In SQL Server 2000, we had a nifty little utility called rebuildm.exe which would rebuild the master database in emergency situations. This utility was removed in SQL Server 2005 and has not been seen ...

A fundamental skill for DBAs is to have a firm understanding of the SQL Server database engine's system databases. Tim Chapman discusses these system databases. A fundamental skill for DBAs is to have ...

In SQL Server, the database can be stored in different files and filegroups. If your database is small (100 MB or less), you do not need to worry too much about files and filegroups. But if you have a ...

The landscape for database management systems is changing more rapidly these days than it has since the earliest days of the relational DBMS. Not only do we have an onslaught of NoSQL database systems ...

In the beginning, there were files. Later there were navigational databases based on structured files. Then there were IMS and CODASYL, and around 40 years ago we had some of the first relational ...

The heart of any relational database management system is the system catalog that documents the database objects and system settings being used. The system catalog offers a wealth of information about ...

Relational SQL databases, which have been around since the 1980s, historically ran on mainframes or single servers—that’s all we had. If you wanted the database to handle more data and run faster, you ...