Introduction It was the week before Black Friday — the biggest online ad rush of the year. Our US-based ad-tech platform was gearing up for an insane traffic spike. Hundreds of real-time campaigns were about to go live across multiple brands, each with thousands of user sessions flowing through our system. Every incoming user impression […]
2025-07-22
2,443 reads
Take a basic look at database diagrams, what they are, and how to create one.
2025-07-21
1,541 reads
Unlocking Interoperability: A Guide to Foreign Data Wrappers in PostgreSQL and Aurora PostgreSQL AWS RDS As a database professional, I often encounter scenarios where data is fragmented across various systems. In today's distributed IT landscape, it's not uncommon for critical business information to reside in different databases, perhaps an on-premise PostgreSQL instance for legacy applications, […]
2025-07-21
108 reads
2025-07-18
5,978 reads
In this article, I wanted to test a common assumption we DBAs make – that adding INCLUDE columns to indexes is harmless. I created a FULL recovery test database with a realistic wide Orders table containing extra large VARCHAR columns to simulate an ERP workload. I ran updates and measured transaction log backup sizes before and after adding INCLUDE columns to a nonclustered index. The results shocked me. The update without INCLUDE columns generated a 10 MB log backup, while the same update with INCLUDE columns produced over 170 MB – a 17x increase in log volume. I explain why this happens: INCLUDE columns are physically stored in index leaf rows, so updates affecting them write bigger log records. I also clarify that updating key columns generates even more log than INCLUDE updates because it involves row movement (delete + insert), but INCLUDE updates still cost more log than if those columns weren’t indexed at all. The takeaway is clear – INCLUDE columns are powerful, but they silently increase transaction log generation, impacting backup sizes, replication lag, and DR readiness. Always measure their real cost before deploying to production.
2025-07-18
720 reads
In Part 1, I explored how to bend SQL Server Agent to our will and peek under the hood of Azure SQL Managed Instance (SQL MI), gaining full OS access to the container (all without relying on xp_cmdshell). But once I realized what kind of door I'd opened, curiosity pushed us further, tempting us to […]
2025-07-17 (first published: 2025-07-16)
467 reads
In this next article, we look at creating balanced dimensions on demand.
2025-07-16
714 reads
Article Overview In this article we will learn how to integrate a Spring boot application with Apache Cassandra database and Redis cache. This is an extension to one of our previous articles which demonstrates the steps to set up Apache Cassandra and how to integrate is with Springboot, link shared below. https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/cassandra-springboot-integration In this tutorial […]
2025-07-14 (first published: 2024-07-18)
63 reads
This article shows the final step of an availability group creation, specifically for a distributed clusterless one.
2025-07-14
4,732 reads
With the ever-increasing pace of the digital era, companies are continuously looking for opportunities to enhance efficiency, cut costs, and optimize operations. The most viable way to accomplish these is through Custom Automation Software Development.
2025-07-11
472 reads
By gbargsley
It's 2 AM. Your phone is going off. Users can't connect to the application,...
By Steve Jones
I discovered a procedure recently that I wasn’t aware of: sp_sequence_get_range. This post looks...
By Arun Sirpal
After a year away getting to grips with AI and its application across the...
Employee owned company, been around for over 50 years. Hybrid opportunity, looking folks in Pacific...
i have huge table with lot of data and is also wide. i took...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Creating a JSON Document II
I want to create a JSON document that contains data from this table:
TeamID TeamNameCity YearEstablished 1 Cowboys Dallas 1960 2 Eagles Philadelphia 1933 3 Packers Green Bay 1919 4 Chiefs Kansas City 1960If I run this code, what document(s) is/are returned?
SELECT json_objectagg( n.city : n.TeamName) FROM dbo.NFLTeams;See possible answers