What is the SQL Server Launchpad Service? I had to look it up myself. Here is the short answer: it launches the Advanced Analytics Extensions processes.
Find Deprecated SQL Server Features with Extended Events
To find deprecated SQL Server features, capture the deprecation announcement and deprecation final support events with Extended Events. This post builds a small session, runs four kinds of deprecated code, reads the captured features and statements, and lists the replacements to use before a compatibility level change or an upgrade.
SQL SERVER – FIX: Arithmetic Overflow Error in Object Execution Statistics Report in Management Studio
The SSMS Object Execution Statistics report suddenly failed for a client with Msg 8115, arithmetic overflow converting to int. Here is why and what to do.
JSON Column Index in SQL Server: Index One Property
A JSON column index is one of the first tools a DBA needs when documents arrive in SQL Server. This test stores 100,000 recipes as JSON, searches one property with no index, then indexes it through a computed column. It also shows the cast that quietly breaks the match and how missing keys behave.
SQL SERVER – Upgrade Error – ALTER DATABASE Statement Not Allowed Within Multi-statement Transaction
A failed SQL Server 2014 SP2 left the service down with: ALTER DATABASE statement not allowed within Multi-statement Transaction. Here is how to fix it.
SQL SERVER – AlwaysOn Automatic Seeding Failure – Failure_code 15 and Failure_message: VDI Client Failed
One database would not seed to the secondary replica. Here is how sys.dm_hadr_physical_seeding_stats showed failure_code 15 and VDI Client Failed.
Delete Old Backup Files in SQL Express with PowerShell
SQL Server Express has no SQL Server Agent, so nothing runs to delete old backup files and the disk slowly fills. This post gives a PowerShell script that removes backup files older than a set number of days, tests it with a dry run, refuses to delete when any backup type has no recent file, and shows how to schedule it with Task Scheduler.