SQL Server

Wanna know where you fit in relation to someone else? Get the answers to these questions. Now that’s a big trophy. 1. How many SQL Server instances do you have? The pro folks use the word “instances” rather than servers because clusters may have multiple SQL Server instances per node. 2. How many DBAs work…

It seems a like a stretch. After all, plumbers get called when sinks are running backwards and when toilets and drains are clogged. But, really, the users and developers do the same thing with DBAs that you do with a plumber – when something is broken, we get the call. Unclog Your Database Fast The…

SQL Server learning materials seem to live at two extremes. Blog posts are short and to the point, but they don’t cover material in depth. Books are long and detailed, but to quote a famous philosopher, ain’t nobody got time for that. Enter two resources that have been out for quite a while. They aim…

The best way to improve your skills as a database professional is to practice. If you’re like me, you might even take that practice outside of the workplace and do a bit of homework on the side. You can’t take a copy of your production database home with you, so what can you do? Thankfully,…

Memory is one of the most-used resources in SQL Server. Generally, the more you have, the better query performance you’ll get. This blog isn’t about the magic of the buffer pool or the plan cache, but you should understand how important they are to your server’s performance.  Since memory is such an important resource, you…

This week, Jeremiah, Kendra, and I are presenting at SQL Intersection, a conference that also happens at the same place and time as DevIntersection and AngleBrackets. I like Intersections because there’s a bunch of different technologies covered – SQL Server, all kinds of development, SharePoint, cloud, and infrastructure. Kendra Polling the Audience For our pre-con,…

Coming soon to a user group near you, it’s…me. November 13: Chicago .NET User Group Brent’s How to Think Like the Engine: SQL Server Internals for Developers You’re comfortable writing queries to get the data you need, but you’re much less comfortable trying to design the right indexes for your database. In this 90-minute session…