A Tool is Better than a Script
Tools are important to DBAs, but they need to be reliable, both in what they do, and how they work.
2026-05-01
218 reads
DBA Tools
Manage Elastic jobs in Azure using Azure Elastic Jobs Manager
Microsoft Azure offers Azure Elastic Job agent as a managed service, enabling efficient scheduling of T-SQL workloads on Azure SQL Databases. Learn how to configure the service in this article.
2024-06-07 (first published: 2024-05-24)
1,877 reads
Sample Use Case for Using SQLCMD Utility Batch Files
In this article, we look at a sample use case of how you can create SQLCMD batch files that can be interactive and reused in different SQL Server environments.
2023-07-14
Experimenting with Go-SQLCMD
Steve takes a look at go-sqlcmd, the newest evolution of the sqlcmd command line tool.
2023-04-21
8,537 reads
7 DB Forge SQL Studio Features Discovered in Less Than 2 Hours
dbForge SQL Studio gives you a few advantages over SSMS. See what Kenneth discovered during his first use of the tool.
2022-04-27
4,745 reads
Azure Data Studio vs SSMS - Who is the winner?
Introduction I have to admit that I love SSMS. It is a great tool, and I felt furious when a colleague mentioned that Azure Data Studio will replace SSMS in the long run. In this new article, we will talk about the main differences between Azure Data Studio and SSMS. We will see if my […]
2021-11-10
26,698 reads
SQL Server DBA Utility Dashboard
Create a quick application that stores your favorite queries that you can use to quickly connect to any server and return the results.
2021-03-08
A Toolbox Every DBA Should Have
As a DBA it is important to have a toolbox that supports the work you do. You need to have a toolbox that allows you to work smarter instead of harder. Read on to learn about some key tools every DBA should have in their toolbox!
2019-12-16
Trying Out the Data Migration Assistant
Dave Mason shares some thoughts on the Data Migration Assistant: I recently took advantage of an opportunity to try Mirosoft’s Data Migration Assistant. It was a good experience and...
2019-04-16
SQL SERVER – Difference Between Azure Data Studio and SQL Server Management Studio
Earlier I blogged about SQL SERVER – Getting Started with Azure Data Studio. After reading the blog post, I receive an email from a reader asking about the primary...
2019-04-15
Blogs
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
Force join by longest possible choice
Title pretty much says it. I want to join to a table that has...
Building a SQL Server Fleet Audit That Leadership Actually Reads
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building a SQL Server Fleet...
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers