The best way to learn something is to revisit some of the older blogs and then look at finding a more efficient way to work on the same problem. Recently I was looking at the forums to find a question come up again and again around making a comma separated list. This is not new over this blog and if you search you will get few. Long time ago I have written below blogs to show the values stored in table as comma separate list – this is not a rehash of what was written before but a newer way to solve the problem again.
SQL SERVER – How to View the Dirty Pages In Memory of a Database?
I always get an opportunity to talk on topics that are basic from time to time. As I was preparing for GIDS 2015 (Great Indian Developer Summit) this year, I was vividly remembering one of the conversations I had with an attendee last year at our Pluralsight booth. Most of these conversations are forgotten, but this one was unique. During this conversation, the attendee was trying to learn the basics and was curious to listen to me. I always get carried away and spend quite some time with folks who are eager to learn. In this context, I was talking how RDBMS’s use the concept of Write-Ahead Transaction Log for maintaining ACID properties. The response I got was interesting – “Hey Pinal, is there a way to know which of the pages in memory are currently dirty? Do you know how to get this?”
Interview Question of the Week #016 – How to Take Database Offline
Here is the question, I received in the recent conference where I was presenting on Database Technology. Question: What does it mean by Taking Database Offline and How to do it? Answer: Taking database offline means, it will be no more available for database operations. Here are is how you…
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SQL SERVER – Create Login with SID – Way to Synchronize Logins on Secondary Server
How many times you had a problem where you have deployed a high availability solution, but the application is not able to use database and getting login failed for user after failover? Note that this issue would happen only with SQL Logins not Windows Login. You would understand the reason shortly. Here are the situations where you might face login failure.
SQLAuthority News – Presenting 3 Technology Session at GIDS 2015
Great Indian Developer Summit is my favorite technology event and I have been extremely happy to present technology sessions here for over 5 years. Just like every year, this year, I will be presenting three technology session on SQL Server 2014. This time the event is at two locations. First one is…
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SQL SERVER – Walking the Table Hierarchy in Microsoft SQL Server Database – Notes from the Field #076
[Note from Pinal]: This is a 76th episode of Notes from the Field series. Hierarchy is one of the most important concepts in SQL Server but there are not clear tutorial for it. I have often observed that this simple concept is often ignored or poorly handled due to lack of understanding. In…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Finding What Policies Are Enabled on Our Databases
When I wrote about Policy Management last week (SQL SERVER – Introduction to Policy Management), lesser did I know I will get queries from blog readers on the basics. As I always said, Policy Management is always an underappreciated capability inside SQL Server. In one of the mails, I was asked…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Script – Removing Multiple Databases from Log Shipping
Have you ever come across a situation where you have large number of databases in log shipping and you have to remove all of them? If you use SQL Server Management Studio, it would take a long time because you have to Right Click on each database, go to properties,…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Is XP_CMDSHELL Enabled on the Server?
I am not a big fan of using command line utilities in general. But from time to time I do explore and play around with command line tools that make my life easier. Having said that, when working with SQL Server, I do often give out the recommendation of not trying to use the native xp_cmdshell commands with SQL Server. Even the SQL_Server_2012_Security_Best_Practice_Whitepaper talks about xp_cmdshell and recommends to avoid the same if it is possible. These are basic building blocks of security that I highly recommend my customers from time to time.
Interview Question of the Week #015 – How to Move TempDB to Different Drive
Here is one of the most popular questions I often come across- Question – How to move the TempDB to different drive when the log files are filled? Answer – In most of the cases which I have observed one has to move the TempDB to different drive when TempDB log…
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