Great DBAs collect all kinds of metrics on their instances and let them manage themselves. However many administrators need help monitoring and interpreting the data. Today Steve Jones asks if you think this data needs extra security or is it less of an issue than other PII data.  Read more...

You need a quiet couple of hours poking about with DMVs, and checking execution plans to get to the bottom of the a query issue, but you can't make a copy the production database either. It's too big, and the data is private....  Read more...

Performance is always one of the most important things a DBA can learn to deal with. It's also one of the more nebulous arts to learn. Today Steve Jones shares some thoughts on how we might better help people learn.  Read more...

You believe that an index is unused and so could be removed, and yet, your finger hovers nervously over the metaphorical "delete" button. You can't quite bring yourself to do it. Is it really safe to drop this index? Tony wonders if "invisible indexes" might solve this dilemma.  Read more...

Would you want a query optimizer that searches for the best plan for your code? Steve Jones thinks this might not be a bad idea.  Read more...

Is there such a thing as too much attention to the performance of SQL? It isn’t only a question of time and inclination, but also of the resilience and flexibility of the code.  Read more...

This week Database Weekly has a lot of performance related posts and Steve Jones notes that those are not of much use unless you know you really do have a performance problem.  Read more...

Does it make sense to set up another instance of SQL Server just for a power user? Is it a good use of resources? Steve Jones comments today on this DBA tool for enhancing performance.  Read more...

Steve Jones talks a little about disk alignment for your SQL Server instances. This is something that you might to check on your systems and see if you can improve performance.  Read more...

The next time you are tempted to hammer a performance problem with hardware, why not instead invest that time in hammering and refining your SQL queries? There are rich rewards to be had.  Read more...

The number of tools for troubleshooting SQL Server performance problems has recently expanded at a dizzying rate. Is the latest one any reason to get excited?  Read more...