Category: Installation & Configuration
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Check SQL Server Connection Encryption and Protocol
Modern SQL Server environments often use encrypted connections by default, but that does not always mean what people think it means. When troubleshooting connectivity problems, certificate errors, performance questions, or unexpected client behaviour, DBAs usually need to answer one very specific question: What protocol and encryption is this connection actually using right now? This post…
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sqlcmd Examples for SQL Server
sqlcmd is a command line utility for connecting to SQL Server and executing Transact-SQL without a GUI. It is commonly used for automation, scripting, remote administration, and incident response, especially in environments where SSMS is unavailable, inappropriate, or too heavy. This post covers sqlcmd usage from a DBA perspective, how to find or install it,…
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Install and Update SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the primary management tool for SQL Server and Azure SQL, and it’s also the official download and update path for SSMS going forward. In recent releases it’s changed significantly, not in how it looks, but…
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SQL Server Default Ports
SQL Server listens on TCP 1433 by default, and on a box running a single default instance that is usually the end of it. It stops being true as soon as anything else is going on. A named instance takes a dynamic port that can change when the service restarts, which is the whole reason…
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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
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. 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…
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Testing Remote Server Port Connectivity with PowerShell
Testing connectivity to remote server ports is a basic skill every DBA should have. Not just DBAs either, anyone running production systems needs to be able to answer one simple question quickly: Can this server actually reach that server on this port? This post shows two reliable ways to test whether a remote port is…
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How to Check Listening Ports on Windows
When troubleshooting connectivity issues, it’s often not enough to test whether a remote port is reachable. You also need to know what is actually listening on a port locally, or whether anything is listening at all. This post focuses on the local side of the equation, what is listening on the machine itself and which…
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DBA Scripts: Get Services Information
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Server & Configuration › Server Inventory A SQL Server instance is really a handful of Windows services working together, and it is surprisingly common for one of them to be quietly misconfigured. The SQL Server Agent service set to Manual startup instead of…
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How to Increase Maximum Characters Displayed in SSMS
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. By default, SQL Server Management Studio limits the number of characters displayed per column when using Results to Text. The default limit is 256 characters. If a query or system stored procedure returns more than that, the output is silently truncated.…
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