We store thousands of trace files that we are looking to import into SQL Server for review and need a way to automate the import process. In some cases (or on some servers), we zip the trace files and need an automated way to unzip them, then import the t
For some projects, we may disable a database from growing and archive data out of it after a set point (often measured in time, though this may vary depending on data). With these databases, I've seen some clients use compression for tables and indexes as
We've looked our current schedule for DBA tasks, such as checking database integrity, re-indexing, and backing up databases, and found that it fails to match when the users access it. We'd like to create a schedule structure with conservative time estimat
PowerShell has many uses for SQL Server DBAs and Developers. There have been several tips written about different aspects and how PowerShell can be used with SQL Server. In this video tip, Tim Smith looks at six useful PowerShell scripts that can be use
We discovered that one of our import processes hadn't been importing data for over a month. After looking at it, the vendor changed the schedule without notifying us, so since the new data weren't detected, the process was executing without sending a noti
I frequently run into SQL Server administrative and development tasks, as well as being asked by other administrators and developers, for certain tasks to be performed. In this tip, we cover 6 PowerShell scripts that make these tasks much easier. Keep in
We have multiple SQL Servers across development, QA and production and we need to quickly determine what SQL Server Agent jobs exist in one environment, but not the other. This will help us determine if these jobs are necessary, currently in development,
Monitoring database growth and anticipating future growth is a key component for being a proactive DBA. In this video, we look at how to use PowerShell to capture SQL Server database size statistics and using this data over time to predict the growth of
One aspect of SQL Server database administration is monitoring and handling database growth. In this tip we look at how you can monitor database growth against expected growth using PowerShell.
In the previous tip, we imported text data by individual word and count. Now we want to know a few ways to evaluate these data, whether tracking the change through time or reporting counts through word selection and filtering. How can we do so in SQL Se
What are some good starting points for people interested in becoming a SQL Server database developer or people interested in SQL Server database development?
In this video, we look at some of the basics to text mining data in SQL Server using PowerShell by looking at words and the positions of words. Tim will show us various PowerShell functions to help mine text data from SQL Server tables.
We've been evaluating text mining and are currently considering different approaches to how we can import and analyze the data. As an organization familiar with numerical data, we have little experience with the basics of text mining and are curious about
In this tip, we look at how to use PowerShell to identify objects that don't conform to naming standards and internal documentation. The process also shows how to send email alerts for any non-conforming objects.
In this video tip, we look at how to use RegEx to find patterns in data strings.
In this tip, I cover some of the basics of RegEx with PowerShell and TSQL for SQL Server
Following the webcast on protecting confidential data, a few viewers asked excellent questions unrelated to RegEx and the below provide some approaches as answers to these questions.
After viewing your webcast on protecting confidential data, how can we prevent these data from entering our database through the application layer? In this tip we look at different approaches to stop confidential data from getting into the database.
One of the tasks of DBAs is to maintain the database and correct or remove any objects that reference invalid objects. If you have a database with lots of objects, it can be very time consuming to check each object for invalid references. In this video
We get Excel files with several worksheets and we want a way to automate the extraction of each worksheet, so it can be imported into SQL Server. In this video tip, we look at how to use PowerShell to automate the extraction of each individual worksheet
One issue with importing data into SQL Server is that the import file has rows that have too many or too few columns and therefore the imported data doesn't insert correctly or doesn't import at all. In this tip we look at how this can be handled using Po
When looking at data and trying to determine meaningful trends it is helpful to remove any outlier data, so the reports and graphs depict an accurate picture. In this tip, we look at how this can be done.
A developer recently asked me if we had an automated approach to changing table names when ad hoc requests arise, often from individuals who don't understand object dependencies. For instance, in this case, thirty-two tables needed to be re-named, yet hun
In this video, we will look at how to check the number of rows and the file size using two different methods. This video will show how you can incorporate pre-import checks to your import processing using either PowerShell or C# code.