Last year at the PASS Summit, one of my favorite moments in my Blitz session was showing off my new equivalent of Windows Update for stored procedures. I demoed how to use OPENROWSET to connect your SQL Server to the cloud, fetch an updated version of our sp_Blitz® stored procedure, and apply the update automatically.
Getting started with table partitioning is difficult; there are many decisions to make after you've decided to partition data. Correctly configuring partitioning is critical to the long term performance and stability of the database from both a querying and data modification standpoint. There are three key considerations that database architects should devote time to before embarking on a partitioning implementation: the design of the partitioning key, a thorough study of querying practices, and an examination of data modification practices.
I bet you're worried about your index fragmentation.
And I bet you're wasting your time, missing the real point.
What is Index Fragmentation and How It Happens
Let's take a step back for a second and pretend that your database is a phone book organized by last name, first name.
Is your SQL Server slowing you down? Are bad queries giving your application a case of the blues? Before you go looking for help with SQL Server, make sure that you've done everything you can to solve the problems on your own. Many of SQL Server's ills can be solved with some easy preventative maintenance,…
What’s slowing down production? It’s easy to find out in 60 seconds by running a simple plan cache query. See, in order to turn your beautifully written query into a set of results, SQL Server needs a plan – an execution plan. It caches these plans in memory along with statistics like the number of…
Do you have a SQL Server that’s not getting enough action?
Maybe you have a new piece of production or lab hardware that you’d like to benchmark, to see how it compares with other gear in your environment.
Here at Brent Ozar Unlimited®, we offer a server performance checkup to clients. As the newest member of the team, I wasn’t sure what to expect when running one. I found out that it’s pretty cool. I pretend we're Special Forces operatives, strapped into our parachutes, doing a HALO opening over client servers. (This homemade parachute…
Wanna get your storage learn on? VMware has a well-laid-out explanation of the pros and cons of different ways to connect to shared storage. The guide covers the four storage protocols, but let's get you a quick background primer first. iSCSI, NFS, FC, and FCoE Basics iSCSI means you map your storage over TCPIP. You…
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a platform that offers a ton of services ranging from block storage, operating systems, to mail queues, DNS, and caching. When you say “cloud”, a lot of people think of AWS. AWS hosts a variety of businesses, large and small. Unfortunately, you still have to administer and configure your servers.…
I've written about how to test your SAN's performance with SQLIO, but I'll be honest with you: that's the hard way. It takes knowledge and time, and you only have one of those. (I'll be charitable and not tell you which one.) Instead, let's get seat-of-the-pants numbers for your storage. Go to the CrystalDiskMark download…
March 31st is World Backup Day, and while most of the press will be focusing on backing up your priceless lolcat photos, it's still a good time to talk with management about your database backups.
Your boss will have some simple questions, and you can arm yourself with a few easy queries.
Are We Backing Up Every Database?
Great volumes have been written about table partitioning. It’s a complex feature and you can read for days to just understand how you might apply it. But will it improve performance for you? Table partitioning produces great benefits for some applications, but causes giant headaches for others.
How do you know if you should invest your time in table partitioning?
Geeks love duct tape. Sure, we pride ourselves on building a rock-solid solution the right way, but when the brown stuff hits the moving metal stuff, we love to show off our ingenuity. We carry our money in duct tape wallets, wear duct tape shirts, practice ductigami, and hang our duct tape from custom metal brackets.
Eventually we all run into a situation that makes us cringe: the users want to design their own reports. If this were something as simple as giving users a color picker and some visual layout tools, that would be one thing. Most of the time it’s more complex. Business users know their problem domain very…
How do you know which indexes to create to improve your database performance? Microsoft Certified Master Kendra Little shows you how to find a missing index, decide on the best index definition, and measure the usefulness of your new index. If you know the basics of what a database index does and want to learn the smart way to design indexes, this talk is for you.
Database servers suck, don't they? Don't you just hate dealing with these things? They're totally different than any other server in the shop, making a mockery of any CPU, memory, and storage you throw at 'em. What the hell's going on inside? Today I'll give you the basics - starting with the question every sysadmin always asks me:
If you're only indexing to make reads faster, you need to think again. Indexes can make every operation in the database faster, even deletes. The Problem: Deletes are Very Slow I was lazily researching new development techniques one day when I received an email from a client asking why deletes could be slow. I rattled…
There’s a DAC in SQL Server that you should know and love. Sadly, you probably either haven’t met or you’ve forgotten to turn it on.
DAC? What’s That?
First, a little disambiguation. The acronym ‘DAC’ is too popular.
What do *you* do when your database has a problem with blocking? Most people reach for the “NOLOCK” hint. Bad news: that may introduce other problems, and it doesn’t truly resolve the root problem in your application code. In this video Kendra Little summarizes five big-picture application changes that fight blocking long term.
This 300 level talk is designed for developers and DBAs who understand table structures, index structures, and common query patterns. We're going to keep things general: no demos, just concept discussions.
Everyone poops and everyone grows. We all reach that growth stage in our own time, but sooner or later we all encounter it. Once you reach a growth stage you will experience some of these common emotions.
Denial
It's 8:37AM and your developers just barged into your cubicle yelling, "The database can't handle the load!" What's your first reaction? If you're like me, you probably threw a stapler at them. If you're a bit more level-headed, you most likely said something like, "That's unpossible!"
