Microsoft SQL DBA Blog

Published by Peter Whyte, an experienced SQL Server Database Administrator.


  • How to Enable CDC in SQL Server

    This is a post on how to enable Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server. Enabling this on a database and table will allow the recording of activity when tables and rows have been modified. This is a feature available for us to configure within SQL Server and…

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  • How to Run PowerShell Scripts with Task Scheduler

    Automating PowerShell scripts is a much needed task for Windows Administrators. The Task Scheduler provides a reliable way to execute scripts on a predefined schedule, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This guide covers both the command and GUI methods for how to run PowerShell scripts from Task…

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  • SQL Server Default Ports

    The SQL Server default ports that the SQL Engine runs on is port 1433. This is a useful thing to know if managing SQL Server databases, however SQL Server can be configured to run on a variety of port numbers, which I’m hoping to help explain in this post.…

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  • Connecting to SQL Server on Another Domain

    This post contains a guide on how to connect to SQL Server with Windows Authentication, but using a different Domain User other than your own. The regular Windows SQL Server User connects & runs their queries via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). If you’re in a corporate environment,…

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  • Restart Services on Multiple Hosts using PowerShell

    In this post, we’ll walk through a script that restarts services on multiple remote hosts using PowerShell. A single PowerShell command will be run on several computers at the same time. If you need to run a command on multiple remote machines, the PowerShell Invoke-Command cmdlet is a…

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  • How to Rename a Computer that Hosts SQL Server

    When changing the hostname of a computer that is running SQL Server, we have to update system metadata so that remote connections and applications do not lose connectivity. This guide provides a clear, step-by-step approach to updating SQL Server metadata after a hostname change. This is more often…

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  • PowerShell For Each Loop Example

    Looping is a fundamental concept in PowerShell, and in programming in general. It’s needed for various situations where we need to work with one object at a time within an array/collection of objects. Microsoft’s documentation on this, about Foreach , describes it as ‘stepping through (iterating) a series…

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  • How to Check Listening Ports on Windows

    This guide will show you how to check which service is running on a specific TCP or UDP port on a Windows computer. This can be useful for verifying which service is tied to a port or proactively checking for any dodgy (suspicious) open ports. In this post,…

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  • Get Database Sizes in SQL Server

    Knowing how much disk space your databases are consuming in SQL Server is an important thing to know and monitor as a Database Administrator. As well as this, we should be looking at future growth of database files, ensuring we have enough disk space for years to come.…

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Useful SQL DBA Posts

SQL Server Performance
– Get Full SQL Server System Info Fast
Quick Performance Troubleshooting Scripts
Identify Missing & Unused Indexes
– Get Wait Stats & Top Consuming Queries
Get Exclusive Locks on Tables
Get Last Node Blip in SQL Server FCI
Security & Maintenance
Get Estimated Database Backup/Restore Time
Get Last Database Backup Dates/Times
– Get Database Sizes & Space Used
How to Get Table Sizes
Get Index & Heap Fragmentation Levels
Get SQL User Permissions and Roles
Creating SQL Users on Availability Groups
– Audit Failed Login Attempts

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Always On Availability Groups (AAG) (4) AWS (4) AWS Redshift (6) Database Admin (72) Database Backups & Recovery (14) Database Mirroring (2) Error Messages (5) Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) (1) Git Commands (6) Importing & Exporting Data (2) Linked Servers (3) Linux Administration (2) Logging & Monitoring (1) Microsoft Patching (2) MySQL (4) Postgres (6) PowerShell Scripts (2) SQL Certificates & Encryption (3) SQL Server Agent (5) SQL Server CDC (2) SQL Server Data Types (2) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) (17) SQL Server Networking (3) SQL Server on Linux (1) SQL Server Patching (2) SQL Server Performance Tuning (6) SQL Server Processes (SPIDs) (7) SQL Server Replication (2) SQL Server Scripts (13) SQL Server Security (4) SQL Server Storage (10) Windows Admin (20) Windows Authentication (2) Windows Automation (1) Windows Events (2) Windows Firewall (4) Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) (18)