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SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server in practice: installation, Always On availability groups, backup and restore, performance tuning, security, PowerShell automation, SQL Server on Linux and upgrades.

Monitoring MSSQL Database Files in Zabbix

Introduction Monitoring Microsoft SQL Server database files is an important part of infrastructure supervision.A database reaching its storage limit can rapidly lead to application outages, transaction failures, or even complete service interruptions. The Initial Problem In SQL Server, retrieving file information is relatively simple when working directly inside SQL Server Management Studio A common query used by many DBAs is… 

SQL Server Always On Availability Groups and Database Master Keys: A Hidden Failover Pitfall

I recently came across an interesting case involving a client whose application used SQL Server symmetric keys to encrypt sensitive data. The database was hosted in an Always On Availability Group environment for high-availability and disaster-recovery. The interesting and challenging aspect of this setup is ensuring that the encryption and decryption remains intact after a failover. This challenge originates from… 

Data Point Prague 2026

For the first time, I joined some days ago the Data Point Prague . The biggest International Data Conference in Prague. A two-day event dedicated to advancing knowledge in data technologies. Thanks to dbi-services to let me the possibility to attend this event. Thursday, May 28, 2026 The first day was dedicated to pre-conference Workshops. I choose the workshop “Performance… 

Customer case study – automating SQL Server TLS Encryption with Ansible and Certificates (Architecture)

When working with SQL Server environments, securing client connections can become an important requirement, especially when TLS encryption must be implemented using certificates. In this context, a customer asked us to develop an Ansible playbook and role to automate the configuration of TLS for SQL Server. The certificates are generated from the customer PKI and provided as PEM files containing… 

SQL Server Snapshot Backup and Restore with Proxmox ZFS – REST API with SQL Server 2025 (3/4)

The proposed architecture consists in adding a small internal REST API on the Proxmox server in order to expose a controlled ZFS snapshot operation. SQL Server 2025 can then call this API through sp_invoke_external_rest_endpoint, instead of running SSH commands directly or relying on an external tool. The role of the API is deliberately limited: it receives a snapshot request, checks… 

SQL Server Snapshot Backup and Restore with Proxmox ZFS (1/4)

We are currently working with clients on migrations to SQL Server 2022 and SQL Server 2025. During a discussion with one client, we reviewed some of the benefits introduced in the latest SQL Server 2022 and 2025 releases. Among the available features, starting with SQL Server 2022, we have: Starting with SQL Server 2025: The customer’s environment consists of a… 

When a Python driver configuration issue may cause blocking in SQL Server

One of our clients encountered blocking during their daily data load. The process loads several million rows and then performs an ALTER TABLE … SWITCH operation into a partitioned table. This operation usually takes some time, but in this case it became blocked. Context Initially, I did not have access to much information. The only element I received from the… 

SQLDay 2026 Workshops Overview

SQLDay 2026 offers a full-day workshop program on 11 May 2026, before the main conference scheduled for 12–13 May 2026 in Wrocław, with onsite and online participation options depending on the session. The workshops cover several areas of the modern data platform: advanced BI, AI and MLOps, SQL performance tuning, PostgreSQL adoption, and Microsoft Fabric automation. DAX – Beyond the…