Posts by Brent Ozar

Should There Be Ads in SSMS?

Some folks are seeing an ad at the top of their SSMS v22, like this one reported in the feedback site: Today, Microsoft’s using this to test ads for an upcoming conference. Interesting that they give deeper discounts to Reddit readers as opposed to SSMS users, but I digress. Tomorrow, they might be pushing SQL…
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Database Development with AI in 2026

AI
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This seems like the appropriate first BrentOzar.com blog post in the year 2026, eh? In the PollGab question queue for Office Hours, MyRobotOverlordAsks asked a question that merited a full blog post answer: My company announced during some AI training that within the next 12 months we won’t be writing any of our own code.…
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Brent Ozar Dotonbori Osaka

[Video] Office Hours in Osaka, Japan

Videos
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The Dotonbori area of Osaka is like a video game version of Japan: wild, over-the-top neon signs, awesome street food, cool street markets, Kabuki theater on a revolving stage, and more. It’s very touristy, but as touristy places go, it’s fantastic. Last year when I was here, I filmed Office Hours at the river, but…
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Your Favorite Posts From This Year

Company News
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Reading is fundamental, and fundamentally, here are the 2025 blog posts that y’all read the most this year. (This list doesn’t include the most popular timeless posts overall.) 10. Free Spring Training Webcasts – I’ve noticed that people have near-zero interest these days in paying to attend live online classes, but they’re still really interested…
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[Video] Office Hours in Zhengzhou, China

Videos
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I really wanted to film Office Hours on the Great Wall of China, but the instant I got out there, I realized it was a lost cause. That place was SO overwhelming – tons of people, frigid winds, heights, totally overwhelming in every way. So, instead you get a nice peaceful park in downtown Zhengzhou,…
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Known Issues So Far in SQL Server 2025

SQL Server 2025
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Whenever a brand spankin’ new version of any software comes out, there are bugs, and SQL Server is no exception. This has led to a mentality where folks don’t wanna install a new version of SQL Server until the first couple of Cumulative Updates come out, hopefully fixing the first big round of bugs. So……
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[Video] Office Hours at the Last Spike

Videos
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I drove the Graffiti Gulf out to The Last Spike (video) outside of Las Vegas and took your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 01:45 Jan de Graaf: Our database landscape seems CPU-bound. We sometimes hit 100% CPU with organic load. We’re considering new hardware. Do you think memory speed plays…
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Missing order id 2

Identity Columns Can Have Gaps, and That’s Okay.

Development
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Say you’ve got a table with an identity column, something that’s supposed to start at 1 and go up to a bajillion: Transact-SQL DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.Orders; CREATE TABLE dbo.Orders (Id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED, OrderDate DATETIME2, CustomerName NVARCHAR(50)); GO /* Put a starter row in there: */ INSERT INTO dbo.Orders (OrderDate, CustomerName)…
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[Video] Office Hours: Everything’s Gone Wrong Edition

Videos
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I threw in the towel on my workday at 3PM when everything started going wrong in the Ozar home office, so I switched to answering your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 03:59 MyTeaGotCold: How often do you see indexed views these days? 04:14 I 3Fedora: Hi Brent, Not strictly database…
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I'm killing your query.

How’s the Job Market? Let’s Find Out Together.

Salary
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Every year, I run a salary survey to help folks have better discussions with their managers about salaries, benefits, and career progression. This year, the survey is for unemployed folks, too! The first question has a new option for “Unemployed (and looking).” Note that if you’re retired, thanks, but you can skip this survey. Congrats…
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[Video] Office Hours: Fireside Chat Edition

Videos
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It’s the perfect time of year in Las Vegas when we can chill outside by the fire, enjoy a glass of wine, and go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:54 iliyan Rashev: Hello Brent, I am on SQL Server 2019 RTM Please recommend a patching path: 1. Apply…
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