Sergio Pacheco

SQLVer is a useful tool by David Rueter for tracking changes to database objects. Ideally all changes to database structures would be done via a source control system. However there are several issues with this in a real world production environment. Not every database is managed by source control (i.e. vendor databases). Source control systems can be difficult to manage and auditing info is not easily exposed to management. DDL (data definition language) events such as adding or dropping… Show more

SQLVer is a useful tool by David Rueter for tracking changes to database objects. Ideally all changes to database structures would be done via a source control system. However there are several issues with this in a real world production environment. Not every database is managed by source control (i.e. vendor databases). Source control systems can be difficult to manage and auditing info is not easily exposed to management. DDL (data definition language) events such as adding or dropping indexes, altering stored procedures, disabling triggers etc. sometimes must be done on the fly. While SQL Developers and DBA’s are typically teammates and will generally keep each other informed when this happens, when things get busy our memory tends to lose fidelity. Going back and updating source code to reflect every change may not be feasible. If you come in on Monday and users suddenly begin complaining of slow performance, it can be very difficult to identify what changed much less by who. SQLVer is a lightweight solution that addresses these issues and more. I have extended it to log more information, log the information in a central admin table and configured alerts to inform me of changes as they happen. As a DBA I consider it a vital addition to your toolkit. Show less

Nested sub-queries and queries with more than a few joins can be difficult to troubleshoot. Common table expressions (CTE's) compartmentalize your logic helping make complex queries easier to write as well as read. Recursive queries are handled especially well using a CTE.

Learn the What, When and How of Kerberos authentication in a SQL Server environment for such things as: linked servers, reporting services and web applications.

SQL Maintenance Plans provide a quick method to create and schedule, simple database maintenance. As your database environment grows, the built-in tools in the SQL maintenance toolbox may prove insufficient. Ola Hallengren has developed a series of stored procedures which together provide a maintenance solution with the additional flexibility and features required to effectively manage your databases. I will demonstrate how to implement this solution and discuss maintenance strategy