November brings me back to my regular weekly posting schedule. I attended PASS Summit 2016 last week, and saw a lot of great sessions. Aside from the new stuff, what I also noticed is how… Memory-Optimized Table-Valued Parameters
I’ve been toying with the idea of automating a set of diagnostic scripts that I run on customer sites, when doing my checkup. It mirrors the automation that a lot of consulting shops do, but… Automation is the new Black
During a recent engagement, I was tasked with making a query faster. Since I signed an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), I can’t go into detail, but it made extensive use of the STDistance() function of the… A dalliance with distance
Some time ago, I added a free resource to this site to help DBAs know how much max server memory should be assigned to SQL Server, based on an algorithm by Jonathan Kehayias. On 19… Max Server Memory Revisited
This week is a shorter post than last week, but it answers a very important question: Should I move my on-premises database to Azure SQL Database? The short answer is: It depends. Firstly, why do… Should I move my on-premises database to Azure SQL Database?
During a recent engagement with a client transferring large files from on premises to Azure Storage, we discovered that files over a certain size are automatically throttled, causing file uploads to take much longer than expected.… Saving Time By Splitting Files for a Backup
What does the expiration date mean on SQL Server database backups? In SQL Server Management Studio, there’s an option in the Back Up Database wizard which explicitly provides an option for “Backup set will expire”.… Expiration Date on Database Backups
Update: Paul Randal told me I had made a mistake in my post. The correction is below. On Wednesday last week, Kenneth Fisher (b | t) asked: “Is DBCC SHRINKFILE (filename, EMPTYFILE) fully logged?” Is… Is DBCC SHRINKFILE (filename, EMPTYFILE) fully logged?
Last week, I wrote about what should have been a fast system but was performing very poorly, weighing heavily on tempdb I/O performance. Our original changes did not make much of a difference, but now… The ongoing saga of a slow tempdb on a fast server
This week I am continuing with the simple survey series. Today my question is, do you prefer using a dark or light background when writing code? I like a light background with dark text (usually… Survey: Light or Dark
This is my second survey for the month of December. Last week I asked about join predicate order. This week, it’s a simple question: Do you prefer tabs or spaces to indent your T-SQL, and… Survey: Tabs or Spaces
It’s a quiet month as we look forward to 2016, so I’m asking a series of survey questions for the next few posts. My first one is about the order of join predicates. When joining… Survey: Join Predicate Order
Your production environment needs Date and Number tables, to help you Get Stuff Done in sets instead of RBAR*. Doug Lane has a video on Why You Simply Must Have a Date Table. I really… Do it now: Date and Number tables
A customer is running in a SQL Server 2000 environment, 32-bit AWE mode, on 64-bit Windows 2003 R2. The server has 16GB of RAM and 8 logical CPU cores. It’s running under VMWare. Storage is… The curious case of RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE
With permission from Kimberly Tripp, the creator of the fantastic duplicate index finder for SQL Server 2005 and 2008, I have ported this duplicate index finder to SQL Server 2000. I am fortunate in many… Remove duplicate indexes in SQL Server 2000