Read our high-quality articles on SQL Server administration. Learn how to efficiently administer the world’s biggest DBMS, that is SQL Server.
In this article, we will discuss about using Proxy Accounts in SQL Server Agent jobs. We will talk about what this feature offers and how you can use it. Why Using Proxy Accounts in SQL Server Agent Jobs? When using SQL Server, in many cases you will might need to set up a SQL Server … Read more…
Hi! I hope you are all doing well and having a great summer time! It’s been a while since the last time I have posted an article but hey, besides the heavy workload, it’s summer time and the beaches in Cyprus are really great! 🙂 This post discusses about a quite simple task in SQL … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about using Unicode in SQL Server. Introduction Unicode is the standard used in the computing industry for encoding and representing any text in the most written languages (…). SQL Server supports Unicode, thus allowing the easy storage and manipulation of data in the most languages. Example … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about how you can change the Database Owner in a SQL Server Database. About the “dbo” User in SQL Server In SQL Server, the dbo (Database Owner) is a special user that has all the necessary permissions to perform all activities in the database. This user exists … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about a special security feature in SQL Server, that is Policy-Based Management. Some time ago I promised publishing a post on Policy-Based Management in SQL Server. Well, it’s time to fulfill my promise! 🙂 This is a rather large post, I hope you find the information it contains … Read more…
There are cases where you might need to restore an entire SQL Server database (i.e. in the case of loss of data, etc.) on another SQL Server instance. A set of objects that are restored from the backup set and are included in the restored database are the database users. However, in such cases, the SQL … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about cleaning up the backup and restore history logs in the MSDB system database in SQL Server. The Necessity for Maintaining MSDB history Sometimes, there are cases, where it is reported to me that the MSDB database is huge and needs to be shrunk again back to … Read more…
If you encounter the error message “Saving maintenance plan failed” when trying to save a maintenance plan you created using the the wizard in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio (SSMS), the first (obvious) thing you should try, is to check if the latest service pack is installed and if it is not then install it! … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about how to rename logins in SQL Server. A Scenario Where You Might Need to Rename a Login in SQL Server When a Database Administrator creates Windows Logins in SQL Server, the format of these logins is: [Domain or Server Name]\[Windows Username] [Domain] can also be the … Read more…
Is it possible to install 32-bit SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a 64-bit Computer/Windows OS while keeping the 64-bit version of the rest of SQL Server features? The answer is yes! The Scenario about Installing 32-bit SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services on a 64-bit machine/Windows OS Well, here’s the story: I recently installed … Read more…
As its names implies, the tempdb database contains temporary data that is created during SQL Server operations, therefore, the tempdb growth is one significant issue that needs to be properly managed in SQL Server. Temporary data stored in tempdb system database Temporary data stored in temdb may include: temporary user objects (i.e. temporary tables, cursors), … Read more…
Many people ask: “Where are temporary tables stored in SQL Server?” and that’s a very good question. There are many cases where we need to create temporary tables in SQL Server and for various reasons. Such reasons may include: Breaking the logic of a large and complex SQL Statement in smaller portions of code. Increase the … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about index fragmentation in SQL Server and how you can manage it. SQL Server automatically maintains indexes whenever insert, delete, or update operations are performed on the underlying data. 1. The Two Types of Index Fragmentation in SQL Server Though, in the cases where the underlying data … Read more…
There is many times where we might want to explicitly control the connections to an instance of SQL Server and more specifically to a database. Such scenarios might include: A restore procedure of a backup set which cannot complete as there are still active connections to the specific database. You need to drop a database … Read more…
About the Error Message: “Exclusive access could not be obtained because the database is in use” A very neat feature of SQL Server is the way it lets the DBA to control connections. To this end, you can explicitly control connections with specific commands and methods. Even though this is not usually needed, there are … Read more…