Performance of the SQL MERGE vs. INSERT/UPDATE
The SQL MERGE statement offers convenience, safety and elegance, but how does it perform compared to other methods?
2017-02-03 (first published: 2013-10-28)
168,430 reads
Articles
PowerShell Invoke-SQLCmd outputs DataTables you can INSERT into SQL Server
Aaron Nelson explains how you can take an existing SQL query, run it against a SQL Server and then take the results and save them to a different SQL Server without using Linked Servers.
2017-02-03
5,215 reads
A Failed Jobs Monitoring System
One DBA's tale of how to monitor jobs for failure and ensure that the DBA is alerted to the fact that there is a problem. (from Feb 2008)
2017-02-02 (first published: 2008-02-05)
23,280 reads
2017-02-02 (first published: 2013-09-16)
17,546 reads
DBA Morning Check List
This article helps the DBA find and fix issues quickly by creating a DBA Morning Checklist.
2017-02-02 (first published: 2008-04-14)
59,276 reads
Execution Plans
How many of you use Execution Plans to tune your queries? Do you understand the impact of different indexes? Mr. Vijayakumar looks at his experiments with different types of indexes and their effects on the execution plan use. A great article for those of you that want to learn more about how you can tune your server for better performance.
2017-02-02 (first published: 2004-05-06)
53,169 reads
Monitoring Drive and Database Free Space
SQL Server will autogrow your databases as they run out of space. But the process doesn't manage space, nor does it check the free space on the drive. Allowing autogrow to grow unchecked and unmanaged will eventually use up all the free disk space and potentially crash your server. New author Mark Nash brings you his system for monitoring space usage and generating a report that eases this process.
2017-02-02 (first published: 2004-07-01)
45,037 reads
Performance Monitoring - Basic Counters
What counters should you monitor to baseline your servers? Which ones for checking performance? It's an interesting question and one that always leads Steve Jones to a wide range of sources in print and on the web. Steve compiled his own list and finally has put some words around the list to give some justification of why they are chosen. Read on and see how this compares to your list (you do have a list don't you?).
2017-02-02 (first published: 2004-05-05)
55,625 reads
Preferred Node Policy-Setting on Traditional SQL Cluster
Preferred node setting facilitates instances on traditional cluster to be on the correct nodes which will lead to load-balancing of the resources.
2017-02-02
4,061 reads
Seven Monitoring Scripts
Joe has a bunch of small, easy to use scripts that can definitely be the beginning of a great set of monitoring tool. Amazing how much info you can gather with a little bit of code!
2017-02-02 (first published: 2003-06-13)
53,762 reads
Blogs
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server 2025 Unleashed Training Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, March 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server 2025 Unleashed:...
What is ALM in Fabric?
By HeyMo0sh
As someone who’s worked with data for over 20 years and with many cloud...
The Most Successful Startups in 2025 — And What They Have in Common
By HeyMo0sh
2025 belongs to the AI startups. If you peek into the tech headlines, you’ll...
Forums
A Quick Restore
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Quick Restore
Guarding Against SQL Injection at the Database Layer (SQL Server)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Guarding Against SQL Injection at...
Ola Hallengren Index Optimize Maintenance can we have data compression = page
I have a quick question on Ola Hallengren Index Optimize Maintenance . Do we...
Question of the Day
A Quick Restore
While doing some testing of an application, I wanted to reset my environment after doing some testing with this code:
USE DNRTest BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' GO /* Bunch of stuff tested here */RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACEWhat happens if this runs, assuming the "bunch of stuff" isn't anything affecting the instance. See possible answers