Blogs

Use Chocolatey to Install Multiple SQL Server 2019 Instances for Testing

I’m working on a project where it’s useful to automate environment setup and teardown for testing some devops deployment scenarios for databases using transactional replication.

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Learn TSQL for free online - starting today

Thanks to the support of Redgate, I’ve launched a new course which teaches you the basics of TSQL. The course is totally free, no logins required – we don’t even ask for the email address. Check out the course on Redgate University The course is here: https://www.red-gate.com/hub/university/courses/t-sql/tsql-for-beginners Each week has an embedded video for the course, along with a link to the syllabus and scripts. The videos also have a timeline in case you wish to jump to a particular part of the discussion.

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Guide to SQL Server Query Tuning

Following on from my Learner’s Guide to SQL Server Performance Triage, I’m tackling Query Tuning. In this guide, I’m experimenting with an outline style rather than expanding each paragraph.

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Make Database Code Reusable in SQL Source Control with Deployment Filters

When I first began working with databases, I was lucky to land a job at a little start-up which had solid development and operations processes: all our code, including database code, was in version control. We had a strong database architect who instilled good coding practices into the way we managed database code as well: code was expected to be reusable whenever possible.

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Connecting to the SQL Server Community Online: Uplifting Folks

We’ve got a session coming up in the free Redgate Streamed virtual conference on, “How database DevOps levels up remote work.” When thinking about that session I began thinking about other ways to improve remote work. While I worked remotely for nearly ten years until recently and have established practices which work well for me , moving to another country and the general chaos and uncertainty right now as the world tries to cope with a global pandemic have increased my feelings of worry and loneliness.

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Outlining My Session: Index Tuning in an Agile World

I’m giving a session on index tuning at the upcoming Redgate Streamed free online conference. The conference will be held April 1-3 2020, register here and join us!

I love talking about index tuning and I know this area well, so I’m excited to put together this new session. I thought it would be fun to share my process of outlining and creating the session, leading up to the event.

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Announcing Redgate Streamed, April 1-3 2020

We’re thrilled to announce Redgate Streamed: a 3 day online virtual community conference, to be held April 1-3, 2020. Register at Redgate.com/RedgateStreamed In this 9 minute livestream, I give you a rundown of the event schedule and tells you why I’m excited about each session. For every registration that attends Redgate streamed, live or on-demand, we’ll donate $1 to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response fund (in addition to a separate donation we’ll be making.

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The Learner’s Guide to SQL Server Performance Triage

I’m introducing a series of “learner’s guides” – overviews of a given topic, chock full of links and references. For this first post, the information is based on what I learned when I was part of the team at Brent Ozar Unlimited who put together the original First Responder Kit and built a related consulting practice using those tools.

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Why Re-teaming is Good

Note: This post is based on an editorial I originally published over at SQL Server Central Years ago, I worked on a fabulous team of eight database administrators We supported more than a hundred developers who worked in an agile fashion. When I first joined the DBA team, we had a shared on-call rotation, but each DBA specialized in a certain area of the environment and regularly met with the development teams working on that area.

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