Syncing Logins Across Managed Instance Failover Groups Failover Groups for Managed Instances are a great option to replicate data, but they don’t replicate key instance elements – one of which is logins that live in the master database. If …

Failover groups replicate data...
...but logins are your issue 😬

Here's how to keep them in sync 👇🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/04/14/s...

Why TOP (1) Can Return Multiple Rows (and Why That Matters) Having TOP (1) return multiple rows feels wrong… but that’s what WITH TIES can do. For a long time I used patterns like this to get the first record in a group: WITH…

TOP (1) returning multiple rows?

✅ Cleaner syntax
⚠️ Worse plan

👇🏼 You'll be paying the syn-tax 💰
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/04/07/w...

The biggest surprises I've seen:
- Jobs with shared or multiple schedules
- Missing history doesn't always mean unused
- Non-TSQL steps buried in otherwise simple jobs

They're easy to miss but painful to find during a migration

Querying msdb: A Pre-Migration Audit for SQL Agent Jobs Most SQL Server environments have more jobs, schedules, and hidden complexities than you realise. It’s only when you arrive at a migration and peek under the hood that the scale is clear. Her…

🤔 Do you actually know what's running on your SQL Server?

Most environments are busier than they look. A quick dive into msdb surfaces the full picture - especially before a migration 👇🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/03/31/q...

Blazing Fast (and Accurate) Searches Without an Index Last week I demonstrated a fast binary search approach to quickly slice through large unindexed tables. I love the approach, but it fell short in two key areas – drop-in usage, and proper bou…

🤔 Can you search a billion row table efficiently without an index?

👇🏼 Yep - and it can be faster than using one 🔥
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/03/24/b...

Blazing Fast Searches Without an Index I know, clickbait right? Hear me out. Searching vast log or audit tables without indexes is painful. Narrowing down a specific time range often means scanning millions or billions of rows. But that…

⚡ Faster than a scan
👀 Faster than an index (+ lookups)
🤯 No schema changes needed

Binary search over correlated data massively reduces the work needed to query large tables 👇🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/03/17/b...

Elevating Teams Notifications using Adaptive Cards Last week we looked at utilising Teams to make notifications more collaborative. This week I want to show how we can add more visual and interactive elements by adopting Adaptive Cards. What are Ad…

Adaptive Cards provide a richer and more interactive experience for your notifications in Teams 👇🏻
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/03/10/e...

Better Pipeline Notifications using Teams Whether running Data Factory, Synapse, or Fabric pipelines, things go wrong – and the de facto response is to send an email. We’ve looked at sending emails from pipelines before, but at…

Email alerts work... until they become noise 🙉
A simple Logic App brings pipeline notifications to Teams - with threads, replies, and tagging built in 👇🏻
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/03/03/b...

Simple, Consistent, and Effective Failure Tracking in SSIS SSIS packages provide great flexibility for integration between systems, but when they go wrong you can end up digging through logs or reports because every package logs differently. A standarised …

Simple, consistent, and effective failure tracking for SSIS using package-level Event Handlers 👇🏻
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/02/24/s...

More Context for Copilot with SSMS v22.3 Last week, Database Instructions landed for GitHub Copilot as part of the SSMS v22.3 release. Database Instructions piggyback on extended properties to give Copilot specific context about database …

🚀 Database Instructions have landed in SSMS

👶🏻 Today: Copilot gives better responses
👴🏻 Tomorrow: adoption could reshape how we collaborate around databases

It's early days, but this could be the start of something bigger 👇🏻
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/02/17/m...

T-SQL Tuesday #195 – How Has My Code Aged? This month, Pat asks us to consider how our code has aged. Like fine wine, or old milk? A common time to revisit old code is when something breaks. I was contemplating Pat’s question this wee…

This month's #tsql2sday looking at how code ages badly when it's not designed to fail 🧨
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/02/10/t...

Intentional Header Behaviour in Paginated Reports If you’ve tried to get header rows to repeat or scroll as you move through your paginated reports, you may have felt the frustration of getting them working correctly. Whether it’s Repo…

Power BI / Fabric / SSRS 📊 Header rows in paginated reports work well - until they don't. Here's how to fix their behaviour 👇🏻
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/01/27/i...

Week in Finland wrapped up 🇫🇮

Fortunate to venture out for numerous activities. Skiing was a standout with views like this 👇🏻

The unexpected highlight was ice karting - full on Tokyo Drift ❄️

T-SQL Tuesday #194 – Learning from Mistakes Part of the joy of new experiences is making mistakes and learning from them. For this month’s invitation, Louis Davidson asks us to share one of those mistakes to help others learn. The less…

This month's #tsql2sday focuses on learning from mistakes: Letting order become logic leads to fragile systems ⛓️‍💥
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/01/20/t...

Elevate Report Presentation with Apps in Power BI and Fabric When using Power BI or Fabric workspaces to browse reports, we’re greeted with a list of items and their attributes. While attention is given to report visuals such as bars, pies, candles, an…

📊 Power BI and Fabric workspaces are built for authors. Apps give consumers a better experience:
andybrownsword.co.uk/2026/01/13/e...

How've the last couple of weeks been?
Satisfactory (the game 🎮)
Exploring, planning, and optimising ⚒️... apparently efficient factories and pipelines are my thing 😉

The Halloween Problem and SQL Server It’s not the usual time of year to think about Halloween, but listening to Erik Darling and Kendra Little recently on the Dear SQL DBA podcast they mentioned a completely new topic to me: Hal…

What doesn't go bump in the night? The Halloween problem - because SQL Server solves it for you 🎃
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/12/30/t...

Understanding Return Types with ISNULL and COALESCE Last week we looked at how expressions are evaluated with the ISNULL and COALESCE functions. Whilst we’re in the area it’s worth running through how data types are selected for them too…

🧠 ISNULL and COALESCE may return the same value, but not the same type:
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/12/23/u...

Understanding Expression Evaluation with ISNULL and COALESCE When eliminating NULL values with SQL Server queries we typically reach for ISNULL or COALESCE to do the job. Generally speaking they’ll provide equivalent resul…

⚙️ ISNULL and COALESCE may return the same value, but not in the same way:
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/12/16/u...

T-SQL Tuesday #193 – A Note to the Past and a Warning from the Future This month’s invitation from Mike asks us to write a couple of notes – one to our past self, and one from our future self – focused on what we were concerned about, and what we sh…

This month's #tsql2sday, sharing a couple of notes with career advice:
👶🏼 ...to my past self
👴🏼 ...from my future self
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/12/09/t...

Sending Emails from Data Factory Pipelines Not all pipelines in Azure have native options for sending emails. The lucky Fabric folks have an Office 365 connection ready to rock. Data Factory and Synapse don’t have email capability bui…

🚀 Quick win: Add email support to ADF / Synapse pipelines with a lightweight Logic App 👇🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/12/02/s...

Winter is coming...
(stew in the slow cooker tonight 🍲)

The Cost of Convenience with the Import Data Wizard If you need to create a copy of a table in another database, the ‘Import Data’ option may seem convenient. If you’ve used this method to copy to your dev environment and found thi…

🔧 The Import Data wizard in SSMS copies columns, not schema. Don't lose the important bits 👇🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/11/25/t...

Understanding SQL Server’s Dedicated Admin Connection (DAC) Slow queries are one thing, but under heavy pressure, your SQL Servers might see failed connections or slow responses. When the server isn’t responding we want a back-door we can crack open. …

🚨 When SQL Server stops responding, the DAC might be your lifeline. See how it works in different offerings:
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/11/18/u...

Reduce Uptime and Costs for Azure Hosted Integration Runtimes If you have a Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR, or IR for short here) on an Azure Virtual Machine (VM), there’s a cost to keep it online. When used intermittently – for example dur…

☁️ If your Self-Hosted IR doesn’t need to run 24/7, switch the VM on for the work and off when you’re done - and save 💰
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/11/11/r...

Calling Logic Apps from Data Factory Pipelines Last week we looked at calling a Data Factory Pipeline from a Logic App. This week I thought we’d balance it out by taking a look at calling a Logic App from an Azure Data Factory (ADF) Pipel…

☁️ Calling Logic Apps from Pipelines ☁️
Web vs. WebHook: the patterns, pitfalls, and cost savings 💰
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/11/04/c...

Running Data Factory Pipelines in Logic Apps When building Azure Logic Apps we can use the Azure Data Factory connector to start a pipeline. However that action simply triggers a pipeline and doesn’t wait for it to finish. If …

Demonstrating the pattern for calling a pipeline from a Logic App and waiting for completion 🖐🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/10/28/r...

FTTP finally available and installed. Top class service from Openreach 🤝

Upward of 40x uplift on the old copper in one afternoon 🤯⚡

T-SQL Tuesday #191 – Art of the Parsable This month’s invitation from Steve asks us about our favourite string parsing routines. It conveniently popped up as I was trying out the new Regular Expression (Regex) functions in SQL Serve…

This month's T-SQL Tuesday looking at string parsing, and filling the Named Groups gap in SQL Server 2025's Regex functions 🧩
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/10/21/t...

Exploring Regular Expressions in SQL Server 2025 String parsing is a regular occurrence when it comes to data engineering. Splitting strings, converting, combining – all in an effort to bring some order. Sometimes we need a more p…

🧠 String parsing got an upgrade in SQL Server 2025 with Regular Expressions. Check out the expressions and the power they bring 💪🏼
andybrownsword.co.uk/2025/10/14/e...