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SQL Server

SQLservr.exe Mem Usage in Task Manager

A Sysadmin’s Guide to Microsoft SQL Server Memory

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
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…
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Indexing for Deletes

Jeremiah Peschka
Indexing, SQL Server
21 Comments
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…
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The Dedicated Admin Connection: Why You Want It, When You Need It, and How To Tell Who’s Using It

Kendra Little
SQL Server
42 Comments
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. For the context of this article, our DAC is the ‘Dedicated Admin Connection’. SQL Server implements a…
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The Stages of Growth

Jeremiah Peschka
SQL Server
4 Comments
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. I can’t believe it’s not scaling! Denial It’s 8:37AM and your developers just barged into your cubicle yelling, “The…
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Scaling SQL Server: Growing Out

Jeremiah Peschka
SQL Server
2 Comments
Scaling up is hard, scaling out is even harder. We all know that we can scale reads by adding some kind of replication or read-only copies of databases or using a massive caching layer. What happens when we have to scale writes? Borrowing Brent’s grocery store metaphor, a database that is effectively scaled for reads…
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DBA Nightmare: SQL Server Down, No Plans

Brent Ozar
Backup and Recovery, SQL Server
9 Comments
Managing data is about managing risk, but no matter how we good we are at managing risks, they’re still risks. We’ve seen several high-profile data failures recently: Sony’s database of Playstation users and financial data was hacked Amazon’s supposedly independent cloud services went down together, and some data was lost permanently The state of Texas…
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Announcing Our New Weekly Community Recap Email

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
0
You’re overworked.  You don’t have the time to sit around reading blogs, keeping up on the latest industry news, and reading web comics. That’s where we come in.  To stay on top of our game, we have to spend a couple days per week honing our skills.  We’ve started a weekly email recapping the best…
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Five Favorite Free SQL Server Downloads

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
20 Comments
So you’re lazy and you’re company’s broke – what to do?  Here’s my favorite free downloads to help manage SQL Server: Understand execution plans with SQL Sentry Plan Explorer – I dunno about you, but viewing execution plans in SQL Server Management Studio is a pain in my rear.  The scrolling sucks, the cost numbers…
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Scaling up or scaling out?

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
30 Comments
When you need SQL Server to handle more load, there’s two big-picture ways to do it: Scale up – use a more powerful SQL Server Scale out – use more SQL Servers Quick disclaimer first – before you try either of these solutions, the easiest thing is to circumvent the whole problem – don’t ask…
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PASS Summit Speaker Feedback

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
12 Comments
The 2010 PASS Summit attendee feedback just arrived, and I’m very, very honored to have two sessions in the top 10.  Last year, I had one session in the top 10.  Based on the trends of this data, I look forward to the 2019 PASS Summit evals when I will have all 10 of the…
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Microsoft Atlanta

Microsoft Atlanta: Cloud-Based SQL Server Monitoring

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
14 Comments
Microsoft Atlanta is a new cloud-based SQL Server monitoring tool.  Companies can deploy an agent on their SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 instances, and the agent will communicate up to Microsoft’s servers in the cloud (through a secure gateway also installed inside the company’s network.)  Microsoft aggregates the data, analyzes it looking for problems,…
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How to Use sp_WhoIsActive to Find Slow SQL Server Queries

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
SQL Server database administrators need to be able to quickly find out what queries and stored procedures are running slow.  Microsoft includes sp_who and sp_who2 in SQL Server 2005 and 2008, but there’s a much better tool, and it’s completely free. In this five minute tutorial video, I explain how to use sp_WhoIsActive from Adam…
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Jar Jar at Work

The Top 10 Developer Mistakes That Won’t Scale

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
29 Comments
Microsoft records TechEd sessions, and you can watch the recording of mine.  Here’s the abstract: You’ve heard it before: “It worked fine on my machine, but the users say it’s too slow.” Don’t blame the developers: they’re using SQL Server features that look great on paper, but in reality, they won’t scale up to production…
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Bourbon Street Blues Company

Quest #QTweetup at TechEd – SOLD OUT!

Brent Ozar
SQL Server
1 Comment
Think fast!  The first 75 people who sign up at http://QuestTweetup.eventbrite.com can join me, Kevin Kline, Joel Oleson, and the rest of the Quest experts for an evening of fun on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street Blues Company We’re getting together on Wednesday night at 9pm at the Bourbon Street Blues Company smack in the middle…
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