Build Your Own Resource Monitor in a Jiffy

Practical Processor Selection for SQL Server 2014/2016 OLTP Workloads

Glenn Berry explains how you can do some simple analysis to help decide the exact processor to should choose for a new database server, taking into consideration workload and budget constraints.

Common MySQL Insert and Update Tasks and Their Solutions

Inserting and updating table contents with data from other tables and/or views within the same database need not be a nail-biting ordeal. Rob Gravelle shares some common Insert and Update tasks to help avoid any problems.

OpenStack: The Good and Not-So-Good Bits

OpenStack holds a great deal of promise as a cloud platform built on open standards, and has support from the major players in cloud services. It has the potential for allowing organisations to set up their own private cloud services that are designed to inter-operate. Is it ready yet for companies that want the convenience of cloud solutions, but with more control, and without the large subscription fees? Robert Sheldon finds out.

Retrieve file sizes from the file system using Power Query

Koen Verbeeck shows how to easily extract metadata from files in your directories with Power Query.

Free webinar: DLM Demo

Redgate’s Database Lifecycle Management solution ensures database changes made in development environments are always tested and reviewed before being deployed, and adds automation to the process. Find out how by joining Steve Jones, MVP and editor of SQLServerCentral, as he demonstrates the solution and shows why such an approach is essential if you want to release changes frequently.

Interesting things about INSTEAD OF triggers

This article from Paul White examines some surprising behaviour of INSTEAD OF triggers and reveals a serious cardinality estimation bug in SQL Server 2014.

How to Confuse the SQL Server Query Optimizer

Want to 'trick' SQL Server into performing millions of logical reads to return data, when only are few thousand were really required? In this article, Gail Shaw examines three common forms of generic SQL that can and will confuse the SQL Server Optimizer to the point that it generates and reuses very inefficient execution plans.

T-SQL Window Functions Speed Phreakery

Before SQL Server had SQL window functions, SQL Server developers had to use all manner of tricks and algorithms to come up with ways to rapidly process large amounts of data. Do we need these techniques now that we can express a SQL task in terms of window functions? Kathi revisits a famous SQL challenge to find out.

Monitoring Availability Group Replica Synchronization

If you are deploying SQL Server Availability Groups, one of the important aspects of a successful deployment is monitoring the synchronization of the secondary replica databases with the primary replica - but there are multiple ways to do this. Jonathan Kehayias goes through each, explaining their different benefits and drawbacks.