Error Message: The RPC server is unavailable during SQL Setup

Question: I have received a server from the server build team and I've started a Server set up. During the set up process , I'm getting an error message Error Message :The RPC server is unavailable How cam I fix this issue? Answer: I have seen this problem in a few situations. Typically it arises when I'm using a Domain account as a service set up account. For example - I may have a service account as a member of the MYDOMAIN domain. If the server cannot connect to a valid DNS server , where the sql server service account... Read more →

How to find list of AD groups of a user from SQL Server

An application owner reported a sudden loss of access to database tables . They'd been reading from the sql tables - but logged off for awhile , logged back on and couldn't see the tables. I logged on , could see the tables , so discounted any possibilities they may have been dropped. So the next question was to confirm the user logon still had the relevant privileges to see and read from the tables. I needed to check the user was in certain Active Directory Groups. I wanted to check this from the SQL Server side - and one... Read more →

Error Message : String or binary data would be truncated

Question: I'm trying to run an INSERT statement , on a table with a large amount of columns and millions of rows. When executing the query statement , I'm getting an error message: INSERT INTO myTable SELECT * FROM myTable1 ; Msg 8152, Level 16, State 30, Line 19 String or binary data would be truncated. The statement has been terminated. How can I fix this issue? Trying to find which specific row and column is causing the problem is the immediate problem. Once I can find which data is triggering the error , I can make the adjustment Answer:... Read more →

How to search SQL Server Agent Command Text for a string

Question: I'd like to find all SQL Server Agent Jobs with a certain string within the Command section . There's been a change in reference to a database table, therefore I need to review all SQL Server Agent Jobs and check they are not referencing this database table. Is there a sql query I can use to search for the string? As an extra request - do you have any advice on how to run this query across multiple SQL Server Instances and create a report? Answer: Both of these tasks are possible . Firstly , let's look at t-sql... Read more →

How to measure Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Performance

Question: What is the performance impact of enabling Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) on SQL Server database query performance? How can I measure the performance impact ? Answer: There is a general outline about the pros and cons of different Encryption on Encrypting data in SQL Server . So once you\ or your organisation has made the decision to enable TDE for SQL Server databases . it's time to assess the impact : performance , volume and DBA management overhead. According to the Microsoft documentation "TDE has an estimated performance impact around 3-5% and can be much lower if most of... Read more →