Database administration culture "Culture", according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture, has one definition as read more... SQLXML Lab 2 - A basic XML Bulk Load Example In the previous lab, we discussed XML Bulk Load component. Let us see a basic example of loading XML data into a table using XML Bulk Load. Let us start with a very basic example. read more... TSQL Lab 1 - Using an INSTEAD OF INSERT/UPDATE TRIGGER to validate data An INSTEAD OF INSERT and INSTEAD OF UPDATE triggers can be used to validate the data being inserted or updated in a table. You could perform your validations in the trigger and the update will take place only if the validation succeeds. INSTEAD of triggers are invoked before the actual insert/update operation takes place and hence this is better than an AFTER trigger, because the AFTER trigger is fired after updating the table, and if you do not like the update you need to roll back the update operation. read more... XQuery Lab 20 - How to change the position of elements - How to move an element up or down Position of elements is significant in XML. The following example shows how to move an element up or down within a parent element. Here is the sample data for this lab. read more... XQuery Lab 21 - How to change the position of elements - Move an element to a specific location In the previous lab, we saw how to move an element up or down. Now let us see how to move an element to a specific location relative to other elements. Here is the sample data for this lab. read more... XQuery Lab 22 - How to change the position of elements - Move an item to a specific position In lab 20 we saw how to move an element up or down. In lab 21 we saw how to move an element to a location relative to another element having a specific value. In this lab, let us see how to move elements to specific positions. Here is the sample data for this lab. read more... TSQL Lab 3 - How to join the results of a Table Valued Function to a table using CROSS APPLY This example shows how to join the results of a Table Valued Function to a table usin CROSS APPLY. Let us create the database objects needed for this lab. Let us create the tables. read more... SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Lab: Full Text Disabled on Some Databases In this series, I plan on sharing a lot of my recent experience with the SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008 upgrade. Part of our ongoing project was to also use some of the new fantastic full text features in SQL Server 2008, which are now fully integrated. We had some difficulties in turning this on after the upgrade. read more... SQL configuration through SMO If you administer a large number of SQL servers, you might for some reason, have a server that doesn't quite align to your standards. In order to avoid this I find it very nice to be able to extract various configuration settings from my servers. read more... What to do in the event of a data breach If your organization suffers a data breach, you are required -- in many instances -- to notify individuals that their personal information may have been compromised. Security breach notification laws enacted in almost all states are designed to help protect affected individuals by giving them due warning and the opportunity to take action to protect themselves against the consequences of identity theft and unauthorized account access. read more... Data security: What the law requires of IT For most IT organizations, securing corporate data against compromise is priority No. 1. Girding the enterprise against breaches is a constant, thankless task requiring foresight, vigilance, and much in the way of IT expenditures. Keep up with the latest threats, or find your company in the headlines -- and your job on the line. read more... IT workers pushed to the limits Tempers flared inside a San Francisco datacenter on Friday, June 20, igniting the greatest public spectacle pitting a lone tech worker against management, media, and the law. Tension between network admin Terry Childs and his managers had been simmering for years and reached a boiling point on one of the hottest days of the summer.t read more... Microsoft sues site to stop certification test leaks A federal court in Connecticut has ordered a certification test help-site to stop publishing Microsoft-related materials after the software maker sued the company, claiming that it was selling actual certification exam questions. read more... Trace Helper This is the last part of the 3 part diagnostics series. This part will introduce you to a little helper utility that I wrote to make configuring the diagnostics and tracing options a lot simpler and more accessible. As discussed in the previous two blog posts in this series: Diagnosing Problems and Event Monitor everything is controlled from the Registry. Enabling and disabling tracing, the event monitor and determining what and where to trace to, all of this is controlled by Registry settings. read more... Diagnosing Problems How to diagnose problem inside Visual Studio Team System Database Edition is the subject for this blog post. When the product does not behave as expected we might ask you to create a trace of the activity that you are performing and send us the resulting log file. read more... BIDS Helper 1.3 Released (now with support for SQL 2008) I am pleased to announce that the BIDS Helper team have just released v1.3 which is our first release with support for SQL Server 2008. read more... Tinker Set Anyone that knows me knows how much I love Operations Manager 2007. We met a few years back, flirted a little bit, and now we find ourselves together each and every day. And honestly, everything is great, it really is. Well, most of the time is is great. As with any relationship, the more time you spend together, the more likely something is going to bother you. Perhaps it is how they leave dishes in the sink, or dirty laundry on the floor, or the fact that they choke when trying to discover SQL Agent jobs that have null descriptions. read more... We're running out of IPv4 addresses. Time for IPv6. Really. A week ago, the Internet's pool of free IPv4 addresses dipped below a billion. That billion will be gone within another three to five years by most estimates. read more... Why Single-Column Primary/Foreign Keys Can't Always Accurately Model/Constrain Your Data Consider the following logical data model: read more... SQL Server locks: a sleeping process still holds them In response to a recent question in the Database Engine Forum, Jonathan provided a good example how a process marked as sleeping can still hold locks on a SQL Server resource. I'd like to share a slightly modified version of it with you; you can read his original postings here. read more...