Update: 07/08/2017 - Identified and fixed a bug with the Elapsed Days not showing accurately. Update: 31/7/2017 - We have improved the Stored Procedure, the revised version now includes Days elapsed in addition to Hours, Minutes and Seconds. There are quite a few Running agent job scripts out there , most of the ones I... Continue Reading →
sp_RestoreScript v1.1 Now Available
Holy Database Restores Batman, sp_RestoreScript 1.1 is now available in the Undercover Toolbox and at UNDERCOVER TOOLBOX: sp_RestoreScript – A Painless way to generate SQL Server database restore scripts. This update fixes an issue that we've found when running on SQL Servers prior to 2016.
Secret Codes And SQL Server, Part 2: Pimp Your Encryption Algorithms.
We had a little play around writing our own encryption algorithms and cracking them in Secret Codes And SQL Server, Part 1: Writing Our Own Encryption Algorithm and Cracking it. I thought I'd see if we can go a step further and start having a look at how we could take those basic ideas and try... Continue Reading →
Scripting out SQL Server Objects without the GUI
I quite often find myself scripting objects out via T-SQL rather than using the GUI, it's not that I have anything against using the GUI to script out a Stored procedure, it's just that sometimes this can be time-consuming especially when there are alot of stored procedures in the Programmability folder. I know that... Continue Reading →
UNDERCOVER TOOLBOX: When was my last backup taken?
One question that seems to come up on the forums again and again is, 'how can I see when my database was last backed up?'. There are always a bunch of answers and some very convoluted scripts thrown around. As a bit of a lunchtime quickie today I thought I'd share with you a script... Continue Reading →
Using the SQL Error log to help log meaningful errors for your Automated Restore jobs.
In one of my previous posts I went over a scenario where an Auto restore job was logging Restore errors to a table and the error that was being inserted was '3013 - RESTORE LOG is terminating abnormally' and this was due to SQL Server only providing the Last most error produced which is stored... Continue Reading →
Secret Codes And SQL Server, Part 1: Writing Our Own Encryption Algorithm and Cracking it.
After my last post on The Arcane Science of Bitwise Logic and SQL Server I was asked a couple of questions on where it's used so I thought I'd write a follow up post. At first I was going to write something on bitmaps but then a thought of another area where bitwise logic is... Continue Reading →
The Arcane Science of Bitwise Logic and SQL Server
Bitwise logic, it seems is one of those ancient areas of computing that's only remembered by those old guys that have been kicking around for years. But what is it and how can we use it in SQL? Before we start looking at bitwise logic and the bitwise operators, we need to have a quick... Continue Reading →