SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Why Does UNION ALL Work but UNION Produces Error?

You already know what UNION and UNION ALL operators do. They combine datasets while UNION keeps the distinct data, UNION ALL will retain all the data. You can read more about that over here: SQL SERVER – Difference Between Union vs. Union All – Optimal Performance Comparison. Let us see why does anyone all work, but union produces error in this puzzle. 

Read More

SQL SERVER – Slow Filestream Data Cleanup. What Should We Do?

One of my client reported an issue where they were running low on free disk space on the drive where they have file-stream files. They are one of a heavy user of filestream feature as compare to any of my previous clients. As per their observation, the filestream disk space was getting released very slow after deleting the records in database tables using this feature.

Read More

SQL SERVER – xp_cmdshell and Net Use ERROR: The Local Device Name is Already in Use

People generally ask me; how do I manage to find a blog topic for every day blogging? And my answer is – “Connect yourself to the ground, try to help people with the basics, have open eyes & ears and promise yourself to learn one new thing every day”. If one can achieve these, every day blogging is easier. As a part of my consulting, I was helping a client to run some scripts and while testing, I learned something new. In this blog, we would learn about cause and solution of the error, the local device name is already in use.

Read More

SQL SERVER – How to Install New Sample Database WideWorldImportersDW.bak

Last year, I have written a blog to install sample database WideWorldImporters SQL SERVER 2016 – How to Import New Sample Database WideWorldImporters. Recently, while I was showing demo to a client, they informed that I don’t have a blog about data-warehouse database WideWorldImportersDW. In this blog we would learn about how to install database WideWorldImportersDW.bak

Read More

SQL SERVER – Fix: Error – VS Shell Installation Has Failed with Exit Code 1638

Recently I got called in by a regular customer for my On Demand (50 minutes) service. Every single day I keep two hours available to help DBAs who need urgent help with SQL Server. When I connected with a customer, I was expecting to solve their SQL Server performance tuning problem. However, I quickly realized that the issue was not SQL Server Performance but was rather with SQL Server 2017 installation. Let us see how we can fix the error users are receiving related to VS Shell.

Read More