[Video] Office Hours in the Home Bar

This week, I’m back in Vegas, spending time in the home bar to recover from jet lag. I’m not saying booze is the best way to recover – but – it helps me fall asleep after a 16-hour-time-zone-jump, and it makes the career answers a lot more colorful. Let’s go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.

Here’s what we covered:

• 00:00 Start
• 01:22 Overdue Eye Test: Have you ever set server-level MAXDOP beyond 8? Why?
• 03:06 ChompingBits: How do you develop skills that your employer isn’t? Our org is not embracing cloud, PostgreSQL, or any of the skills that are dominating the open DBA roles required skills. Did you ever find yourself in this spot, and how did you make demonstrable skills for the next interview?
• 06:43 Rick Rude: What kinda of stuff do you like to write with Claude Code? Does it code as well as Richie?
• 09:16 Sir Index Alot: What are your pros / cons of integrating AI in SQL Server via Copilot SSMS vs a SQL Mcp Server?
• 11:58 Sir Index Alot: What is your favorite AI engine for SQL query plan analysis and why?
• 14:23 MyTeaGotCold: What ending did you get in The Lost Jewels of Nabooti?
• 14:46 Jersey: When defragging large tables, is it better to use REBUILD instead of REORGANIZE even if there is only 10% fragmentation? I have noticed REORGANIZE takes a long time compared to REBUILD.
• 15:38 Rey Q&A: My team is currently evaluating a planned migration from SQL Server 2022 to SQL Server 2025, and I’m reviewing the product changes between versions. Are there any migration risks specific to this upgrade path that we should be aware about?
• 17:31 Karl Marx: How does retirement planning / retirement look different for independent consultants vs long time company employees?
• 19:36 Bibi: What are your pros / cons of implementing a SQL data warehouse using SQL Server VM vs cloud native options such as Azure Synapse Analytics?
• 21:52 Nikira: Can you think of any SQL performance data that fits well into a SQL Server data warehouse for the purpose of gaining some DW hands on experience (Fact tables, dimension tables, ETL processing)?
• 24:01 Jolene: When you lost your first DBA gig, how much time did you take off before resuming your next job? What did you do during your downtime?
• 29:37 Rjeesh: What are your thoughts / experiences on the Data API Builder for SQL Server?
• 29:55 AlexDBA: Hi Brent, first time poster, but I’ve really enjoyed watching your recording. Recently moved from SQL Server 2016 to SQL Server 2025. If you could pick the top 3 new features to look into first, what would they be and why? Thanks