Aaron Bertrand

Bad habits to kick : relying on undocumented behavior

AaronBertrand — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:01:00 GMT

In my last post in this series , I talked about the common habit of creating an IDENTITY column on every single table. Today I want to talk about a more broad concept: relying on undocumented (and therefore probably undefined, and certainly far from guaranteed)...(read more)

Bad habits to kick : putting an IDENTITY column on every table

AaronBertrand — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:33:00 GMT

Back in October, I started a series of blog posts called " Bad Habits to Kick ," and thought I would revive the theme. I've worked with developers that dabble in SQL, and they tend to have a few common traits. I'm not sure where they come from, but one...(read more)

Injection is not always about SQL

AaronBertrand — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:38:00 GMT

I think anybody even remotely involved with databases these days has seen the xkcd comic about Bobby Tables : http://xkcd.com/327/ Basically, the comic warns against SQL injection, and reminds you to sanitize your database inputs rather than blindly append...(read more)

Connect Digest : 2010-02-06

AaronBertrand — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:32:00 GMT

Upgrading a database with read-only filegroups Earlier today, I complained that I should be able to upgrade a database with read-only filegroups. In this case an upgrade from, say, 2000 to 2005 is blocked because the engine can't update the system schema...(read more)

When bad error messages happen to good people

AaronBertrand — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:27:00 GMT

Over the years I have largely been amused by the variance in error messages that come out of SQL Server. Some are very verbose and some even border on provide too much information, but the ones that irk me are the ones that leave you scratching your head....(read more)

Your laptop may be ready for SSDs, but are your SQL Servers?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:16:00 GMT

Brent Ozar ( blog | twitter ) recently made some comments about the FusionIO SSD drives . Basically, he was able to break three drives in a row - simply by doing load testing against them ( using SQLIO ). The symptom is simple: the drives go offline and...(read more)

Management Studio Tips & Tricks, version 1.0

AaronBertrand — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:00:00 GMT

Today I presented "Management Studio Tips & Tricks" at SQL Saturday #34 in Waltham, MA. I had an audience of close to 100 (my biggest talk yet!), and unless they were stroking my ego, I achieved my primary goal for the session: to make sure that every...(read more)

Sometimes it's the small things : match column names in subqueries

AaronBertrand — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:12:00 GMT

The behavior of column matching in subqueries is a little peculiar, to say the least. If you've been bitten by this behavior once, you're unlikely to have been bitten a second time, but for some of us it just takes a while to sink in. This morning I wasted...(read more)

SQLFool has updated her index maintenance scripts and needs testers!

AaronBertrand — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:47:00 GMT

Michelle Ufford ( @SQLFool ) has just announced some shiny new updates to her popular index maintenance scripts. Read about them and contact her if you're interested in beta testing: http://sqlfool.com/2010/01/index-defrag-script-updates-beta-testers-needed/...(read more)

Decrypting : A question of morals, ethics, or both?

AaronBertrand — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:33:00 GMT

In essence, encryption of code within the engine is more like obfuscation than anything else. Unlike passwords and other sensitive data, the engine has to be able to read the code, so there has to be a way to reverse the so-called "encryption." While...(read more)

Speaking at SQLSaturday #34 in Boston, 2010-01-30

AaronBertrand — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:56:00 GMT

Just a quick reminder that I will be presenting a Management Studio Tips & Tricks talk at SQLSaturday #34, this Saturday, January 30th at the Microsoft offices in Waltham, Massachusetts. I go on at 9:30 AM. There are plenty of other great speakers,...(read more)

Connect Digest : 2010-01-22

AaronBertrand — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:47:00 GMT

Give us easier to read execution plans Michelle Ufford ( @SQLFool ) recently asked for help pinpointing the most expensive node(s) in a complicated execution plan. Mladen Prajdic ( @MladenPrajdic ) has a useful workaround; he coded up a quick query to...(read more)

Mis-steps in the publication of Cumulative Updates

AaronBertrand — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:31:00 GMT

It used to be very difficult to obtain hotfixes for SQL Server (sometimes even to learn about their existence), and they were often unsupported. They have made extremely great strides in this area, and in general, I find the new procedure much more convenient...(read more)

"What three events brought you here?"

AaronBertrand — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:03:00 GMT

I was tagged by Tim Mitchell ( twitter ) in a recent meme launched by Paul Randal ( twitter ), entitled, "What three events brought you here?" Well, I've lied told stories about this in the past. If you've read my previous posts about my career (in particular,...(read more)

New Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 RTM & SP1

AaronBertrand — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:23:00 GMT

Late last night, the SQL Server Release Services team announced new cumulative updates for both SQL Server 2008 RTM and SQL Server 2008 SP1. There are too many fixes to mention, but I once again notice the trend that the "newer" branch (SP1) has more...(read more)