How to fix when you can’t copy data when RDPed into a server

So you are RDPed into your SQL Server, and you are trying to copy a script from your desktop to the server, or from the server to your desktop.  But you can’t for some reason.  All you get is what’s in the local buffer.

One option is to log out of the machine and log back in.  But this option sucks.

Another option which is much easier is to kill the rdpclip.exe process which is being run by your username on the server you are RDPed into.  Then from the Run window relaunch the rdpclip.exe process.  This should then allow you to copy the data into the clipboard again, and then paste it on the remote machine.

Denny

Very useful little query to monitor the health of service broker

While dealing with a SQL Server Service Broker issue I needed a quick easy way to see how backlogged the service broker was.  So I came up with this little query which is surprisingly effective.

select far_service, state_desc, count(*) messages
from sys.conversation_endpoints
group by state_desc, far_service
ORDER BY far_service, state_desc

Hopefuly you find this helpful.

Denny

Does your SQL Server database improve SharePoint performance?

This morning I posted by first article up on SearchWinIT.com called “Does your SQL Server database improve SharePoint performance?“. It is all about getting the most out of your SharePoint environment by getting the most out of your SQL Server.

Denny

How Healthy is my SQL Server Enterprise webcast has been archived

I’m happy to say that the webcast which I did with Jason Hall on Thursday October 30, 2008 has been archived for after the fact viewing. They say that it is up there for a limited time, so I’m not sure how long it will actually be available for.

You can find the webcast over in Quest Software’s Events section.

Denny

Improving SQL Service Broker Performance

A while back I was talking to a Microsoft Support Engineer and he had mentioned that in a high load Service Broker environment such as ours there can be some impressive performance improvement can be achieved by reusing the service broker sessions.

The cost of creating and closing a new conversation for every message is about 4x, while the performance increase when receiving messages is about 10x.  Remus Rusanu talks more about the numbers and shows a solution for reusing conversations on his blog posting Reusing Conversations.

I liked Remus’s solution, but an issue that I had with it was that I didn’t want to have a different conversation for each spid.  If I used this method I would end up having hundreds of conversations open and I’d need a job to close them.  Within our application any number of events can trigger a service broker message to be sent off.  We usually have a few hundred threads logging in and out of the database at any one time.

This required that I take Remus’s solution and make it more flexible before moving it into our environment.  The solution that I’ve come up with supports a single conversation for each process within our application.  And at random intervals those conversations are closed, and new ones are started. Continued »

VMware Windows XP x64 LSI Driver

So yesterday I was asked to setup a few x64 workstations on our ESX server. The Vista x64 machines detected the LSI controller no problem, but the Windows XP machines couldn’t find the controller, and the drivers that VMware included with ESX (3.0.2) were x86 only drivers.

Continued »

Join Jason Hall and Myself as we talk about finding out how healthy your SQL Server Enterprise is

Tomorrow morning at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern / 4pm London Jason Hall and myself will be talking about how to find out how healthy your SQL Server Enterprise is using both the native tools as well as Quest Software’s Spotlight On SQL Server Enterprise.

Continued »

New SQL Server Wiki Launching Today

Today is the unofficial launch of the new SQLServerPedia.com Wiki.  The official launch for the wiki is during PASS, so you have to go to the /wiki folder manually.  The SQLServerPedia.com site is run by Quest Software, and the Wiki contains all the information which used to be contained in the KnowledgeXpert product which they used to sell.  They are know giving it away for free to the entire SQL Server community.

I could go on all day about it, but forunitely I don’t have to because Brent Ozar already has in his post “The answer to SQL Server training problems“.  I highly recommend reading Brent’s post about the site.  It gives some great background and tells all about the site. Continued »

I’ve finally found myself an offline editor that I like

I’ve finally found an offline blog post editor which I like. With all the traveling that I’ve been doing recently its very handy to be able to edit them offline so that I don’t have to pay for internet access at airports. It also lets me blog while on an airplane without having them write them in Word or notepad and uploading them later.

Continued »

Slide Decks and Sample Code for SoCal Code Camp at USC

Here are the slide decks and sample code from my sessions at this weekends SoCal code camp.

Back To Basics; Getting Back To The Basics of SQL Server
Scaling that database bigger than ever
Storage for the DBA

While the first two are both two part sessions, there is only one download for both halves as they run together.

Denny