Category Archives: SQL Server

Querying SQL Agent Job Information

Many companies rely on the job scheduling and alerting services provided with the native SQL Server Agent service. From backups to SSRS subscription to SSIS packages, SQL Server Agent has the capability to run many types of business critical tasks on a regular schedule or can be programmatically triggered to start from other processes as […]

3 Steps to Safely Moving MSDB in SQL Server

SQL database consultant at work in dark room

If you are just getting started in your role as a SQL Server DBA, at some point in your career you are going to have to do some work with SQL Server system databases. That is, unless you are reading this in the year 2025 when all databases will be managed bots in the Cumuloverse. […]

SQL Server Agent Alerts – Getting the News Fast On Database Corruption

Have you ever made the comment to your friends or family that you are always the last to know something?  Good news travels fast but bad news doesn’t always travel fast enough. When dealing with database corruption SQL Server, which is always bad news, if you are the DBA you will want to be first […]

Meltdown and Spectre – What You Need to Know

Unless you have been away on an extended, off-the-grid vacation for the first part of 2018 chances are you have heard about and are preparing for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. The news hit the streets before a planned public announcement could be made by impacted companies, Intel, Apple and Microsoft to name a few.  […]

Planning Your 2018 IT Budget

It’s that time of year that a good amount of IT departments are dedicating time to researching and planning for their 2018 IT budgets. As you know, the growth of your company and it’s data depends heavily on your IT infrastructure, so the decisions you make and the costs of those choices are very critical. […]

The SQL Performance Needle in a Haystack

Technical communities are thriving and the knowledge they provide to professionals is immense.  In the SQL Server community especially, countless blog sites, forum posts, tweets, webinars and white papers exist that help DBAs solve tough problems every day and we are all fortunate to have such information available to us with a simple Web search. Sometimes, […]

SQL Server 2017 – General Release Available Today!

Microsoft announced the much anticipated SQL Server 2017 release is available for download today. This version is packed with so many features, here are just a few of what we’re looking forward to here at SQLWatchmen: Always On Availibility Group – supporting the ability to cross database transactions among all databases, as well as, clusterless […]