I've been making small improvements in IsItSQL and finally released a new version. The goal of the application is for non-SQL Server experts to be able to see quickly if SQL Server is having a problem. It also works for my clients to send screen shots so I can see what is happening.…
I've always had a love-hate relationship with linked servers. On one hand, they are very easy to use and query. On the other they can be a pain to configure, secure, and performance tune. I wrote about naming linked servers [https://billg.sqlteam.com/2011/08/15/how-to-name-linked-servers/…
I found the time to update ClearTrace to support Extended Events. You can download ClearTrace for Extended Events [https://www.scalesql.com/cleartrace/download/] from my corporate site. A few notes about this build * It's a very early release. Everything seems to work for me and it passes…
ELK (or Elastic Search, Logstash, Kibana) is taking over one of my clients. And I have to admit it's a very handy tool. They are pushing all their logs into it and it's ver easy to search them. Fair warning: My ELK skills and knowledge are…
Today, through various snafus and situations, I found myself waiting a LONG time for a lock to clear up. Here's how I got an alert to pop up on my phone (an iPhone) when that stupid SPID finally rolled back. You'll need to have database mail…