Year: 2011

Twitter #SQLHelp Hash Tag Dos and Don’ts

Last Updated May 12, 2011

If you’d like to get quick SQL Server help, the #SQLHelp hash tag is a fun way to get it. My original “How to Use the #SQLHelp Hash Tag” post hit a couple of years ago, and it’s time for a followup. Read that post first, and then come back here for some basic guidelines.…

Well, it was good, but I dunno about amazing.

Seeks, Scans, and Statistics in the Grocery Store

Last Updated July 14, 2019

Brent Ozar

Indexing, T-SQL

Building an execution plan is a lot like going shopping. Before I leave the house, I need to think about a few things: How many items do I need? I take a glance at my grocery list to see roughly how many things I’m shopping for. What stores am I going to visit? I can’t…

New Community Event by Denny Cherry: SQL Excursions

Last Updated May 4, 2011

Brent Ozar

The tech event community is growing again. Years ago, GeekCruises (now named InSight Cruises) pioneered the traincation concept, and last year SQLCruise brought that theme to the SQL Server community. The new Startup Workaway brings tech founders to Costa Rica for startup sprints – a mix of work and play. Red Gate’s SQL in the…

Which Database Is Right for Me?

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Jeremiah Peschka

Architecture

When you start developing a new application how do you pick the database back end? Most people pick what they know/what’s already installed on their system: the tried and true relational database. Let’s face it: nobody is getting fired for using a relational database. They’re safe, well understood, and there’s probably one running in the…

It’s a Lock: Due Diligence, Schema Changes, and You

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Kendra Little

Locking, Blocking, and Isolation Levels

It’s morning standup, and someone says, “It’s no big deal, we just need to add a couple of columns. It’s already in the build, it works fine.” The next time this happens, stop and say, “Let’s take a closer look at that.” When you write schema changes for a relational database, take the time to…

DBA Nightmare: SQL Server Down, No Plans

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery, SQL Server

Managing data is about managing risk, but no matter how we good we are at managing risks, they’re still risks. We’ve seen several high-profile data failures recently: Sony’s database of Playstation users and financial data was hacked Amazon’s supposedly independent cloud services went down together, and some data was lost permanently The state of Texas…

Announcing Our New Weekly Community Recap Email

Last Updated May 8, 2019

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

You’re overworked. You don’t have the time to sit around reading blogs, keeping up on the latest industry news, and reading web comics. That’s where we come in. To stay on top of our game, we have to spend a couple days per week honing our skills. We’ve started a weekly email recapping the best…

Better Living Through Caching

Last Updated May 1, 2011

Jeremiah Peschka

The fastest query is one you never execute. The premise is that one of the slowest parts of starting up an application isn’t starting the application itself, it’s loading the initial application state. This can become a problem when you’re loading many copies of your application on many servers, especially you’re in the cloud and…

I’m on RunAsRadio Talking SQL Azure and SSDs

Last Updated April 20, 2011

Brent Ozar

At the Connections conference in Orlando, I had the opportunity to sit down with Richard Campbell, host of RunAs Radio, and talk shop. I love conversations with Richard because he gets to travel and touch all kinds of cool systems, so as a result we end up jumping off-topic all over the place, talking about…

Monday Meme: Eleven Word Blog Post

Last Updated March 29, 2011

Brent Ozar

Copy, paste, copy, paste. I just love plagiarizing helping the community. Tom LaRock challenged us to write an eleven word blog post and I couldn’t resist resurrecting an old theme. John Dunleavy (who plagiarized my posts last year) emailed me a while back to say he’d like to meet me at the DevConnections conference in…

Dealing with Presentation Criticism

Last Updated December 1, 2012

Brent Ozar

Writing and Presenting

I just had a champagne moment.

Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert) blogged about having these champagne moments in his life, times when he was almost-but-not-quite-ready to pop the champagne open because he still wanted to take things higher. My standards aren’t quite so high – I recognize certain achievements as being champagne-worthy, and this is one of ’em.

How to Build a SQL Server Support Matrix

Last Updated August 9, 2018

Brent Ozar

Processes and Practices

When I want to check out a piece of software, one of the first things I look for (after the price tag) is the support matrix. I want to know what versions of SQL Server and Windows they support. I lined that up with the available machines I had in-house, picked the right platform, and…

Consulting Lines: “Do you want 10% faster, 100% faster, or 1000% faster?”

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Consulting Lines

My favorite engagement is when I’m brought in to help a good person who’s overwhelmed. The manager knows his DBA is smart, but the DBA is just flat out overworked. Too many developers are slinging too much code on too many servers, and there’s too many signs of smoke. The manager asks the DBA who…

Scaling Up or Scaling Out? Part Two

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Always On Availability Groups

In part 1 of this post, I covered how SQL Server handles scaling up. We talked about how quickly it becomes expensive to add more CPU power, memory, and storage throughput to our database servers. Today, we’re going to focus on a different way to scale. When most folks talk about scaling out SQL Server,…

How to Get Paid to Take a Cruise

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Writing and Presenting

As a database expert, I regularly travel to speak at conferences. When I travel, I try to time my trips to take advantage of other opportunities to see sights, visit friends, or relax. When my speaking schedule put me in South Florida last summer, I thought I’d take a cruise out of Miami afterwards. SQLCruise…

RAID 0 SATA with 2 Drives: It’s Web Scale!

Last Updated March 4, 2011

Brent Ozar

Before I start with this sordid tale of low scalability, I want to thank the guys at Phusion for openly discussing the challenges they’re having with Union Station. They deserve applause and hugs for being transparent with their users. Today, they wrote about their scaling issues. That article deserves a good read, but I’m going…

The Microsoft MVP Summit

Last Updated February 25, 2011

Brent Ozar

Next week, Microsoft MVPs from around the world will be gathering in Redmond at the Microsoft campus. This will be my second MVP Summit, and I wanted to give you a peek into what happens at this private event. Next week, you’ll probably be hearing people tweet about how excited (or angry) they are, and…

Five Favorite Free SQL Server Downloads

Last Updated August 14, 2013

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

So you’re lazy and you’re company’s broke – what to do? Here’s my favorite free downloads to help manage SQL Server: Understand execution plans with SQL Sentry Plan Explorer – I dunno about you, but viewing execution plans in SQL Server Management Studio is a pain in my rear. The scrolling sucks, the cost numbers…

Consulting Lines: “What happens if that doesn’t work?”

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Consulting Lines

Companies don’t bring me in when things are going great and everything’s working flawlessly, oh no. As a consultant, I’ve seen lot of ways that things can fail. If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one around to see it, the owner’s probably going to call a consultant afterward to find out…

Scaling up or scaling out?

Last Updated September 15, 2021

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

When you need SQL Server to handle more load, there’s two big-picture ways to do it: Scale up – use a more powerful SQL Server Scale out – use more SQL Servers Quick disclaimer first – before you try either of these solutions, the easiest thing is to circumvent the whole problem – don’t ask…