Backup Solution

New Year, Same old story.  SQL Server backups are a necessity for every SQL Server Instance.  While there are many ways to accomplish this task, my favorite by far is Ola Hallengren's SQL Server Maintenance Solution.  The script comes complete with Database backups, rebuild indexes, integrity checks and even log cleanup.

Show Desktop in Windows 10

I am always flooding my desktop with open windows while developing.  Showing the desktop is a must have in a situation where you need to switch gears for a few minutes.  Windows 10 has the show desktop built in right out of the box.  Simply click the small button in the lower right hand corner.

Temporal Tables

Temporal tables, or system-versioned tables are new to SQL SERVER 2016 and are a way to have access to all of the history of a table.  In small databases or for tables where rows are rarely updated this feature is a beautiful thing and will soon find its way into many best practices.  To get started, simply right mouse on tables > New > Temporal Table > System-Versioned Table...

When creating a new Temporal Table, you are provided a template to generate the new table.  The first section of the given template is for dropping the table if it already exists.  Since this is a new table we can skip this part and go to the create table section.  *Remember, System versioning must be set to off in order to drop the table.
The second section of the template is for creating the system versioned temporal table. In order for a table to become a system versioned temporal table, we must have a Primary Key and 2 datetime2 colums.   The with clause of the create table statement turns system versioning on and defines the history table.