Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale – Level 3: RBPEX Caching Layer Internals
In this level of the Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale we learn about the read-only layer that speeds up queries.
2025-10-08
234 reads
Chandan Shukla
Unlocking High-Concurrency Inserts in SQL Server with OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY
Learn how a setting an improve high concurrency inserts with the OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY option.
2025-10-01
4,415 reads
When Page Prefetching Takes a Back Seat – Exploring Trace Flag 652 in SQL Server
Learn how a trace flag affects SQL Server reading from disk and where this might be a useful thing for you to enable.
2025-09-24
2,233 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale – Level 2: Page Server Architecture Explained
In Level 2 of the Stairway to Hyperscale, we learn about Page Servers in more detail.
2025-09-17
616 reads
Revisiting SQL Server Window Functions- A Practical Walkthrough
A look at window functions in SQL and how they can be used to query data without the restrictions of a GROUP BY.
2025-09-12
6,101 reads
Introduction of Azure SQL Hyperscale: Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 1
In Level 1 of the Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale, we learn about the architecture and create a hyperscale instance.
2025-09-03
2,817 reads
Advanced SQL Server Page Forensics: Detecting Page Splits and Allocations with DBCC PAGE
Page splits are an often-overlooked performance killer in SQL Server. In this article, we take a forensic look at how serial inserts differ from mid-table inserts, revealing why inserting rows out of order causes hidden page splits, increased IO, and fragmentation. Using a wide-column table, we demonstrate both scenarios and decode their impact with page-level analysis.
2025-09-02 (first published: 2025-08-05)
2,331 reads
Deprecated but Forgotten: Why SQL Server’s Text, NText, and Image Data Types Still Haunt Your Systems
TEXT, NTEXT, and IMAGE columns have been deprecated for nearly two decades, yet they still silently haunt many SQL Server environments. This article explains their hidden limitations with practical demos and shows why migrating to VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX), and VARBINARY(MAX) is critical for modern performance, maintainability, and future upgrades.
2025-09-02 (first published: 2025-08-06)
1,892 reads
How to safely and surgically restore filegroups
Most DBAs are familiar with full and differential ...
2025-09-02 (first published: 2025-08-01)
771 reads
What is Delayed Durability in SQL Server — And Should You Turn It On?
Learn about delayed durability in SQL Server and how it might help you with a heavily loaded server.
2025-08-29
8,068 reads
Blogs
Fabric as a Data Mesh Enabler: Rethinking Enterprise Data Distribution
By Chris Yates
For decades, enterprises have approached data management with the same mindset as someone stuffing...
Truncate Table Pitfalls
Truncate Table Pitfalls Truncating a table can be gloriously fast—and spectacularly dangerous when used carelessly....
dataMinds Connect 2025 – Slides & Scripts
You can find all the session materials for the presentation “Indexing for Dummies” that...
Forums
DBCC CHECKIDENT
Comments posted to this topic are about the item DBCC CHECKIDENT
Distributed Availability Group Health: T-SQL and Zabbix
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Distributed Availability Group Health: T-SQL...
extended events to spy on our server between 8 and 9 am
Hi, our peer who owns a remote mysql server from which we extract warehouse...
Question of the Day
DBCC CHECKIDENT
What is returned as a result set when I run this command without a new seed value?
See possible answers