Microsoft’s Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) for SQL is a real time-saver for IT admins and even DBAs. The tool scans your system, reporting back all configuration settings, complete with very ...

As a heavy user of other RDBMS data platforms, I have long appreciated the extra effort that Microsoft put into their data management and administration tool, the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

My toolbox typically includes the tools that Microsoft ships to manage SQL Server, like SQL Server Management Studio and Azure Data Studio, Windows Performance Monitor (perfmon) and a selection of ...

Certainly you can do all those things in the SQL Server administration tools, writing your own SQL at the command line. Unless you're a SQL expert, though, that process can be lengthy and error-prone.

The SQL Server Vulnerability Assessment tool (VA) is a feature within SQL Server Management Server (SSMS) 17.4 that scans your SQL Server instances of version 2012 and later, identifies security ...

Other profiling tools have richer features (which you’ll pay for); but a SQL Server licence allows you to use this modest profiling tool at no extra cost. Let’s explore the tool by profiling ...

This tool is built into SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to let users detect, classify, and report sensitive data stored within their databases.

Sometimes you don't need a full-fledged database-management environment. Maybe you just need to go in and add a field, change a table or write an ad hoc query. Certainly you can do all those things in ...