If you have multiple full, differential and transaction log backups, there are chances you may end up facing the error below during the restore process. “ This differential backup cannot be restored because the database has not been restored to the correct...

  Issue ================   Recently we encountered an issue where customer performed a planned failover for a mirrored database and after the failover the new principal went into suspect mode because of some reason (which is outside the scope...

C:\windows\Installer is not a temporary folder and files in it should not be deleted. If you do it on machines on which you have SQL Server installed you may have to rebuild the operating system and reinstall SQL Server.   The Windows Installer Cache...

Before I talk about how to monitor the deadlocks let us have a small brief what is deadlock and how we were handling them in the previous versions of SQL Server. Deadlock : A deadlock occurs when there is a cyclic dependency between two or more...

Recently, whilst working with bulk insert queries I came across an unexpected result set which led to some more research. Therefore, following facts/tips/tricks/workarounds might help you:   If you execute the following code for example:   NOTE...

PSExec tool gives you an option to run a remote process or an application using System account, if SYSTEM account has permission on that application. Although there are many more features that are  For example, if SQL Server has NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM...

Strange requirement, right? Recently, I got a peculiar case wherein the demand made by the customer was to make sure no application should be able to connect to SQL Server unless and until all the databases are ONLINE. The business requirement of this...

Here we will discuss on Waits in the context of SQL Server: Highlights of this video blog :- 1. What is wait and why we need to focus on wait? 2. Lifecycle of a session 3. Analogy to explain waits 4. Types of Waits. 5. Where to see waits...

Filestream is a new feature in SQL server 2008, that allows storage and efficient access to BLOB data, using combination of SQL Server 2008 and NTFS file system. It provides an easy way of handling BLOB data with database transactional consistency...

In this blog we have explained the various causes for SQL to drive the processors i.e. high CPU and the steps to troubleshoot it. Possible causes that can lead to high CPU usage by SQL server:- 1.Inefficient Query Plans 2. Intra- query Parallelism...

In this blog we have explained the various causes for SQL to drive the processors i.e. high CPU and the steps to troubleshoot it. Possible causes that can lead to high CPU usage by SQL server:- 1.Inefficient Query Plans 2. Intra- query Parallelism...

A new feature introduced in SQL Server 2012 setup is "Product Update". Product Update searches for the latest product updates and integrates it with the main product installation.It can search for the latest or applicable updates in Microsoft Update...

In this video blog we would walk you through a feature introduced from SQL server 2008 i.e. Sparse Columns. Sparse columns are just an ordinary columns that have an optimized storage for null values. It reduces the space requirements for null values...

Here we will Discuss on Providing High Availability for SQL Server Transactional Replictaion using Database Mirroring : Highlights of this video blog :- 1. Transactional Replication Overview. 2. Database Mirroring Overview 3. Replication with...

In this video blog, we would walk you through some tips and methods to troubleshoot Missing MSI's/MSP's error during SQL Server Patching or installation. Highlights of this video blog :- 1. What are MSI's/MSP's 2. Location of Setup logs and log...

Bulk insert command is not inserting correct characters from a flat file into the table. For instance, the character “Ñ” is displayed as “+æ“ after getting imported in the table. In other words the characters from...

During our recent interactions with a few customers, we were asked following questions about TLS certificates with SQL server: 1. Can TLS certificate be used with SQL Server 2008 for server-side encryption? 2. If Yes, How? To start with, let’s...

Issue: Installation of SQL Server 2008 might fails with below error on 64-Bit Operating system. MSI Error: 1719 The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode, or if Windows Installer...

Queries on SQL Server Replication? Check out our blog to get'em answered , that will give you an overview of the “Replication in SQL server”. Highlights of the blog:- What is replication? Why we should use Replication? What is replication...

In this article We are going to discuss about pre-allocation scenarios and their aftermaths for SQL Server 2008 compressed backup. We will try to simulate that compressed backup may succeed if disk space is less and may fail if disk space is more depending...

I ran into a very interesting issue with temp tables recently, when working on a case. The issue description goes something like this. We have an application preparing some SQL statements, and sending them to the SQL Database engine for execution. However...

In this blog we would discuss about behavior of AlwaysON where the secondary database doesn't come automatically when the primary instance goes down. The secondary database goes into Resolving state. On the failover cluster manager the resource appears...

Recently I have had a customer complaining that when he is adding more subscriptions to his publication, distribution agent job for the newly added subscriptions would not start.  And when he tried to start the distribution agent job manually, it...

Highlights of this video blog :- 1. What are Partitioned tables & benefits 2. Building Blocks of Partitioning 3. Partitioned Table Operations 4. Demo 5. Best Practices To watch the video in better quality please check the link: - http://channel9...

Highlights of this video blog :- 1. What is SSL Encryption 2. Why is it needed 3. Configuring SSL Encryption for SQL Server 4. Demo To watch the video in better quality, please check the link: - http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/SSL-Encryption-for...