I don’t blog anymore, but not because I work at Microsoft
Last year I had a health scare that got my blood pressure at 200-and-something over 100-and-something, soon to be wired up to an IV drip, put through a CT scanner, and a couple of weeks…
Max server memory recommendations are just a suggestion
Some of you might know me because of the Max Server Memory Matrix, a chart I created based off a decade-old algorithm developed by Jonathan Kehayias. The chart has lived at https://bornsql.ca/s/memory/ for a while. There’s…
Don’t optimize for ad hoc workloads as a best practice
(This post was co-authored by Erik Darling.) The more things stay the same, the more they change… No, that’s not a mistake. In fact, it’s a reference to long-held belief systems that don’t take new…
Join me in Germany in June
I have been selected to speak at the DataGrillen conference later this year. I will be presenting my session How Does SQL Server Store That Data Type?, which I debuted during last year’s EightKB online conference. This…
Join me at the EightKB virtual conference on 28 July 2021
Next week on Wednesday 28 July 2021, I will be presenting a brand-new session titled “How SQL Server stores that data type” for the free EightKB virtual conference. I’ve made it a 500-level talk, as…
How SQL Server stores data types: DATETIMEOFFSET
If you’d like to check out the previous instalment in this series on storing dates and times, click here. I avoided mentioning this data type because I didn’t think a lot of people used it,…
Ambling through undocumented DBCC commands may result in boredom
There comes a time when we heed a certain call. The call is to avoid dangerous undocumented DBCC commands in SQL Server, especially those that bypass built-in protections. I’m looking directly at you DBCC WRITEPAGE. Besides,…
Using indexed views? What is an imprecise or non-deterministic convert?
After last week’s post about using WITH (NOEXPAND) to query indexed views even on SQL Server Enterprise Edition, this week is a short but interesting side-road into deterministic values, and why it is important to…
Using indexed views? Don’t forget this important tip.
Today after fighting with designing a view that let me create a clustered index on it (indexed views — also known as materialized views — are awesome in the right context!), I kept running into the same…
Better SQL Server memory defaults in 2019
In 2016 I created the Max Server Memory Matrix as a guide for configuring the maximum amount of memory that should be assigned to SQL Server, using an algorithm developed by Jonathan Kehayias. SQL Server 2019…
Better SQL Server CPU defaults in 2019
SQL Server 2019 is still in preview as I write this, but I wanted to point out a new feature that Microsoft has added to SQL Server Setup, on the Windows version. On the Database…
Proposed SQL Server defaults: max server memory
(This post was updated on 1 August 2022.) A few months ago I suggested that the following settings should be the default for most SQL Server instances: Set cost threshold for parallelism to 50 Disable…
Proposed SQL Server defaults: optimize for ad hoc workloads
(This post was updated on 5 February 2022.) A few months ago I suggested that the following settings should be the default for most SQL Server instances: Set cost threshold for parallelism to 50 Disable…
Canadian SQL Saturday speaking events
I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at two separate SQL Saturdays in March and April of this year. The first event is in Victoria (the capital city of British Columbia, located…
Proposed SQL Server defaults: disable priority boost
(This post was updated on 5 February 2022.) A few months ago I suggested that the following settings should be the default for most SQL Server instances: Set cost threshold for parallelism to 50 Disable…