A client said the coolest thing to me the other day. He said, "We talked before about why we would want to start using optimistic locking in our code. How do we get there?" If you're not a SQL Server geek, that comment probably doesn't even make sense. But to some of us, when you…
I don't blog every release of sp_Blitz® (we pushed v15 out silently with a few bug fixes) but we added a lot of improvements and fixes in this version - and by we I mean you. After I blogged about v14's release earlier this week, that encouraged a lot of people to come out of the woodwork…
Today, we've got a big one, and it's all thanks to you.
For the last couple of versions, I haven't added any big features because I'd been focused on the plan cache improvements. Today, though, we've got a big one with all kinds of health-checking improvements - and they're all thanks to your contributions.
I’m curious. I like to know how things work. I have to read the user manual of everything I buy so I know all of its features. I like clicking all the buttons in applications I work with. However, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) has so many I haven’t gotten through all of them. At SQL Saturday #118 Wisconsin earlier this year, I was watching a presentation and the presenter clicked “Include Client Statistics”.
As your databases get bigger, you're going to run out of time to do nightly full backups. You're going to be tempted by the siren song of differential backups. The idea is that you'll do full backups on the weekends, and then differential backups each night of the week. Differential backups aren't just the sum…
SQL Server has two settings that kinda-sorta govern how much memory we'll use to cache data: min server memory and max server memory. I explain the basics of how they work in my Sysadmin's Guide to SQL Server Memory, but things are a little different under virtualization. VMware does a great job of sharing memory…
When you send your beautifully hand-crafted organic T-SQL statement to SQL Server, the database engine takes a moment to appreciate the poetry of your work. Before it turns your request into results, it has to build an execution plan. SQL Server considers: Which tables it needs to join together What subqueries it needs to execute…
At PASS Summit last week, I presented “The What, Why, And How of Filegroups” to a packed room. It was great to see so many people eager to learn about something that is fundamental to every SQL Server database, but often not understood well enough. As always, during and after the session, there were a…
I have been in love with books and libraries most of my life.
I remember some of my earliest favorites: Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, Bridge to Terebithia, The Chronicles of Narnia. I remember feeling grown up when my sixth grade teacher handed me Gone With the Wind.
I recently posed the question, “Who’s taking your backups?” This is of utmost importance, because your business’s data is the business. Protecting it and backing it up need to be priorities for DBAs.
Now, for my next question: who is responsible for restoring those backups?
Wait! You only get one chance to do this right. Before you run setup.exe, there are some basic configuration steps that will make all the difference in performance and troubleshooting. Brent Ozar will explain his SQL Server Setup Checklist covering the page file, service accounts, memory settings, and hardware stress testing. We won't cover scripted installations or slipstreaming -- this half-hour session is for folks who click through the setup GUI because they only install a few servers per year.
When you're speaking at a conference, try to get the room schedules long before the event day. Right now, the PASS Summit conference schedule is available, and each speaker's room is listed.
Then, check out the building's floorplan - in this case, the Washington State Convention Center's floorplans page. Check out the seating capacity for your room.
Take it from me, performance tuning ain't easy. To do it well you need to use all of your technical skill, plan strategically, and communicate your recommendations effectively. You also need to inspire adoption. After all, what good is a plan to change a system if you can't convince anyone to go along with you?
It's crucial for database administrators to recognize signs of pending doom. Make sure you're able to quickly spot problems in SQL Server Management Studio by studying these screenshots.
What's that? You can't see the differences in the screenshots? That's because SQL Server Management Studio doesn't show you serious problems.
We’ve all been there: the SQL Server Database Administrator has been running slowly and everyone’s getting cranky. How can you tell what’s wrong and what steps you need to take to restore normal operations? Database administrators have great instrumentation. When asked, they’re happy to tell you about their bottlenecks in excruciating detail. Use this handy…
I recently finished helping the StackExchange team migrate their SQL Server 2008 infrastructure to SQL Server 2012. These servers power StackOverflow, DBA.StackExchange.com, the new AskPatents partnership with the US Patent and Trademark Office, and hundreds of other Q&A sites that together form one of the biggest web site networks. It's one of the most visible…
South Korean musician Psy's hilarious music video for Oppa Gangnam Style has been tearing up the charts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
SQL Server 2012 was the first version of SQL Server to support being installed on Windows Server Core Edition (Windows without a GUI to the rest of the world). With the impending release of Windows Server 2012 there are a lot of people who are excited about running SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2012…
I get a lot of email, and I'm zealous about staying at Inbox Zero using the Getting Things Done productivity techniques. One of my favorite ways to handle email fast is by using templates, or as GMail calls them, Canned Responses. Email programs like Outlook let you set up multiple signatures, and I use those…
Ever dreaded writing a resume so much that you put it off until the last minute? When you finally wrote it in desperation, were you happy with it? Are you kind of afraid to look at it now?I know what that's like, because I've been there. But I've written two resumes in the last week…
