[Video] 300-Level Guide to Career Internals at SQLBits
You’re overwhelmed with choices: so many things you could learn, so many ways you could specialize in your career. Which one should you choose? What are the safe bets, and what are the risky bets?...
View ArticleYour Turn: I’m Not Answering These 13 Office Hours Questions
Normally, after I do a round of Office Hours of going through the questions that got posted at https://pollgab.com/room/brento, I answer the highly upvoted ones and then clear the queue. If y’all...
View Article[Video] Office Hours: Ask Me Anything About SQL Server
Post your Microsoft data platform questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento and upvote the ones you’d like to see me answer. I sat down by the pool in Cabo with a cup of coffee to go through ’em:...
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How to Install SQL Server 2022 Release Candidate 0
SQL Server 2014’s end of support date is coming in less than two years: July 9, 2024. I know that sounds far-off right now, but consider the work you have to do between now and then: Pick a new version...
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What’s New in SQL Server 2022 Release Candidate 0: Undocumented Stuff
Microsoft has an official list of what’s new in 2022 overall, but here I’m specifically focusing on system objects that might be interesting to script developers like you and I, dear reader. New stored...
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PSPO: How SQL Server 2022 Tries to Fix Parameter Sniffing
Parameter sniffing is a notorious problem for Microsoft SQL Server because it tries to reuse execution plans, which doesn’t work out well for widely varying parameters. Here’s a primer for the basics...
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Drawing Entity Relationship Diagrams with Stable Diffusion
Documenting your database and code is such a pain in the rear. Wouldn’t it be awesome if artificial intelligence could help? Good news! There are a bunch of AI systems like Stable Diffusion and DALL-E...
View Article[Video] Fragmentation Explained in 20 Minutes at SQLBits
What does fragmentation mean? How does it happen? Can you fix it with fill factor? Should you rebuild your indexes to fix it? At the SQLBits conference, I tried a new way of explaining it using markers...
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Who’s Hiring in the Database Community? September 2022 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of September 2022? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let’s set up some rapid networking here. If your company is hiring,...
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Office Hours, Short Text Answers Edition
Not all of the questions y’all post at https://pollgab.com/room/brento require long, thought-out answers. Some are just one-line specials, like these: F’legend: Hi Brent, in reply to a question talking...
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Community Tools Month: Choose Your Character
This month on the blog is Community Tools Month, and I’m going to be talking about some of the most useful and influential tools out there. You can’t learn them all – *I* can’t learn them all – because...
View Article[Video] Office Hours: Hotel Balcony Edition, Part 1
Post your questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento and upvote the ones you’d like to see me cover. In today’s episode, I sit down on a quiet hotel balcony and talk through a bunch of interesting...
View Article[Video] Office Hours: Hotel Balcony Edition, Part 2
Post your questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento and upvote the ones you’d like to see me cover. In today’s episode, I sit down on a quiet hotel balcony and talk through a bunch of interesting...
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Community Tools Month: Using sp_WhoIsActive to Catch ASYNC_NETWORK_IO
When your SQL Server’s top wait stat is ASYNC_NETWORK_IO, that indicates SQL Server is waiting on the app to ask for the next part of the result set. This is a real pain in the rear to troubleshoot...
View Article[Video] Office Hours: Ask Me Anything About SQL Server and Azure
Got questions about the Microsoft data platform? Post ’em at https://pollgab.com/room/brento and upvote the ones you’d like to see me cover. Today’s episode finds me in my home office in Vegas: 00:00...
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Most DBAs Say They’re Encrypting Personally Identifiable Data. Most.
Despite the continuous stream of data breaches, ransomware, and GDPR violations, some companies still aren’t encrypting personally identifiable information (PII) inside our databases or backups. I see...
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Office Hours: Gif Reactions Edition
Some of the questions y’all post at https://pollgab.com/room/brento are open-and-shut cases. I was going to do a one-word-answers edition, but I think this is even better: gifs. GI Joe DBA: Thoughts...
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New Online Class: Running SQL Server in AWS and Azure
You’re used to managing your own SQL Servers in VMs, but now they’re asking you to work with the cloud. You’re already comfortable installing, backing up, and performance tuning “regular” SQL Servers,...
View Article[Video] Office Hours in Tel Aviv, Israel
Before speaking at the Data TLV Summit, I sat by the Mediterranean Sea and discussed the top-voted questions you posted at https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:55...
View Article[Video] Office Hours: Six-Minute Speed Round
The morning after the Data TLV Summit in Tel Aviv, I stood out on the balcony and answered a few of your questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento, rapid-fire style: Here’s what we covered:...
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