SQL Server

Brent Ozar reading

What’s New in SQL Server 2019 System Tables

SQL Server 2019
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The free SQL Server 2019 preview download is out, and here are quite a few things to check out that aren’t documented yet: New System Objects Starting with new stored procedures: sys.sp_add_feature_restriction sys.sp_autoindex_cancel_dta sys.sp_autoindex_invoke_dta sys.sp_cloud_update_blob_tier sys.sp_configure_automatic_tuning sys.sp_diagnostic_showplan_log_dbid sys.sp_drop_feature_restriction sys.sp_execute_remote sys.sp_force_slog_truncation sys.sp_internal_alter_nt_job_limits sys.sp_rbpex_exec_cmd sys.sp_set_distributed_query_context sys.sp_set_session_resource_group sys.sp_showinitialmemo_xml sys.sp_xa_commit sys.sp_xa_end sys.sp_xa_forget sys.sp_xa_forget_ex sys.sp_xa_init sys.sp_xa_init_ex sys.sp_xa_prepare sys.sp_xa_prepare_ex sys.sp_xa_recover sys.sp_xa_rollback…
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What’s New in SQL Server 2019: Faster Table Variables (And New Parameter Sniffing Issues)

For over a decade, SQL Server’s handling of table variables has been legendarily bad. I’ve long used this Stack Overflow query from Sam Saffron to illustrate terrible cardinality estimation: Transact-SQL declare @VoteStats table (PostId int, up int, down int) insert @VoteStats select PostId, up = sum(case when VoteTypeId = 2 then 1 else 0 end), down…
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What’s New in SQL Server 2019: Adaptive Memory Grants

When you run a query, SQL Server guesses how much memory you’re going to need for things like sorts and joins. As your query starts, it gets an allocation of workspace memory, then starts work. Sometimes SQL Server underestimates the work you’re about to do, and doesn’t grant you enough memory. Say you’re working with…
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Announcing SQL Server 2019

SQL Server 2019
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TEASE Who Let The Docs Out? Ignite must be coming up. If you head over to Microsoft’s GitHub repo, you can peruse around for stuff updated recently. Maybe you’ll create an account. Maybe you’ll start contributing to open source projects. Maybe you’ll quietly slip into a world of solitude for days on end. Happy Saturday!…
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Wait Stats When VSS Snaps Are Slow

SQL Server
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Deus Redux A while back I wrote about the Perils of VSS Snaps. After working with several more clients having similar issues, I decided it was time to look at things again. This time, I wanted blood. I wanted to simulate a slow VSS Snap and see what kind of waits stats I’d have to…
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A Common Query Error

SQL Server
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So Many Choices When you only need stuff from a table where there’s matching (or not!) data in another table, the humble query writer has many choices. Joins In/Not In Exists/Not Exists No, this isn’t about how NOT IN breaks down in the presence of NULLs, nor is it a performance comparison of the possibilities.…
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Office Hours Podcast

[Video] Office Hours 2018/8/1 (With Transcriptions)

SQL Server, Videos
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This week, Erik and Richie discuss monitoring tools, finding all unused tables across databases, query tuning, deleting vs hanging on to indexes, sharding databases, query editors, aggressively-locked indexes, why a plan would not be in the plan cache, and Richie’s current housing situation. Here’s the video on YouTube: You can register to attend next week’s Office Hours,…
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A New tempdb Trace Flag Appears!

SQL Server
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Coming Around Microsoft has been doing a good job of taking stuff that used to be Wizard Hat and making it part of out of the box functionality. Starting with SQL Server 2016, you didn’t need to keep these in your setup checklist: Trace flag 1118 to reduce SGAM contention Trace flag 1117 so when…
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#TSQL2sday: +

SQL Server
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For this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, He of Perfect Hair, Bert Wagner asked, “What code have you written that you would hate to live without?” There are a lot of pieces of code I frequently need to reuse when working on the First Responder Kit, like string splitting, XML PATH-ing, and converting milliseconds to some human…
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