SQL Server

Just when you thought SQL Server couldn’t get better, Microsoft is announcing the features for SQL Server 2014. They haven’t announced the licensing/pricing, but I’ll tell you what I do know so far. First, open this in another tab and hit play so you’ve got some background music while you read. Done with the commercial? Okay, let’s…

Moving between databases is hard enough, try using multiple databases in the same application and you might start thinking you’ve gone insane. Different application demands for accessibility, redundancy, backwards compatibility, or interoperability make this a possibility in the modern data center. One of the biggest challenges of running a heterogeneous database environment is dealing with…

Celebrity cooking shows are popular around Brent Ozar Unlimited®. We watch Top Chef for the creative cooking as much as the human drama. Contestants on Top Chef face huge challenges – they’re working alone, have a limited set of tools, have a fixed set of ingredients, and operate under ridiculously strict time guidelines. What makes…

If there’s such a thing as Data Science, why not Data Sauce? It’s difficult to define why some things are wildly successful in a sea of forgettable products. Some recipes have a mysterious umami that comes from a subtle dash or two of magical sauce. In business and technology there’s an indefinable edge that sets…

There are many ways to scale out your database; many of these techniques require advanced management and expensive add-ons or editions. Database sharding is a flexible way of scaling out a database. In this presentation, Jeremiah Peschka explains how to scale out using database sharding, covers basic techniques, and shares some of the pitfalls. This…

Without looking in your wallet, do you know how much cash you have? Most of us know within a few dollars. Now, without looking in your SQL Server, do you know much data is cached in memory? You probably don’t and that’s okay; you shouldn’t know how much data SQL Server is caching in memory.…

No one knows everything, especially about SQL Server. When you encounter a problem, especially for the first time, you may not know how to solve it. I’ve seen some crazy approaches taken to fix problems – like duct tape on a car. Many times, instead of fixing the root cause of a problem, such as…

Developers and database administrators frequently clash on major questions about how to scale application performance. Are they just being stubborn, or is one side really right? Jeremiah and I recently gave a talk on this topic to the AtlantaMDF User group and we wanted to open this debate to the world. Presenting Developers vs DBAs…

Let’s say you get your hands on a brand new version of SQL Server that you haven’t played with before, and you want to know what system objects have changed – DMVs, DMFs, system stored procs, yadda yadda yadda. Sure, you could read the documentation – but ain’t nobody got time for that, and they’re…