If you are running your databases on a Windows network environment, the best practice is to use Windows Authentication rather than Mixed Authentication (Both Windows and SQL Authentication). However, there are many companies that still use Mixed...

Securing SQL Server is one of the top priorities of any DBA. It is important for DBA’s to make sure that the database server is TIGHTLY SECURED and is not exposed to users that do not need access to SQL Server. Only valid and approved users MUST be granted required...

What would you do when an object that is referenced in several places and in several databases (Stored Procedures, Functions, etc.) is being moved to a different database or is being renamed due to a new object naming policy? Think of how much work this change would...

In the database mirroring environment Principal interacts with all the users but the mirror server only receives transaction log data from the principal server and other than that mirror database doesn't do anything as its in RECOVERING state all the time. In...

I often get this question from the community and my answer to this question depends based on your network environment whether you are on a local computer with no networks or whether you are on a Local Area Network or whether you are on a Wide Area Network. I've tried...

Ever felt the need for knowing who is logging on to your SQL Server and at what time?Ever felt the need to restrict specific users for certain time-period or firing a trace to track down user activity?Ever felt like limiting the number of concurrent connections for...

I’m often asked on how to identify the number of CPU’s (physical) and NUMA Nodes (logical CPU’s) from SQL Server. Here’s a quick and easy way to obtain such information. Run the below query on the instance of SQL Server: SELECT (cpu_count / hyperthread_ratio) AS...

Running Antivirus software is critical part of server security but it is also important to understand the impact and effect it has on SQL Server. Imagine this: You've installed Anti-Virus on a server that already has SQL Server running, once the server reboots, it is...

Ever wondered why SQL Server takes long time to perform below operations? Create a databaseExpand data files for additional growthAutomatic data file growth due to auto-grow settingsRestoring a database, etc. Today we will be looking in to a powerful and yet not very...

We use EXEC or EXECUTE command almost every day of our database life. Its a command that allows us execute Stored Procedures (extended, system, user, CLR, etc.)  and Functions. However, EXEC command also has a powerful feature that allows you to run any...