Using the Default Trace in SQL Server

I have heard of the default trace in SQL Server. I know it’s on by default, but I don’t know how to use it. What can I do with the default trace?

Killing a SPID and Checking Rollback progress in SQL Server

From time to time, I encounter blocking situations where I end up issuing a SQL KILL command against the blocking SPID. When I run sp_who2, I can see the killed SPID is in a ROLLBACK state. Is there any way I can get an idea of how long the rollback for the SPID will take?

Rolling Back CUs

Finding Out What Changed in a Cumulative Update

Over the last several years, Microsoft has been putting less and less effort into Cumulative Update documentation. We used to get full-blown knowledge base articles about fixes, but these days, we get a collection of footnotes with deceiving hyperlinks that look like they’re going to lead to more information – but they simply lead back to themselves.

The Backup Space Needed

SQL Server 2022 CU Updates and Error Code 0x851A0043

The documentation cautions that cumulative updates (CU) could fail if a specific registry key isn’t updated after moving the master files, so I wanted to test this before I spent too much time configuring the server.

Tracking Table Sizes

Today Steve asks if you track the details of your table growth inside a database.

How to rename a SQL Server database

There may come a time when you want to or need to rename a database. In this tip we look at a couple different options.

SQL Server Forced Plans Overwite the Query Hash

A 16-year old SQL Server bug that means 'forced plans' have the query plan hash in place of the expected query hash. Includes an explanation and discussion of the term 'morally equivalent plan'.

The New Log File