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PODCAST · technology

Midnight DBA

by Sean McCown and Jen McCown

Tutorial videos and our live weekly webshow, DBAs@Midnight, from the MidnightDBAs. Here we focus on SQL Server and Powershell, but we cover all things related to DBAs. We teach everything from SSIS to Windows and networking, to Powershell tricks.

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Sep 5, 2025 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. Just Mad

    Happy Pi day! We talked about geekdom for all, ORMs and their LEVEL of crappiness, code that makes Jen angry, and much more.

  2. What is a Stored Procedure

    Here Jen explains what a stored procedure is, and how to create a basic one with no parameters. She also compares it with other objects stored in the DB.

  3. A Million Monkeys

    On DBAs@Midnight tonight we talked out when you would separate databases into instances or VMs. Cindy Gross gets arrested for a good cause in Idaho. @Kleegeek gets our new No-Suck Seal of Approval (TM). We learn TRULY fascinating things about Duolingo, and pit big shops against small.

  4. Simplicity Defined

    The little brouhahas about PASS sessions have already begun. We talk about a delicious dish: tongue! And more on Itzik's APPLY course, Powershell tips, defining simplicity, and more.

  5. Guy Love

    We sing a special love song! And discover that Sean is the perfect Vday hubby...who knew? Sean reviews a slasher movie, we discuss troubleshooting code and a columnstore solution. The Powershell shipping requirements, the Strata conference, and many, many other things.

  6. Denny in the Dark

    Tonight we got a huge compliment on our DBARoadmap, we showed off Sean's new 4-monitor setup, we had an SP debate, gave a Powershell tip, and finished up with a big talk about feeling the fraud.

  7. Displayja Vu

    Tonight we got a huge compliment on our DBARoadmap, we showed off Sean's new 4-monitor setup, we had an SP debate, gave a Powershell tip, and finished up with a big talk about feeling the fraud.

  8. Kill the Internet

    Tonight we talked Bitcoin and money laundering, what 'industry leading' really doesn't mean, Net Neutrality's repeal, Engineer Barbie, and more!

  9. MS Manners

    This week, Sean's new Windows phone won't let him swear. Other than that, it's working out well! Also: recruiter email fail, yak shaving, a Dropbox rant, building schools in Haiti, a weird LIKE problem, and our thoughts on XML.

  10. Saving Private Denny

    This week we had a bit of news and fluffery, and then Denny Cherry chatted with us on Skype about his new book, "The Basics of Digital Privacy". And strange to say, we actually had plenty of tech stuff to talk about from work...go figure!

  11. Dueling Mothers

    It's the day after Thanksgiving! So, we talk about Thanksgiving! And by sheer coincidence, present two skits about our dear, dear mothers. Sean makes a valiant attempt to keep the show rated 'IT', and we wander around aimlessly in a fog of turkey-induced lethargy.

  12. Spying on You

    We had a BIG discussion on privacy vs BI for the masses. Sean took us on a tour of interesting resumes. And we covered Jen's opinion on what candidates should know about a company. Of course, Sean and Freddie agree with Jen. Why wouldn't they?

  13. I Ship You

    This week we have a bit of Teen Time, an episode of On the Phone, a RANT, and some techie talk: managed backups, delayed durability, and weird problems with snapshot replication. This episode is well padded with good old fashioned fluffery!

  14. The New MCM

    There's a new MCM in town, and oh yeah, it's also PASS week.

  15. 6'4" 240

    We cover spanking clients, reading error messages, and we have a rant on java as well as a new episode of Superfan.

  16. Being John Microsoft

    This week we had a story about a man who needs more Microsofts. We blew someone's mind with Powershell. Two skits. Favorite author and speaker interviews. An SSPI error that wasn't Kerberos. And we remember Ken Henderson. Microsoft-Microsoft-Microsoft.

  17. The Adventure of the New Mic

    Most of this week's show is entirely taken up by the very strange, almost calamitous adventure that was Sean going to get our brand new mic. Call this one a study in the bizarre. Also starring: Hanlon's Razor, consluting, amazing new tech breakthroughs.

  18. Special Education Unit

    We're back after skipping a week, and we discovered that Sean and Jen share a psychic link regarding LOGSPACE. We dodge busses, talk about Powershell weaknesses in SQL Server, announce THREE upcoming SQL books, and we have a new bit called "On the Phone".

  19. No DBA Left Behind

    We actually had some GOOD news in the world.

  20. Twaint

    We announce Allan's new book (presale), frustrations, new awesome laptops, and we had a BIG techie discussion about one of Sean's Powershell videos (Script SQL Objects with Powerhsell, Advanced - http://t.co/IPifZW2MU5).

  21. Happy NutUp Or ShutUp Day

    We were live from SQL Saturday Oklahoma this week! Ben Affleck is the new Batman, we give the first Nut Up or Shut Up award...oh yeah, and we also found time to talk some SQL.

  22. The Longest Time

    Season five! Season five! Season five! We're delighted and enthralled and unfocused, just like the last four seasons! We have a new skit, gave an award to the NSA itself, and....well, take a look and see. SEASON FIVE, BABY!

  23. Girl Talk

    We had a big discussion on WIT with a call from SirSQL. We also talked about a good way to get your entire team on the same page about their goals. It can also go a great way to seeing why everybody's not on the same page. Overall a pretty good show.

  24. Delete^10

    We have a new intern! News included NSA and mind-blowing technology. Jen finds a psychic tech product, Sean's ex-co-worker has very strong opinions. Companies don't take maintenance into account, like, ever. We had a good talk on schemas and when to use them.

  25. Fappy

    Jen's been consluting for a year now, Sean's impressed with the telecom stuff at work, and we discuss some ideas for a show mascot. The Tech Tip is on Powershell, Jen is unhappy with Idera's auditing tool, but adores printing from her phone.

  26. Like a Boss

    Today we had a minor interview embarassment, proper punishments for IT sins, and a positive job leaving experience.Jen gave the weather report, and Sean talks about someone WHO IS EFFECTIVE AT HIS JOB. Weird. Tech tip: Relog. Sean interviewed level 8 wizard. No, he was an 8 at wizards.Jen praises...

  27. DoppelGanger

    On the show tonight, we talk have an interview skit, a talk about forced cluster disasters, messing with developers, and a lot of mentions of TV shows that replaced actors without explanations. Weird.

  28. Upgrade or Die!

    Tonight we had 'ultimate' news, a mild production disaster story, degrees of DBAs, and a Powershell tech tip. We had a simply lovely talk about workplace discrimination. Sean tells us about an UPGRADE OR DIE policy. A solid, solid show!

  29. Hey Scotty!

    This was a big shw! We had a resume review, an interview skit, a visit from ItsNic, talks about filling drive space and being effective and lazy at the same time. Big, big show.

  30. Sloppy Seconds

    This was a big shw! We had a resume review, an interview skit, a visit from ItsNic, talks about filling drive space and being effective and lazy at the same time. Big, big show.

  31. CISPA Report

    In this episode we have production hijinks, a review of Sean's Trainsignal course, and some interesting info about Bit.ly. Jen tells us why we should care about CISPA (and what to do). And we have a real live resume review! The tech tip was on Powershell object properties.

  32. Junior Associate Janitor

    We talked about the importance of attribution, and the perfect techie house. Sean says you should check out Kendal Van Dyke's SQL Power Doc. And we had a recruiter skit, and discussed what makes you work harder.

  33. Stay Gold

    Tonight we held a brief memorial for a fallen fellow, Alan Weber (@aauugold). We also talked about cycling error logs, a stuck replication database, handling your business the way you should, and autogrow. Tech tip was on 1NF (atomicity), and we had an interview skit! AauuuuuGOLD!

  34. The One Armed Shoe Tyer

    This week we talk about what would happen if you ran your life like Sean's last company ran IT. And I believe we also do gross bathrooms at work, and even managed to throw in some techie stuff.

  35. Sean's Killing Spree

    This week we have a big collection of end user mistakes, stupid vendors, chewing out DBAs, and more. Oh, and we unveil our newest award.

  36. A New Leaf

    We've decided to become a kinder, gentler show. We're no longer going to be sarcastic, hurtful, or unsupportive... for this show anyway. This is going to be a fun ride.

  37. Change Startup Params in Powershell

    I heard someone today say that you can't change startup parameters in Powershell. So I made this vid to set the record straight.

  38. Drop Tables in Powershell

    Today I'm dropping tables based off of a regex expression and by rowcount. Good stuff here. The power of the shell shines through with the easy regex expression.

  39. Truncate Tables in Powershell

    Here I show you how to truncate a mass of tables in the same schema. Of course, you don't have to limit it to a single schema if you don't want.

  40. Server Configuration Settings in Powershell

    I love making vids on the trickier stuff and this one is it. Here we're talking about duplicating sp_configure in Powershell. It's pretty easy, but there's a trick to it.

  41. Fix AutoShrink in Powershell

    Here I show you how to turn off AutoShrink on a DB and then how to make sure it's turned off on all your DBs.

  42. Get SQL Server Root Dir in Powershell

    Here we're finding the root install directory for SQL Server.

  43. Attach DBs in Powershell

    This continues the series on detach/attach for DBs. Along the way I show you how to deal with a powershell provider bug, work with the stringCollection object, and use all 4 overloads for the AttachDatabase method.

  44. Calling Detach Methods in Powershell

    Detaching DBs in Powershell is pretty easy, which is why you should learn how to do it. It takes less typing than the t-sql version. However, there are also methods for discovering which files belong to the DB that was detached and that can be invaluable when you're trying to attach a DB on a big...

  45. Get IP and DNS in Powershell

    Getting IP address and DNS info from your servers in a useful format isn't as straightforward as you would think. Here I'm going to show you how to get that info painlessly and in a way you can use for all your automated processes.

  46. Change Schema in Powershell

    Changing object schemas is easy enough in T-SQL when it's a single object, but it get considerably more complicated when you've got several objects to change, or even several thousand. This is where Powershell comes in. Here I show you how to very easily change the schema of as many objects as…

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  47. Change SQL Server Permissions in Powershell: Part 1

    Here I show you how to change permissions in SQL Server using Powershell. There are 2 methods I discuss and I even show you some of the problems you can run into. This is the 1st in a series so be sure to watch the 2nd one too. In This video I also reference a couple other vids. Those are...

  48. Change SQL Server Permissions in Powershell: Part 2

    Continuing from the 1st video, here I show you how to capture useful errors from the method call. I explain how to Trap the errors and loop through InnerException to make sure you get all of them. If you saw the last vid, you can't miss this one.

  49. Read SQL Server Error Logs in Powershell

    Would you like to work with the SQL Server error logs in Powershell? Well here I'm gonna show you how. Not only do we pull in the current log, but I also show you how to get all of the historical logs for all the instances on the server as well. Good stuff.

  50. Cycle Error Log on all Servers using Powershell

    Here I show you how to use the Carrier Method for using powershell to cycle all your error logs. This is an excellent way to get started using powershell, and I use it even though I know it fairly well.

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Tutorial videos and our live weekly webshow, DBAs@Midnight, from the MidnightDBAs. Here we focus on SQL Server and Powershell, but we cover all things related to DBAs. We teach everything from SSIS to Windows and networking, to Powershell tricks.

HOSTED BY

Sean McCown and Jen McCown

Produced by Sean McCown

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Midnight DBA have?

Midnight DBA currently has 237 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Midnight DBA about?

Tutorial videos and our live weekly webshow, DBAs@Midnight, from the MidnightDBAs. Here we focus on SQL Server and Powershell, but we cover all things related to DBAs. We teach everything from SSIS to Windows and networking, to Powershell tricks.

How often does Midnight DBA release new episodes?

Midnight DBA publishes regularly with 237 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.

Where can I listen to Midnight DBA?

You can listen to Midnight DBA on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Midnight DBA?

Midnight DBA is created and hosted by Sean McCown and Jen McCown.
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