Last month, I began a series of articles describing database application benchmarking. In the first article, I told you about different ways that you can construct your own database application benchmark. However, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Transaction Processing Council (www.tpc.org) has already created a large number of ...

Let's talk about database application benchmarking.This is a skill set which, in my opinion, is one of the major differentiators between a journeyman-level DBA and a true master of the trade. In this article published in my monthly column at Database Trends & Applications magazine, I'll give you a brief introduction to TPC benchmarks and, ...

The SQL Server team has released CU #7 for SQL Server 2012 RTM. KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2823247 Build # is 11.0.2405 This build has 17 fixes Relevant for builds 11.0.2100 -> 11.0.2404. Do not attempt to install on SQL Server 2012 SP1 (any build >= 11.0.3000) or any previous version. 

The PASS Business Analytics Conference (PASS BAC) is PASS' first foray into an event that is dedicated to business intelligence, big data, data visualization, and business analytics.  And it totally makes sense for PASS to move in this direction, over and above the flagship community work centered on database management and ...

The initial release of Database Lifecycle Management is now available on MSDN.The site is something called ''curated content''. This means it's a single consolidated location to look up lots of disparate articles and content, all in one easy to search location. This “curated content view” contains the best content, video, and ...

It's an old story you've probably heard before.  Provide a free version of your software product with strict limitations on performance or other specific capabilities so that folks can give it a try without risk, while you minimize the chance of cannibalizing sales of your commercial products.  Microsoft has take this strategy ...

The best emotion to describe how I'm feeling is 'astounded'.  I'm astounded that I'm in such august company to be speaking the SQLIntersection (#iSQL) conference.  Read the blog post from my first SQL Server mentor, Kimberly Tripp, which tells you all about SQLintersection.Check out this list of speakers:Aaron Bertrand, ...

When you install the database projects template of SSDT you get SQL Server Object Explorer (SSOX) installed as well. SSOX is a pane within Visual Studio and is the main enabler of the Connected Development experience that the SSDT team have attempted to provide. SSOX provides some really cool capabilities that are not in SQL Server Management ...

SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update #3 Build # 11.0.3349 KB Article: KB #2812412 38 fixes! Relevant for builds 11.0.3000 -> 11.0.3348 NOT for SQL Server 2012 RTM (11.0.2100 -> 11.0.2999) SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 Cumulative Update #10 Build # 10.00.5835 KB Article: KB ...

Writer: Karthika Raman Technical Reviewers: Guy Bowerman, Pat Schaefer, Andrew Cherry   On January 24, 2013, the SQL Server engineering team released new functionality in SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU2, enabling SQL Server native backup to cloud. The steps to creating a SQL Server backup to Windows Azure Blob storage are simple, but if a ...