As data professionals, we recognize and understand the need for data governance, focusing on data quality in particular. We have made some progress...
Business Value Metrics for Data Governance
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database-tools
Using FileSystemWatcher Correctly (Part 1)
A FileSystemWatcher can monitor a file or folder for changes, so your PowerShell code can immediately be notified when new files are copied to a...
Responding to New Event Log Entries (Part 2)
Here is another file system task that sounds worse than it actually is. Let’s say you need to remove all folders below a given level in a...
Sharing Files and SQL statements using Aqua Data Studio
There are many ways to share files or SQL statements using Aqua Data Studio. These range from shortcuts to your own file directories or...
Responding to New Event Log Entries (Part 1)
If you’d like to respond to new event log entries in real time, here is how your PowerShell code can be notified the moment a new event entry...
What are visual SQL tuning diagrams?
SQL queries are the primary mechanism to interact with databases. Therefore, ensuring that SQL queries perform well is essential. An important...
Accessing Event Logs Directly
With Get-EventLog, you can easily dump the content for any given event log, however if you’d like to directly access a given event log, you...
Using a Stop Watch
In PowerShell, to measure time, you can simply subtract datetime values from another: $Start = Get-Date $null = Read-Host -Prompt "Press ENTER...
SQL Performance, Part 4: Additional Considerations
Today’s blog post concludes our four-part look into SQL performance and optimization. Part one introduced and explained relational...
Using Solid Alternatives for $MyInvocation
Lines like $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition can be useful to determine the folder in which the current script is stored, i.e. to access other...
Finding Open Firewall Ports
Here is a piece of PowerShell code that connects to the local firewall and dumps the open firewall ports: $firewall = New-object -ComObject...
Is GDPR a Grinch?
Most people know that GDPR went into effect in May of 2018. For those of you who don't know, GDPR was put in place to protect people's PII...
Surprises in 2018 and Predictions for 2019
Recently I was asked to contribute my thoughts on what things in database technology were a surprise in 2018 along with what trends and topics would...
Executing Code with a Timeout (Part 2)
In the previous tip we implemented a timeout using PowerShell background jobs so you could set a maximum time some code was allowed to run before it...
Could Your Merger or Acqusition Detect a Data Breach?
It seems like we hear about a new data breach on an almost daily basis. This past week, we heard about two newsworthy data breaches that were...
What are the top 4 performance makers and breakers for SQL Server?
Successful solutions are successful solely because systems, users, and organizations have come to depend upon them. Such solutions are not...
Executing Code with a Timeout (Part 1)
If you’d like to make sure some code won’t execute forever, you can use background jobs to implement a timeout. Here is a sample...
Code-Signing Mini-Series (Part 5: Auditing Signatures)
Once a PowerShell script carries a digital signature, you can easily find out who signed the script, and more importantly, whether the script is...
Code-Signing Mini-Series (Part 4: Code-Signing PowerShell Files)
Before you give away a PowerShell script to others, it is a good idea to digitally sign it. A signature acts like a “wrapper” for your...
SQL Performance, Part 3: Multiple Table Access Methods
In part one of our overview of SQL performance we examined relational optimization; part two took a look at query analysis and introduced...
Code-Signing Mini-Series (Part 3: Reading Certificates from Personal Store)
Certificates can be installed permanently by loading them into Windows certificate store. PowerShell can access this store via its cert: drive. The...
Code-Signing Mini-Series (Part 2: Reading Certificates from PFX Files)
In the previous tip we created new code-signing test certificates both as pfx file and located in your certificate store. Today, you’ll see...
Code-Signing Mini-Series (Part 1: Creating Certs)
To play with digital signatures, and discover how you can sign scripts and modules, you first need a code-signing certificate. If you can’t get one...
Six SQL Server performance boosters with your existing hardware
Nearly all successful applications can benefit from the performance-driven strategies outlined in this whitepaper. Many of the categories and items...