After a recent update to `Microsoft.Data.SqlClient` version `4.0.0.0` I ended up not being able to connect to any of my SQL Server databases. Turns out Microsoft has made some default settings changes in the updated provider and these settings are likely going to break connections.

Ran into a problem with extremely slow SQL Server connections when connecting to the server. Connections would take 2 seconds or more even on repeat connections. It turns out the problem is related to missing TCP/IP protocol support which is disabled by default.

I've had a number of problems with Entity Framework Migrations getting out of whack to the point were I can't get the database and the migrations into sync to accept new changes. I've found that rather than spending hours fixing out of whack migrations it's sometimes much easier to simply wipe the slate clean and create a new initial migration. This post describes the steps on how to remove existing migrations and create a new initial migration from the current schema.

Spatial data has been available for a while in SQL Server, but if you wanted to use it with Entiry Framework you had to jump through some hoops. In this post I show how basic SQL Spatial data works and then how you can utilize the new features in EF 5.0 to directly access spatial data using your CodeFirst models.

Ah here's a silly new default in SQL Server's Management Tools: When you design a table in a database and then try to make a change to a table structure that requires the table to be recreated, the management tools will not allow you to save the changes. Instead you'll be greeted by this friendly dialog: Notice that there's no option to save the changes - it's a hard rule that is applied and you...

One of the things that bugs me no end in Sql Server Management Studio is that the table designer's UI is a pain to use. Entering column properties is an excercise in mousercise. It turns out there's an easier way to do this with custom views in the DataBase Diagram Designer.

I've been experimenting with LINQ to SQL for the last few weeks and there's a lot to like as well as a few things to think about. In this editorial I'll describe some of the things that worked well and some of the issues I struggled with and how I worked around them.

Sql 2005 Management studio's Generate Scripts iritates the hell out of me with its Wizard based approach and no way to step through the choices after generation again.

While experimenting with UAC on Vista, somehow, somewhere my SQL Server Windows Authentication has somehow disconnected itself from my SQL Server installation. SQL Server no longer sees the Administrators group AT ALL and so several database connections that have been working off integrated security now suddenly fail.

This morning my site went down due to SQL Server bonking out. Sql went down completely and wouldn’t restart until I rebooted.