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SQL Server

Get Ready: SQL Server 2016 Mainstream Support Ends in One Week.

Last Updated July 6, 2021

SQL Server 2016

Brent Ozar, bearer of bad news Who am I kidding? You’re not really going to get ready, but let’s talk about this anyway. SQL Server 2016 mainstream support ends Tuesday, July 13, 2021. According to Microsoft’s SQL Server support policy, that means from here on out, Microsoft will only deliver security patches, not functional, performance,…

What’s the Buggiest Feature in SQL Server?

Last Updated May 5, 2021

Execution Plans, SQL Server

Not the one you like the least, or the one that requires the most work. What’s the one that you can’t use because it’s just flat out busted? For me, it’s SSMS’s Live Query Statistics, aka live query plans. The idea is so awesome – you click Query, Include Live Query Statistics, and then when you…

If You Could Only Say One Thing About Writing Good Queries…

Last Updated May 4, 2021

If you could give just one piece of advice about writing good queries, what would it be? I asked Twitter yesterday because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything in a new training course I’m working on, and the replies were fantastic. Here were some of my favorites: As you’re writing a query,…

Brent Reading Book

Your Top 10 Ideas for SQL Server

Last Updated April 13, 2021

You’ve submitted thousands of bug reports and feature requests at feedback.azure.com, and here’s what you’ve voted as the top 10 requests right now: #10: MIN/MAX as non-aggregate functions. PostgreSQL and Oracle have the GREATEST/LEAST functions that work like COALESCE, allowing you to pass in a list of values and get the top or lowest. Sounds…

Where I See Databases Going in the Next 10 Years

Last Updated March 18, 2021

Architecture, SQL Server

This month, to mark the 20th anniversary of BrentOzar.com, I’m stepping back and looking at the big picture rather than blogging about database problems & solutions like I usually do. I’m going to generalize a little by decade here to keep things simple. In 1990-2000, databases were mostly tied to specific development languages. When you…

It’s Been Decades. Why Don’t Databases Manage Themselves Yet?

Last Updated March 20, 2021

This month, to mark the 20th anniversary of BrentOzar.com, I’m stepping back and looking at the big picture rather than blogging about database problems & solutions like I usually do. A much younger me When I started working with databases, we had to: Provision the right CPUs and memory Provision the right storage throughput and…

What’s New & Undocumented in SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update 9

Last Updated February 15, 2021

SQL Server 2019

Last week’s SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update 9 snuck in some undocumented things. We got two new DMVs for Always On Availability Groups, sys.dm_hadr_cached_replica_states and sys.dm_hadr_cached_database_replica_states. They have a subset of data from other AG DMVs: I sure wish I could point you to the documentation or KB article on those. But we have no…

What Is the SQL Server CEIP Service?

Last Updated October 7, 2020

The CEIP Service is the Customer Experience Improvement Program that sends telemetry data back to Microsoft. When you install Microsoft SQL Server, the CEIP Service is installed too. You can’t disable it during installation: it shows up in your services list whether you want it or not. You know it’s high quality when they can’t…

SQL Server Cumulative Update Documentation Is Going Downhill, Fast

Last Updated August 7, 2020

SQL Server 2019

Microsoft appears to have given up on patch documentation, and that’s kinda scary for a product that costs thousands of dollars per core. Yesterday’s SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update 6 launched with the worst documentation I’ve seen yet. It’s been steadily going downhill, but CU6 represents a new low. For years, we’d complained that the…

Sit Down. We Need to Talk About Your Scalar Functions.

Last Updated June 25, 2020

Development, SQL Server 2019

Thanks for coming today. I apologize for baiting you in here with a picture of toilet paper. That’s not even in the US – that’s from my Iceland trip, before I flew back here to the US. Look, we all make mistakes. That’s not the point of this post. You see, I’ve been reading this…

[Video] What Percent Complete Is That Index Build?

Last Updated March 24, 2020

Index Maintenance, SQL Server 2017, Videos

SQL Server 2017 & newer have a new DMV, sys.index_resumable_operations, that show you the percent_completion for index creations and rebuilds. It works, but…only if the data isn’t changing. But of course your data is changing – that’s the whole point of doing these operations as resumable. If they weren’t changing, we could just let the operations…

That's it, I'm rolling back to SQL Server 6.5

Breaking News: SQL Server 2019 CU2 Breaks Agent.

Last Updated March 4, 2020

Breaking News, SQL Server 2019

That’s it, I’m rolling back to SQL Server 6.5 You reported it here in the comments, and over at SQLServerUpdates, and in this DBA.StackExchange.com question. The official word is in: yep, SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update 2 breaks Agent jobs on some servers, causing them not to run. That official word is only in that…

Interesting Undocumented Tidbits in SQL Server 2019 CU2

Last Updated February 19, 2020

SQL Server 2019

SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update 2 is out, and Microsoft snuck in a few things that they didn’t mention in the release notes. Contained Availability Groups continue to get new investments. In the lead-up to SQL Server 2019’s release, we got a few presentations at various conferences where Microsoft folks said we’d get the ability…

#TSQL2sday: My Life Hack is an Hourglass. Yes, an Hourglass.

Last Updated February 11, 2020

For this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, Jess Pomfret asked for our favorite life hacks. My life hack is a half-hour hourglass. (Halfhourglass?) Seriously, an actual physical object: I keep it on my desk. Whenever I start working on a task, I flip the glass. After 30 minutes, I need to stop and assess the progress I’ve…

SQL Server Doesn’t Encrypt Data By Default.

Last Updated November 27, 2019

Create a table and insert a couple of rows: Then back up the database without using compression, and open up the backup file with a hex editor: The same trick works on the data file, too. That’s it. That’s all. That’s the post. Look, not every post is groundbreaking: sometimes it’s just about writing down…

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Announcing Weekend Versions of My Mastering Classes

Last Updated November 30, 2020

Last week, I noticed that an awful lot of you were buying my Level 2 and Level 3 Bundles with your own personal money (not company cards), so I wondered – if your company wasn’t paying for it, were they giving you time off? So I polled to ask if you were interested in taking…

Live Class Season Pass

Contest: Guess the SQL Server 2021 Release Date

Last Updated January 9, 2021

When will Microsoft officially release SQL Server 2021 for download? The dust is just barely starting to settle on the 2019 box, so it’s time to guess the next one. Leave one – and only one – comment here in YYYY/MM/DD format with your release date guess. If you leave multiple comments, only the first/earliest…

SQL Server 2019 is out…now.

Last Updated November 4, 2019

SQL Server 2019

After just one release candidate, Microsoft has decided it’s ready to go, apparently! Well, kinda: the official build in the release notes is 15.0.2000.5, and there’s already a “servicing update” to 15.0.2070.41. I’m not sure I wanna know what’s going on there. Anyhoo, SQL Server 2019 is available for download now. This also means it’s…

SQL Server 2019 Standard Edition Feature Limitations Are Out

Last Updated October 18, 2019

SQL Server 2019

The features list by edition is out, and there’s a disclaimer at the top: This content is being updated for SQL Server 2019. The information in the article is not final. Which means if you’re really angry, and your company buys a lot of licenses, now’s your time to raise holy hell with your Microsoft…

[Video] What’s New in SQL Server 2019

Last Updated June 25, 2020

SQL Server 2019, Videos

We must be getting pretty close to the official release of Microsoft SQL Server 2019. There are less than 80 days left in the year. (Interestingly, it’s been almost 60 days since Release Candidate 1 shipped – that’s unusually long for a delay between builds. Hmm.) With the clock ticking down, now’s a good time…

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