“What broke my database?” Using SQL database source control for forensic auditing and database troubleshooting

Besides the auditing trail of all the changes made against a database and having the information of who committed what and when, the main benefit of having a database under version control is the fact that the history of all the previously committed versions of any object (or a group of objects) can be used to find the exact version that broke the database at any point. Assuming that a SQL database under source control is being deployed on a daily basis or even more frequently, it is essential to ensure that only tested changes are committed so that a SQL database can be deployed in a working state, without any issues.

November 1, 2017

Using SQL source control to track database changes

The goal of this article is to explain how SQL database source control can help in auditing database changes. Tracking a change by itself is not the only task required for successful implementation of SQL source control, as we also want to know who made the change, when and why. After all of these inputs are known, any problems and be diagnosed and be fixed efficiently. We’ll see how having a SQL database under version control can help in keeping the auditing trail with a possibility to revert back to any of the previous version of an object.

October 31, 2017

Fatal action guard: guarding against inadvertent execution of code that may damage or destroy data in SQL Server

There are many opportunities, before, during and even after to guard against potentially fatal actions that may damage or destroy data, like executing an Update or Delete statement without a Where clause. Such a fatal action guard can be implemented in different ways and at different times, relative to the incident, for example, before it to prevent it from happening in the first place, or after, to reverse an action that has already been executed.

October 24, 2017

How to make SQL database version control safer with branches

The goal of this article is to explain how to use branches in order to diverge from the main development line aka master branch and leave it unaffected by all the committed changesets that are not yet tested and confirmed as good ones. As long as a separate branch is used to commit changes, a master branch can be used to deploy a working copy of a database from source control for any purposes.

October 23, 2017

How to set different connection colors in SSMS

Microsoft introduced a neat feature in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) in SQL Server 2008 that helps users quickly determine which connection a tab is currently using by setting custom connection colors in SSMS for different SQL Server nodes.

For database administrators who work on a multiple SQL Servers simultaneously, this feature is a time-saver that allows users to quickly determine which SQL Server are currently used by looking at a color defined for the associated server.

October 18, 2017

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance for SQL Server

On April 27, 2016, the European Parliament and the council of the European Union adopted a new standard, the General Data Protection Regulation on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data. The GDPR takes effect on May 25, 2018 and introduces numerous security and compliance regulations and obligations to all organizations worldwide, that handle, process, collect or store personal information of EU citizens. This means that organizations, both the data processors and data controllers, will have to elevate security measures and auditing mechanisms when handling personal identifiable information (PII) of EU citizens and be able to demonstrate compliance with GDPR standard at all time, not only on regular basis (monthly, yearly), but also on demand.

October 13, 2017

SQL Server performance monitoring – identifying problems using wait statistics and query wait analysis

In aggregate, SQL Server Wait statistics are complex, comprising hundreds of wait types registered with every execution of the query. So, to better understand how and why the wait statistic, in general, is the most important for detecting and troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues, it is important to understand the mechanism of how a query executes on SQL Server, since SQL Server performance problems are the ones that most often affect end users.

October 6, 2017

How to export SQL Server data to a CSV file

This article will explain different ways of exporting data from SQL Server to the CSV file. This article will cover the following methods:

  1. Export SQL Server data to CSV by using the SQL Server export wizard
  2. Export SQL Server data to CSV by using the bcp Utility
  3. Export SQL Server data to CSV by using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) within Visual Studio
  4. Export SQL Server data to CSV by using the ApexSQL Complete Copy results as CSV option
October 4, 2017

Multi server PowerShell script to backup SQL Server databases automatically

Eighty-two percent of the enterprises expect the number of databases to increase over the next twelve months. An increase in data volumes can have negative effects on the performance of databases. Think about the storage requirement and backup strategy to meet the Recovery Time Objective and the Recovery Point Objective. RPO and RTO are two of the most important parameters of a disaster recovery or data protection plan.

September 27, 2017

How to use source control with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Introduction

The growing adoption of Continuous Integration development practice implies that developers have to work in a collaborative manner by storing and sharing their source code into a central repository. For SQL Server Business Intelligence (SQL Server BI) developers, the collaboration is usually made possible by the Team Explorer plug-in for Visual Studio which provides an interface for integrating SSRS, SSIS and SSAS solutions into source control environments such as Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or Git. However, several aspects of SQL Server BI solutions involve T-SQL development (i.e. defining of SSRS datasets, SSAS data source views, as well as SSIS source data flow tasks).

September 25, 2017

Creating and automating Tableau Site documentation

One of many Tableau administrator responsibilities is to be familiar with the server configuration, managing users, automated server job process management, knowing Tableau metadata and being familiar with migration and scheduling. To stay updated and keep everything under control, good Tableau documentation can come in handy. Such documentation can be created using ApexSQL Doc, a tool for creating SQL Server, BI, SharePoint as well as Tableau site documentation, which will be covered in this article.

September 22, 2017

How to create and use DML triggers to audit data changes

A DML trigger is a special kind of procedural code programmed to fire when a data manipulation language (DML) event occurs in the database server. DML events include UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE statements issued against a table or view. SQL Server has three types of triggers: DML triggers, DDL triggers, and logon triggers. For the purpose of this article, only DML triggers will be used to demonstrate and achieve a specific goal.

September 21, 2017

How to customize policies for automatically defragmenting SQL Server indexes

This article explains how to create customized policies for index defragmentation jobs for SQL Server

Introduction

When creating indexes, database administrators should look for the best settings to ensure minimal performance impact and degradation. However, over time, indexes will get fragmented, which can severely impact server performance.

September 18, 2017

How to Import and Export SQL Server data to an Excel file

There are several ways to Export/Import SQL Server data to an Excel file. In this article, a couple of ways to import and export SQL Server data to an Excel file will be explained:

  • Export SQL Server data to an Excel file using
    • the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard
    • T-SQL code
    • Export to Excel from ApexSQL Complete
  • Import SQL Server data into Excel using the Data Connection Wizard
September 11, 2017

SQL query performance tuning with I/O statistics and execution plans

Introduction

In a busy system, many things can cause a SQL query to run more slowly than expected or desired. Sometimes, getting a handle on the root cause can involve digging into wait statistics, CPU, memory or network pressure, ferreting out problems in the I/O subsystem, looking for issues in a virtual machine configuration and many other things. Often though, the problem comes down to a simple symptom: the query is doing too much I/O.

August 31, 2017

Multi server script to automatically monitor SQL Server availability

Introduction

As database administrators, we obsess over a few things, things we don’t compromise on. One of them is SQL Server availability. We may use several tools, scripts, and/or configurations, in addition to constant oversight, to ensure that the database is always available. We sometimes even go that extra mile to ensure availability, because we know it is easier to ensure a database is available than deal with the outcome of unavailability. In this post, let us look at some of the easiest ways to ensure availability.

August 29, 2017

Creating SharePoint farm documentation

Installing SharePoint farms can go from “click-click-next” to a full day work depending on the configuration level for the server farm. For administrators that are new to the farm, it can be quite troublesome to learn the farm’s configuration. In those cases, it is important to have a farm documentation with all the setting information. SharePoint documentation is also important for recreating sets of configurations for when failure occur.

August 25, 2017

How to create and use CRUD stored procedures in SQL Server

Working with a database, at some point, usually means working with CRUD operations. Although not complex, CRUD operations are often used with SQL, so it is of great importance for developers to learn about how to create them efficiently and easily.

August 25, 2017

How to prevent accidental data loss from executing a query in SQL Server aka “Practicing safe coding”

We sometimes may find ourselves in a stressful situation at work, where for example we need to update or delete some records in our database. We’ve all been there. Right after we click that “Execute” button, we realize we forgot to include a WHERE clause and the entire table is wiped instead of only one row. Although things like this can happen to the best of us, we can plan ahead and take preventative measures to make sure, we don’t get negatively impacted by the consequences of such a mistake.

August 17, 2017

How to identify and solve SQL Server index scan problems

Introduction

Once you have a SQL Server query working correctly – that is, returning the correct results or properly updating a table with update, insert or delete operations, the next thing you usually want to look at is how well the query performs. There are simple things that you can do to improve the performance of a critical query; often those improvements can be quite dramatic!

In this article, we’ll look at one of the most-frequently-seen performance killers: SQL Server index scans. Starting with a simple example, we’ll look at what SQL Server does to figure out how to return the requested result, at least from a high level. That will allow us to zero-in on any bottlenecks and look at strategies to resolve them.

August 10, 2017