SQL DBA Blog: Home
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Restrict What GitHub Copilot Can Run in SSMS (agentExecuteAsUser)
GitHub Copilot in SSMS runs every query with your permissions. Since SSMS 22.7 you can give it its own low-privilege identity per database: create the user, set agentExecuteAsUser in CONSTITUTION.md, grant IMPERSONATE. Tested, with the errors and the trade-offs.
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DBA Scripts: Get Identity Column Usage
Find every SQL Server identity column close to its data type limit, before inserts fail with Msg 8115: arithmetic overflow converting IDENTITY to int.
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SSMS SQL Formatter: Format T-SQL Without an Add-in
SSMS 22 formats T-SQL itself: Ctrl+K, Ctrl+Q formats the window or the selection, Ctrl+Z undoes it. What the defaults change, and the settings worth setting.
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SSMS Schema Compare: Find What Differs Between Two Databases
Schema Compare in SSMS lists every difference between 2 databases as the change that would make the target match the source. How to run it, read the results the right way round, set the options that matter, and check the generated script before it touches production.
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SSMS Schema Compare: Execution Timeout Expired During Population of Source Model
Schema Compare stops with Execution Timeout Expired when its catalog reads cannot get memory or are stuck behind a lock. Check the memory grant queue and whether Windows is short of RAM, then compare again or compare against a .dacpac.
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SQL Injection in Dynamic SQL: Use sp_executesql
A SQL Server name search can return every row when untrusted input is concatenated into the query. This lab demo compares EXEC with a parameterized sp_executesql call.
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RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE When SQL Server Is Nowhere Near Its Memory Cap
RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE waits while SQL Server sits far below max server memory: why the grant pool follows target memory and not the cap, the one query that shows it, and how to let a query run with MAX_GRANT_PERCENT while you free memory.
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Dynamic Data Masking: What a WHERE Clause Still Reveals
A masked salary can still be tested with WHERE. This lab example shows the row returned to a low-privilege user and what Dynamic Data Masking does not protect.
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DBA Scripts: Get Log Shipping Status
Log shipping secondary behind, or a 14420 or 14421 alert just fired? Run this on the monitor server to see the backup, copy and restore ages side by side and which job stopped.
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SQL Server Row-Level Security: The Filter Does Not Stop Cross-Tenant Writes
A Row-Level Security filter can hide another tenant’s rows while still allowing a cross-tenant insert. See the lab reproduction, add block predicates, and treat session context as a trust boundary.
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- SQL Server Configuration Manager: Where to Find It and What a DBA Uses It For
- DBA Scripts: Get Failed Login Summary
- Query Was Fast Yesterday, Slow Today: Find What Changed
- The Current Transaction Cannot Be Committed (Error 3930)
- Sort and Hash Spills to TempDB: Find the Query and Fix the Grant
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