Last Time SQL Server Restarted

Not a really hard thing to figure out, but for some crazy reason I always forget.  So, hopefully actually writing it out for the world to see will help me remember. Since tempdb is created every time that SQL Server restarts, the created date for that database can be used to determine the last time … Continue reading Last Time SQL Server Restarted

Database Edition msdb Sample Database Projects

I've been working with Database Professional a little bit more these days.  One of the databases that I've been working on for a while provides a number of diagnostic features that utilizes some msdb stored procedures. Fortunately, going forward I can stop ignoring the systax errors that occurs because of those cross-database references.  The Visual … Continue reading Database Edition msdb Sample Database Projects

CLR_AUTO_EVENT Wait Stat

I've was reviewing wait stats the other day and kept finding this wait stat peaking out the other wait stats by a few hundred milliseconds.  Oh my!  Should I care or not... well long story short is that if all of the CLR assemblies are created in safe mode there is no problem. Or at … Continue reading CLR_AUTO_EVENT Wait Stat

Transfer Logins Between SQL Server 2005 Instances

I've never been a fan of the SQL Server 2005 Integration Services task for transferring logins between servers.  It seems that I always misconfigure it or something gets missed.  And when I just want to move a single login its more effort to setup the task than it is worth.  What I'm really saying here … Continue reading Transfer Logins Between SQL Server 2005 Instances

Upgrade Issues When ‘sa’ Renamed

I've not done recommended changing the sa account name at a client for quite a while.  Since the account can be disabled there isn't any good reason to rename it that I've been able to come up with. But if you do and plan to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, beware of the following... http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2008/09/10/upgrade-for-sql-server-2008-can-fail-if-you-have-renamed-the-sa-account.aspx

Incrementing Values

Occasionally, I run across procedures that mimic the functionality of the IDENTITY property.  There are always various reasons for these procedures to exist, some valid and some not quite so.  Recently while trying to tune one of these procedures that someone had added interesting locking hints to a creative rewrite to the procedure was suggested. … Continue reading Incrementing Values

Restoring a Database with Symmetric Encryption

For those unfamiliar with encryption in SQL Server, this article is a nice introduction to symmetric encryption in SQL Server 2005.  I've only used encryption a few times and it's definitely been the godsend that the article states.  I referenced the article recently when I had to restore a database on a new server that … Continue reading Restoring a Database with Symmetric Encryption