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Are you planning to Upgrade or Migrate to SQL Server 2014? In partnership with Microsoft,  DB Best is delivering  free 3 hour seminars at multiple Microsoft MTC locations, seating is limited so register now! In this 3 hour seminar you’ll learn: READ MORE

The post Join us for free SQL Server Upgrade & Migration Seminars appeared first on ILIKESQL.

DB Best is very excited to announce that Rick Heiges has joined our team as a Principal Solutions Architect and will be based in North Carolina, USA. Rick has spent the past 10 years in the consulting world as a Sr. Solutions Architect working with enterprise customers mainly in the US, but also as far south as South Africa and as far North as Iceland. He served 9 years on the Board of Directors for PASS, including 2 years as […]

You are running any of the following applications on Oracle or Sybase, and you are wondering what it would take to get them migrated to SQL Server? Well you probably qualify to join us for a by-invitation only 3 day hands on workshop with leading technical experts, prior to MS Ignite, at zero-cost* to you. So if you are running: Team Center, PTC, Sungard, Kronos, SAP on a non-SQL Server platform, contact us and apply to take part in the […]

Please join us in welcoming Robert Davis (@sqlsoldier) to DB Best, who as of today, will be contributing to our team as a Principal Database Architect and will be based in our Redmond HQ. Robert is an experienced evangelist, a well-known speaker, trainer and SQL Server MVP. He brings over 15 years of SQL Server experience, and is a well published author and a Microsoft Certified Master. Robert is also a co-founder and co-leader of the PASS Security Virtual chapter, […]

How to install an MSI file unattended MSIEXEC /a “product.msi” /qn Example: MSIEXEC /a “d:downloadsssdt.msi)” /qn Typically this installation will not show any user interaction or verbose logging. Combine with the Full MSI Syntax options as listed below to output installation progress to a log file. Other installation considerations – passive mode Another great option to consider is using the /passive parameter. This parameter will provide UI interaction and show progress graphically.

SQL Server Data Tools While its name might be confusing, there are actually 2 versions of SQL Server Data Tools, one that focuses on Data Modeling and Tooling, another one that purely focuses on BI and was previously known as Business Intelligence Development Studio. In this blog, we’ll focus on the Database Modeling and project add -ins for Visual Studio or Visual Studio Shell, which will allow you to easily perform database tooling, and publish to multiple platforms including SQL […]

About SQL Server Data Tools If you are anywhere involved with Microsoft Business Intelligence using Analysis Services, SQL Reporting Services or even SSIS you need to have SQL Server Data Tools for Business Intelligence installed. Now most people would think, that’s easy, it’s installed as part of the SQL Server Management tools right? Unfortunately it isn’t, you’ll find it right here in the installer under: How to get SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence

Well, I’ve done a lot of visualizations with Power BI, and pretty sure a lot of people out there are using Tableau based on the very well attended Tableau event I attended about a week ago in Seattle. One of the cool features that was re-emphasized was the broad use of Tableau Public to bring rich data visualizations that can be used to display and embed interactive visualizations directly within a blog article. So it was about time that I […]

If you get close to Power BI or having to install Power Query, you probably have asked yourself the question: “Is my Excel 2013 32bit or 64bit?” Here is a very quick way to find out: Open a blank or existing workbook in Excel Click on File | Account When the following screen displays click on About Excel And there it shows, if you have 64bit, it will show exactly where marked. Now the tricky part is, you thought Office […]

Introduction Working with customers over the past many years, the question of Data Architecture and Data Strategy has come up a lot. ‘What should my data strategy be?’ or ‘How do I go around creating a Data Strategy or a Data Architecture and what are some of the critical elements of a Data Architecture?’ Let me address some of those questions and the importance of having a well-defined Data Strategy and a Data Architecture. First and foremost, why do you […]