February 2013 - Posts

• Improvements in the Red Gate source code control suite

  One aspect of SQL Server related development that I see done quite badly when visiting client sites is source code control. So many sites have almost nothing in place for this important aspect of development. By comparison, it's rare now that I visit Read More... Posted Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:47 AM by Greg Low | 2 Comments

• SQL Down Under show 55 - Erin Welker - Dimensional Modelling now available

  I recorded another podcast today. This time it's SQL Server MVP Erin Welker discussing dimensional modelling and being a BI consultant. The show is online now: https://www.sqldownunder.com/Resources/Podcast.aspx Enjoy! Read More... Posted Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:21 AM by Greg Low | 0 Comments

• Hardware Sizing Guide for SSAS Tabular

  Over the last few months, I've been a tech reviewer on John Sirmon and Heidi Steen's new whitepaper. It's published today on MSDN: Hardware Sizing a Tabular Solution (SQL Server Analysis Services) Its goal is to help you determine the amount of memory Read More... Posted Wednesday, February 13, 2013 8:56 AM by Greg Low | 0 Comments

• Happy New Year (for Chinese Readers) - Year of the Snake (蛇年)

  Happy new year to all my Chinese readers! Particular thanks to those that have been helping me to learn Mandarin and patiently answering my elementary questions. 恭贺新禧. 新年快乐. 感谢你的帮助，去年 Read More... Posted Sunday, February 10, 2013 3:57 PM by Greg Low | 1 Comments

• Has the term "big data" completely lost meaning yet?

  There are some terms in IT that make their way straight into the hype stratosphere. Unfortunately "big data" is one of these. I see very few systems that I'd contend are actually "big data". However, I endlessly see the term applied to data stores that Read More... Posted Sunday, February 10, 2013 2:29 PM by Greg Low | 14 Comments

• Update of Ola Hallengren's Maintenance Tools (Still Free Too)

  SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2 and SQL Server 2012 SP1 introduced sys.dm_db_stats_properties. This DMV is a new way to check the number of rows that have been modified since the last time a set of statistics was updated. It is described here: ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj553546.aspx Read More... Posted Friday, February 08, 2013 11:44 PM by Greg Low | 0 Comments

• Sysprep improvements in SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU2

  Sysprep has been a useful tool to allow the preconfiguration of SQL Server environments, along with the rest of the operating system. This can be very useful for templated Azure VMs as well as for on-premises systems and private clouds. One of the limitations Read More... Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2013 4:25 PM by Greg Low | 0 Comments

• Can a table have no columns?

  One of the things I always tell people that I love about consulting/mentoring work is that you see things that you just can't make up. They provide interesting material for training classes. This week I came across something that I wasn't expecting. I Read More... Posted Monday, February 04, 2013 4:01 PM by Greg Low | 7 Comments

• SQL Down Under Show 54 - now available - Grant Fritchey - Query tuning, execution plans and kilts

  SQL Down Under show 54 is now available for download. In this show, I spoke with Grant Fritchey on his experiences with query tuning and reading SQL Server execution plans. We also discuss SQL Kilts. You'll find the show at our podcasts page: http://www.sqldownunder.com/Resources/Podcast.aspx Read More... Posted Saturday, February 02, 2013 12:48 PM by Greg Low | 0 Comments