Month: April 2013

5 Things About Fillfactor

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Are you a page half full, or a page half empty kind of person? I’ll never think “I’ve seen it all” when it comes to SQL Server– there’s just always someone waiting around the corner who’s found a weird new thing to do with it. But there are some things I really wish I could…

Why Most People Don’t Follow Best Practices

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Kendra Little

Processes and Practices

“I don’t care about best practices, I do what I want!” We write a lot about best practices, we teach customers best practices, and we publish popular references for best practices about all sorts of things like performance monitoring, SQL Server Setup, and Availability Groups. But the internet is a sea of information and many…

3 Things You Need to Start Doing to Your Database Server

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jes Schultz

CHECKDB and Corruption, SQL Server

Taking care of your health is incredibly important (says the marathon runner). Eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of rest help you stay healthy and perform optimally. Does “an apple a day keep the doctor away” apply to cupcake apples? Your database server’s health is important to your company’s health. You need to take regular…

Answers to Common High Availability and Disaster Recovery Questions

Last Updated December 5, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery, Clustering

In our recent webcast on HA & DR basics for DBAs, we got a bunch of questions that couldn’t be answered fast enough. Here you go: Q: Do any of these techniques work for companies with just 1-2 IT staff? To keep things simple, I’d check out virtualization replication like VMware SRM. SRM isn’t…

How Much Cache Do You Have?

Last Updated May 8, 2013

Jeremiah Peschka

SQL Server

Without looking in your wallet, do you know how much cash you have? Most of us know within a few dollars. Now, without looking in your SQL Server, do you know much data is cached in memory? You probably don’t and that’s okay; you shouldn’t know how much data SQL Server is caching in memory.…

Cloud Alternatives to Microsoft SQL Server

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloud Computing, SQL Server

When people say “cloud”, they’re simplifying a lot of different solutions into a single catchphrase. Let’s break out the different options and compare them. 1. SQL Server in Amazon EC2 and Azure VMs Amazon EC2 is a virtualization platform. Amazon buys servers, installs their secret sauce software, and rents you Windows virtual machines by the…

Brent Answers Your Virtualization Questions

Last Updated April 12, 2013

Brent Ozar

SQL Server, Virtualization

I’m doing a 1-hour open Q&A session on May 8th for the PASS Virtualization Virtual Chapter. Bring your VMware and Hyper-V questions about setup, performance, management, monitoring, or whatever, and I’ll answer ’em. You can even get a head start here – post your questions in the comments below, and I’ll build slides to answer…

3 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Your Database Server

Last Updated April 9, 2013

Jes Schultz

SQL Server

No one knows everything, especially about SQL Server. When you encounter a problem, especially for the first time, you may not know how to solve it. I’ve seen some crazy approaches taken to fix problems – like duct tape on a car. Many times, instead of fixing the root cause of a problem, such as…

sp_Blitz® Version 18 Out: Lots of Bug Fixes

Last Updated March 26, 2014

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

There’s a new version in town. v18 adds new checks looking for: Backups stored on the same drive letters as user databases (Thanks @AlinSelicean!) Agent jobs that don’t have failure notifications set up (Thanks @Thirster42!) Shows free drive space per drive letter if you pass @CheckServerInfo = 1 in. We don’t consider this a problem…

DBAs vs Devs: ORMs, Caching & Access to Prod

Last Updated January 5, 2019

Kendra Little

SQL Server

Developers and database administrators frequently clash on major questions about how to scale application performance. Are they just being stubborn, or is one side really right? Jeremiah and I recently gave a talk on this topic to the AtlantaMDF User group and we wanted to open this debate to the world. Presenting Developers vs DBAs…

Catching SQL Server System Object Changes

Last Updated March 3, 2019

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

Let’s say you get your hands on a brand new version of SQL Server that you haven’t played with before, and you want to know what system objects have changed – DMVs, DMFs, system stored procs, yadda yadda yadda. Sure, you could read the documentation – but ain’t nobody got time for that, and they’re…