon, upcoming Yukon books, and Yukon articles.

Automating server side tracing in SQL Server New
Ever wanted to use the SQL Trace system stored procedures instead of Profiler, but got intimidated by the cryptic system stored procedures? Then this article is just for you. It will show you how to use SQL Trace system stored procedures and provide you with wrapper stored procedures, that can be used to quickly get server side traces up and running.

How to use the new diagnostic system function fn_get_sql() and the 3 new columns of sysprocesses? New
This article shows you how to use the new function fn_get_sql() and the 3 new columns of master.dbo.sysprocesses. These changes were introduced in SQL Server 2000 SP3/SP3A. In this article, you will find a general purpose stored procedure called ShowCodeLine. It makes use of these new features, to inspect a given spid, and display the currently executing line/query.

Book Review: Murach's SQL for SQL Server New
Are you a VB, Web or Windows developer? Completely new to SQL programming? Look no further! This book is just for you. "Murach's SQL for SQL Server" is a good first book for anyone interested in learning the basics of SQL programming, and becoming a database developer, or probably move into the role of a database administrator (DBA).

SQL Server DTS Best Practices New
In this article I talk about various SQL Server Data Transformation Services (DTS) best practices that I've learned from my own experience as a DBA and developer. This article is divided into sections like DTS naming conventions, DTS documentation, troubleshooting DTS packages, improving the performance of DTS packages, securing DTS packages etc. At the end of the article you will find links to various DTS books, websites and helpful articles.

How to search for date and time values using Microsoft SQL Server 2000? New
Everything you need to know about searching datetime data (date and time values, also known as temporal data). This article discusses how the date and time values are stored in SQL Server, and shows you how to search and extract data from these datetime columns, with complete examples.

SQL Server anti blocking strategies New
In this article Sancho Fock discusses various strategies for reducing blocking in SQL Server databases.

Book Review: SQL Server 2000 Fast Answers for DBAs and developers New
This book is completely focused towards helping aspiring DBAs and database developers. It has answers for all those questions that generally trouble a budding DBA. Shows you how to setup an SQL Server, administer it, secure it and develop database code.

Integrating SQL Litespeed with your existing backup infrastructure New
As your company is looking to SQL LiteSpeed to enhance your SQL Server backup solution, it is necessary to determine the most appropriate fashion to integrate SQL LiteSpeed into your existing environment by addressing the...

SQL Server Backup and Restore: Back to Basics with SQL Litespeed New
This document analyzes the various options available for your backup and recovery process with SQL Server 2000 as well as an enhancement to your SQL Server backup and recovery process using a highly efficient backup and restore utility that provides significant time and disk space savings called SQL LiteSpeed.

Book Review: SQL Server 2000 for the Oracle DBA New
This new ebook helps Oracle DBAs learn SQL Server 2000 and get upto speed quickly!

Watch your timeouts - DBA's quick guide to timeouts, by Chris Kempster New
In this article, Chris discusses in detail, the various types of timeout problems, and show you how to alter various settings to address timeout errors. He also provides VB code samples along with this article.

Who needs change managemebt? by Greg Robidoux New
In this article, Greg talks about implementing and controlling all aspects of change management in SQL Server.

COM+, SQL Server, Serializable isolation level and the issues! New
In this article, I'll share with you, how the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level enforced by COM+ effected the performance of an application. At the end of this article you will find links to SQL Server performance tuning books.

Top 20 software testing and quality assurance (QA) Books New
Click here to check out the best testing books, covering all software platforms!

Top 20 Windows Books New
Click here to check out the best Windows books, covering desktop to enterprise server, administration, networking and more.

Interview with Chris Kempster, the author of the ebook, SQL Server 2000 for the Oracle DBA New
Are you migrating from Oracle to SQL Server? Got questions and concerns? Check out this interview, to gain some helpful advice, tips and best practices from Chris.

A collection of best .Net books New
Think its high time you took a dive into the world of Microsoft .Net? Wondering which book to start with? Check out this list of top 20 Microsoft .Net books, covering .Net Framework, Visual Basic .Net, ADO.Net, ASP.Net, C# etc.

Book Review: Real-World SQL-DMO for SQL Server New
This is the ONLY book available, that covers SQL-DMO for SQL Server 2000 (and SQL Server 7.0 as well). The real world experience of the authors speaks in this book. What I like about this book is, it is filled with code samples, examples, sample applications. Code samples are written in Visual Basic (VB6) and VBScript. Authors take real world scenarios from their own experiences and show you how to accomplish those specific tasks using SQL-DMO, in a very informal manner.

How to move SQL Server from one computer/server/machine to another? New
Moving SQL Server from one computer to another is not a very difficult thing to do, but it often stumps newbie DBAs. Of course, it needs careful planning to ensure that the SQL Server is moved completely and properly to the new machine, and with a minimal downtime and no data loss. This article introduces you to a couple of methods you can employ to move/migrate SQL Server from one computer to another.

How to perform case sensitive searches in SQL Server? New
By default SQL Server is case insensitive, and performing a case sensitive search is not very intuitive. This article shows you how to implement case sensitive searches in SQL Server, using different techniques like conversion to binary datatype, COLLATE clause, BINARY_CHECKSUM function, computed columns etc.

Data Modeling for Everyone : Free sample chapter for you to read, from the new book New
This is a unique book, that deals with the nitty-gritties involved in designing databases. Useful for professionals trying to get into data modeling. Click on the above link, to read a sample chapter from this book.

Book Review: SQL Server 2000 XML Distilled : Free sample chapter for you to read, from the new book New
A new book dedicated to the XML functionality of SQL Server. This book has already received some great reviews at Amazon. Click on the above link, to read a sample chapter from this book.

Book Review: SQL Server Security Distilled (includes a Free sample chapter for you to read, from the new book) New
There are not many books out there that deal with SQL Server security. Fortunately, Curlingstone recently published this book, which is entirely dedicated to SQL Server security. Click on the above link to read my review and a sample chapter from this book.

Passing a list/array to an SQL Server stored procedure New
Unfortunately, there is no built-in support for arrays in SQL Server's T-SQL. This article provides 5 different techniques to simulate arrays in T-SQL, with working examples. It also provides you with links to additional information and books.

Identifying performance issues using SQL Server Profiler New
It is always better to be proactive than reactive, when it comes to identifying and eliminating SQL Server performance issues. In this article, I am going to explain the method I follow, to identify performance issues in my database applications, before those applications go into production environment.

Top 15 SQL Server 2000 Books New
On this site, I've been providing links to SQL Server books, since the beginning of year 2002. It's almost an year now and I just wondered what kind of books this site's visitors are buying. So, logged onto Amazon, generated reports for my site's referral sales, and here are the results.

Book review: Writing Secure Code New
In today's world of software vulnerabilities, buffer overruns and other code exploits, when every major software vendor is releasing security hotfixes almost every week, I believe this book is a life saver. Most of these vulnerabilities are a result of careless programming, no attention to security, improper testing. This book addresses all these issues and shows you how to design and create secure applications, how to write robust code, how to test software for security vulnerabilities. A must read for developers, software architects, application designers, project managers and testing professionals.

How to globally search and replace data in SQL Server databases? New
This article provides you with a simple stored procedure, that can search all the columns of all the tables in the current database, and replace a given search string with another string.

Migrating from Oracle to SQL Server New
Are you migrating your database and application from Oracle to SQL Server and having trouble converting your code from PL/SQL to T-SQL? Then this article is just for you. It provides you with answers to most commonly asked questions. You will also find links to additional resources and books.

Book review: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL New
This book is for SQL Server developers, Database Administrators (DBAs), let them be beginners or advanced. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who has a bit of T-SQL knowledge, and are looking forward to being a Guru in T-SQL.

Book review: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit New
This book is a great resource and an excellent reference for IT (database) architects, consulting DBAs, database and application designers. At more than 1200 pages and an index of 32 pages, this is a massive compilation of real world experiences. Read my review and decide for yourself, if you want to get your hands on this!

What's best for DBAs? GUI or T-SQL commands? New
This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using the SQL Server graphical administration tools (Enterprise Manager) versus the T-SQL administrative commands, with specific examples. Read up and decide for yourslef, if you want to be a point-and-click DBA or a T-SQL scripting expert!

Book Review: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000, by Kalen Delaney New
This is the most comprehensive book for anyone interested in knowing how SQL Server works internally. You might ask, "Who is interested in the internals of SQL Server?". My answer would be, "Any DBA or technical architect, who undertakes serious SQL Server implementations. One needs to understand the SQL Server architecture and internals to be able to tune a database system properly and to get the best out of SQL Server."

What is the best way for maintaining a standby SQL Server database? New
This article defines what a standby server is and how to maintain one. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches like Data Transformation Services (DTS), BCP, Replication, Clustering, Backup/Restore, Logshipping.

Working with hierarchical data in SQL Server databases New
This article shows you how to process hierarchical/tree structured data in T-SQL and provides you with resources and advanced techniques for managing hierarchies in SQL Server.

How to troubleshoot orphan users in SQL Server databases? New
This article explains what exactly are orphaned users, provides a stored procedure ShowOrphanUsers, and has links to further resources related to this topic.

How to search all columns of all tables in a database for a keyword? New
This article provides you with a stored procedure that searches all columns of all the tables, owned by all users, in the current database, for a specific search string.

Working with email addresses in SQL Server! New
This article shows you how to design the storage for email addresses, how to validate email addresses, how to write different types of queries on email addresses efficiently, using computed columns and indexes. It also covers the security aspect of dealing with email addresses.

Microsoft SQL Server KnowledgeBase watch! New
Struggling to keep an eye on the latest SQL Server Knowledgebase articles from Microsoft? Don't have time to visit the knowledgebase everyday and look for new articles? Don't worry, this page is just for you! It lists all the interesting, useful and important KB articles from Microsoft website and it gets updated every couple of days. Just bookmark this page and enjoy reading all the latest articles from Microsoft.

How to overwrite DTS package logs everytime the package executes? New
This article provides the required code for a DTS ActiveX Script task, that overwrites the DTS package error files.

Microsoft SQL Server FAQ on administration, programming, replication and tools
This topic is divided into administration, programming, replication and tools FAQ and it covers those questions/problems that are commonly asked/faced by database professionals.

Microsoft SQL Server interview questions for DBA and database developer positions
This article discusses the most commonly asked database interview questions, with answers/solutions and additional links/pointers for more information.

SQL Server database object naming conventions
This article proposes a logical, natural and readable naming convention for database objects like tables, views, stored procedures, constraints, defaults etc.

SQL Server database coding conventions, best practices, programming guidelines and techniques
This article helps you establish better database programming standards in your organization, by showing you the programming best practices, keeping performance and maintainability in mind. Also makes you aware of the gotchas involved in SQL programming.

Overview of SQL Server security model and security best practices
Covers the SQL Server security architecture in a concise manner and goes onto discuss the security best practices, to help you secure your SQL Server installations at your enterprise.

SQL Server administration best practices
This article covers the database administration best practices in detail, with a special focus on backup/restore and disaster recovery. Also provides you with daily, weekly, monthly checklists to help you organize your work as a DBA.

Microsoft SQL Server books and book reviews
This comprehensive section contains links to all the popular SQL Server books published and complete and indepth reviews on selected books.

Book Review: Transact-SQL Cookbook
This is a very practical, concise T-SQL programming book, and is a must-read for database developers.

Book Review: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning Technical Reference
Listen from the horse's mouth. This Microsoft Press book is the most comprehensive performance tuning guide available for SQL Server DBAs and it covers the tuning of almost all aspects of SQL Server.

How to identify the service pack installed on your SQL Server?
This article shows you different ways for finding out the service pack installed on your SQL Server. Contains a nice chart with SQL Server build numbers along with the corresponding service pack numbers.

Implementing row level permissions/security in SQL Server databases
This detailed article shows you how to setup row level permissions in SQL Server. Provides you with complete working scripts.

How to track SQL Server database file growth over a period of time?
This article shows you different ways to help you track your database growth. Provides you with a stored procedure that shows you how your database grew over a period of time.

Evaluation of Federated Database Servers and Distributed Partitioned Views of SQL Server 2000
A simple, non-scientific evaluation of the power of federated database servers, a new feature introduced in SQL Server 2000.

Exploit the power of T-SQL for generating scripts, for repetitive tasks
This article shows you, how to use T-SQL to generate T-SQL scripts and discusses several useful scenarios.

Typical SQL Server newsgroup,usenet lingo and abbreviations
This article introduces you to the most common abbreviations used by newsgroup posters across SQL Server newsgroups, mailing lists, discussion forums.

Microsoft internal codenames/nick names for SQL Server & related products
Read on to know more about the interesting codenames that Microsoft has come up with for different products.

The undocumented nature of sp_readerrorlog in SQL Server 2000
An interesting insight into the undocumented functionality of sp_readerrorlog, that allows you to read files other than error logs, and search through files for keywords.

Make your SQL Server database code searchable
This article discusses different approaches towards searching through your source code of stored procedures, triggers, user defined functions etc., and provides you with a useful search stored procedure.

Stored procedure to identify the top n biggest/huge tables in a database
Ever wondered, which of your tables are taking up most of your database disk space? Download this stored procedure and get started.

Code to find out the statement that caused the trigger to fire!
This article takes database auditing a bit further and shows you how to track the actual SQL statements, that are modifying your data.

How to archive data from SQL Server databases?
This article walks you through the process of archiving data from production SQL Server databases and discusses the issues involved. Provides a sample archiving stored procedure.

What are federated databases?
An introduction to this new feature of SQL Server 2000, to help you get started.

Fun with numbers in T-SQL queries
This article shows you what you can do with a table of numbers (pivot or auxiliary tables) and provides you with scripts and user defined functions (UDF) to perform complex string manipulations.

How to retrieve the newly inserted GUID value?
As there is no equivalent for @@IDENTITY, this article shows you how to retrieve the GUID values of the newly inserted rows.

How to troubleshoot ODBC timeout errors experienced by applications accessing SQL Server?
A check list of different things to consider while troubleshooting SQL Server ODBC driver timeout issues or performance problems.

How to restart SQL Server service at regular intervals?
This article shows you how to restart SQL Server service at regular intervals.

SQL Server list servers and mailing lists
Provides links to various SQL Server mailing lists and list servers across the Internet.

Explaining your problem in an effective way in newsgroups!
This article helps you understand how newsgroups work and how to participate in newsgroups efficiently and get the most out of them.

Tools by third party companies for Microsoft SQL Server
Links to some of the popular SQL Server third party products/tools.


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