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Even more fun with DATETIME arithmetics!

In one of my previous posts, Fun with DATETIME Arithmetics, I introduced a way to use “math” to manipulate datetime values for effectively generating, calculating, and displaying intervals (i.e. difference between two datetime values). These mostly work with the addition and subtraction operators (+, -).

In one of the paragraphs, I mentioned multiplication and division, and posed the question about why anyone would ever need to do this.

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One handy Powershell script template to rule them all

If you know me, you already know that I’m a huge fan of automation. Therefore, it’s natural to assume that I would dabble in Powershell at least once or twice or a few dozen, as a method to implement useful automations. After all, automation is pretty much the whole essence of Powershell in the first place.

As I used Powershell scripts more and more, I learned that there are a few things that are important to have whenever you use such scripts as part of automation (by “automation” I mean any sort of operation done “unattended”, i.e. without direct human interaction in real-time).

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Keep Your MSDB Clean

As part of its regular, ongoing, day-to-day activities, your SQL Server instance would naturally collect historical data about its automated operations. If left unchecked, this historical data could pile up, leading to wasted storage space, performance hits, and even worse issues.

MSDB would obviously be collecting data about the SQL Agent job executions. But there are also several other types of historical data that needs to be cleaned up once in a while. I hope to cover all bases and leave no historical data un-cleaned.

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Monitoring SQL Server Version Updates using SentryOne

Following the recent acquisition of SentryOne by SolarWinds, I’ve decided to write a few special blog posts dedicated to our favorite SQL server monitoring platform.

Click here if you missed my previous post: Common issues during SentryOne version upgrades.

As part of the managed DBA service that Madeira data solutions provides, we make extensive use of the SentryOne monitoring and alerting platform. As such, we’ve gathered significant experience in using, managing, and maintaining the platform.

This also includes utilizing the platform to do all kinds of “unorthodox” monitoring, which is not available “out-of-the-box”.

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