SQL SERVER 2016 – Encrypt Your PII Data – Notes from the Field #132

[Note from Pinal]: In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Lawell talks about his thoughts and observation about SQL Server 2016 Encryption. Security of the data is very important and we often spend so many hours securing our data. However, lots of people do not understand about Encrpting about their database personal information. Every single day you will find plenty of incidents where PII data is stolen or misused. I discussed about this with Mike and of Linchpin People and he was very kind to share his view on encryption of PII data and SQL Server 2016. Let us read Mike’s story in his own words.

Read More

SQL SERVER – Database Auditing and Compliance

ApexSQL Audit is a tool which is used to audit SQL Server events for the purpose of general auditing as well as to meet strict SQL Server compliance standards. ApexSQL Audit can be used to audit more than 170 SQL Server events, including DDL and DML operations, SQL Server logins, security events, query execution… ApexSQL Audit can be used by DBA to meet complex database auditing requirements as well as several compliance standards, including HIPAA, SOX, PCI, FISMA, FERPA, FDA and more.

Read More

SQL SERVER 2016 – WARNING: Setup Limited to Reporting Services for SharePoint

I have a habit of generally reading the “What’s New” section whenever a new version is around in the block. This is a great way to actually check, learn everything that is getting released in a nutshell. These often don’t just mean we can master them in that single page, but it gives us enough information to start our journey for exploration. Let us learn about Setup Limited to Reporting Services for SharePoint warning.

Read More

How to Send Execution Plan in Email? – Interview Question of the Week #079

A few days ago, I sent emails to everyone who subscribed to my newsletter (if you have not subscribed, you are missing out some real fun) that they can send me one performance problem of theirs like and I will help them solve it in 24 hours. I received over 1082 responses in the first 24 hours and honestly, I could not keep my commitment to reply each in 24 hours (even though I answered emails for 18 hours straight). It took me over 4 days to respond to EVERY SINGLE EMAIL, and on the top of it, I was still getting more emails. Finally, I caught up with everything on the fifth day and I had received a total of 2187 performance problems in the email. I have responded to each of them. During this marathon of answering emails, I saw that many users do not know how to send the execution plan in an email.

Read More

SQL SERVER – Detected a DTC/KTM in-doubt Transaction with UOW

Recently, one of my clients contacted me to assist in fixing and issue which was causing their production database to be in SUSPECT state. The learnings I am getting from various consulting engagements is awesome and the after effect of this is a number of blogs I have published in the recent past. They were using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (SP2) in a clustered environment. They had a disaster and had a hard failure of SQL cluster. Initially there were issues with DTC and they were able to fix them by installing the DTC component in the cluster. Now, once they reinstalled DTC, the production database was in SUSPECT state. Let us learn about how to detect DTC/KTM in-doubt Transaction with UOW.

Read More