My hard work and public contributions during these past few years continue to pay off in spades, and I’m excited to announce that I have finally received the Microsoft MVP award!
Read More »I’m now officially a Microsoft MVP!
Assume you have some kind of process outside the SQL Server which is supposed to record some kind of database activity. There are many ways to do it, most of which require constant and/or stable connection to the database. But what if that’s not good enough? Let’s consider our options.
Read More »Using Extended Events as a Buffer
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.
Read More »Overriding the Authentication in SSRS for External Access
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.
Read More »How to Protect SQL Server from Hackers and Penetration Tests
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.
Read More »T-SQL Tuesday #128 – Learn from Others
Let’s be honest here, Microsoft doesn’t want you to read this. Microsoft doesn’t want you to have this. Microsoft doesn’t want this to be easy for you. Maybe with good reason. But most likely not really.
Read More »Migrating from CosmosDB to SQL Server
This month’s #tsql2sday is hosted by Ken Fisher (b|t) who asks us to share tips unrelated to database systems. I will take this opportunity to talk about what you can do to easily automate a lot of your daily tasks, and never miss a thing.
Read More »T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Tips and Tricks to Automate Your Life
Considering the whole COVID-19 mess that is happening this year, events being cancelled and re-launched in a virtual form… Is it any wonder that the PASS Summit is joining the trend as well? I’d be quite disappointed if it hadn’t. So, great news!
Read More »PASS Summit 2020 has gone virtual – register now for a discount!
Your organization has been using Azure SQL DB (Single Database) for a while now, and has come to the realization that a lot of missing features are hindering your development efforts and limiting your product offerings.
You have a need for wider access to instance-level features on the one hand, but you still want to retain managed service features in the Azure cloud, such as 99.99% uptime SLA, automatic updates, Advanced Data Security, and Azure SQL Log Analytics, and basically not having to manage an IaaS virtual machine.
Therefore, you reach the conclusion that Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI) is the right solution for you at this time.
Read More »Planning a Migration from Azure SQL DB to Azure Managed Instance
In one of my previous blog posts, Automatically Enable or Disable Jobs based on HADR Role, I provided a solution for automatically enabling or disabling scheduled jobs in combination with Availability Groups and Database Mirroring. In this blog post, I’m going to build upon my previous solution and improve it even further – taking it to the next level of automation!
Read More »Control SQL Jobs based on HADR Role – Taking it to the Next Level