When I was talking with a recent customer around how they can use some of the new capabilities that are getting introduced with SQL Server 2016, they suddenly got interested in evaluating the feature around Dynamic Data Masking. I showed some quick demo and this was getting some interesting use cases for their product which […]
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Learning something completely new can pose as a challenge. This is something I have always felt when working with SQL Server. Till about 3-4 years back, I used to be so comfortable with TSQL that I was looking for things people were learning. That is the timeframe when I was introduced to the world of […]
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By now it’s pretty common knowledge that PowerShell is Microsoft’s preferred management tool and over the past few years, they have really extended the capabilities of PowerShell to where it can be used for just about every management task. There are even some things that can only be done in PowerShell. Even so, PowerShell is […]
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Scheduling jobs is one of the core SQL Server functions. Many businesses have numerous SQL Server jobs scheduled that perform any number of different tasks from database maintenance jobs like backup and index rebuilds to running queries and kicking off ETL tasks. The SQL Agent is the SQL Server subsystem that’s responsible for automatic task […]
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Deploying SQL Server manually can be a lengthy and potentially error prone process as you work through all the different setup screens presented by the SQL Server Installation Center. If you want a standardized installation you need to be careful to enter all of the values the same every time. Plus, the installation process is […]
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SQL Server 2014’s FileTable provides an easy way to integrate the Windows Server file system with SQL Server’s relational database. In part 1, I covered the basic requirements and limitations of the FileTable feature as well as showing you how to create a FileTable. In this article, you’ll see how you can load data into […]
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“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” –Stephen Hawking Search for the term “threat intelligence” and you’ll get 12.3 million hits. Not all of them are relevant to cyber, but still, a lot of these hits apply, and you can see why at the RSA conference. There are many forms of threat intelligence with […]
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Active directory, commonly known as AD, can be considered the heart of the IT infrastructure. It holds user account information, computers and servers, provides authentication and certificates. It even has tentacles into other application such as Exchange, Skype for Business, SharePoint and can provide SSO with Oracle. Polices within AD can even control remote access […]
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Now that you’ve configured monitoring and alerting for your applications, what are you going to do with the knowledge you’ve gained? Using some the data that you receive from your monitoring can help you diagnose issues and discover their root cause. When troubleshooting any issue, regardless of the application or system, you should always check […]
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The benefits of DevOps are clear: higher quality software, better performance, agility, responsiveness, and more. And yet, DevOps seems like an impossible mirage for most teams. It requires a complete change of culture, new tools, new processes, and new skills. Adopting DevOps is a monumental task. However, there is an option. If we look at […]
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Welcome back. Last time we met, I reiterated the importance of a good monitoring solution for your SQL Server, and not just monitoring, but monitoring intelligently. We also went over ways to monitor your storage so you can see when things are going in the wrong direction from a performance perspective. In this article, we […]
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Email is the lifeline for almost every business in this world. When email is down businesses cannot communicate. There is loss of productivity, which could lead to dollars lost, which in the end is obviously not good. That said, the key takeaway is that a healthy exchange environment means less issues, in turn meaning less […]
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