SQL DBA Blog

Windows · PowerShell · WSL

Notes from a working
SQL Server DBA

I am a Database Reliability Engineer in Edinburgh looking after critical SQL Server estates. This is where the Windows, PowerShell and WSL side of that job gets written down: things I worked out once and have needed again since.

PowerShell Guide WSL Guide

Start here

Two guides organise everything on this site. Each one collects the posts by task rather than by date.

🐧 WSL: The Complete Guide Installing it, working with files across Windows and Linux, managing distributions, and fixing it when it sulks. 21 guides → 📜 PowerShell: The Complete Guide Files and folders, CSVs, the Windows Firewall, scheduled tasks, and the cmdlets worth knowing by heart. 31 guides →
💾 Looking for the SQL Server material? It moved to a site of its own. sqldba.blog has 150+ documented DBA scripts, a paste-your-error library, a page for practically every wait type, and the SSMS guide. Visit sqldba.blog →

Latest posts

Newest first. 123 posts here since 2017.

Browse by topic

Every post rolls up into one of these.

PowerShell · 45Scripting for Windows administration Linux & WSL · 28Windows Subsystem for Linux, Ubuntu, distros Windows · 32Server admin, domains, Hyper-V, the firewall SQL Server · 50The archive. New work is on sqldba.blog Everything →The full archive, newest first

Not sure where to start?

Most people arrive here from a search for one specific thing. If that is you, the guide covering it will have the rest of the answer, and a few neighbours worth knowing.

Browse the PowerShell guide Browse the WSL guide I came for SQL Server