Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Using the Data API Builder–VS Live San Diego Resources

    Thanks for attending my sessions. Resources below:

    Slides: Using Data API Builder

    GitHub repo:  https://github.com/way0utwest/DAB-Experiments

  • Running a Local LLM On Your Laptop Resources

    Thanks to everyone that attended my sessions at VS Live San Diego yesterday. It was a fun session and I’m glad a few people came up to ask questions.

    Slides are here: Running a Local LLM

    Other resources:

    I’ll write a bit more and I’ll answer some questions here next week.

  • Differences Between xp_readerrolog and sp_readerrorlog: #SQLNewBlogger

    I was creating a question on sp_readerrorlog and realized that this procedure is different from the one it wraps: xp_readerrorlog. This post digs into a few differences.

    Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

    The New System Stored Procedure

    For most of my SQL Server career, it’s been a habit to use xp_readerrorlog to query the log. This was code I learned a lot time ago, and it’s worked in every version of SQL Server. Despite being undocumented, as you can see below:

    2026-08_0381

    xp_readerrorlog has been written up by a few people at SQL Server Central, including Nagaraj Venkatesan and Ken Fisher, as well as in some forum posts (one, two). However, it’s not well documented. I usually end up Googling for the parameters as I need them.

    Until now.

    Here are a few differences I’m documenting, so I will hopefully remember them.

    Note: I got a few different results from AI, which were at best incomplete, and sometimes wrong.

    sp_readerrorlog has different permissions. This proc works with anyone that has VIEW SERVER STATE, which is sysadmin, serveradmin, and security admin.  Or with the permission granted.

    xp_readerrlog has extra parameters. Both of them have these parameters:

    1. error log number (0 based)
    2. error log type, 1 – SQL Server, 2 Agent
    3. search value – needs to be NVARCHAR
    4. second search value, NVARCHAR as well

    xp_errorlog adds 5 and 6, and 7.

    1. start time (datetime)
    2. end time (datetime)
    3. sort order (ASC,DESC)

    Those are the main differences I see, and if you want to filter or sort, you need the extended stored procedure, not the wrapper.

    I also learned to be careful of AI, as some of the data wasn’t correct from Google or Claude, so I need to verify what I get back and test how things work.

    SQL New Blogger

    I was investigating something and noticed a difference. This post was about 15 minutes to write, along with some testing of the parameters to verify what worked and what didn’t. That testing will make future posts quicker, as I’ll reuse some code.

    This is a quick example of showing some knowledge, and including the warnings about AI. You can write this post and give someone confidence you’re a good choice for the next person to manage their database servers.

  • A Last Minute Trip to the EU

    My life has some crazy travel stretches for sure. Between speaking, office visits, customer trips, I can be on the road a lot. As it is, I’ve flown across the Atlantic six times this year, and now I’m coming back from a 7th.

    I wasn’t planning on this trip. However, life doesn’t always go as planned and we have to roll with the changes.

    My daughter is heading to Lueven University (KU Leuven) for graduate school. My wife and one of my sons planned to take her and help her get her apartment, bank, etc. set up for school and do a little tourist time. Her other brother decided to go as well, with the plan to leave on 10 Sept and come back the next week.

    I was left out because I have to be in San Diego on Mon, 14 Sept. I have had too many 50 hour trips to other countries, so I was going to stay home.

    However, my wife got injured from a horse and can’t fly. She’s OK, just uncomfortable and flying isn’t an option. We were planning on using her status to take extra clothes, better seats, etc. Without that status, it’s a very expensive trip (or an uncomfortable one). Since we had an award ticket, moving me into her slot (with the same status) works. It also gives the kids someone to lean on.

    So I flew Thur to Brussels, helped get things set, and I’m back home today, making my way to San Diego. The kids were going to Paris today, so they won’t miss me.

    Life in the EU is rough, isn’t it?

    In any case, republished editorial, vacation day taken, and it’s going to be a long day today.

    If you can avoid it, I recommend against 4 days trips to Europe from the US (or the reverse).