Column Level Encryption in SQL Server

In my last article, Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) in SQL Server I talked about enabling encryption at the entire database level and in this article I am going to further discuss and demonstrate a more granular level or each individual cell or column level encryption in detail and how it differs from Transparent Data Encryption (TDE). For more information click here.

Extending SSIS Capabilities by Creating Custom SSIS Components for SharePoint

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) - a component of SQL Server - is an extensible platform for building high performance data integration (ETL - Extraction, Transformation and Loading) and workflow solutions. The extensibility part of SSIS comes from the fact that, the developers have ability to create custom components if the in-built components of it do not suffice the specific need. The platform makes it very simple to embed your own code into control flow or data flow pipeline.

This article demonstrates how to create custom SSIS components (connection manager, source component and destination component) that integrate data to/from SharePoint lists and work like any other native components of SSIS utilizing the SSIS pipeline for better performance. For more information click here.

Snapshot Isolation Level in SQL Server - What, Why and How Part 2

Introduced in SQL Server 2005, Snapshot Isolation levels improve performance, however, there are some caveats to consider when using this feature. Some people use it frequently, as it minimizes blocking and improves performance/concurrency, without knowing its impact on maintaining versions in tempdb. Others stay away from it because of this extra overhead. Some people are confused by the two variants of snapshot isolation level (Read Committed Snapshot Isolation (RCSI) and Snapshot Isolation (SI)) and use one variant where the other is needed or vice versa. In my last article (Snapshot Isolation Level in SQL Server - What, Why and How – Part 1) I talked about basic of isolation levels and snapshot based isolation levels and how they differ from each other in terms of performance and cost; in this article I am going to demonstrate how to use these isolation levels with examples; for more information click here.

Snapshot Isolation Level in SQL Server - What, Why and How - Part 1

Snapshot Isolation level was introduced in SQL Server 2005 and has been available ever since. Snapshot isolation levels improve performance but there are couple of things to take into consideration when using this feature. Some people use it frequently as it minimizes blocking and improves performance/concurrency without knowing its impact on maintaining versions in tempdb, whereas some people stay away from it because of this extra overhead. Some people get confused about the two variants of snapshot isolation level (Read Committed Snapshot Isolation (RCSI) and Snapshot Isolation (SI)) and use one where the other is needed or vice versa.  In this article, I am going to discuss what snapshot isolation levels are, their variants, why and when we should use them and how we should start using this feature with examples, for more information click here.

Managing and Monitoring SQL Server Service Broker Environments

Service Broker applications run in the background. You send a message and your command returns immediately. In the background, Service Broker keeps on trying to send the message to the destination service (Queue) until it puts the message there, times out or you end the conversation. These things all happen transparently to you and your sending application. So how would you troubleshoot your Service Broker applications if they're not working as expected, and how would you identify if something goes wrong? For for information click here.

Short-cut keys for commonly used tasks in SSMS - Part 2

We often overlook different SSMS shortcut keys which provide a boost in DBA and Developer productivity. In the second tip of this series (SQL Server Management Studio keyboard shortcuts - Part 1), I am going to further explain shortcut keys for managing Intellisence, debugging, running your code and many more...click here

Short-cut keys for commonly used tasks in SSMS - Part 1

As responsibilities are growing every day, a DBA or developer needs to improve his/her productivity. One way to do this is to use as many shortcuts as possible instead of using your mouse and the menus. In this tip we take a look at common tasks you may perform when using SSMS and the associated shortcut keys, for more details click here.

Understanding SQL Server Net-Libraries

I know that SQL Server and its clients interact with each other using different Net-Libraries or network protocols. But what are these Net-Libraries that SQL Server uses and how do each of these differ from the others. Also, in which scenario is one preferred over the others? SQL Server provides different Net-Libraries, known as Dynamic-Link Library (DLL), to let clients communicate with SQL Server using different network protocols. These Net-Libraries specify which networking protocols to use while exchanging data back and forth between SQL Server and the clients. To learn more about it click here.

Understanding SQL Server Net-Libraries

I know that SQL Server and its clients interact with each other using different Net-Libraries or network protocols. But what are these Net-Libraries that SQL Server uses and how do each of these differ from the others. Also, in which scenario is one preferred over the others? To learn about it click here.

Event Notifications in SQL Server

SQL Server 2005 and onwards provides event notifications mechanism for tracking all events or changes happening at the database or instance level. This can be done with DDL triggers or SQL traces, but event notifications have the advantage of being asynchronous in nature and running outside of the scope of the transaction and hence it can run inside (or be a part of) a database application to capture defined events without using the resources allocated to the transaction. For more details, click here.

Configuring Proactive Caching in SQL Server

The proactive caching feature ensures a cube or a measure group partition or dimension reflects current data on its own. Depending on your choice of proactive caching enabled storage mode, interception of data change notification, storage location and update frequency will vary.

You use the Storage Settings dialog box in BIDS (Business Intelligence Development Studio) to set the proactive caching feature, storage location, and notification settings for a dimension, cube, measure group, or measure group partition, for more details click here.

Introduction to SQL Server Proactive Caching

Mostly data warehousing and Business Intelligence (BI) applications work on historical data, which are normally refreshed once in a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Although there are some near real time data warehousing and BI applications, their query performance is painfully slow. To help in this scenario, Analysis Services (Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and later versions) provides an amazing feature called "Proactive Caching". This new feature gives a query performance, similar to what you had with historical data, with near real time data and minimal impact on the overall system. As a BI developer, you just need to configure proactive caching, and then SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) will ensure that you get the performance of a fully processed data warehouse on near real time data, for more details click here.

Instant File Initialization for SQL Server 2005/2008

This article discusses Database Instant File Initialization, which instructs the OS to allocate the required disk space immediately before actually zero-ing out the content from the allocated space. This means the content of the allocated disk area remains there until SQL overwrites it, improving the performance and reducing the downtime. Read on to learn more...

Using a Data Access Application Block (DAAB)

Microsoft Enterprise Library provides several reusable software components (application blocks) which help developers simplify common development tasks, minimize development efforts and help address common problems related to performance/optimization/reusability release over release. These components are provided along with source code which developers can use "as-is" or customize per their projects need. Data Access Application Block (DAAB) is one of these components which simplifies the data access mechanism. Data Access Application Block provides a consistent data access mechanism to execute both Stored Procedures and inline SQL statements across projects/enterprises along with transaction support also. For more details, click here for Part1 article and click here for Part 2 article.

SQL Server Service Broker Components - Service, Conversation, Conversation Groups, Routes, SEND and RECEIVE Commands

In my last article SQL Server Service Broker Components - Message Types, Contracts and Queue, I discussed the Initiator, Target, Message Types, Contract and Queue components of SSBS. In this article I will be talking about the Service, Conversation, Conversation group, SEND and RECEIVE commands, Route and how these components are related to each other. For more details, click here.

Writing a Data Access Layer (DAL) in ADO.NET

Almost every application being developed stores data in some or other form to make it persistent, this could be either storing it in file system, Excel sheet, XML format or in relational database. So each time, when you develop an application, you are required to write code for storing and retrieving data from these data sources.
In this article, I am going to show you how you can create a Data Access Layer (to store, retrieve and manage data in relational database) in ADO .NET. I will show how you can make it data provider independent, so that you don't have to re-write your data access layer if the data storage source changes overtime and also you can reuse it in other applications that you develop. For details, click here.

SQL Server 2008 System Functions to Research Tables, Views, Indexes, Columns, Stored Procedures, etc.

SQL Server provides several system meta data functions to get property values for different object types. Each system meta data function has a set of properties you can query using the system meta data function. In this article, I am going to outline examples on the following functions, for details click here.

• OBJECTPROPERTY and OBJECTPROPERTYEX
• INDEXPROPERTY
• COLUMNPROPERTY

SQL Server Service Broker Components - Initiator, Target, Message Types, Contracts and Queue

In my last article, I talked about SQL Server Service Broker at introductory level. In this article I am going to cover some of the components of Service Broker viz. Initiator, Target, Message Types, Contract and Queue, for more details click here.

SQL Server Service Broker - An Introduction

SQL Server Service Broker (SSBS or SSB) is a new architecture (introduced with SQL Server 2005 and enhanced further in SQL Server 2008) which allows you to write asynchronous, decoupled, distributed, persistent, reliable, scalable and secure queuing/message based applications within the database itself. This integration of queuing and message based infrastructure into the database provides several advantages from other message/queuing based applications out of the database. In this introductory article on SSBS, I discuss SSBS on a very basic level, how it differs from MSMQ, SSBS architecture and its different components. For more details, click here.

SQL Server 2008 System Functions to Monitor the Instance, Database, Files, etc.

SQL Server provides several system meta data functions which allow users to obtain property values of different SQL Server objects and securables, for example

• SERVERPROPERTY
• DATABASEPROPERTY
• FILEGROUPPROPERTY
• FILEPROPERTY
• OBJECTPROPERTY
• COLUMNPROPERTY
• INDEXPROPERTY
• CONNECTIONPROPERTY
• SESSIONPROPERTY

Although you can also use the SQL Server catalog views or Dynamic Management Views to obtain much of this information, in some circumstances the system meta data functions simplify the process. In this tip I am going to demonstrate some of the available system meta data functions and their usage in different scenarios, for more details click here.