I’ve been spending some time lately working with statistics, specifically auto-created statistics. When auto-create statistics is enabled, SQL Server will create column statistics when it needs them. No surprises there. Conventional wisdom also states that SQL Server never creates multi-column statistics, only single column statistics. In fact, this MSDN page says this of the auto […]
I’ve been experiencing an intermittent problem with my automated backup testing routine for some time now. I would occasionally get a failure during a restore, but when I manually ran the exact same restore command, the restore worked without issue. Because my testing routine selects a random sample of backups to test, I was not […]
So there you are, sitting at your desk, idly clicking in SSMS, admiring your little kingdom of SQL Servers. Everything looks good. Jobs are running correctly. No performance problems to be seen. Everything is humming along smoothly. It’s tempting to relax a little and perhaps take some time to peruse a few blogs or check […]
I got a request from my manager to update a document we have here called our Service Catalog. The document is published by the IT department and lists all the major software programs we use, the business units that use them, whether or not they are 24×7 systems, and some other stats about our department. […]
Now that I’m in a position where I am monitoring a large number of SQL Servers, I’m finding a new appreciation for SSMS. I’ve already written about the error-highlighting trick I recently discovered. Today I’d like to talk a bit about the ability of SSMS to issue commands against multiple SQL Servers at once. I […]