Failover Groups for Managed Instances are a great option to replicate data, but they don’t replicate key instance elements – one of which is logins that live in the master database. If left unchecked, failovers leave systems unable to connect and panic ensues. To alleviate this we’ll look at a script to synchronise logins and […]
Having TOP (1) return multiple rows feels wrong… but that’s what WITH TIES can do. For a long time I used patterns like this to get the first record in a group: Then I found the cleaner alternative: Let’s dive into what it is, and why you (probably) shouldn’t use it. WITH TIES The WITH TIES syntax was added over 20 years ago but it […]
Most SQL Server environments have more jobs, schedules, and hidden complexities than you realise. It’s only when you arrive at a migration and peek under the hood that the scale is clear. Here we’ll pull out details from msdb to give a clear snapshot of what you’ll actually be dealing with. If you don’t understand the effort […]
Last week I demonstrated a fast binary search approach to quickly slice through large unindexed tables. I love the approach, but it fell short in two key areas – drop-in usage, and proper boundary handling. Why Let’s recap what we’re doing here: Large append-heavy tables – like logs or audits – often don’t have a useful index […]
I know, clickbait right? Hear me out. Searching vast log or audit tables without indexes is painful. Narrowing down a specific time range often means scanning millions or billions of rows. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Approach This approach is designed for tables with two particular characteristics: The combination of these characteristics […]
Last week we looked at utilising Teams to make notifications more collaborative. This week I want to show how we can add more visual and interactive elements by adopting Adaptive Cards. What are Adaptive Cards? Adaptive Cards are structured messages which can be used across various Microsoft services as alternatives to plain text. They use JSON […]
Whether running Data Factory, Synapse, or Fabric pipelines, things go wrong – and the de facto response is to send an email. We’ve looked at sending emails from pipelines before, but at scale they can become noise and are easy to ignore. A more effective option is to surface alerts where collaboration already exists, such as Teams. […]
SSIS packages provide great flexibility for integration between systems, but when they go wrong you can end up digging through logs or reports because every package logs differently. A standarised framework for tracking failures can drastically cut down troubleshooting time. I reminisced recently about old code, I said “it’s not enough to make it work correctly. It […]
Last week, Database Instructions landed for GitHub Copilot as part of the SSMS v22.3 release. Database Instructions piggyback on extended properties to give Copilot specific context about database objects, which can in turn improve its responses. For me though, this is much more than a step closer to succumbing to AI. I see this as […]
This month, Pat asks us to consider how our code has aged. Like fine wine, or old milk? A common time to revisit old code is when something breaks. I was contemplating Pat’s question this week when a field length change had caused a truncation issue in an old SSIS data flow. Some code doesn’t age […]
Andy Brownsword 