SQL Bangalore, our new SQL Server user group, held its first meeting on November 24, 2012. We had five 30 minute sessions, a surprise guest from Mumbai and an international guest from the USA. Here is my report, with photographs.
Uneven Parallelism: Spotting Skewed Threads Behind CXPACKET Waits
Diagnose uneven parallelism by comparing CXPACKET and CXCONSUMER with per-thread row counts in plans and live query profiles.
Picking Random Winners Fairly With NEWID and CRYPT_GEN_RANDOM
Pick random winners with NEWID or cryptographic randomness, handle weights and unique entrants, and save a draw with its seed and timestamp.
Moving Databases to a New Server Behind a SQL Server Alias
Move databases behind a SQL Server alias or DNS CNAME by planning name redirection, backup and restore, Kerberos SPNs, and connection tests.
Validate a Date With Regex in SQL Server 2025: Shape Is Not Enough
To validate a date with regex in SQL Server 2025, pair REGEXP_LIKE with TRY_CONVERT. The tests here show impossible dates that pass a strict pattern, spellings that convert but break the format, and how to enforce both checks with a constraint.
SQL SERVER – Asynchronous Update and Timestamp – Check if Row Values are Changed Since Last Retrieve
In a bidding system, users must know if a row changed since they read it. Here is how a timestamp column helps with this asynchronous update check.
SQL Server Agent Basics
SQL Server Agent basics covers jobs, steps, schedules, proxies, and history so a first useful job runs with a clear owner and failure path.