In the world of SQL Server, a process is either running, runnable, or waiting. A running process is, obviously, running; it’s the one getting CPU time. A runnable process has everything it needs to run, it’s just waiting for its turn on the CPU. A process that’s waiting, however, is… Read more

If your environment is anything like mine, backups are usually not allocated the speediest disk. Generally speaking, those disks are reserved for data, logs, and tempdb. So it’s up to us squeeze every last bit of performance out of our backup jobs.  If you’re using maintenance plans to do your… Read more

Happy Wednesday folks! Hope everyone’s having a great week. This episode of SQL Server A to Z is brought to you by the letter V, and V stands for vacation views!

What is a view?
A view is a “virtual table” that contains columns from one or more tables. Although… Read more

When I was a kid, my mom had an old cookie-tin in which she kept her sewing supplies. On the lid was a sticker like this. I thought that was so clever. Anyway, we all have a list of things we say we’ll take care of when we get “a… Read more

The alphabet is quickly winding down (so sad).  We’re up to the letter U and that stands for User-defined functions.

What is a user-defined function (UDF)?

A function is a unit of code that can accept parameters, perform some action or calculation, and then return the result of that action… Read more

Ever felt like trying your hand at writing?  November is National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for our savvy readers).  But maybe writing an entire novel is just a bit too ambitious for you.  So how about a chapter?  That’s a heck of a lot more doable.  Well, Jen McCown… Read more

Well, I finally got the feedback from my SQL Audit presentation last month, and I’m very pleased. Ok, more than pleased, I’m downright ecstatic.  Overall the feedback was great, but there was also some really helpful constructive criticism.  There were 29 attendees for my session, which was a fairly good… Read more