2011-01-26
2,686 reads
Hardware
EVA Partition Alignment
Partition alignment is a well documented best practice, but does it have any benefit on an HP EVA?
2009-09-09
2,968 reads
Fecth complete system information from multiple servers
This one line DOS script fetches Hardware Make and Model
OS Name, Edition (for 2003) and version
System Uptime
Processors,
RAM etc.
2008-10-20
366 reads
SQL Server local disk storage to SANs
Storage area networks (SANs) improve SQL Server performance. Set up SANs on SQL Server with these best practices on migrating to, and configuring SANs.
2008-07-07
4,584 reads
SAN basics every SQL Server DBA must know
Learn storage area network (SAN) basics that SQL Server DBAs must know. Understand SQL storage concerning RAID levels, redundancy and snapshots vs. backups.
2008-06-16
5,193 reads
Deployments and Tests in an iSCSI SAN
This paper describes the deployment and testing results of SQL Server 2005 using the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator with an EqualLogic iSCSI SAN. It helps you understand best practices and the benefits of using an iSCSI SAN with SQL Server 2005.
2008-02-08
2,157 reads
Which is Faster: SAN or Directly-Attached Storage?
Or should I place my database files on SAN or directly-attached storage? This is a frequently asked question. It comes up repeatedly in public newsgroups, email discussion lists, and private meetings with customers who are concerned with database performance.
2008-02-05
6,673 reads
RAID Scaling Charts, Part 3: 4-128 kB Stripes Compared
This is the third article that deals with analyzing the various possibilities involving various RAID setups and differing numbers of hard drives. We used the same hard disks again here: eight Samsung HM321KJ SATA/300 drives powered all of the possible RAID 0, RAID 5 and RAID 6 setups, with from three to as many as eight hard drives configured to use stripe sizes of 4 to 128 kB.
2007-12-19
2,353 reads
RAID Scaling Charts, Part 2: RAID 5 And RAID 6
For our RAID tests, we once again use Samsung HM321KJ SATA/300 drives. This time, we benchmarked RAID 5 and RAID 6 setups with three to eight hard drives.
2007-12-18
2,724 reads
RAID Scaling Charts, Part 1
Most enthusiast and mainstream users would consider setting up a RAID array mainly for performance reasons - few really care about data safety. For this reason, the majority of arrays installed consists of only two drives, which run a simple RAID 0 stripe set. Haven't you ever asked yourself how these RAID arrays scale as you increase the number of hard drives?
2007-12-17
2,911 reads
Blogs
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
Forums
Tame Those Strings (Series)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Tame Those Strings (Series)
SSRS shared dataset parameters not showing in expression builder
I am creating shared datasets that our executive staff can use for creating reports...
SSRS shared dataset parameters not showing in expression builder
I am creating shared datasets that our executive staff can use for creating reports...
Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers