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  • SSMS Certificate Chain Not Trusted Error (Trust Server Certificate Fix)

    If you’ve recently upgraded SQL Server Management Studio and suddenly can’t connect to SQL Server, you may see an SSL or certificate error during login. This commonly appears after upgrading to newer SSMS versions and is caused by a change in how SSMS handles encryption by default. The good news: this is usually quick to…

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  • SQL Server Default Ports

    By default, the SQL Server Database Engine listens on TCP port 1433. This is useful to know, but it is not something you should rely on blindly. SQL Server can be configured to listen on different ports, and this is common on hosts running multiple SQL Server instances where each instance requires its own port.…

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  • Check When SQL Server Was Last Restarted

    Knowing when SQL Server last restarted is one of the simplest checks a DBA can perform, and one of the most useful. It immediately answers questions around patching, failovers, configuration changes, and unexplained behaviour. Before assuming anything else, confirming uptime is always worth doing first. This post shows the most reliable way to check SQL…

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  • Using PowerShell to Get Last SQL Failover Time

    When reviewing availability events on SQL Server, one of the first questions is often: Did the cluster move, and when? This post shows how to use PowerShell to retrieve the last Windows Failover Cluster role movement for a SQL Server instance by querying cluster event logs. It’s a fast, reliable way to confirm node-level failovers…

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  • Enabling TCP Connections in SQL Server

    TCP/IP must be enabled in SQL Server for remote connections to work. If it’s disabled, applications can’t connect; even if authentication, ports, and firewall rules are all correct. This post shows two reliable ways to enable TCP connections in SQL Server: Both approaches require a service restart before changes take effect. When You Need to…

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  • How to Show Line Numbers in SSMS

    In modern versions of SQL Server Management Studio, line numbers are enabled by default. If you are running SSMS 21 or newer, you will already see line numbers in query windows without changing anything. Older versions of SSMS did not enable them by default, which is why many guides still focus on “turning them on”.…

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  • How to Add Columns to Tables in SQL Server

    Adding columns to tables in SQL Server is a routine task, but it is not always a harmless one. On small tables it is trivial. On large or business-critical tables — especially those involved in replication or heavy write workloads — it can introduce blocking, transaction log growth, or downstream latency if handled carelessly. This…

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  • How to Restore a Database in SQL Server

    Restoring a database in SQL Server is a core DBA task. Whether you’re responding to an incident, performing disaster recovery testing, migrating data, or rebuilding an environment, restores need to be predictable, repeatable, and verifiable. This post walks through restoring a database using both T-SQL and SQL Server Management Studio, along with the checks that…

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  • Why Is the Database in “In Recovery” Mode?

    Seeing a database stuck in Recovery mode usually happens at the worst possible time. It often appears after a restart, a restore, or an unexpected shutdown, and the immediate question is always the same: Is this normal, or do I need to intervene? This post explains what recovery mode actually means, how to tell whether…

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  • Script: Check xp_cmdshell, CLR & Database Mail Configuration

    Part of the DBA-Tools Project. xp_cmdshell lets any login with EXECUTE permission on it run arbitrary operating system commands from inside SQL Server. It’s genuinely useful for a handful of legacy automation tasks, and it’s also one of the first things a penetration tester checks for, because a SQL injection vulnerability combined with xp_cmdshell enabled…

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Always On Availability Groups (4) Auditing (7) Backups (5) Blocking Locking (6) Collectors (7) Database Backups & Recovery (8) Database Backups and Recovery (5) Database Maintenance (7) DBA Tools (24) Disk Space (5) Extended Events (8) Features (6) High Availability (6) Indexes (7) Installation (7) Instance (3) Inventory (6) Jobs (3) Maintenance (6) Migration (13) Monitoring (24) Performance (21) Performance Troubleshooting (9) PowerShell (4) Queries (3) Query Behaviour (5) Security (7) SQL Agent (5) SQL Scripts (17) SQL Server Administration (10) SQL Server Configuration (7) SQL Server Errors (5) SQL Server High Availability (4) SQL Server Internals (3) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) (6) SQL Server Monitoring (7) SQL Server Networking (9) SQL Server Security (7) Storage and Capacity (7) T-SQL (9) Temp DB (3) Tracing (7) Transaction Logs (4) Troubleshooting (14) Windows Server (4)