Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 6: Backup and Restore Internals
Learn how backup and restore work in Azure SQL Hyperscale in this next level in the stairway series.
2025-12-17
765 reads
Chandan Shukla
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 5: Data Growth and Fast Auto-Grow Mechanism
In this level, we learn about the database file size growth in Hyperscale.
2025-12-03
76 reads
Filtered Indexes: The Developer’s Secret Weapon in SQL Server
Learn about filtered indexes in SQL Server, how they work, and how they can help improve performance.
2025-11-24
3,915 reads
UNLOGGED Tables in PostgreSQL: When Speed Matters More Than Durability
Learn about unlogged tables and how they work in PostgreSQL.
2025-11-21
4,530 reads
MySQL’s BLACKHOLE Storage Engine: The Odd Feature I Wish SQL Server Shipped With
Learn about a MySQL feature that could be useful in some scenarios for SQL Server.
2025-11-10
4,247 reads
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 4: Log Service and Transaction Management
Learn about how the Log Service helps manage transactions in the Hyperscale Tier.
2025-10-29
1,059 reads
How Implicit Transactions Hurt SQL Server Performance Without You Knowing
Learn about implicit transaction and why you might not want to enable this setting.
2025-10-24
6,379 reads
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
410 reads
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
5,852 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
2,452 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Forums
Huge frustration - Database watcher with two elastic pools
Think there's a reason why this is still in preview, but have someone manage...
SQL Server 2025 Query Performance Tuning: Troubleshoot and Optimize Query Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Query Performance...
Is it uncommon for Dev's to have a data model of the source data
This is a generic question. To the moderators, I wasn't sure where to place...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON I
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers