Author: Peter Whyte
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Compatibility Levels: What Actually Changes When You Bump It
“Bump the compatibility level after a migration” is standard advice, and Version Upgrade Readiness already tells you which databases are behind. What that advice usually skips is what the number actually controls, and one part of it is more counter-intuitive than most people assume. This post runs a real test on a lab database to…
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SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS): The Complete Guide
SQL Server Management Studio is still the tool most production DBAs live in day to day, and it has changed more in the last couple of years than the previous decade. There is a new install and update model, a different default connection security posture, and enough quality-of-life settings buried in menus that most people…
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SQL Server Collation: Case Sensitivity and the Cross-Database Trap
Get Collation Conflicts and Cross-Database Dependencies finds real collation mismatches, but assumes you already know what collation actually controls. This post covers the fundamentals directly: what changes with collation, a real case-sensitivity test, and the cross-database trap that script exists to catch. What Collation Actually Controls Collation determines two things for character data: sort order…
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SQL Server Isolation Levels (and When to Reach for RCSI)
Reading and Fixing a SQL Server Deadlock and Troubleshoot SQL Server Blocking both point at isolation level as part of the fix without covering what the levels actually are. This post fills that gap: what each isolation level trades off, what Read Committed Snapshot Isolation (RCSI) actually changes, and a real check of where this…
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DBA Scripts: Get Database Summary
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Server Inventory One Row Per Database, Every Issue Flagged in One Column Checking every database on an instance one at a time, state here, recovery model there, backup age in a third window, doesn’t scale, and it’s exactly the…
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DBA Scripts: Get Database Inventory
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Server Inventory One Query, Every Database’s Migration Readiness Before you migrate, upgrade, or consolidate anything, you need one honest answer per database: is it actually online, what recovery model is it running, and is its compatibility level going to…
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Instant File Initialization: What It Actually Does and How to Enable It
Instant File Initialization is one of the few SQL Server settings that’s genuinely free performance, no license cost, no downside for the overwhelming majority of installs, and it’s still routinely left unconfigured on real production servers because it’s a Windows privilege grant, not a SQL Server setting, and it happens outside SSMS entirely. This post…
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DBA Scripts: Pre-Install and Post-Install Checks for SQL Server
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Installation & Patching Start Here Will this build actually run here?OS and Hardware InfoWhat did the installer leave at defaults?Configuration SnapshotHow does the finished build score?Configuration ScoreWhat are the install steps themselves?Install and Configure Bookend Checks for an Installation…
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Disable Change Data Capture in SQL Server
Disabling Change Data Capture (CDC) is straightforward, but it has to happen in the right order: every tracked table first, then the database. Skip a step and SQL Server tells you plainly rather than doing it anyway, which is the safe behaviour but confusing the first time you hit it. This post covers disabling CDC…
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DBA Scripts: Generate Database Integrity and Housekeeping Jobs
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Maintenance & Automation › Maintenance Job Framework A Readable Generator for Integrity Checks and msdb Housekeeping If you’re already running Ola Hallengren’s maintenance solution, this won’t replace it, but the approach here might still be useful: a small, readable T-SQL generator that builds…
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Start Here
- DBA Scripts: The Complete Guide
- Run a Full Health Check
- DBA Scripts & Tools
- SSMS: The Complete Guide
- SQL Server Errors: The Complete Guide
- Wait Types Library
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