You have probably reached this page after receiving the following error message: Server ‘SERVERNAME’ is not configured for RPC. [SQLSTATE 42000] (Error 7411). This article will explain why you are receiving this error, and what can you do resolve it.

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your SQL Server Collation choice for your database (or server) will control how characters will be sorted and compared within the database or SQL Server in general.

DBAs must choose a collation carefully that matches the type of characters encountered in a particular database. It is important to take into account as well how this database will interact with other database in the same instances, or through a linked SQL Server instances.

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Until recently I had no idea SSIS allowed opening multiple connections to (flat) files, but due to the performance and parallelism implication of such a connection, I thought its definitely worth blogging about.

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Managing space on your SQL Server Transaction Log can sometimes be daunting, usually if you have a good backup strategy, and a well moderated database (in terms of monitoring and flagging long running transactions), then you will rarely run into unexpected large growth of your transaction log file. But in the real world this is rarely the case, and there will be occasions when you leave a very long transaction running over night (or days), or there is a schedule clash between two queries, or between a query and the backup schedule, which caused a failure in your log truncation strategy.

The daunting part is making sure that you recover from the situation with minimum data loss and disruption to the database’s recovery strategy. In this post I will go through the most common scenarios of transaction log growth, and how to resolve them.
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I recently have been asked to integrate a real-time Forex exchange prices widget to a financial website, there are quiet a lot of options out there, my aim was to get something that loads up asynchronously and quickly, while also ensuring that the widget itself is customizable in terms of look & feel, in order to fit the site’s stylings.
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This is actually a pretty cool bug in Google Plus, I am pretty certain Google will catch on quickly and resolve it, but while it lasts…
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Just a wee series of Google+ bugs i’ve noticed while playing around with the platform. Probably not going to update it again, and the series will end up being one post, but who cares.
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I write this post after a hellish experience that lasted a couple of hours trying to sort out the SSL certificate for SSRS.
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SQL Server’s Graphical Execution Plan contains a wealth of information that could be used to diagnose performance and maintenance (such as out of date statistics) issues.

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Klout has developed a really cool API that gauges a user’s “Social Influence” by aggregating the user’s activities and interactions within the social realm, The API is currently free access (up to a certain limit of usage), and still in Beta stage.

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