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
6,745 reads
Chandan Shukla
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
2,509 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
876 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
7,165 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
4,418 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)
2,671 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)
3,190 reads
How to safely and surgically restore filegroups
Most DBAs are familiar with full and differential ...
2025-09-02 (first published: 2025-08-01)
1,048 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
8,996 reads
From Rows to Pages: The Hidden Chaos Behind SQL Server’s Sampling Methods
Learn about the TABLESAMPLE option in T-SQL and uncover some of the pitfalls of assuming this works as you think it does.
2025-08-22
2,237 reads
Blogs
Capturing My Own Metrics: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
A customer was trying to compare two tables and capture a state as a...
Red Flags in Your Query (T-SQL Tuesday #200)
By Zikato
When I'm looking at a query, I bet it's bad if I see... a...
T-SQL Tuesday #200: When I Look at a Query …
By Steve Jones
This month is a milestone for T-SQL Tuesday. It’s number 200, which doesn’t sound...
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A Quick Second Opinion
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Five Intelligent Query Processing Features in SQL Server 2022 That Quietly Tune Your Workload
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Checking the Error Log I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Checking the Error Log I
Question of the Day
Checking the Error Log I
On my SQL Server 2025, I want to search the error log from my T-SQL code for potential issues and then inform an administrator. What is the current way to easily query the error log?
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