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T-SQL Tuesday #131 – Star Trek Candy and SWITCH TO

This month’s #tsql2sday came to us from Rob Volk (b|t), who asks us to explain databases using an analogy, as if explaining to a 5 year old. I’m actually a big fan of The Feynman Technique (aka ELI5), so I really wanted to participate. But to be honest, I nearly missed out this time simply because I couldn’t think of an idea this whole week.

On the very last day, when the posts already started rolling out by all the bloggers, I’ve read a few, and only then the muse finally hit me. I kid you not, the time is literally 23:59 here in Israel as I hit the publish button!

So anyways, the idea I had was for the ALTER TABLE..SWITCH TO command in SQL Server.

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Feature Request – Expand MSX/TSX Capabilities for HADR

Following my presentation of “How to HADR Your SQL Server Jobs” at the HA/DR PASS Virtual Group yesterday, David Klee (@kleegeek) and I continued chatting for a bit longer after the recording was concluded. During which, the MSX/TSX feature of SQL Server came up, and David suggested that I’d utilize my newly earned MVP status to push a feature request to expand these capabilities.

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Overriding the Authentication in SSRS for External Access

In this post, I hope to summarize the various methods that we have, in order to get rid of that annoying authentication prompt. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of complexity of implementation, versatility, and the level of security that it provides. More specifically: the more secure and versatile a method is – the more complicated it is to implement.

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How to Protect SQL Server from Hackers and Penetration Tests

On June 3rd, the InfosecMatter blog published a post titled “Top #10 Vulnerabilities: Internal Infrastructure Pentest“. This blog post detailed the top most common vulnerabilities in Windows servers and networks found during more than 60 internal infrastructure penetration tests around the world. After reading this article, I was prompted to actively look for similar resources on SQL Server penetration testing, and I got some interesting findings. Check out my blog post at the Madeira Data Solutions website for the details.

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T-SQL Tuesday #128 – Learn from Others

This month’s #tsql2sday is hosted by the @AirborneGeek (t|b), who asks us to take a lesson from something frequently done by pilots – learning from accidents and mistakes done by others. As a long-time SQL Server Consultant DBA, I have learned from quite a lot of mistakes done (mostly) by others, seeing as a significant part of my job description is to come over and fix such mistakes. So, today I’ll use this opportunity to talk about one such interesting incident.

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