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
901 reads
Learn about how the Log Service helps manage transactions in the Hyperscale Tier.
2025-10-29
901 reads
Learn about implicit transaction and why you might not want to enable this setting.
2025-10-24
5,446 reads
In this level of the Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale we learn about the read-only layer that speeds up queries.
2025-10-08
336 reads
Learn how a setting an improve high concurrency inserts with the OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY option.
2025-10-01
4,919 reads
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
2,346 reads
In Level 2 of the Stairway to Hyperscale, we learn about Page Servers in more detail.
2025-09-17
667 reads
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
6,366 reads
In Level 1 of the Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale, we learn about the architecture and create a hyperscale instance.
2025-09-03
3,016 reads
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)
2,392 reads
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)
2,017 reads
By Chris Yates
Trust is the currency of the data economy. Without it, even the most advanced...
By Steve Jones
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We have an issue where SSIS packages are failing with a status of "ended...
Hi everyone! I'm new to SQL and am trying to query a view (dbo.)...
What does a slipstream installation mean?
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