Year: 2011

SQL Server 2012 CTP3 is Here! Five Things to Know About the Next Version of SQL Server

Last Updated February 9, 2017

SQL Server Denali CTP3 is here, and today I’m excited to be able to talk about this new public preview of the next version of SQL Server. CTP1 came out back in November 2010, and CTP2 wasn’t released to the public, so this is your first chance in several months to see progress. Here’s what…

How To Hire Top Talent

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Kendra Little

Professional Development

You want to hire a fantastic DBA or database developer. You want someone who can hit the ground running, who you can trust to maintain your current system and tune it like a pro. Plus you want someone who can see key improvements, communicate effectively, and drive change in your system. You want it all.…

The $1,000/Hour Consultants

Last Updated July 7, 2011

Brent Ozar

I’m not the most expensive consultant I know. In fact, I’ve recently hired not one, but two separate consultants that charged $1,000 per hour. Not actually my plumber. One evening, Erika reported that the kitchen sink disposal wasn’t working. I walked in and did what any geek would do – I rebooted it. I flipped…

“What Were We Thinking?” Enter the Brent Ozar PLF Photo Contest

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Kendra Little

Humor

Before we set sail on SQLCruise Alaska our good friend Crys Manson ( b | t ) captured a few moments of Brent Ozar PLF together in action in Seattle. It was a normal enough afternoon for the team– there was a lot of jumping, some surfing on traffic cones, and we almost crashed a…

Your Job Isn’t To Make Your Boss Happy

Last Updated June 22, 2011

Kendra Little

You might be surprised to learn that my goal as a consultant isn’t to deliver recommendations to my customers. Instead, my goal is to deliver recommendations that help my customer’s teams be better customers to each other after I’m gone. This is a fancy way of saying my recommendations need to be practical. I don’t…

Iomega StorCenter PX4-300d NAS Review: iSCSI Monster

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Storage

I wanted to love this monster from the moment I read the spec sheets: Iomega StorCenter PX4-300d NAS Network attached storage device with 4 or 6 hot-swappable drive bays Available empty (so you can bring your own drives, including SSDs) iSCSI server with 2 network ports, jumbo frame support, VLANs Official VMware ESX/ESXi, Hyper-V, Windows…

Ozar’s Hierarchy of Database Needs: a 6-Month DBA Training Plan

Last Updated September 21, 2022

Brent Ozar

Processes and Practices

You need to poop. Maybe not right now, but in general, you need to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, and poop. If you can’t do any of those things, then the rest of your needs will take a back seat until you can accomplish the basics. Psychology professor Abraham Maslow designed Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to…

Nine Reasons Developers Should Learn SQL

Last Updated June 13, 2011

Jeremiah Peschka

Let’s face it, there are a lot of cool new things you could be learning right now. It seems like there’s a new technology coming out every 12.8 seconds. Why the hell would you want to spend your free time learning a crufty old language like SQL? My reasons, let me show you them. It’s…

How to Get Budget Approval for Conferences

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

If you’ve never been to a conference before, the PASS Summit and Dev Connections events seem like things that happen to Other People. This year, I wanna help make you one of us. You’re a geek, right? Let’s break this down into numbers. Lightning Talks at the PASS Summit What It Costs to Attend a…

Resolving Conflicts in the Database

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Jeremiah Peschka

Replication

Anyone who has worked with replication has run into problems caused by conflicting data. I’ve lost enough sleep over replication to know that having an effective plan for conflict resolution is important to keeping replication running and healthy. What Causes Conflicts? There are a few ways that conflicts can show up in a database. In…

Should SQL Server Denali Run on Windows XP?

Last Updated June 11, 2011

Brent Ozar

Microsoft’s Dan Jones wants your opinion. Right now, here’s the status of the next version of SQL Server: The current support matrix for OSes is as follows: Windows Vista SP2 or later Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or later Windows 7 SP1 or later The installer is going to…

Scaling SQL Server: Growing Out

Last Updated June 7, 2020

Jeremiah Peschka

SQL Server

Scaling up is hard, scaling out is even harder. We all know that we can scale reads by adding some kind of replication or read-only copies of databases or using a massive caching layer. What happens when we have to scale writes? Borrowing Brent’s grocery store metaphor, a database that is effectively scaled for reads…

Fixing SQL Server Management Studio’s Tab Text

Last Updated June 7, 2011

Brent Ozar

I hate the way SSMS tabs look by default. Check this out: SSMS Tab Defaults That’s nearly useless. The tabs are wide, but they still don’t show useful information. Even worse, I’ve got more tabs than I can fit in the window, so the rest hang out in a meaningless dropdown. To fix it, click…

How to Design Multi-Client Databases

Last Updated December 2, 2025

Brent Ozar

Architecture, ISV and SaaS Database Design

When you’re building an application for lots of clients, there are two common ways to design the database(s): Option A: Put all clients in the same database Option 2: Build one database per client (There are also hybrids, and I actually prefer one of the hybrid approaches, but I’m keeping this simple for the sake…

SQL Server Locking and You!

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jeremiah Peschka

Locking, Blocking, and Isolation Levels, SQL Server

Did you know that SQL Server’s locking has a name? It’s called two-phase locking. If we’re really getting specific about it, SQL Server uses what’s called strong strict two-phase locking or SS2PL. We’ll get there in a few minutes, right now we’re going to take a look at what makes up two-phase locking. But First,…

Top 10 Keys to Deploying SQL Server on VMware

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Virtualization

The most successful deployments of virtual SQL Servers have a few things in common. When a company is doing all of these things, odds are they’re going to be very happy with their virtual SQL Servers: 10. Use vSphere 4.1, not earlier versions. vSphere 4.1 introduced major improvements in multi-CPU scheduling that vastly improve performance. …

I Think You’re Exceptional. No, Really.

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Professional Development

A funny thing happened on my way to becoming a judge in the 2011 Exceptional DBA Awards. But to get there, I gotta tell you a story about my dark past. I used to be a developer. No, wait, it gets worse: I coded web pages in Classic ASP, aka VBscript. My idea of reusable…

What Makes a Good Conference Session or Keynote?

Last Updated December 1, 2012

Brent Ozar

Writing and Presenting

One of our FreeCon Chicago brainstorming exercises was to talk about what makes a good training session, conference session, or keynote speech. I started it by asking a few questions. Sign of a bad session: all the cool kids would rather stay out in the hallway. Does a successful session require a packed room? I…

PASS Summit 2013 Location: Charlotte, NC!

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

This morning, the Professional Association for SQL Server announced that the annual Summit will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina. For the last 5 years, it’s been held in Seattle, and PASS members have protested. We wanted the Summit to move around from place to place to make it easier for other people to attend…

ROOOOOXANNE...you don't have to put on your red light....

An Inside Look at Our PASS Summit Submissions

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) holds a summit every year where thousands of database professionals gather to learn about the latest developments from Microsoft, meet their fellow community members, and drink Jägermeister. This year, there’s a new way to help shape the PASS Summit – you can vote on the sessions you’d like…