Step-by-step guide to setting up an FTP server on Ubuntu using vsftpd, from VM creation to testing connections on your local network.

How Monty Hall helped me understand SQL Server’s bad plan choices.

A walkthrough of how I built a fantasy tool that merges ESPN and FanGraphs data to optimize decisions.

Standardize SQL Server autogrowth settings across all databases with a simple script. Learn why setting consistent filegrowth sizes helps control VLF fragmentation, improves performance, and avoids le...

Learn how to shrink a SQL Server transaction log file with DBCC SHRINKFILE, understand the risks, and discover best practices for log file management to maintain database health.

Migrate your SSRS ReportServer database safely by backing up and restoring—covering encryption key export, login and service-account configuration, portal validation, and manual data-source reconfigur...

A guide to running SQL Server 2022 on macOS using Docker.

Learn how to categorize SQL Server 2022 wait statistics into actionable groups using sys.dm_os_wait_stats and GROUPING SETS to uncover hidden performance bottlenecks in minutes.

A practical guide to selecting and configuring the Max Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) setting in SQL Server for optimal parallel query performance.

This morning I stared at a 30 GB SQL Server backup and a VPN that managed about 1 MB/s and dropped every 45 to 60 minutes. I thought, “If I split this into thirty 1 GB pieces and copy them in parallel, maybe I can outrun the disconnects.” Later that morning I ran a quick PowerShell script to slice the .bak into 30 parts, which took just a couple of minutes.

What Is dbatools? The Script Accessing the Script Prerequisites How to Use the Script Pro Tip I find myself using Glenn Berry's SQL Server DMV queries more than any other performance tuning or diagnostic tool. Due to the frequency with which I execute these queries, I needed a way to quickly connect to a server, collect the necessary data, and move on until I have time to review the information thoroughly.

Why Duplicate Indexes Are Problematic The Script How It Works Gathering Basic Index Information Retrieve Key Columns Retrieve Included Columns Drop Index Statement Find the Duplicates in my Results Limitations In an earlier post, I mentioned I was looking for ways to simplify my performance tuning efforts. One of the approaches I've taken is finding exact duplicate indexes. Duplicate indexes on a table are problematic because anytime you insert, update, or delete a record on that table, SQL Server needs to update that same index multiple times.

Investigating the I/O Performance Adding the Index Including Columns Recently I've been looking into simplifying my performance tuning efforts. One of the more straightforward methods for improving the performance of a query is to eliminate key lookups. A key lookup occurs when SQL Server retrieves additional columns not included in a non-clustered index, requiring it to access the clustered index or the table itself for the missing data.

Download the Latest CU Installing the CU Post Installation Tasks Microsoft isn't perfect. Because of this, they need to push out regular updates to SQL Server. These come out in several formats but most often we see this in the form of a Cumulative Update (CU). Cumulative Updates release roughly once every 30 days, but there is no exact pattern. Below you will find the steps to download and install the latest CU to your SQL Server.

Downloading SSMS Installing SSMS Post-Installation Next Steps SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is Microsoft's official tool for interacting with Microsoft SQL Server. SSMS is an essential for Database Administrators that need to both read/write T-SQL and review execution plans. Developers often utilize SSMS, but there are some plugins for Visual Studio Code, such as this one, but it doesn't offer the same experience that SSMS does.

Downloading SQL Server 2022 Installing SQL Server 2022 Post-Installation Installing SQL Server 2022 is a straightforward process if you follow the right steps. Below, I’ll walk you through how to download the installation media and successfully install SQL Server 2022 Downloading SQL Server 2022 To guarantee you’re downloading the latest and official version of SQL Server, visit Microsoft's SQL Server Downloads page…

Recently I experienced a situation while migrating a database to a new SQL Server instance where the instance collation was different than the database collation, causing tempdb to become unusable. This discrepancy rendered tempdb unusable and caused JOIN, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, and other operations to fail. Facing a strict deadline to get these applications migrated, I decided to rebuild the instance collation to match the new application databases.