Only as Good as Your Auditor

I wrote Only as Good as Your Auditor for SQLServerCentral because its something I’ve explained to people over and over again. For most of us in IT audits are something we tolerate and try to get done as quickly as we can, a test to pass, and because of that we don’t get to see […]

How to Become a SQL Server Database Administrator

I wrote How to Become a SQL Server Database Administrator (email address required for download) a few years ago as a project for Idera, one that I still point people to when they show an interest in the career path. I wish there more of these out there. It would be interesting for anyone thinking about becoming […]

April Fools 2017

Each year I try to something fun for April 1st, though it’s hard to do well. Trying to be funny without crossing any of the many lines we should respect isn’t the easiest thing. Probably the easy target is self – least likely to complain! Still, sometimes there are general topics that those of you […]

Why I’m Changing to MySQLAndy

From time to time we all have to examine our path and decide if we need to make adjustments. Looking at the market, I found a lot of reasons why now is the right time to switch to mySQL. Here’s the top five: 5. I’m going to have to learn Linux anyway. 4. I can use […]

Notes from the March 2017 MagicPASS Meeting

I was a last minute volunteer to speak at the March meeting and used it as a chance to talk about Devops for the DBA as a practice run for my session at the upcoming Orlando Code Camp. One of the nice things about having been to the group as a speaker a few times […]

Applying SQL Service Pack on Encrypted Drives

I have a server that uses a third party disk encryption product. It’s configured so that the SQL service account and sysadmins have the ability to encrypt/decrypt files. The local system account does not, nor does the local admins group. Good for security, but it causes some pain when you run a service pack. Service packs […]

SSMS – Not a Valid Value for Property Width

I’ve had this happen a couple of times with a recent build of SSMS. Something went wrong – resolution change maybe – and it wouldn’t load, error “is not a valid value for property ‘Width’”. I finally tracked it down to this registry key. Editing or deleting fixed the problem.