Erik Darling walks through something that can slow down your temp table loads. The video covers a scenario in which a user creates a temp table, loads some data from it, and also wants to include an identity integer. Erik shows how this can lead to sub-optimal performance, as well as one alternative if you really do need a monotonically increasing value on your temp table.
Comments closedDay: August 15, 2025
Randolph West clears up a few misconceptions about SQL Server Management Studio 21’s installer:
There’s been some confusion lately about the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) installation process for version 21.
Before Microsoft released SSMS 21, you had to download an installer file for each release (ever since SSMS was released as a standalone product with v16). This file eventually grew to be over 1GB, which is a significant download, especially in the case of a minor update.
With SSMS 21, Microsoft changed SSMS to use the Visual Studio installer.
Read on to learn more about the ramifications of this decision. And there is still a way to install SSMS 21 in a secure environment without outbound internet access, although it does require a few more steps in addition to “download executable and then deploy executable to other machines.”
Comments closedMercy Bassey grabs a certificate:
Running Postgres in Docker is great for a quick test but what if you want it to behave like a proper, production-style setup with SSL encryption, certificate-based authentication, persistent volumes, and custom configurations? In this article, we’ll find out how, tackling the various tasks involved such as:
- Generating and using self-signed SSL certificates with Postgres.
- Setting up a PostgreSQL Docker container that uses those certs for encrypted client connections.
- Configuring authentication for both automated services and human users.
- Controling the behavior of your Postgres instance using mounted config files.
Read on to see how.
Comments closedJosephine Bush deploys some resources:
I realized I never created a post to show how to deploy Terraform from VS Code. I haven’t done that in a while because I don’t do it at work. We have Azure DevOps pipelines to handle that, but I like to test my code on the side in my personal environment because I don’t have a pipeline set up to push the code. I don’t need a pipeline in my personal environment.
Now, I feel rusty on Terraform commands and how to run them from VS Code, so I’m writing this blog post so my future self can thank me. I could look it up on someone else’s website or ask an AI, but I would rather document this for myself.
Click through for a primer on those commands.
Comments closedHugo Kornelis dives into the arcane:
But what you probably don’t know is how that hash table is structured. How is the data stored? Where are new rows added, how is the table accessed?
To be fair, none of this is useful knowledge, unless you work for the engine team at Microsoft. And if you do, then you have access to source code and documentation, so you won’t need me to explain this structure to you. So why do I even take the trouble to investigate and describe this structure? Because I am a geek, and geeks love to dig into technical stuff and uncover things they were never meant to uncover.
“Because I can” is a perfectly valid reason to dig into a topic.
Comments closed