Category: Beginner

TRY, CATCH, and Transactions

The T-SQL TRY/CATCH structure (“new” in SQL 2005!) is, as the professionals say, da bomb. It’s also underused and under-understood, so let’s talk about the basics. (Or, you can skip to the summary at the end.) A group of Transact-SQL statements can be enclosed in a TRY block. If an error occurs in the TRY […]

FileTable: SQL Server 2012’s little gasp-maker

When was the last time you looked at a SQL Server new feature list and said, “Ohhh, WOW!”?  Was it around March of last year? No? Then you might have missed something really, really cool. Let me introduce you to my friend, SQL Server 2012’s FileTable. A Brief History of Files Before SQL Server 2008, […]

Clustering Concepts for the Common Man

SQL Server clusters are widely used, and widely misunderstood, which makes people like our good friend (and clustering MVP) Allan Hirt cry bitter tears. So here are a few notes for you and yours. Cluster IS NOT Disaster Recovery A cluster does not protect against disaster. Unless it’s a very, very, very limited scope disaster […]