SQL Server Rocks!

Arthur Olcot

Arthur OlcotSQL Server Database Developer/Administrator. (MCITP Database Administration 2005 & 2008, MCITP Database Developer 2005 & 2008, MCDBA/MCSE). Background in developing OLTP/document based databases, SQLXML and performance tuning. Loves to read subject matter related books and blogs, but not a fast reader though!

I hope to create a number of interesting blogs dedicated to SQL server specifically around XML and performance and I welcome your feedback on the content or the website itself.

....I have an unhealthy fascination for the SQL query optimiser!!

Currently Reading

Recent Blogs

  • There is currently a lease on the blob and no lease ID was specified in the request

    Tags: Azure, backup, SQL 2012

    May 21 2013 9:05 PM
    (26 views) - 0 Comments

    I’ve been using the backup to Azure feature that shipped with SQL2012 SP1 CU2 and generally it works really well, but a couple of times I have had an issue where I wasn’t able to overwrite a previous backup file and received an error:

    Msg 3202, Level 16, State 1, Line 1Write on https://somestorage.blob.core.windows.net/somecontainer/MyDb.bak failed: Backup to URL received an exception from the remote endpoint. Exception Message: The remote server returned an error: (412) There is … more

  • How to backup a SQL 2012 database directly to Windows Azure

    Tags: Azure, SQL 2012, Disaster Recovery

    Apr 24 2013 8:37 PM
    (76 views) - 0 Comments

    It has been a little while since I posted something and I’ve been meaning to finish off this blog for a few weeks now, but I have been a little busy with the arrival of my 2nd son (and have been distracted by my new Alienware laptop!)… Anyway I recently blogged about how cool I thought the new feature was in SQL 2012 SP1 CU2 which allows you to natively backup/restore databases with Windows Azure Storage. Recently I have been able to set this up with some of the on-premise production databases … more

  • Retrieving the next or previous element node value in an Xml blob using XQuery

    Tags: XQuery, Xml, Xml Functions, Flwor

    Mar 13 2013 7:20 PM
    (319 views) - 1 Comment

    It’s been a little while since I wrote a blog post on my favourite subject but this is from a thread on the SSC Xml forum that I was helping out on a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been a bit busy lately with a big project at work, revising/taking exam 70-461 and getting ready for the birth of my second child! But this thread seemed too good a subject for me to miss quickly get a post out showing how I might approach this particular problem.

    Sometimes we are given a pretty poorly … more

  • SQLBits XI Agenda Announced

    Tags: SQLBits, Training

    Feb 13 2013 8:19 PM
    (103 views) - 1 Comment

    The agenda for the SQLBits event in May was announced today and after a quick look earlier today, it looks like there is a great choice covering a wide range of topics both in and around SQL server. Understandably there are a number of sessions on Azure, about 5 or 6 I think, which shows one of the main themes at the moment happening in the real world. I’m a big fan of Azure and the cloud and have been embracing it for various things where I work. For myself I can only see bigger adoption … more

  • Backup SQL database directly to Azure Storage

    Tags: Azure, backup, DR, SQL 2012, CU

    Jan 25 2013 9:33 AM
    (160 views) - 0 Comments

    There is a new CU update for SQL 2012 SP1 and I noticed a very interesting new feature described in the documentation blogged here.

    This is one of two new improvements and it is described as:

    You can now directly create a backup to Windows Azure Storage using SQL Server Native Backup functionality. This will allow users to back up a SQL Server database on an on-premises instance or on an instance of SQL Server that is running in a hosted environment, such as the Windows Azure Virtual Machine. … more