Author: Peter Whyte
-
DBA Scripts: Generate Test Databases
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Backups & Recovery When you’re validating migrations, failover, or automation at scale, you need realistic volume: hundreds or thousands of databases to stress-test backups, restores, log shipping, and copy operations. This helper automates that setup, it creates batches of small, randomized databases with…
Written by
-
Installing Windows Terminal on Windows
Windows Terminal is the modern command-line application for Windows and supports PowerShell, Command Prompt, and WSL in a single interface. On recent versions of Windows (Windows 11 and newer), Windows Terminal is installed by default. If it’s already available on your system, no installation is required. If it isn’t installed, or you’re working on older…
Written by
-
How to Enable Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server
Change Data Capture (CDC) allows SQL Server to track inserts, updates, and deletes on selected tables by reading the transaction log and storing changes in system tables. From a DBA point of view, CDC is easy to enable but easy to underestimate. It adds background jobs, ongoing storage growth, and operational overhead that needs to…
Written by
-
Database in Recovery Pending: Cannot Be Opened (SQL Server Error 945)
SQL Server error 945, database cannot be opened due to inaccessible files. How to find which file stopped it and bring the database back online.
Written by
-
Use Git in SSMS to Version Control Your DBA Scripts
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. Every DBA has a scripts folder. Most of them live dangerously: a directory on a jump host, copies of copies, a blocking_check_v2_FINAL.sql that is not the final version. Since SSMS 21 the fix has been built into the tool you already…
Written by
-
GitHub Copilot in SSMS: Setup, and What a DBA Should Let It Do
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio.In: Server & Configuration GitHub Copilot became generally available in SSMS at 22.4.1, and most of what is written about it is either a sales page or a dismissal. Neither helps you decide what to actually do with an AI assistant inside…
Written by
-
How to Enable Dark Mode in SSMS
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio.In: Server & Configuration Dark mode in SQL Server Management Studio is finally a supported setting rather than a registry hack. It arrived with SSMS 21 and carries through SSMS 22, where theming has been extended release by release. If you are…
Written by
-
CREATE DATABASE Permission Denied (Error 262)
SQL Server error 262, CREATE DATABASE permission denied. Which permission is actually missing, who can grant it, and the least-privilege fix.
Written by
-
SSMS Query Shortcuts: Run sp_whoisactive on a Hotkey
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio.In: Server & Configuration Press Ctrl+1 in a query window and SSMS runs sp_who. Press Ctrl+2 and you get sp_lock. Most people know those two exist and stop there, which means missing the actual feature: the mechanism behind them is configurable, and…
Written by
-
DBA Scripts: Get Service Broker Health and Database Mail Queue
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration Two Messaging Systems That Run Quietly Until They Don’t Service Broker and Database Mail are both messaging infrastructure, and both are easy to forget are even active, since SQL Server uses Service Broker internally for things like Availability Group health…
Written by
- DBA Scripts: Get Log Shipping Status
- SQL Server Row-Level Security: The Filter Does Not Stop Cross-Tenant Writes
- View the Definition of a Stored Procedure in SQL Server
- TempDB Is Full or Still Growing: Find What Is Using It, Right Now
- SQL Server Service Will Not Start: Error 17113, 17058, 1067 and Where the Real Reason Is
- How to Move TempDB Files in SQL Server
- Backups & Recovery (17)
- DBA Scripts (152)
- High Availability (HA) (13)
- Installation & Configuration (49)
- Maintenance (25)
- Migration & Upgrades (14)
- Monitoring (9)
- Performance Tuning (37)
- Security (Encryption & Permissions) (20)
- Storage & Capacity (16)
- T-SQL Fundamentals (15)
- Troubleshooting (94)
- Wait Types (235)