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
3,891 reads
Chandan Shukla
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
993 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
5,941 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
359 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
5,122 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
2,384 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
701 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
6,496 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
3,212 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)
2,417 reads
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Question of the Day
Getting the Object Code
What happens when I run this on SQL Server 2022 in the AdventureWorks2022 database?
SELECT OBJECT_DEFINITION (OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.uspGetBillofMaterials')) AS [Object Definition]; GOSee possible answers