Author Archive

SSIS – TOKEN Expression

I've worked with SSIS for some time now, but a recent question and post pointed out an expression I'd never used before. We often have a need to split strings and pick out some portion of that

Calendar / Date Tables – An Introduction

What is a Calendar or Date table? Maybe you’ve worked with data warehouses before, in which case the concept of a “Date Dimension” is going to be familiar. If not, the general idea behind a Calendar or

Creating and Setting SQL Server Certificates with PowerShell

I recently had a need to add certificates to SQL Servers throughout an organization. There were quite a few servers to update and the certificates would need to be generated using a given format. This would include

Using PowerShell to restore Missing Windows Installer cache items

This seems oddly specific, but someone or something had cleared out many files from the Windows\Installer folder, probably to save space. (Sidenote, you can actually create a mount point for these that go on another drive as

SSIS Catalog (SSISDB) Cleanup – Revisited

I wrote about cleaning up the SSIS Catalog a while back, but needed to revisit this recently for a different use and needed something that can run in an ongoing manner. My earlier post still works, but

Quickly execute a folder of SQL scripts using dbatools and PowerShell

I have often run into a situation where it’s been necessary to execute a bunch of scripts handed to me by developers or others. When there are only a couple of scripts to run, it’s not a

Putting The PowerShell Window Title To Better Use | xkln.net

I’ll admit that I typically use VSCode for most of my scripting, but Milosh Djuric put together some neat PS to make the console window title more useful, including some code to show a progress meter. I

How SQL Server Professionals can benefit from using version control – Kevin Chant

Kevin has a great read on why Database people should use version control. It’s really easy to just keep files in e-mails, random folders, and maybe even snippets for tools, but those can quickly get out of

Checking and Configuring File Autogrowth for SQL Server

One thing that I seem to come across often enough is the old auto-growth settings from SQL Server. 1MB for data files, 10% for logs. This was a horrible default and is now adjusted to be a

Importing Registered Servers from SSMS into Azure Data Studio – Port 1433

Drew Furgiuele came up with a PS script to import your SSMS Registered Servers into Azure Data Studio. He wrote it up in much more detail here: Importing Registered Servers from SSMS into Azure Data Studio –