News & Opinion
Contest: Make the Comments Look Like My ChatGPT History.
Let's have some fun.
Put yourself in the frame of mind of the fella who writes this blog.
Author: Brent Ozar
I make Microsoft SQL Server go faster. I love teaching, travel, cars, and laughing. I'm based out of Las Vegas. He/him.
How Multi-Column Statistics Work
The short answer: in the real world, only the first column works. When SQL Server needs data about the second column, it builds its own stats on that column instead (assuming they don't already exist), and uses those two statistics together - but they're not really correlated.
For the longer answer, let's take a large version of the Stack Overflow database, create a two-column index on the Users table, and then view the resulting statistics:
Who’s Hiring Database People? April 2026 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of April 2026? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let's make a love connection.
If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules:
News & Opinion
SQL Server 2025 CU4 Adds Automatic Updates
April 1, 2026: Big news for everyone who has to manage Microsoft SQL Server, whether they're DBAs, sysadmins, or developers.
Seven years ago, Microsoft announced automatic, downtime-free hot patching of the SQL Server engine in Azure SQL DB. The tail end of that post had a teaser in it:
How to Draw Line Graphs in SSMS
Ever just need a quick visualization of some numbers to get a rough idea of the trend, like this:
Option 1: ask Copilot to write the query for you.
[Video] Office Hours: Q&A on the Mountaintop
Well, maybe mountain is a bit of a strong word, but it's one of the highest elevation home sites in Las Vegas, with beautiful views over the valley, the Strip, the airport, and the surrounding mountains. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento while taking in the view - and you can move the camera around, since this is an Insta360 video.
Y’all Are Getting Good Free AI Advice from PasteThePlan.
PasteThePlan has a new AI Suggestions tab, and it's been really fun to watch the query plans come in and the advice go out. Here are some examples: Date "tables" - when I looked at the query, I glossed over the real problem. I thought arc_Calendar was a real date table, but AI figured out…
My Wish List for SQL Server Performance Features
There are a lot of shopping days left before Christmas, and even more before the next version of SQL Server ships, so might as well get my wish list over to Santa now so the elves can start working on ignoring them.
My work focuses on performance tuning, so that's what my wish list focuses on, too. They really are wishes, like I-want-a-pony, because I know I'm discussing some stuff that's easy to describe, but really challenging to implement.
SSMS v22.4.1: Copilot is GA. So What’s It Do Right Now?
Copilot in SSMS has two parts. Usually people focus on the pop-out Copilot chat window, and that's useful for sure, but honestly I think you're going to get way more mileage out of the code completions feature, right away, because it blends in with your existing workflows. Let's say that I'm working with the Stack…
[Video] Office Hours in North Bay, Ontario
I'm up in North Bay, Ontario, Canada for the 2026 Can-Am Curling Cup run by Aaron Bertrand - and my team actually won!
Let's bask in the warmth (cough) of our glory as we go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for March 2026
For the last few years, I've slowed the First Responder Kit release down to once per quarter. It felt pretty feature-complete, and I didn't want to make y'all upgrade any more than you have to. You're busy, and I don't want to take up your time unless there's something really big to gain from doing an upgrade.
Get Free AI Query Advice in PasteThePlan.
At PasteThePlan.com, you can paste execution plans into your browser, then send a link to someone else to get query advice. It's useful for online forums, Stack Exchange, and the like.
After you paste the plan, you've got a new AI Suggestions tab. It sends your query plan (and my custom prompt) up to ChatGPT 5.3, and in 30 seconds or less, you get a second opinion on ways to make it go faster:
[Video] Office Hours, Standing in the Ocean Edition
My tripod is probably never gonna recover from the salt water, but the water was so nice that I couldn't resist. This is a 360 video, so you can grab the screen and move it around to see Magens Bay in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, as I go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Using Claude Code with SQL Server and Azure SQL DB
Let's start with a 7-minute demo video - I didn't edit this down because I want you to be able to see what happens in real time. In this video, I point the desktop version of Claude Code at a Github issue for the First Responder Kit and tell it to do the needful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0EscPWYKs
Performance Tuning
Row-Level Security Can Slow Down Queries. Index For It.
The official Azure SQL Dev's Corner blog recently wrote about how to enable soft deletes in Azure SQL using row-level security, and it's a nice, clean, short tutorial. I like posts like that because the feature is pretty cool and accomplishes a real business goal. It's always tough deciding where to draw the line on how much to include in a blog post, so I forgive them for not including one vital caveat with this feature.
Logical Reads Aren’t Repeatable on Columnstore Indexes. (sigh)
Sometimes I really hate my job. Forever now, FOREVER, it's been a standard thing where I can say, "When you're measuring storage performance during index and query tuning, you should always use logical reads, not physical reads, because logical reads are repeatable, and physical reads aren't. Physical reads can change based on what's in cache,…
I’m Not Gonna Waste Time Debunking Crap on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is full of absolute trash these days. Just flat out bullshit garbage. (Oh yeah, that - this post should probably come with a language disclaimer, because this stuff makes me mad.)
People wanna look impressive without actually putting in the work to gain real knowledge. They're asking ChatGPT to write viral "expertise" knowledge posts for them, and they're publishing this slop without so much as testing it.
[Video] Office Hours: Back in the Bahamas Edition
Yes, I'm back on a cruise ship with another 360 degree video. Lest you think I'm being wildly irresponsible (or responsible perhaps?) with your consulting and training money, be aware that this particular cruise was free thanks to the fine folks in the casino department at Norwegian Cruise Lines. In between beaches and blackjack, let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Who’s Hiring Database People? March 2026 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of March 2026? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let's make a love connection.
If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules:
I’ve Been Using Macs for 20 Years. Here’s What You Wanted to Know.
tl;dr - It's easier because I've always chosen to run SQL Server VMs, so it was easier for me to switch than you might expect - but if you're a Microsoft IT pro, I don't recommend switching.
Now for the long version.
