Books

SQL Server Execution Plans Second Edition eBook Download

SQL Server Execution Plans, Second Edition by Grant Fritchey

Every Database Administrator, developer, report writer, and anyone else who writes T-SQL to access SQL Server data, must understand how to read and interpret execution plans. This book leads you right from the basics of capturing plans, through how to interrupt them in their various forms, graphical or XML, and then how to use the information you find there to diagnose the most common causes of poor query performance, and so optimize your SQL queries, and improve your indexing strategy.

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2012-11-12

17,074 reads

SQL Server Transaction Log Management eBook Download

SQL Server Transaction Log Management by Tony Davis and Gail Shaw

When a SQL Server database is operating smoothly and performing well, there is no need to be particularly aware of the transaction log, beyond ensuring that every database has an appropriate backup regime and restore plan in place. When things go wrong, however, a DBA's reputation depends on a deeper understanding of the transaction log, both what it does, and how it works. An effective response to a crisis requires rapid decisions based on understanding its role in ensuring data integrity.

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2012-11-12

4,478 reads

The Art of SQL Server Filesteam eBook cover

The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM by Jacob Sebastian and Sven Aelterman

FILESTREAM is implemented as an extension to the VARBINARY(MAX) data type and allows large object data to be stored in a special folder on the NTFS file system, while bringing that data under the transactional control of SQL Server. This book describes both the way it works and the implementation, administration and troubleshooting of it.

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2012-11-12

592 reads

SQL Server Concurrency eBook cover

SQL Server Concurrency: Locking, Blocking and Row Versioning

Your application can have impeachable indexes and queries, but they won't help you if you can't get to your data because another application has it locked. That's why every DBA and developer must understand SQL Server concurrency and how to troubleshoot excessive blocking or deadlocking. Kalen Delaney's book is your guide.

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2012-10-02

3,669 reads

SQL Server Backup and Restore eBook cover

SQL Server Backup and Restore

A DBA's tasks, from day-to-day, are rarely constant; with one exception: the need to ensure each and every day that any database in their charge can be restored and recovered, in the event of error of disaster. In this book, you'll discover how to perform each of these backup and restore operations using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), basic T-SQL scripts and Red Gate's SQL Backup tool.

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2012-03-26

12,740 reads

Troubleshooting SQL Server A Guide for the Accidental DBA eBook cover

Troubleshooting SQL Server: A Guide for the Accidental DBA

Three SQL Server MVPs, and stalwarts of the SQLServerCentral and MSDN community forums, provide fascinating insight into the most common SQL Server problems, why they occur, and how they can be diagnosed using tools such as Performance Monitor, Dynamic Management Views and server-side tracing. The focus is on practical solutions for removing root causes of these problems, rather than "papering over the cracks".

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2011-09-29

25,013 reads

SQL Server Team-Based Development eBook cover

The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development

This book shows how to use of mixture of home-grown scripts, native SQL Server tools,
and tools from the Red Gate SQL Toolbelt, to successfully develop database applications in a team environment,
and make database development as similar as possible to "normal" development.

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2010-10-21

4,829 reads

Performance Tuning with SQL Server Dynamic Managment Views eBook cover

Performance Tuning with SQL Server Dynamic Management Views

This is the book that will de-mystify the process of using Dynamic Management Views to collect the information you need to troubleshoot SQL Server problems. It will highlight the core techniques and "patterns" that you need to master, and will provide a core set of scripts that you can use and adapt for your own requirements.

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2010-06-14

8,736 reads

Blogs

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The case for "Understanding our business" training

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Specifying the Collation

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Specifying the Collation

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Question of the Day

Specifying the Collation

I am dealing with issues on my SQL Server 2022 instance related to collation. I have an instance collation of Latin1_General_CS_AS_KS_WS, but a database collation of Latin1_General_CI_AS. I want to force a few queries to run with a specified collation by using code like this:

DECLARE @c VARCHAR(20) = 'Latin1_General_CI_AS'

SELECT  p.PersonType,
        p.Title,
        p.LastName,
        c.CustomerID,
        c.AccountNumber
 FROM Person.Person AS p
 INNER JOIN Sales.Customer AS c
 ON c.PersonID = p.BusinessEntityID
 COLLATE @c
Will this solve my problem?

See possible answers