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 1 Write on https://somestorage.blob.core.windows.net/somecontainer/MyDb.bak failed: Backup to URL received […]
Read MoreIt 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 […]
Read MoreIt’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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreThere 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 […]
Read MoreI bet you are half wondering what is the first? Well that would be the birth of my second child which due in March so you could say that SQLBits XI is my most ‘professional’ eagerly awaited event of 2013. Last Friday I was just about to head off to get some lunch at around 12 and I just happened […]
Read MoreSometimes we need to retrieve a list distinct values from within an xml instance or even distinct nodes and this is relatively straight forward using XQuery. It gets a bit more complicated if you have attributes in the xml, but it is still possible to retrieve unique xml nodes. On the flip side, it is also possible to only return […]
Read MoreEdit (04-Apr-2017) I have since deactivated my Facebook account for the time being but I shall leave this blog post active as I still believe the post is fair reflection on the subject I read a blog a few months ago by Ramkumar Gopal (blog) in which he had setup a Facebook page to record and post things that he […]
Read MoreWhen I saw an email from SQLBits announcing SQLBits XI in East Midlands in my inbox this morning, it simply made my day! Fantastic!!! I can’t wait now until the registration is open as I’ll be signing up as quickly as I can for the full event. I’m already seeking approval from my company for them to fund this as […]
Read MoreOver the weekend I received an email supposedly from Microsoft Live wanting me to verify my account and provided a verification code in the email to do that. It was a simple plain text email with no images or anything so I thought that this was just a spoof email attempt. I hovered the mouse over the link to where […]
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