Category: Installation & Configuration
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DBA Scripts: Get Database Snapshot Inventory
🔧Part of the DBA-Tools Project, copy/paste SQL Server scripts and health checks.In: Storage & Capacity The Snapshot Everyone Forgot They Created A database snapshot is created for one specific reason, a pre-deployment rollback point, a reporting-consistency workaround, a test before a risky change, and then it just sits there. Snapshots don’t show up in a…
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SQL Server Builds: Complete Version List and Support Lifecycle
🔖 Living reference Every build number, KB and support date on this page comes from Microsoft’s official build and lifecycle pages, and the page is regenerated after each patch release. ✓ Data checked: 8 October 2026 Filed under Server & Configuration This is the reference I keep open for every SQL Server environment I touch.…
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How to Get the SQL Server IP Address
The firewall team, or a vendor, wants the exact IP address and port before they will open an allow-list rule, and the server has more than one address. Do not read it off ipconfig and do not assume 1433: ask SQL Server which address and port the connection actually arrived on. ⚡On a TCP connection,…
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Open SSMS as a Different Domain User
🛠️Part of the SSMS Complete Guide, installing, configuring and fixing SQL Server Management Studio. When working in corporate SQL Server environments, you will often need to connect using a different Active Directory domain account. Common reasons include: SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) does not allow switching users inside the connection dialog. To connect as another…
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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
No SSMS on the box, or SSMS will not connect, and you need to run a query or a script file from a shell right now. sqlcmd does that from Command Prompt, PowerShell or a Linux shell. On any current install it also refuses the first connection with a certificate error until you add -C,…
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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.In: Server & Configuration SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the primary management tool for SQL Server and Azure SQL. What changed in recent releases is not how it looks but how it installs, updates and connects: it ships through the Visual…
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SQL Server Default Ports
Something cannot connect, or the firewall team wants a port number before they will open anything. Both questions have the same answer, and it is not a guess: ask the instance what it is listening on. TCP 1433 is right on a default instance nobody has touched, and it stops being right as soon as…
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Enabling TCP Connections in SQL Server
A remote client cannot connect and the instance is running. The application reports Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 or SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26, and the first thing to rule out is the server not listening on TCP/IP at all. Check it with one query, turn it on in SQL Server Configuration Manager or PowerShell,…
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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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- SQL Injection in Dynamic SQL: Use sp_executesql
- RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE When SQL Server Is Nowhere Near Its Memory Cap
- Dynamic Data Masking: What a WHERE Clause Still Reveals
- DBA Scripts: Get Log Shipping Status
- SQL Server Row-Level Security: The Filter Does Not Stop Cross-Tenant Writes
- View the Definition of a Stored Procedure in SQL Server
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