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When You Love Data as Much as I Do…


I’ve been working in data for a long time. After a while, you recognize the issues that everyone runs into sooner or later—and hopefully, can come up with some pretty creative solutions. I love being able to wax profound (or at least, long-winded) about why these issues come up and how I like to go about resolving them. Or just pose a question to my fellow data professionals so we can discuss. Check out my past blog articles here, or get in touch if there’s a topic you think I should cover.

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Featured

Why Become a PowerShell DBA

If you find this article valuable and you decide that you want to get your learn on with PowerShell and SQL Server, there is a SQLSkills class that I am teaching this year, please join me to get a great start in how to get your toolset growing by adding PowerShell to your toolbelt. Early

February 20, 2019

Recent

T-SQL Tuesday #61–Giving Back

I like this topic because I think about it all the time.  I have learned so much from others and I am trying each year to ensure that I give back by speaking at SQL Saturday’s across the country.  No one pays for my trips (most of the time) but it is the least I

December 8, 2014

PASS Summit 2014 – What to expect

When thinking about attending PASS Summit each year I don’t spend much time deciding. I have not missed a Summit yet and hope I won’t miss one in the future. This post is meant to help those that may be deciding whether or not to go or for those that have decided to go but

October 3, 2014

Speaking at Portland Maine #SQLSAT293

I am excited to speak at the SQL Saturday 293 in Maine this weekend. Hope to see you there.  There is a great lineup in the agenda. My talks will be SMO Internals for High Performace PowerShell and SQL Server TDE.  The links will take you to the session where I will upload my slide

June 25, 2014

Speaking at SQL Saturday #287 – Madison, WI

http://www.sqlsaturday.com/287/eventhome.aspx I am excited to get on my way to Madison. I will be speaking on TSQL Best Practices.  We have a great lineup and it will be a great time.

March 25, 2014

Speaking at SQL Saturday 220 Atlanta #SQLSATATL

Posted over on sqlblog.com about my speaking at the SQL Saturday. Hope to see you there.

May 11, 2013

MCM SQL Server 2008 Achieved

Another step in my career as I have passed the Lab Exam and have become an MCM in SQL Server 2008.  I believed I could achieve it after passing my knowledge exam the first time. The first attempt at the lab was back in October and it was disappointing to find out that I did

April 16, 2013

T-SQL Tuesday #39: More Efficient SMO with Server.SetDefaultInitFields

 This T-SQL Tuesday is about PowerShell and how I use it with SQL Server. There are many more posts to come about PowerShell and SQL Server but I thought I would cut my teeth on this T-SQL Tuesday since it was on PowerShell. If you read Rob Farley’s (b | t) post on the SMO

February 12, 2013

Log Shipping encounters corrupt log backup

I ran into an issue the other day and wanted to ensure that I shared it out there.  In a Log Shipping scenario, you can occasionally run into a corrupt transaction log backup. This causes the database to stay in restoring mode (as mine was previously in a standby/read-only state for reporting), but requires the

October 16, 2012

Get SQL Server Service Accounts with WMI

Today I was tasked with retrieving the SQL Server Service accounts to validate them in Active Directory.  I wanted a simple way to get them and show the account names for each SQL Server service.  I knew that you could get the service in PowerShell with Get-Service.  I also new that PowerShell could get the

September 25, 2012

Opportunity to download Eval of Windows Server 2012

Use this link to download your copy of Windows Server 2012 for evaluation.  I know that I have downloaded and installed it for evaluation. http://www.microsoft.com/click/services/Redirect2.ashx?CR_CC=200128600 Have fun, it is a great upgrade.  

September 21, 2012

SMO and Index Fragmentation

When working with SMO and Indexes there are times that you want to get the fragmentation of this particular index.  In SMO there is a method on the Index called EnumFragmentation.  When you call this method, there is a bug in SMO out on Connect (SMO Index Enum Fragmentation…) that you should vote for.  This

July 7, 2012

Networking: What exactly is it, and how do you use it (appropriately)?

I have had the opportunity lately to tap into “Marketing” something to get some traction on a Vote for Me scenario.  It made me wonder about Networking and what it really is and what I would use it for.  There are many spammers and others out there who would just send anything and everything out

May 16, 2011

Powershell, SMO and Database Files

In response to some questions about renaming a physical file for a database, I have 2 versions of Powershell scripts that do this for you, including taking the database offline and then online to make the physical change match the meta-data. First, there is an article about this at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345483.aspx.  This explains that you start

February 14, 2011

An honor to be among the SQL Server MVPs

I just found out last night that I was officially awarded SQL MVP.  I am honored to be among those that I respect and admire.  I don’t contribute for the recognition and as a former MVP Lead I know the caliber of those that contribute to the SQL Server community, and even those that are

January 1, 2011

I am loving Office 2010

I have installed Office 2010 and found that Office OneNote is included in the Office 2010 Professional Plus. It is a very nice Suite of products and is very clean and polished. The thing I love most is the improved version of Outlook. It is now in the same realm as the other products in

May 3, 2010