Obtaining Identity Column Values in SQL Server

When you enter a new record into a table that contains an identity column, the identity value will be set with the next available identity value. Lots of times your database design requires you to obtain the value that was used to set the identity column. The identity value will be used to populate other tables that need to have a foreign key relationship with the inserted record. Therefore you need to be able to return the identity column value of the newly inserted record.


http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3931466/Obtaining-Identity-Column-Values-in-SQL-Server.htm

SQL Server Foreign Key Update and Delete Rules

Foreign key constraints are an integral part of SQL Server database design. These are used to maintain integrity among related data in different tables. While implementing update and delete operations on values in the parent table (referenced table with primary key) we have to consider the impact on related values in the child table. SQL Server provides different rules for managing the effect of updates and deletes on child table values. How can these rules be used effectively without threatening the relational integrity?


http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=2365

Continuous Integration for SQL Server Databases

When it comes to the subject of putting databases into source control, Troy Hunt is no shrinking violet. “Database source control is no longer negotiable”. In this article, published originally in his Blog, Troy explains how to do Continuous Integration from a database that is in a Version Control System (VCS).
http://www.simple-talk.com/content/article.aspx?article=1247

You’re deploying it wrong!
http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/11/you-deploying-it-wrong-teamcity.html

Top 10 Mistakes When Building and Maintaining a Database

Building and maintain a SQL Server database environment takes a lot of work. There are many things to consider when you are designing, supporting and troubleshooting your environment. This article identifies a top ten list of mistakes, or things that sometimes are overlooked when supporting a database environment.


http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/3906986/Top-10-Mistakes-When-Building-and-Maintaining-a-Database.htm

Partition offset and allocation unit size of a disk for SQL Server

SQL Server performance is dependent on the server resources available and disk performance is probably the most important resource.  To maximize disk performance for SQL Server, I've always been told that the drive's partition offset must be set to 32K and the allocation unit size set to 64K for partitions that hold data and 8K for partitions that hold logs.  How do I find out the allocation unit size and partition offset for my drives?.


http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=2119

How Old Are Your Database Statistics?

Unlike fine wine, database statistics do not improve with age. I recently helped out with a client who was having issues with poor query performance on a SQL Server 2005 instance on very good hardware. After having them run my standard SQL Server 2005 Diagnostic Information queries, nothing glaringly obvious was jumping out at me. Sure, there were a couple of missing indexes that needed to be added, but overall query performance was still pretty bad. The server as a whole was not under obvious CPU, memory, or IO pressure.


http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/glennberry/archive/2010/8/30/how-old-are-your-database-statistics_3F00_.aspx

Restoring Exchange Server 2010 using Windows Server Backup

In my last article we discussed how to benefit from the built-in windows server backup feature of Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 and perform healthy backups of your Microsoft Exchange databases for free, without the need for any 3rd party tool. Today, we are going to go over the restore process by looking at two different situations; the first one is when we have experienced a complete loss of one database, and the second is when we need to recover just a single item from a mailbox.


http://www.simple-talk.com/sysadmin/exchange/restoring-exchange-server-2010-using-windows-server-backup/?utm_source=simpletalkExchange&utm_medium=email-sysadmin&utm_content=Restoring-20100706&utm_campaign=Exchange