Learn how to build automated email alerts for blocking chains and long-running queries on Amazon RDS for SQL Server. This serverless solution uses AWS Lambda, Amazon CloudWatch, and Amazon SES to…

Tick tock. SQL Server 2017 extended support ends on October 12, 2027. That means today, you need to start working through this list of labor-intensive tasks: Talk to your compliance, insurance, and…

It's a cold, gloomy day on the very last Alaskan cruise of the season. Yes, I picked this on purpose! While I talk about why this is a fun cruise to be on, let's take your top-voted questions from Prefer listening to this via podcast? Good news! You can now subscribe to Office Hours on Spotify, Apple Podcasts…

ALT: Vanity Vain Says Ho Ho Ho

There's a new SQL Server Management Studio update out today. I'd hold off on it for now. I had problems with the upgrade, and when I mentioned it on LinkedIn, a couple other folks chimed in that they're having problems with it, so I figured I should blog about it as well. If you do update it, do not use the built-in check for updates.

Microsoft has started a series of blog posts helping Postgres developers who are "upgrading" to Microsoft SQL. (Microsoft's been using that generic "SQL" term to refer to its collection of database products: Azure SQL DB, Hyperscale, Managed Instances, and SQL Server.) I let the first blog post slide, but the second post explained why Microsoft is so much better than Postgres at handling connections…

ALT: Ummmmmm Excuse Me Blinking Meme

sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint has no limit in SQL Server 2025: each waiting call holds a worker. Compared with Azure SQL.

You’re a developer or a DBA, and you’re comfortable writing queries to get the data you need. You’re much less comfortable trying to design the right indexes for your database server. In my new totally free How to Think Like the Engines class, you’ll learn how the SQL Server and Postgres database engines look at your indexes and build your query results.

Tick tock. SQL Server 2017 extended support ends on October 12, 2027. That means today, you need to start working through this list of labor-intensive tasks: Talk to your compliance, insurance, and legal people to see if your company is subject to any rules or regulations that mean you're not allowed to run software if it isn't under manufacturer support…

How well do you know SQL Server? Swipe right for true, left for false, and find out.

Claude Dashboards and Claude Motion are in beta. Docs, Slides, and Design are now on every plan, including Free.

On Wednesday, registration opens for the next round of my live training classes, and you can get access to all my live classes & recordings for just $995. So, what’s been changing with databases &…

What's the best way to transition from working alone to working with others? Why did Unchained Reaction only get six episodes on Discovery Channel? In this live stream Adam Savage answers these…

I hope you never have to look for another job. However, if you do, I wanna give you as much reinforcement as I can. If you’re the kind of person who attends my live classes, pays attention, asks…

When we were kids, we knew we were in for something heavy whenever a TV series began an episode with a title card explaining, "This is a very special episode of ___." It meant they were gonna discuss something heavy, like cancer or drugs or loss. Well, in this Very Special Episode of Office Hours, we're going to talk about what's happening to tech jobs in the wake of AI.

September 22, 2026

I teach Microsoft SQL Server performance tuning in a 4-class rotation. The winter rotation is getting ready to start: Fundamentals Week – November 2-6 Mastering Index Tuning – November 30-Dec 4…

Is your company hiring for a database position as of October 2026? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let's make a love connection. If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules: Your comment must include the job title, and either a link to the full job description, or the text of it.

According to the arrest report, Carli Michelle Heller, of Bonita Springs, Florida, wrote on September 26 that she would attack the Sheriff's office. She later said that...

Migrating SQL Server Full-Text Search to Babelfish for Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL is one of the trickier parts of a migration. This post presents a six-checkpoint decision tree to assess whether your…