Tag Archives: administration

Not Just an Upgrade

Posted on March 9, 2026 by way0utwest

Upgrading my database server and moving from version 6 to version 7 because of a support cycle has always felt a little funny to me. In many cases, I’ve had systems that were running smoothly and performing as needed. If … Continue reading →

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Your Security Checkup

Posted on December 8, 2025 by way0utwest

Recently I saw an article on Simple Talk, 15 Practical Tips for Securing SQL Server, and I thought that many of these are fairly simple things. Turn off unused features, disable sa, etc. These are things that a lot of … Continue reading →

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Creating a Striped Backup Set with AI

Posted on October 22, 2025 by way0utwest

I needed to test a striped backup, so I decided to ask the AI’s for help. This is part of a series of experiments with AI systems. The Problem A customer wanted to know if we could handle a large … Continue reading →

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Sparse Columns Can Use More Space: #SQLNewBlogger

Posted on September 10, 2025 by way0utwest

I saw this as a question submitted at SQL Server Central, and wasn’t sure it was correct, but when I checked, I was surprised. If you choose to designate columns as sparse, but you have a lot of data, you … Continue reading →

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