Lately I have been working on a database diagram (Entity Relationship Diagram) for a project that is over a decade old. I don’t know if there ever was a diagram for this system. So I am reverse engineering one to show how all the pieces fit together in a logical fashion. There are a lot of reasons why we don’t […]

As time progresses I find that more applications I write end up on the web than anything else. Either as a web application or hosting a REST interface for other application resources. With HTML 5 the browser has become much more of a power house for rich user experiences. This prompts me to ask the question once again, has the […]

A topic I come back to on a regular basis is monitoring your database servers. This is one of the most overlooked practices on database servers. However, monitoring your server can provide a wealth of information. There are a number of ways you can monitor your server. The best ways available are found in tools such as Spotlight. Some open […]

Readers Feedback: Database Documentation (ERD) Aaron Writes: I work for a university and our main student information system does not have a database diagram. The database has close to 900 tables and I have been asking the vendor for a full database diagram for years. The main reason I would find it useful is for reporting purposes. Alexander Writes: I […]

You’re setting up a new instance of SQL Server on a new machine, virtual or self hosted. What are the first things you need to do? Here is a basic checklist you might use. Create the service accounts for the various services hosted by SQL Server. Here is a list of some I have used: SQL Service account SQL Agent […]

Years ago I had a database that used transaction logs heavily. Under heavy load, database performance was diminished. One optimization technique you can use in this situation is to create more than one transaction log. This is a similar technique that is recommended for your tempDb today. Even if the separate transaction log files are on the same drive. With […]

Are you writing applications to run in the Android Platform? Android has a far reaching implementation, as you probably know, on a large number of small devices. You’ll find it on DVD/Blue Ray players, Smart TVs, phones, tablets, and much more. It is a very popular platform because it provides all the basic services necessary to host your application. As […]

Recently I had a dental checkup with less than stellar results. Usually I see the dentist every six months, but this time it had been over a year because life was busy, and other interruptions I felt were more important. This will end up costing me 20% more than if I had gone in on time. As a result, my […]

SSIS has a wonderful set of tools for moving and transforming data. I suggest the use of staging tables when bringing data into SQL Server, not for the purpose of replacing the capabilities of SSIS, but for the purpose of performance when it comes to merging the results into production tables. You could create a complete dataset in SSIS by […]

Heads up: SQL Server 2014 SP1 On Hold If you started the process of testing and getting read to install SP1, you’ll want to hold off. There are some issues with it that Microsoft will be addressing in a re-release of the service pack as soon as they’re ready. In the meantime, hold off on the installation and/or testing. Here’s […]