It appeared out of nowhere while I was having a strong argument with the ton of dust that had taken over my computer room. My former favourite book, "Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL server 2000" brought an upset look to my face, the one I…

I really like database monitoring. My email inbox have a constant flow of different types of alerts coming from our production servers with all kinds of information, sometimes more useful and sometimes less useful. Usually database alerts…

There is always a threat from somewhere. Old-style DBAs are standing on the shaky ground. 5 years ago I remember myself defending the SQL Server against the domineering Oracle DBAs. The arguing was always about “who is better”. The…

- Click on me. Choose me. - asked one forgotten feature when some bored DBA was purposelessly wondering through the Management Studio menu at the end of her long and busy working day. - Why would I use you? I have heard of no…

… Four tortoises were playing in the backyard when they decided they needed hibiscus flower snacks. They pooled their money and sent the smallest tortoise out to fetch the snacks. Two days passed and there was no sign of the tortoise. "You…

A very useful error handling TRY/CATCH construct is widely used to catch all execution errors  that do not close the database connection. The biggest downside is that in the case of multiple errors…

I am truly exited to move this blog to SQLblog.com ! http://sqlblog.com/blogs/maria_zakourdaev/default.aspx You are more than welcomed to drop by. Stay tuned Over and out ;)

Working with the SQL Server replication is not a great pleasure. Working with the SQL Server replication replication is not a great pleasure, when all is working as you expect. Working with the SQL Server replication replication is not a…

If you are using DBCC LOGINFO in the production environment and you are lucky enough to still have an instance of SQL Server 2005 which, suddenly out of the blue, started throwing “non-yielding processes on scheduler” errors into the error…