Sometimes you become the accidental DBA, or you are the DBA by choice. Either way, you can choose to spend time working in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to look at things such as backups or the ...

When I (along with many other people) had a lot of trouble trying to install SQL Server Management Studio in an attempt to switch from the SQL Server 2008 R2 evaluation to the free Express version, I ...

For as long as I can remember, I have always configured the computers within my own organization to store data on network servers as opposed to the data being stored on workstations. That way, if one ...

IT workers are notorious for their steadfast ways. If it's not broke -- and is still covered under support -- don't change it. Microsoft's deprecation of Windows PowerShell with the open source ...

Microsoft Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language with more than 130 standard command-line tools and consistent syntax and utilities. The new feature runs on Windows XP, ...

Keep each script version focused on a single change type (patches for fixes, minors for features, majors for breaking changes). Retain all prior versions and never modify an existing release; copy to ...

The built in "script data" tooling in SQL Management Studio 2008 R2 is broken for me because of spurious "cyclical foreign keys" errors. Plus the "generate scripts" itself has gone from clunky but ...

Back in 2008, I wrote a piece called PowerShell Tips and Tricks, which covered the then-relatively new Windows scripting language and some cool things you could do with it. Although PowerShell has ...