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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(…)

How Row Goal shapes your SQL Server query strategy by hunting for pierogis

Mastering SQL Server Row Goals and how TOP, EXISTS, and FAST N influence execution plans and how to avoid performance traps in your queries(…)

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

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(…)

SQL Server Snapshot Backup and Restore with Proxmox ZFS – Powershell implementation (2/3)

In the previous section, we discussed the drawbacks of running the commands manually. Indeed, the manual process was taking too much time and could directly impact the database state while the freeze was occurring. To address this issue, it is(…)

SQL Server Snapshot Backup and Restore with Proxmox ZFS (1/3)

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(…)

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(…)

A Misleading SSAS Error in Power BI Report Server When Using DirectQuery Mode

Our client was experiencing issues after publishing a report that used Direct Query mode. Specifically, when the report was queried, the following error occurred: Error :  We couldn’t connect to the Analysis Services server. Make sure you’ve entered the connection(…)

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(…)

Stop measuring ECM success like this

As I’ve mentioned in some of my previous blog posts, ECM projects don’t fail because of the chosen technology. Most products can meet the necessary requirements. The choice of a solution is driven more by other aspects, such as the(…)

PostgreSQL 19: Dynamically adjust the I/O worker pool

When PostgreSQL 18 was released last year one of the major features was the introduction of the asynchronous I/O subsystem. The main configuration parameter for this was (and still is)(…)