Setup Database Mail

SQL Server includes a great feature known as Database Mail. This post provides a quick script showing how to setup Database Mail without requiring you to click through a cumbersome user interface. The first part…

Inspect server and session User Options in effect

SQL Server can be configured to provide certain behavior to client sessions, via the SET OPTIONS= command, or via the sys.sp_configure ‘user options’ system stored procedure. The SET OPTIONS= command only affects the current session,…

Internet access to your SQL Server?

Occasionally I see questions on dba.stackexchange.com where it appears the SQL Server is exposed directly to the Internet, allowing remote connections. This is very bad. In this post, I provide some reasons why. First, it…