The Ashdar Partners Blog

This is great: SQL Sentrys' Plan Explorer(tm) is now free for all users. I haven't been doing much plan analysis lately, as I have been working with largely legacy SQL Server 2008 R2 (and earlier) code.  I did spend a lot of time with the free version of Plan Explorer about a year and a half ago. I'm unaware of a better tool for it's specific task. While I am on the subject, the other things that round out my SSMS extensions are: Poor Man's T-Sql Formatter . There is a downloadable for SSMS & Visual Studio. Mladen Prajdić 's  SSMS Tools Pack .  I have been surviving on this, mostly, as it's free for legacy use and I've got a lot of legacy... Redgates' SQL Search tool .  It is a little quirky, but I've been using it for years and I'm well used to it. I've been experimenting with the ApexSQL Refactor and Search tools lately, but I haven't committed to them yet. I like the "reformat" that Apex provides. It is ...

Here is a Run As Radio chat with Jeffery Snover . Jeffery Snover is the person most responsible for PowerShell, which revolutionized my approach to database administration. He has a background in scripting going back to VMS (IIRC), which is how he came to create PowerShell. His Twitter bio lists "Microsoft Technical Fellow/ Lead Architect for Enterprise Cloud Group/ Azure Stack Architect/ PowerShell Architect / Science fan". From my point of view, he directs strategy for Windows administration. I listen to him because the things he talks about are likely to influence my work life and they give insight into how the PowerShell team expect people to use their product. The podcast covers a variety of things in a light way. The thing that grabbed my attention the most was that Snover seems to be saying that Windows will be implementing things similar to what linux does with root and sudo. (My linux experience is limited but my two takeaways are: You never log in ...