Posts by Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar

2789 posts

https://www.brentozar.com

I make Microsoft SQL Server go faster. I love teaching, travel, cars, and laughing. I'm based out of Las Vegas. He/him.

[Video] Office Hours Speed Round

Last Updated July 7, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

In ten minutes, let’s cover as many questions as possible from https://pollgab.com/room/brento: Office Hours Speed Round: SQL Server Q&AWatch this video on YouTube Here’s what we raced through: 00:00 Introductions 00:17 dbacat: We’ve been fighting an AG issue for a while. Sometimes during failover, one or a few databases go into initializing/recovery state on the…

Who’s Hiring in the Database Community? July 2022 Edition

Last Updated August 1, 2022

Brent Ozar

Who's Hiring

Is your company hiring for a database position as of July 2022? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let’s set up some rapid networking here. If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules: Your comment must include the job title, and either a link to the full…

Columnstore Indexes are Finally Sorted in SQL Server 2022.

Last Updated July 12, 2022

Brent Ozar

Columnstore Indexes

There’s a widespread misconception that SQL Server’s columnstore indexes are like an index on every column. I debunk that myth in the first 30 minutes of my Fundamentals of Columnstore class, where I explain that a better way to think of them is that your table is broken up into groups of rows (1M rows…

[Video] Office Hours: Professional Development Questions

Last Updated June 29, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

Most of the questions y’all post at https://pollgab.com/room/brento are technical ones, but there were a handful of interesting professional development and career ones in the queue, so I cherry-picked those for today’s episode: Office Hours: SQL Server Professional Development QuestionsWatch this video on YouTube 00:00 Introductions 00:20 GI Joe DBA: Have you ever refused a…

Is Remote Work the New Normal for DBAs?

Last Updated June 28, 2022

Brent Ozar

Professional Development

An intriguing Office Hours question came in through my PollGab room. Anatoli asked, “Is remote work the new normal for DBAs? What are the pros / cons?” I happened to be teaching an online training class yesterday, so I asked my attendees where they were attending the class from. The vast majority – 27 out…

Now is the Right Time for the 2022 Brent Ozar Unlimited Scholarship Applications.

Last Updated June 27, 2022

Brent Ozar

Company News

We normally do this in the fall, but given last week’s news, I bet you can understand why we’re doing this a little early, dear reader. You work at a charity or non-profit, helping them make a difference with data, fights for the rights of the underrepresented, or cares for them. Maybe you write reports…

I’m Coming Back to Israel for the Data.TLV Summit!

Last Updated June 26, 2022

Brent Ozar

Conferences and Classes

The Data.TLV Summit on September 15th is a big free conference on data engineering, business intelligence, data analysis, and … beer. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be back in Tel Aviv again for it, and this time I’m teaching a pre-conference workshop on the cloud. Running SQL Server in AWS & Azure You’re used…

I Wish SQL Server Warned About Hard-Coded Estimates.

Last Updated June 23, 2022

Brent Ozar

Execution Plans

I wish we got a yellow bang on execution plans when SQL Server was making up an estimate out of thin air. I’ll give you an example: if you compare two columns on the same table, looking to find rows where they’re equal, SQL Server has a hard-coded estimate that 10% of the rows will…

[Video] Office Hours: Ask Me Anything About SQL Server

Last Updated June 21, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

You posted questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento, upvoted the ones you’d like to see me cover, and I did the needful: Office Hours: Ask Me Anything About SQL ServerWatch this video on YouTube Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introductions 01:19 chandwich: Hi Brent. I’ve been unsuccessful in my attempt to convince my employer I need formal SQL…

Pour One Out for Distributed Replay. It’s Deprecated in SQL Server 2022.

Last Updated October 19, 2022

Brent Ozar

SQL Server 2022

I love how Microsoft treats deprecated and discontinued features in SQL Server. No, seriously. I give Microsoft a lot of sarcasm and lip around here, but Microsoft takes serious care to make it easy to upgrade versions without worrying about your application breaking. If you disagree, hear me out for a minute. “Discontinued” means it’s…

New Buying Option: Lifetime Access to Class Recordings

Last Updated June 21, 2022

Brent Ozar

Company News

Wanna buy my Recorded Class Season Pass: Fundamentals or Mastering, but you don’t want an annual subscription? Now you can buy either of those bundles, pay one price, and get permanent access to the classes without worrying about recurring fees. The price is the same as if you’d have had the subscription for 2 years.…

[Video] Office Hours: Palm Springs, California Edition

Last Updated June 1, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

On a road trip from San Diego to Vegas, I stopped in Palm Springs and answered your highly-upvoted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Office Hours: Ask Me Anything in Palm Springs, CaliforniaWatch this video on YouTube Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introductions 00:45 i_use_lowercase_for_select: Hi Brent, just wanted to give you my support on your May 24th…

Office Hours Speed Round, Text Edition

Last Updated June 12, 2022

Brent Ozar

Production Database Administration

Not all of the questions y’all post at https://pollgab.com/room/brento are hard – some of ’em can be answered in just a line or two: Q: Hany: Hello Brent, Who’s “Brent Ozar” in the Azure world? Microsoft, and I wrote why here. Q: Neutron Jack: Do you see any concerning TSQL deprecations in SQL 2022? No, neither…

[Video] Office Hours: Vail Fireside Chat

Last Updated June 9, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

You posted and upvoted questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento, and I sat down by the fire on a chilly evening in Vail, Colorado to answer ’em. I was driving cross-country, heading back from a road trip to see my mom. Office Hours: Fireside Chat in VailWatch this video on YouTube Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introductions 00:46…

[Video] Office Hours in Moab, Utah

Last Updated May 25, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

On a cross-country trip, I stopped in Moab, Utah and answered your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Office Hours: Ask Me Anything About SQL Server in Moab, UtahWatch this video on YouTube Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Introductions 01:20 YourbiggestFan: Do you have any plans to write an Azure first version of the first responder kit…

SQL Server 2022 Tells You Why A Query Can’t Go Parallel.

Last Updated June 7, 2022

Brent Ozar

Execution Plans, SQL Server 2022

Until 2022, when a query couldn’t go parallel, all we got was a really cryptic note in the execution plan properties saying NonParallelPlanReason = CouldNotGenerateValidParallelPlan. But starting with SQL Server 2022, even when I’m running under older compatibility levels: ALTER DATABASE CURRENT SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 140; /* 2017 */ GO DECLARE @TableVariable TABLE(Total BIGINT); INSERT…

[Video] Office Hours: Professional Development Edition

Last Updated May 31, 2022

Brent Ozar

Videos

I spent an entire video just talking about 3 questions y’all posted to https://pollgab.com/room/brento because these were pretty big-picture and important. I know it sounds goofy and sentimental, but I genuinely care about y’all’s careers, and I want you to work as little as practical in order to spend as much time with your loved…

Who’s Hiring in the Database Community? June 2022 Edition

Last Updated August 1, 2022

Brent Ozar

Who's Hiring

Is your company hiring for a database position as of June 2022? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let’s set up some rapid networking here. If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules: Your comment must include the job title, and either a link to the full…

Office Hours Speed Round: Text Edition

Last Updated May 31, 2022

Brent Ozar

Production Database Administration

Some questions that come in at https://pollgab.com/room/brento have such straightforward answers that I don’t need to cover them on video. It’s time for a rapid-fire speed round: Q: Uncle Buck: Is there a good way to tell if a given include column for a NC index is being used at all? No. Q: Steve E:…

I’m teaching Mastering Parameter Sniffing at the PASS Summit!

Last Updated May 25, 2022

Brent Ozar

#SQLPass

At the PASS Data Community Summit in Seattle on November 12th, I’m teaching a one-day pre-conference workshop. This year, the Summit is a hybrid event: you can either attend in-person in Seattle, or online via live streaming. If you attend online, PASS is recording the live stream, and you’ll be able to re-watch it during the…