23Aug 2017 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Redgate Hub LiveStream

Redgate Software
Over at Redgate, we've been working on a new way to get information to you. It's called the Redgate Hub. Check it out. To help you understand this new resource, and to show off some cool new material, we've decided to host a livestream event, Redgate Hub Launch on September 6th. Redgate Hub Launch Livestream If you've attended a Redgate event before, you'll have some idea of what we're about. If you haven't, this is your chance to see exactly what we do and how we do it. If you follow the link above to the Launch event you can check out the agenda. We're covering a bunch of topics. It's going to be fun. I'm even doing a presentation based on my new article that just got published. It's…
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05May 2017 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Redgate Alexa Contest Winners!

Redgate Software
A couple of weeks ago we had a small contest here to pick a skill for Alexa. The entries were all wonderful, but I could only pick five as winners with one of them being the top winner. Thanks everyone for playing. In no particular order, here are the four runner's up, followed by the final winner along with my comments. Adrian Porter:  Alexa, let's get real here! Please protect me from my stupid self. Take whatever measures needed. And for the final time, I don't want to play chess, let's play Global Thermonuclear War! [major points for an excellent nerd reference and one of my favorite movies] Zingiber: Alexa, drive me to work [You have to love the short simple set of instructions here, plus, extra time to read…
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06Mar 2017 by Grant Fritchey 41 Comments

SQL Clone and a Little Competition

Database Lifecycle Management, DevOps, Redgate Software
Redgate has released a new product, SQL Clone. I've already talked about how excited I am about it. Now, it's your turn to get excited. Our developers evidently had too much time on their hands after building SQL Clone. They created a skill in Alexa that lets you clone a database using voice commands. In fact, I was recently visiting Redgate HQ and was able to try it out and you can watch here. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zI2Oj9EZM8&feature=youtu.be[/embed] Now, in celebration of the launch of SQL Clone, we want to enable you to do some voice commands of your own. We're giving away five Amazon Echo Dots and one copy of SQL Clone to an overall winner. To enter, go into the comments and let us know what skill you would like to build for Alexa…
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27Feb 2017 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

SQL Clone

Tools
Today is the launch of SQL Clone, a great new tool that helps you quickly and easily provision SQL Server databases for development and testing. Oh god, that sounds like marketing speak. To heck with that. Let me tell you why I'm so excited about SQL Clone and why I think you're going to be excited too. Once Upon a Time... Almost two years ago one of the developers here at Redgate called me over. He wanted to show off this neat trick he'd figured out. What I saw was a good-sized database, about 200gb, created on his local instance of SQL Server in about 10 seconds. Now, that's fast. Further, he showed me the files and disk space on his machine, and it was only taking up a few…
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28Nov 2016 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Database Clone

SQL Server 2016, T-SQL
There are a bunch of ways you could create a database clone. Backup and restore is one method. Export/Import is another. There are even third party tools that will help with that. However, each of these has a problem. It's moving all the data, not just once, but twice. You move the data when you export it and you move it again when import it (same thing with backup and restore). That makes these methods slow for larger databases. How can you create a database clone without moving the data multiple times? Don't Move the Data At All New with SQL Server 2016, expanded in SP1, and added to SQL Server 2014 SP2 is a new command, DBCC CLONEDATABASE. This is like a dream come true. The use is extremely…
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