In SQL Server 2005, there is a new feature called Plan Guides that can help out in some cases where you discover poorly performing queries that you don't have direct control over. Essentially, a Plan Guide allows you to add or modify query hints to queries on the fly, just before they are executed.  Read more...

A series of tips on optimizing XML in your SQL Server databases.   Read more...

Using hints in a query is something that most DBAs don't ever seem to bother with, but when they do, NOLOCK seems to be their hint of choice. Wayne Fillis brings us a detailed examination of how this particular hint actually affects the performance of your system.   Read more...

How should you approach indexing your database? Do you have a good strategy for deciding which indicies to create and on which columns? Aaron Ingold brings us a great article discussing these very topics that is likely to become a must read for many DBAs.   Read more...

The benefits of SQL Server 2005's new snapshot isolation feature are well known, but SQL Server developers also need to understand the downstream ramifications of snapshot isolation.  Read more...

This document describes the problem and the workaround in SQL Server 2000, and the solution and recommendation in SQL Server 2005.  Read more...

In this presentation, Brian introduces SQL Server 2005 Profiler. He shows you to integrate System Monitor logs (also called perfmon) to find what queries were running against your machine during key performance failures. He also shows you how to output the query plan into an XML file.   Read more...

Some of the key factors to consider while you devise an index maintenance plan are performance, concurrency, and required resources. SQL Server 2005 provides you with several options for index create and rebuild operations that you can use to effectively meet the requirements of performance, concurrency, and resources.  Read more...

If you're having a problem with particular queries, there are a few things you can do with the information that the server collects about the distribution of data in columns and indexes.  Read more...

The methodology helps identify the areas of slow performance by looking at the problem from two directions called Waits and Queues. An analysis of Waits indicates where SQL Server is spending lots of time waiting. In addition, the biggest waits point out the most important or relevant Queues (that is, Performance Monitor counters and other data) for this workload.  Read more...

Keeping track of the performance of your SQL Servers requires metrics. There are many methods for doing this, but some type of automated process is essential these days with DBAs managing many servers. New author Allen White brings us a technique for doing this using SMO, the replacement for DMO in SQL Server 2005.   Read more...

If your SQL Server app is suffering from poor performance and you suspect a missing index, then read on  Read more...

Gathering performance data on your servers can be a cumbersome task without paying for an expensive tool. New author Jambu Krishnamurthy brings us a short tutorial on how you can gather this data from Perfmon and import it into SQL Server for reporting.   Read more...

Sanchan Saxena gets to grips with the new index-tuning tools and features in SQL 2005  Read more...

Dealing with text, image, and other large object data types can be confusing for many people, in all aspects of working with them. However one place that is important is performance. SQL Server MVP Simon Sabin brings us a few thoughts on improving performance with these columns and the Text in Row setting.   Read more...

Performance Tuning can be as much an art as a science when working with SQL Server, but there are many fine techniques that can help you get started. New author Michael Morin brings a great new technique helping you get started on determining where the heavy I/O users are in your database.   Read more...