SQL SERVER – Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider “Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0” for linked server

As you might have seen, along with performance tuning related work, I also help community in getting answers to questions and troubleshoot issue with them. A few days ago, one of community leader and user group champion contacted me for assistance. He informed me that they are using Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 provider to read data from an excel file. But they are seeing below error while doing test connection. Let us learn about error related to OLE DB provider.

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SQL SERVER – Creating Azure VM for SQL Server Using Portal

I need to admit that Microsoft has been investing big time on the Azure platform and the adoption has been great amongst customers. In the recent past, though I have made several performance tuning activities with customers on SQL Server – many have come back to me asking for consulting into migration into Azure. A lot of conversations have been around lift-and-shift application deployments on an Azure VM (Virtual Machine).

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SQL SERVER – How to Automatically Generate SQL Server Documentation ?

A complete and precise documentation serves a good basis for developers and DBAs during their onboarding to get a general picture of the database they start working with. Creating such a documentation manually takes a lot of time and effort. So you seat for hours and hours digging through the database structure figuring out its functionality, data types stored therein, building relationship diagrams, etc. Moreover, every time changes are introduced to the database, you have to get back to it update the documentation by hand. This definitely feels like a burden and you keep delaying it until the last minute.

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SQL SERVER – SqlServerWriter Missing from an Output of VSSadmin List Writers Command

One of a DBA from my client contacted me for a quick suggestion when I was working with them on a performance tuning exercise. I always ask for some time to explain the exact problem and behavior. As per the DBA, they are using 3rd party backup solutions to take backups and SQL backup are not happening. When they contacted 3rd party vendor they asked to run command VSSadmin List Writers and check if they have SqlServerWriter listed. Unfortunately, the component is missing from an output. He asked me the possible reasons. Since this was not a performance tuning related question and I promised that I would share whatever information I can find and write a blog post for that.

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SQL SERVER – Unable to bring resource online – Error DoREPLSharedDataUpgrade : Failed to create working directory

A few days ago I wrote a blog about a cluster related issue where the configuration was not same on both the nodes, which was causing issues. SQL SERVER – Unable to bring resource online. Error – Data source name not found and no default driver specified. Let us learn how to fix error related to Unable to bring resource online.

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