Mathom Solutions Blog-IT

• REPLTalk covers Using and Tuning SQL Replication : Transactional Replication Conversations - Chris Skorlinski
  Chris Skorlinksi gives steps to help debug Transactional Replication issues you may be having. Tools that can assist are SQL Profiler, Activity Monitor, Racer Tokens, and Performance Monitor.
  (tags: sqlserver Replication)
• REPLTalk covers Using and Tuning SQL Replication : Divide and Conquer Transactional Replication using Tracer Tokens - Chris Skorlinski
  Chris Skorlinski talks about using Tracer Tokens in Replication to locate performance issues and in which step the issue is occurring. Methods shown are from SSMS and T-SQL.
  (tags: sqlserver Replication)

• PASS - The Professional Association for SQL Server > Learning Center > Top 10 Lists | SQLPass
  Late Nite TV does, it so why don't DBA's do it. Well they do. The folks over at PASS have come up with a great list of Top 10 for subjects such as Clustering, Profiler, Execution Plans, Reporting Services, Analysis Services, Integration Services, Security,...you get the picture. It is thorough and will be expanding soon! Check it out and learn a little.
  (tags: sqlserver profiler ssrs ssas ssis security)

As you know, I am a big fan of Free...here are some other goodies:

Engineering Software for Accessibility by Microsoft Press. In an effort to enable software developers to create accessible Windows applications, we wanted to share our process with the community. We have captured this engineering process in a new book, Engineering Software for Accessibility. The book addresses three basic questions:

1. How do you plan for accessibility?
2. How do you design your software for accessibility?
3. How can you implement and test to your software to confirm it meets the accessible design?

You will learn that properly implemented accessibility enables access to Windows applications for users with a variety of capabilities.  

Get it before it is gone!

- - - - - - - - -  

SQL Server Tacklebox by Rodney Landrum. Essential tools and scripts for the day-to-day DBA that helps with Scripts, tools and techniques to tackle SQL Server issues, Troubleshoot performance issues, Receive notifications of impending issues, Fight off data corruption, Document and report on your servers, Automate and standardize SQL Server installation, Migrate data and manage data growth, and Secure access to your servers.    

This is sponsored by Red-Gate Software.   

• High Availability and Disaster Recovery at ServiceU: A SQL Server 2008 Technical Case Study
  Microsoft White Paper -- ServiceU Corporation is a leading provider of event management software. An essential part of our IT mission is maintaining high availability and disaster recovery capability. This technical case study shows how we use Windows failover clustering and SQL Server 2008 database mirroring to eliminate single points of failure in our data centers and enable fast recovery from a possible disaster at our primary data center. These strategies and solutions will be of interest to database administrators, senior IT managers, project leads, and architects.
  (tags: sqlserver sql2008 Whitepaper)
• Mit creme : Reviewing Agile Process Management Tools, Part 2
  More on the Agile web based products.
  (tags: agile)
• Mit creme : Reviewing Agile Process Management Tools
  Good review of some agile web based tools.
  (tags: Agile)
• Finding out how many times a table is being used in an adhoc or procedure calls...| SQLDenis
  Uses DMV to find out how many times a table is being used...not perfect but a fairly good one.
  (tags: sqlserver sql2005 sql2008)

• SQL Server Replication Scripts to Pull Replication Configuration Information | MSSQLTips
  Scripts to find out what tables are being replicated, what databases are published, what servers are subscribers are involved in replication.
  (tags: sqlserver Replication t-sql)

• SQLClue | Bill Wunder
  SQLClue is a series of DBA tools by Bill Wunder to help you: 1. monitor SQL Server metadata change in mixed SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 environments 2. share, search, and improved the knowledge and information of the data center as a data team 3. define and meet the business continuity needs of the data center 4. provide Database Developers with as needed access to the bits and behaviors of live systemns without direct live system access to accelerated the development environment.
  (tags: SQL runbook configuration)
• The Data Loading Performance Guide | Microsoft
  This white paper describes load strategies for achieving high-speed data modifications of Microsoft SQL Server database
  (tags: sqlserver bulkload performance Microsoft)

I ran across a couple of good links for free e-books about Microsoft SQL Server and figured I should share them.  

Introducing SQL Server 2008 by Peter Debetta, Greg Low, and Mark Whitehorn.  You can learn about the new features SQL Server 2008 including Security and Administration, Performance, Type System, Programability, Storage, High Availability, and Business Intelligence.  

Brad's Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008 by Brad McGehee.   This is about SQL Server 2008 and also includes two of his other books:  How to become an exceptional DBA and DBA Best Practices.  

Mastering SQL Server Profiler by Brad McGehee.  As its name implies, learning all about SQL Server Profiler (2005) and how it can help you make your systems faster.  

Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans by Grant Fritchey.  Hey, this is an awesome book that talks about how you can read the excution plans and make your system go faster....hey who wouldn't want that?

Hopefully you will find these helpful.   

Also, if you know of any others, please let me know.

Some one asked the other day about source control for SQL Server.  I groaned as I knew what was coming next.  Don't get me wrong, I believe in source code control as it has saved my rear-end many times.  However, none of the tools do exactly what I want and nothing is seamlessly integrated within SQL Server.  Anyhow, here is a list that I have from my research (in no particular order).

SQLVSS is integration solution for SQL Version Control, it scripts database objects into Visual Source Safe, keeps records of different versions of database throughout the development process without storing a copy of the entire database each time. it simplified troubleshooting process by knowing exactly what has changed, and has the ability to roll back changes to prior version of the objects.

DB Ghost tools, in conjunction with any source control system, provide a true change management solution for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 code. It guarantees a full audit trail and complete database integrity by building and promoting databases directly from a source control system whilst preserving data in the target databases.

Embarcadero Change Manager offers database administrators and developers a powerful set of tools to simplify and automate the database change management lifecycle.

SQL Compare is the industry-standard tool for comparing and synchronizing SQL Server database schemas. 

Change Director for SQL Server provides a powerful automated solution for managing and tracking schema changes to SQL Server databases.

Randolph is a new and unique solution that revolutionizes the way version control and change management is done for SQL Server. It shifts the responsibility for versioning from the users to the software.

SQL Source Control 2003 enables source control of code and documentation of your databases. Full source control and documentation versioning support is possible through integration with Visal Source Safe.

SQLSourceSafe Integrates with both SQL Server and Visual SourceSafe, providing an effective and effortless SQL code version control management system for individuals and project teams to manage SQL Server database objects. It also provides a development platform for developers to work on and execute their SQL objects and scripts.

Good luck and I hope you find something that meets your needs. Oh and if you have any others to add, just us the contact page above and let me know!

I am always on the lookout for new tools and when they are free...you can't really complain!

Here are some new ones that are rather interesting so make sure and check them out!

SQL Server 2005 Express Profiler  is a free profiler for the Express Edition of SQL Server.

SQL Scripter is a data export and scripting utility for MS SQL Server.

SSMS Tool Pak  is an Add-In that gives the Management Studio some neat features such as CRUD generation and a whole host of neat little featuers that MS left out.

Sentrigo Hedgehog Standard is a free host-based software solution for real-time database monitoring, auditing and breach prevention.

Red-Gate Log Shipping Monitor is a free tool for collating and summarising SQL Server Log Shipping activity.

I also have a list of several others over at my main website so stop over there and see the full list.