[Video] Office Hours: Docked in Miami Beach

On the last day of my Caribbean cruise, as we pull into port in Miami, let’s go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.

Here’s what we covered:

• 00:00 Start
• 01:45 Sean: How would you approach a task to remove 90% of the data to support lightweight test db servers. I’m thinking of a script with a recursion on foreign keys that would travel the keys and delete from the bottom up. Any thoughts to give me a kickstart?
• 03:04 Symmetrical Docking DBA: What features does the AG Dashboard in SSMS lack that you expect to see in a paid monitoring tool?
• 04:03 zlobnyfar: Clustered ColumnStore Indexes and Availability Groups on MS SQL Server 2014 Enterprise. Is it compatible? Will it impact AG(s)? any PROS and CONS? (some stats: 3 databases (~3 TB), each has up to 5 tables I want to convert to CCI, ~ 100000 updates per day on those tables)
• 05:04 MyTeaGotCold: Any rules of thumb for when it’s time to stop using CAL licences? It seems like nobody ever talks about CAL.
• 06:13 Lee: I got a slow query. I see that the pain point in the execution plan is a clustered index delete. I have ensured all foreign keys are indexed. I have tried batching the deletes. I have tried several of the common things to try. Any ideas what to try next to speed it up?
• 08:02 5 hours without internet: I don’t trust myself to keep lists of waits up to date. So aside from the junk of Page Life Expectancy, how do I alert on memory pressure?
• 08:43 WalkedIntoAPoll: Good day! What is your opinion of the use of the blue-green deployment method overall? If there is no problem to solve with its implementation, would you agree that it is a best practice to have anyway?
• 09:41 AnonSoMyCoworkersDontFindOutLol: Previously you have suggested interviewing with employers even if content with current job. I agree and desire to, but am unable to make the first step. How far do you go with each employer? How do you decline a position you know you won’t take, if offered? Thanks for all you do.
• 11:50 burnedmywatermakingtea: off-topic: forced aspiration or no? turbo or supercharger?. Yes I know it depends.
• 13:30 LoGan The Librarian: What do you think if you heard someone say this? I personally love SQL, because I’m an algorithms person, so I love optimization. I love to know how the databases actually work, so I can match the SQL queries and the design of the tables to get optimal performance of the table.
• 14:42 Culloden: What are the risks with using microsoft features that are in Preview and not GA?
• 16:27 Sarkis: Hi Brent! I’ve never heard you talk about the Database Engine Tuning Advisor. Do you think it’s worth trying at all, or is it just not useful in real-world scenarios?
• 17:07 Culloden: 3 years into Gen AI and no company is profitable. Is this turning into another tech company bubble for the big AI companies? Is this going to turnout to just be a feature enhancement to existing products rather than a whole new industry? Is AI just the next spell-check in Word?