Compare upsert patterns under concurrent calls, protect missing-key ranges, test MERGE with HOLDLOCK, and keep unique keys as a guard.
Deleting Millions of Rows in Batches Without Filling the Log
Plan deleting millions of rows with bounded commits, an indexed cutoff, log reuse checks, and a clear choice of retention method.
Does Dropping Clustered Index Drop Primary Key on the Same Column? – Interview Question of the Week #083
Does dropping clustered index also drop the primary key on the same column? Here is the short answer, a follow-up to last week’s question on the reverse case.
SQL SERVER – Error: 14258 – Cannot perform this operation while SQLServerAgent is starting. Try again later
A client could not run any job and got Error 14258: Cannot perform this operation while SQLServerAgent is starting. Here is what caused it and how we fixed it.
SQL SERVER – Event 17058 – initerrlog: Could not Open Error Log File
SQL Server would not start and there was no ERRORLOG. Event 17058, initerrlog: Could not open error log file, came from missing permissions on the Log folder.
Find and Replace With Regular Expressions in SSMS
A regex replace can turn forty column names into ISNULL expressions in seconds. Here is the pattern, the safety habits, and the trap of a zero default.
SQL SERVER – Setting Firewall Settings With Azure SQL Server VMs
Can’t reach SQL Server on an Azure VM from your app? The firewall was the culprit. Here are the steps I use to set firewall rules with Azure SQL Server VMs.