Author: Peter Whyte

  • Installing Firewalld on Linux

    This post contains installation notes for installing Firewalld on an Amazon Linux 2 EC2 instance. Firewalld is a Linux firewall tool that makes it easy to create custom firewall rules. It acts as a frontend for iptables, the packet filtering system, and lets you apply rules dynamically. This…

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  • How to Enable TCP/IP Connections in SQL Server

    Some network protocols, like TCP/IP, are disabled by default in SQL Server. To allow TCP connections, you need to enable them and restart the SQL Server service. Here’s a simple guide to do this via GUI & command: :# Option 1: Enable TCP/IP via SQL Server Configuration Manager.…

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  • What’s New in the SQL Server 2019 Installation Wizard

    The release of SQL Server 2019 happened during the first day of Microsoft Ignite (4th November). Up until now, I’ve been using the release candidates for tests… so it’s good to have it all officialised! Here’s some notes during my first official SQL Server 2019 installation, using the…

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  • Domain Join Sanity Checks

    In order to join a Windows Server to a domain, you may need to request that the network team open certain firewall rules. The network requirements for this process can be complex and may vary depending on your specific environment. After joining a domain, especially in a new…

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  • How to Create MySQL Databases & Tables

    This blog post is a guide on how to create databases and tables in MySQL, from a Windows and Linux computer. The information included here should help beginners who are new to MySQL. To create a new database in MySQL, and many other relational database systems we use…

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  • Delete Windows.old Files

    When your machine is upgraded to a newer version of Windows, it leaves behind a C:\Windows.old directory which can be quite large. It contains the backup of the previous Windows version, so if you plan on deleting it you’re saying goodbye to the rollback option. If do you…

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  • Installing MySQL 8.0 on Windows

    A simple run-through of installing MySQL Community Server 8.0, including MySQL Workbench on Windows. Don’t forget to checkout the MySQL Installation documentation, and here’s a link to prerequisites. Installing MySQL Open the MySQL installer exe as downloaded from the link above. Accept License Agreement and Next. I would…

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  • Running Scheduled Tasks in SQL Server Express

    Running scheduled tasks in SQL Server Express requires an alternative approach since this edition lacks SQL Server Agent. Tasks like index maintenance, backups, or other recurring operations can be scheduled using Windows Task Scheduler. Below is a straightforward method to set up and execute such tasks using sqlcmd…

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  • sqlcmd in SQL Server

    The sqlcmd utility allows Transact SQL to be run at the command prompt using ODBC to execute SQL batches for MS SQL Server. This tool comes with SQL Management Studio, so if you have SSMS installed you can locate the sqlcmd exe file and call it via a…

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  • Changing Schemas in SQL Server

    This is a post on how-to on changing the schema of a table in SQL Server, moving it from one schema to another using the ALTER SCHEMA [tableName] TRANSFER SQL statement. During my time as a SQL Database Administrator, assisting with a task like this is a rare…

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