Category: Installation & Configuration
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The Evolution of SQL Server: Every Version from 1989 to 2025
🕐 Version history, with the support dates that actually matter Every release from the 1989 OS/2 original to SQL Server 2025, what each one changed for the people running it, and which ones are still receiving security updates today. Lifecycle dates checked against the builds and lifecycle reference, which is regenerated after each patch release.…
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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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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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DBA Scripts: Get Trace Flags and Resource Governor Configuration
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration Two Things a Previous DBA Might Have Set and Never Told You Trace flags and Resource Governor are both instance-wide behavior changes that don’t show up in sp_configure at a glance, don’t appear in the database, and can sit silently…
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DBA Scripts: Get CPU Topology and OS Configuration Checks
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration What CPU and OS Settings Are Actually Doing to SQL Server OS and Hardware Info tells you what hardware exists. These two scripts go one level deeper: how SQL Server is actually scheduling work across that hardware, and whether a…
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DBA Scripts: Get Patch Level
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Server Inventory Building a Patch Compliance Inventory Across an Estate Version and Edition answers “what is this one instance running” as a quick single-server snapshot. This script answers a related but different question: run it across every server you…
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DBA Scripts: Patch SQL Server and Check Status
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Installation & Patching Keep SQL Server Patched: Three Tools, One Job Patching is the job that never finishes: a new Cumulative Update lands, every instance needs it, and “are we current?” needs an answer on demand. This post is…
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