Gregory Larsen

Microsoft released the feature rich version of SQL Server 2008 to manufacturing on August 8, 2008. Have you got it installed yet? Possibly, you are still in the mist of migrating to SQL Server 2005. Or maybe you have yet to find any features that would require you to obtain SQL Server 2008. In this […]

One of the key goals when building applications is to make sure the data you enter into the database meets all your business rules. Data validation is a critical part of your application to ensure your data meets the requirements developed by your business analysts. There are a number of different processes that can be […]

One of the key things to consider when building a successful application is to make sure the application performance meets the customer’s expectation. As DBAs and Developers, we need to do everything we can to ensure that the T-SQL code to support an application is running as efficiently as it can. You should not wait […]

Data Collections are new with SQL Server 2008. I’ve written a couple of articles about SQL Server Data Collections. The first one (https://www.databasejournal.com/ms-sql/sql-server-2008-data-collections-and-the-management-data-warehouse/) discussed Data Collections and configuring the Management Data Warehouse (MDW). The second one (https://www.databasejournal.com/ms-sql/reports-for-sql-server-2008-system-data-collections/) was about using the history reports to view information collected in the MDW by the system Data Collections. […]

You probably have already heard some news about the next release of SQL Server code name Kilimanjaro. Microsoft started sharing information about Kilimanjaro with attendees of the BI and PASS conferences. During the first week of December, I had the pleasure to interview Herain Oberoi of Microsoft. He is the group project manager for the […]

Every DBA needs to keep an eye on the performance of their SQL Server instances. They need to do this to make sure their instances are performing as expected. Performance of an instance can change over time due to increased use, application changes being implemented, loading of more data, or a number of other things. […]

In my last article (SQL Server 2008 Data Collections and the Management Data Warehouse) I discussed the new Data Collection feature and the Management Data Warehouse (MDW) that were introduced with SQL Server 2008. With this new feature came three system Data Collection sets. These data collections gather and store statistics into the MDW. In […]

SQL Server 2008 was finally released in August 2008. This new version is packed with lots of new features. One of those new features is Data Collections. Along with that new feature comes the Management Data Warehouse (MDW). Data Collections are a great tool to allow DBAs to gather different statistics, and the MDW is […]

There are many types of DBAs. Some DBAs work in the developer arena, while others are heavy into performance and tuning, and still other DBAs fall into the operational aspects of managing SQL Server. There are a number of different tasks a DBA might perform depending on the environment in which they work. To help […]

What do you do when your application logic requires that you INSERT a record if the record doesn’t exist, or UPDATE the record if it does exist? If you are using SQL Server 2005 or below you would have to write a series of T-SQL statements that check to see if the record exists, and […]

In my last month’s article, I talked about the new date and time data types that are being introduced with SQL Server 2008. These new date and time data types support an extended range of dates, and time that includes greater precision. To manage and use these new date data types Microsoft has provided a […]

Have you ever wanted to store just a date without the time portion in your database? Or wanted a time value to have more precision? With the introduction of SQL Server 2008, Microsoft introduced some new date data types that will allow you to store only a date, have more precision for the time portion, […]