by Marcin Gminski | Sep 21, 2021
Abstract PowerBI Desktop is a data analytics and presentation tool. Defining data sets is very easy and usually involves creating connection string to the source data and defining objects to pull data from. Alternatively, for SQL databases we can write custom SQL... by Marcin Gminski | Sep 14, 2021
As data professionals, we often need test data, whether for functional testing, to satisfy business logic criteria or for non-functional, to satisfy performance requirements. We must also not store any sensitive or personal information in non-production systems and... by Marcin Gminski | Sep 7, 2021
This project has become so popular that I decided to give it its own home: SQLWATCH.IO. Thank you #SQLFamily! Introduction I often help improve the performance of a SQL Server or an application. Performance metrics in SQL Server are exposed via Dynamic Management... by Marcin Gminski | Aug 31, 2021
I recently got an ultra wide screen and realised that the Windows taskbar is a bit of waste. Let me explain. On an ultra wide screen, the task bar will be very likely just empty most of the time, taking up the precious Y axis of the screen: Since there are many more... by Marcin Gminski | Aug 24, 2021
The identity value in relational databases is a field that increases automatically. It is often used to create surrogate primary keys. Surrogate keys Surrogate keys are meaningless and are only used to uniquely identify the row, not the data itself. For example,... by Marcin Gminski | Aug 17, 2021
I lot of you have asked me to expand on the automated SQL Server installation I mentioned in my previous article: Why I use VMware Workstation instead of Hyper-V on my laptop dbatools is a free PowerShell module with over 500 SQL Server best practice, administration,... by Marcin Gminski | Aug 10, 2021
DML Triggers are commonly used to apply some business rules to the data in the table. The most common implementation would be updating the date_updated column automatically whenever the data in the table changes. For the illustration, this can be done with a following... by Marcin Gminski | Aug 3, 2021
Being able to run virtual machines on our local computers, whether for testing or development is very convenient and almost natural. Hyper-V is part of Windows and is an obvious choice for many. The main advantage is that it’s free. And that’s about it.... by Marcin Gminski | Jul 27, 2021
As a DBA, developer, and more importantly the creator of SQLWATCH.IO, I need the ability to rapidly deploy and test different SQL Server configurations or test different upgrade variations from one version of SQLWATCH to another. This is quite laborious,... by Marcin Gminski | Jul 20, 2021
In my earlier post, I described different ways to read very large SQL Server Log (ERRORLOG) – 5GB – to be exact. However, this was a reaction to something that has already happened. In this post, I will show you how to prevent this from happening at...