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...

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...

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...

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...