Launch week: the Season Pass & Fundamentals Week are 50% off — ends in 10d 02h 41mSee the sale

Category: SQL Server

The 6 Best Things Microsoft Ever Did to SQL Server

This entire blog post is driven by the #1 feature in this list. I think about the #1 feature a lot, like at least once a week. I think about it so much that I had to stop and think about what other similar great things Microsoft has done over the years, and be thankful for what a nice platform this is to work with. Let's go through 6 of my favorite Microsoft decisions.

Read more about The 6 Best Things Microsoft Ever Did to SQL Server 46 comments — Join the discussion

[Video] I Must Be an Idiot: Automatic Tuning Never Works for Me.

I don't get it. I've given this feature one chance after another, and every time, it takes a smoke break rather than showing up for work.

The latest instance involved the recent Query Exercise where you were challenged to fix a computed column's performance. In the comments, some folks noted that performance of the query was actually great on old compat levels, like SQL Server 2008, and that it only sucked on newer compat levels like 2016 and later.

Read more about [Video] I Must Be an Idiot: Automatic Tuning Never Works for Me. 21 comments — Join the discussion

Thoughts About Stack Overflow’s Annual Developer Survey

Every year, Stack Overflow runs a developer survey about technology, work, community, and more. This year's results include 65,437 responses from developers around the world. The results are biased towards the kinds of developers who use Stack Overflow - 76% of the respondents reported that they have a Stack Overflow account. I would guess that…

Read more about Thoughts About Stack Overflow’s Annual Developer Survey 7 comments — Join the discussion

I’m Getting Antsy for SQL Server vNext.

Historically, Microsoft publicly announces the next version of SQL Server about a year before it ships. For example:

November 2, 2021, Microsoft announced the private preview of SQL Server 2022.
About 6 months later, on May 24, 2022, they announced the public preview.
About 12 months after the private preview announcement, on November 16, 2022, SQL Server 2022 was generally available.

Read more about I’m Getting Antsy for SQL Server vNext. 24 comments — Join the discussion

SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Winter 2023

The short story: SQL Server 2019 continues its utter domination of the Microsoft data platform landscape this quarter.

The long story: ever wonder how fast people are adopting new versions of SQL Server, or what’s “normal” out there for SQL Server adoption rates? Let’s find out in the winter 2023 version of our SQL ConstantCare® population report.

Read more about SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Winter 2023 4 comments — Join the discussion

Office Hours: “Read This” Edition

Sometimes when people post questions at https://pollgab.com/room/brento, the answer is just a link, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't make sense for me to rehash something that's been covered really well online, and I want to link 'em to the best resource possible. Petr: Huge slowdown of basic queries when using a partitioned table (Partition_Key…

Read more about Office Hours: “Read This” Edition 1 comment — Join the discussion

12 Office Hours Questions I Don’t Have Answers For

Hey, you! You look smart. Here are highly-upvoted questions that fellow readers submitted at https://pollgab.com/room/brento that I don't have answers for. If you'd like to jump into the comments, you can reference questions by number with your answers. Time to show off your brains! Kansas4444 asks: Hi Brent, do you have any advice on calculating…

Read more about 12 Office Hours Questions I Don’t Have Answers For 29 comments — Join the discussion

Analyzing Prices of SQL Server Books, New & Used

While on a road trip, Richie stopped by a used bookstore (or would that be used book store?) and made an amusing observation about the relative value of different SQL Server books. I just had to go look at Amazon for some research.

I'm listing prices below, but keep in mind that when you click, the prices and inventory may have changed.

Read more about Analyzing Prices of SQL Server Books, New & Used 11 comments — Join the discussion

Breaking News: SQL Server 2022 Keeps Getting Worse.

<sigh> Okay, so, the last few Cumulative Updates have had known issues around broken remote queries using the generic ODBC connector and errors with contained availability groups, but I couldn't really care less about those. If you use those features, I give you bombastic side eye anyway.

However, in the last few days, two more known issues have surfaced.

Read more about Breaking News: SQL Server 2022 Keeps Getting Worse. 92 comments — Join the discussion

Free Webcast Next Week! What’s New (and Actually Good) in SQL Server 2022

It's May 2023, and believe it or not, some of the flagship features in Microsoft's latest version still aren't ready for prime time yet. Good news, though: there are a few things that genuinely make your life easier with minimal work required on your part.

Forget rewriting code, though - in this session, I'll show what to turn on to determine:

Read more about Free Webcast Next Week! What’s New (and Actually Good) in SQL Server 2022 7 comments — Join the discussion

Is SQL Server 2019 More CPU-Intensive Than SQL Server 2016?

I'm running into something that I'm having a hard time believing.

A client was hitting CPU issues during load testing, and they swore all things were equal between their SQL Server 2016 and 2019 environments. The 2019 box was having CPU pressure issues that didn't show up on the 2016 box. I've played this game before, and every time, the root cause has been different configurations between the two servers.

Read more about Is SQL Server 2019 More CPU-Intensive Than SQL Server 2016? 73 comments — Join the discussion