A question that occasionally comes up from people who have made the switch to Microsoft SQL Server from Microsoft Access is "If I delete a bunch of rows, do I need to compact my SQL Server database?
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If you've worked with Microsoft SQL Server in a production environment for any length of time, you've undoubtedly been exposed to a number of different error messages. For example, many of us are probably familiar, too familiar perhaps, with error 1205 - the dreaded "you've been chosen as the victim of a deadlock" message.
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One of the things I really like about teaching technical classes is getting to know and talk with students, learning of the challenges they face and how they've addressed them. Frequently, I can learn from their experiences, too.
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As database administrators or developers, sometimes we need to perform an action on all of the tables within a database. For example, we may want to disable check constraints for all tables prior to loading a bunch of data; or perhaps we need to run DBCC CHECKTABLE for every table in our database to ensure the integrity of all pages and structures that make up the tables.
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In a recent post, I demonstrated how the sys.procedures catalog view could be used to determine the date and time that a stored procedure was last modified in SQL Server 2005.
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In SQL Server, much like other services with users, login accounts can be enabled or disabled. An enabled login can be authenticated and allowed access to database resources. A disabled login is not allowed to establish a connection to the SQL Server instance.
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Ever wondered if it is possible to programmatically determine when the SQL Server service for an instance was last started? It would be nice to have a built-in function that explicitly reports the time of the last service start, but one doesn't exist.
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When SQL Server receives a new query, it attempts determine the best possible plan for resolving that query. It considers a number of different factors as it analyzes the query and maps out a way in which to retrieve the information requested.
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As a consultant, I regularly need to determine when a stored procedure was last altered. Without having implemented a series of DDL triggers, how can this be accomplished? In Microsoft SQL Server, you can easily retrieve this information from the sys.
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As database professionals, we may responsible for dozens, if not scores, of SQL Servers throughout our department or enterprise. Now that Microsoft has announced that Notification Services will not ship as part of the SQL Server 2008 product, how can you readily identify which of the servers in your charge have SSNS instances installed?
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