I'm currently working on a project where I need to quickly make pretty graphs and charts for data in small but important SharePoint lists. After looking through a number of books and consulting with my SharePoint buddies, PowerPivot for SharePoint 2010 seems to be the best tool for the job. Getting it to work hasn't …

I hope I never have to use this article, but if I do, it will be a lifesaver. Check out Paul Randal's post on recovering a SUSPECT database that's been detached. He shows not only how to corrupt a database whilst keeping it functional, he also shows just why detaching a SUSPECT database is a horrible idea....and how …

This set of maintenance plans has been recommended by SQL Pros one too many times to ignore. If you have a rather standard environment, check out Ola Hallengren's scripts for SQL Server Backup, Integrity Check, Index and Statistics Maintenance. Actually, if you have a pretty high end environment, you can explore it as …

I have a relational table in SQL Server that I access in SharePoint 2010 as an External Content Type. The table, disks, has an FK (serverID) that is associated with a PK in another table, servers, via an Association Operation. Once I create a list and add it to a webpage, I am unable to select the serverID column or …

Recently, I worked with a client who uses block level replication software (think XOsoft/Arcserve) for their clustered SQL Server databases. During proactive testing one night, replication was broken and the failover server was brought up. For the first time in years, the procedure failed and the primary application …

One of the biggest annoyances of SharePoint 2007 was the lack of a native ability to work directly with SQL Server tables. SharePoint 2010 has addressed that issue with External Content Types. ECT's combine the best of both worlds -- you can modify and manage tables as usual in SQL Server, and display them (somewhat) …

Recently, I had a database go into the dreaded SUSPECT mode after a failed byte-level replication. Once I brought it into EMERGENCY mode, an unknown, automated program immediately connected to it from several different servers. Killing the connections and setting the db to single-user mode only created more headaches …

SQL Server 2008 has backup compression built-in, but for SQL Server 2005 and below, you can compress backups using makecab from the command line or xp_cmdshell. Makecab even has a better compression ratio than gzip and does not require additional software to be installed on the server. 1makecab D:\backups\dbname.bak …

My hero, Brad McGehee, has often advised against shrinking the transaction log when it's unnecessary. According to his (really amazing) SQL Server guidance, shrinking too often can lead to increased file fragmentation and excessive use of resources allocated to grow/shrink the file. See Brad's SQL Server articles for …

Note (2025): This post focuses on deploying SSIS Maintenance Plans for SQL Server 2005/2008 using the Microsoft.SqlServer.ManagedDTS 10.0 assembly. The guidance remains accurate for those versions. For newer SQL Server releases, use the corresponding ManagedDTS assembly that ships with SSIS/SSDT (for example, v13–v16). …