By What if there was a way to see a graphical timeline of your SQL Server Agent jobs? There is! It’s called SQLjobvis (short for SQL Job Visualizer), and it’s FREE! Cool Features This lightweight app color-codes jobs based on their outcome (green for success, red for failure, blue for currently executing). You
Debugging and Troubleshooting Code in SSIS Packages
Code and language-based developers may be initially turned off by the overwhelmingly GUI-based nature of SSIS packages. I’ll admit, I was. Thankfully Microsoft didn’t forget about us code geeks. All Hail the Script Task The Script Task allows developers to utilize VB and C#, and more importantly opens up the .NET Framework, which
CXPACKET Waits and High CPU Usage
Photo by Sarah Klockars-Clauser Scenario Your SQL box has consistently high CPU usage, possibly pegged at 100%. You look at your favorite DMV or (god forbid) Activity Monitor and see one or more active queries with a CXPACKET wait type. What do you do??? (Try not to Google it.) Solution I specifically
MicroStrategy Information Window INCEPTION
Scenario You create an information window for a grid in a MicroStrategy document. You expect the info window to pop up when you click on an item in the grid, and it does. Hooray! Job well done, let’s go home. But wait, what’s this? Every time you use a selector that targets the grid,
Failing Backups and FlushFileBuffers
SQL Server can be a finicky beast. Powerful, robust, ACID-compliant — yes, of course, we all love SQL Server, but it can be a bit sensitive. Once upon a time, my database backups were failing, and perhaps yours are too. The following message in SQL Server’s error log was my only clue: Executing the
Design Patterns Quick Reference
Design patterns: common, reusable life savers for developers that don’t want to reinvent the wheel. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with this essential piece of software engineering, add it to your knowledge queue! Jason McDonald did a great job summarizing the meaty bits of Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software into a neat, UML-formatted quick