Posts by Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar

2449 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.

SQL Server 2005 support ends next week. Here’s my tribute to it.

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Humor, SQL Server

I remember the first time I used SQL Server 2005. Did you know SQL Server has an expiration date on the bottom of the box? Also, this one is curdled. I was a database administrator working on a new-build data warehouse project in Miami. Both our data warehouse and SQL Server 2005 were looking like…

Microsoft Discontinues SQL Server Support for Windows

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

Humor

Microsoft announced today that the forthcoming SQL Server 2016 version won’t just run on Linux – it will only run on Linux. Mark Souza, Microsoft “When we started developing the Linux port of SQL Server, we weren’t really serious about it at all,” confessed Mark Souza, lead documentation author for the project. “But after a couple of weeks, we…

Happy Fifth Birthday to Us, 50% Off for You.

Last Updated April 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

Five years ago, we turned BrentOzar.com into a consulting and training company. Now look at us. (Well, maybe not too closely, we’re getting a little gray and wrinkly.) To celebrate: Video classes are now 50% off with coupon code HighFive That includes bundles, too, which brings the epic Everything Bundle down to just $449! Two of our…

Announcing the SQL Server Theme Song Winners

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Humor, SQL Server

We asked you to pick theme songs to play when SQL Server has issues, and holy cow, you sent in a ton of submissions. We couldn’t possibly pick just one in each category, so each of us picked our own winners – all of whom get a free training video class of their choice. (Folks who…

Announcing sp_BlitzIndex® v3.0, sp_Blitz® v48, More

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

First Responder Kit, SQL Server

Lots of fun stuff out this week: sp_BlitzIndex® v3.0 adds prioritized, streamlined results. We see so many index design disasters, and we know you have a limited amount of time. Doug Lane put a ton of work into focusing the output on the most important issues, things that are easy-to-fix and will have an immediate performance improvement, and…

2016 Company Retreat Photos

Last Updated March 16, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

This year, we gathered in Napa, California for our annual company retreat. Here’s some of our favorite memories: Here’s to another fun year of working together and making a difference in the SQL Server community.

Contest: SQL Server Theme Songs

Last Updated April 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Humor

244

During this month’s Senior DBA Class in Chicago, I started joking with the attendees about what songs they should play during common DBA job tasks, like: Best Song to Play During a Server Outage Best Song to Illustrate Your Predecessor’s Skills Best Song to Accompany an Index Rebuild Best Song to Play When Examining a Slow Query Best…

Microsoft SQL Server is Coming to Linux.

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Licensing, SQL Server

Two things: SQL Server is coming to Linux, and no, this isn’t April 1st, although the meeting minutes kinda read that way. Let’s zoom back for a second: if you want to expand an existing business, you have two good options: Sell a new product to your existing customers Sell your existing product to new customers For years,…

SQL Server 2016 Installation Screenshot Tour

Last Updated March 7, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

SQL Server 2016 Release Candidate 0 is out. Here’s what the installation process looks like: Installation Center – not much new here until you click on the Installation tab Note that on the Installation tab, though, there’s a new line for “Install SQL Server Management Tools.” Management Tools got promoted (or is it voted off…

Database-Scoped Configurations Replace Trace Flags.

Last Updated September 13, 2020

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

Trace flags are special switches that, when you flip them, enable different behaviors in your SQL Server. Back in the SQL Server 2000-2005 days, these were super-rare undocumented tricks that were handed out by Microsoft support to fix rare cases. Over time, some trace flags have become so commonplace that they worked their way into…

My Favorite System Column: LOG_REUSE_WAIT_DESC

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Brent Ozar

Backup and Recovery, SQL Server

Hidden away in master.sys.databases is one of the coolest diagnostic tools you might ever need: Transact-SQL SELECT name, log_reuse_wait_desc FROM sys.databases; 1 SELECT name, log_reuse_wait_desc FROM sys.databases; This spiffy little snippet will tell you why each database’s log file isn’t clearing out. Possible reasons include: Log backup needs to be run (or if you could…

Out of Office: Time For the 2016 Brent Ozar Unlimited Retreat

Last Updated March 4, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

Last year’s company retreat on the Oregon coast Thank you for your web visit. Your eyeballs are very important to us. However, we’re out of the office and will be back on Monday, March 7, 2016. During this period we will have limited access to our email. We’ll still have full access to Twitter, Facebook, and…

The Top 4 Job Tasks DBAs Forget

Last Updated February 13, 2017

Brent Ozar

CHECKDB and Corruption, SQL Server

It’s easy to get caught up in daily incidents, tickets, and special projects. Like a good scout, though, a core task in a DBA’s job is to be prepared. You have to set time aside in your schedule to: 1. Practice responding to corruption. Gail Shaw’s “Help, my database is corrupt, now what?” post should…

Introducing Our Latest Employee, Richie Rump (aka @Jorriss)

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Company News, SQL Server

Richie Rump, aka @Jorriss During our very first training class, we showed the students how we use SET STATISTICS IO ON to get the number of logical reads performed on each table in a query, and then sum ’em up to see the query’s overall impact. It’s kind of a painful, manual process. Sitting in the…

SQL Server Agent is an application server.

Last Updated January 27, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

Application server. SQL Server Agent is a job scheduler. When we first get started managing SQL Server, we usually use it for backups, index maintenance, DBCC CHECKDB, and other common maintenance tasks. And then one day, we say, “Hey, I need this T-SQL script to run once a day.” We add an Agent job for it.…

It’s Now Easier to Query sp_BlitzFirst’s Historical Tables

Last Updated January 7, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

When you want to know why the server’s slow, you can ask Brent. sp_BlitzFirst® checks a lot of DMVs to find common causes of server slowness. When you turn on @ExpertMode = 1, you can see additional information like file stats, wait stats, and Perfmon counters. To log those to a table permanently, check out…

What Is a Staging Environment and How Do You Build One?

Last Updated December 9, 2018

Brent Ozar

Architecture, SQL Server

If you’re a full time production database administrator, you need a staging environment. This is where you test infrastructure tasks like failing over mirroring, doing a disaster recovery role swap, cluster quorum changes, log shipping configuration, and patching. You need to test this stuff repeatedly so that when you’re under pressure in the production environment, you…

How to Get Your Very First Full Time DBA Job

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Brent Ozar

Professional Development, SQL Server

It’s about time. Step 1: get a job as a developer or a sysadmin. Step 2: stand near the database. Step 3: wait. Almost every DBA I know got their start this way. Sooner or later, something went wrong with the database, and management grabbed the nearest person and yelled, “You! You look smart and…

Cheat Sheet: How to Configure TempDB for Microsoft SQL Server

Last Updated November 4, 2020

Brent Ozar

SQL Server, TempDB

105

The short version: configure one volume/drive for TempDB. Divide the total space by 9, and that’s your size number. Create 8 equally sized data files and one log file, each that size. Presto, the drive is full and your TempDB is configured for easy performance. The long version is a little more complicated. If you’re on…

How to Talk People Out of the SA Account, Option 2

Last Updated January 13, 2016

Brent Ozar

SQL Server

In my last post, I explained the kind, gentle way to talk people out of the SA account. Today, I’ll describe a time when Option 1 didn’t work, and I had to get ugly. Power User: “You can’t change the SA password. It’s embedded everywhere. Everything we have relies on it, and we all use…