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Production Database Administration

Office Hours - ask me anything.

Office Hours Speed Round: Text Edition

Last Updated July 13, 2022

Production Database Administration

Not all of the questions you post at https://pollgab.com/room/brento are hard. Some of ’em can be answered in one line: Q: accidentalDBA: Hi Brent, My friend is moving from two physical servers (production + failover) to VMs on the same host and SAN. His manager wants to keep log shipping as a DR solution. I…

Office Hours - ask me anything.

Office Hours Speed Round, Text Edition

Last Updated June 12, 2022

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…

And it looks bad even in shades.

Office Hours Speed Round: Text Edition

Last Updated May 31, 2022

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:…

Breaking News: SQL 2019 CU16 Changes Backup Formats, Can Break Log Shipping.

Last Updated May 25, 2022

Backup and Recovery, Breaking News

The newest Cumulative Update for SQL Server 2019 has this gem in the release notes: It’s not a known issue, it’s an improvement This is a massive problem if: You have databases encrypted with TDE You take backups WITH COMPRESSION (which has a history of bugs already), or you have the server’s default compression option…

Office Hours - ask me anything.

Office Hours Speed Round: Text Edition

Last Updated May 8, 2022

Production Database Administration

I recorded an Office Hours stream answering a bunch of your questions quickly, but…I forgot to turn on my microphone, so the video only had the sound effects: Oops. So here are the questions in text form instead: Q: 22DBA: what performance recommendation you see people give all the time but it actually doesn’t work…

Office Hours, Text Edition: No-Brainer Questions

Last Updated April 26, 2022

Production Database Administration

For my Office Hours streams on my Twitch channel, y’all post questions at PollGab and upvote the ones you’d like to see me discuss on the stream. However, not all questions require a video answer. Here are some simple no-brainer ones: Q: BehindTheScenesDBA: With all its limitations, what do you think about memory-optimized tables? Have you…

Meme Week: SQL Server 2012 as of 2022

Last Updated February 19, 2022

Production Database Administration

This week, I’m writing blog posts that can be summed up in one image. Here’s the first one: You could probably stop reading right there, but if you’re not convinced, allow me to elaborate. SQL Server 2012 support ends July 12. No, there’s not a year in that sentence, because it’s this year. No, there’s no…

What Trace Flags Are You Using, and Why?

Last Updated February 16, 2022

Production Database Administration

Most of the time, when you need to change SQL Server’s behavior – like how it handles memory or parallelism – there are easy-to-use switches to get the job done. In SQL Server Management Studio, just right-click on the server’s name, go into Properties, and there are all kinds of things you can mess with.…

Don’t Use SQL Server to Send Emails.

Last Updated December 12, 2021

Production Database Administration

I would like to unsubscribe from this idea. I’m not talking about Agent alerts when jobs fail. That’s fine when you can’t get the business to spring for a monitoring system. I’m talking about using SQL Server to send emails to confirm a customer’s order, alert that a product is low on stock, or other…

How to Patch SQL Server

Last Updated June 4, 2021

Production Database Administration

Microsoft releases SQL Server Cumulative Updates about every 60 days. This is a part of your job that you’re going to be doing a lot, so let’s get good at it! Here’s the strategy I like to use. Pick what patch you’re going to apply. Generally speaking, you should be on the most recent Cumulative…

Free TempDB Training Class Next Monday

Last Updated April 19, 2021

You’ve been working with Microsoft SQL Server for a couple of years, and you know a little bit about TempDB. You’ve heard that temp tables and table variables have different performance characteristics than regular user database tables, and you’ve heard that you’re supposed to have multiple data files. You’re wondering what exactly goes on behind…

Yep, still the same smile.

What Does a Database Administrator Actually Do?

Last Updated December 15, 2021

Production Database Administration

A DBA makes sure the databases are backed up, well-configured, patched, secure, and fast. I explain my job to acquaintances by saying, “You know how some web sites are really slow, and their checkout times out, or it loses your data? It’s my responsibility to make sure those problems don’t happen. I’m not the only…

How to Trace a Nested Stored Procedure Without Using Profiler

Last Updated February 16, 2021

Extended Events

You’ve got a stored procedure that calls other stored procedures that build dynamic SQL that call other functions, and there’s so much calling going on that you would like to phone a friend. Your query plans look like piles of spaghetti, and when you zoom in, you just see more tiny piles of tiny spaghetti.…

What’s a Size-of-Data Operation?

Last Updated February 9, 2021

Production Database Administration

Database professionals say, “That’s slow because it’s a size-of-data operation.” A size-of-data operation is when the database has to write all of the affected data again. What you’re asking for might seem small, but for the database, it causes a lot of work. For example, let’s say you live in a strict household, and your…

And it looks bad even in shades.

Free Webcast: Help! My SQL Server Maintenance is Taking Too Long!

Last Updated January 22, 2021

Backup and Recovery, Company News, Index Maintenance, Production Database Administration

“Time for a smoke break.” You manage growing SQL Server databases with shrinking nightly maintenance windows. You just don’t have enough time left each night to do the necessary backups, corruption checking, index maintenance, and data jobs that your users and apps want to run. Cloud storage isn’t helping the problem, either. Stop playing Tetris…

Office Hours

Frequently Asked Questions from Office Hours

Last Updated December 17, 2020

Production Database Administration

In my Twitch & YouTube live streams, some questions seem to come up every week. I’m not expecting this post to stop ’em by any means – most folks on the live stream don’t seem to read the blog regularly – but I thought I’d share ’em here. Q: Why is the same query sometimes…

New Class: Fundamentals of TempDB – Instant Replays Ready Now

Last Updated December 7, 2020

Yesterday, I taught my first Fundamentals of TempDB class, and as always, you can watch the Instant Replays right after class completes. Here’s the abstract: You’ve been working with Microsoft SQL Server for a couple of years, and you know a little bit about TempDB. You’ve heard that temp tables and table variables have different…

[Video] How to Troubleshoot Someone Else’s Temp Table Contents

Last Updated November 12, 2020

Let’s say you need to troubleshoot someone’s query performance, and they’re using temp tables. You want to peek in at their temp table contents from another session while their query is running. SQL Server makes that a little bit challenging. Nic Neufeld showed how to use DBCC PAGE to do this, but today I’m going…

Paul White Explains Temp Table Caching 3 Ways

Last Updated November 9, 2020

Paul White, Debugger of SQL Server Paul White (Blog, @SQL_Kiwi) is a legendary SQL Server blogger who’s written a ton of good material. You should read all of it. You won’t, and I can say that with authority because…I don’t read it all either. It’s too much. But when your job eventually requires you to…

Announcing a New Live Online Class: Fundamentals of TempDB

Last Updated November 30, 2020

Company News, TempDB

You’ve been working with Microsoft SQL Server for a couple of years, and you know a little bit about TempDB. You’ve heard that temp tables and table variables have different performance characteristics than regular user database tables, and you’ve heard that you’re supposed to have multiple data files. You’re wondering what exactly goes on behind…