Rebuilding All Indexes

SQL Server index tuning: common mistakes and how to fix them

This guide walks through the most common SQL Server index tuning mistakes seen in production environments, such as over-indexing, oversized INCLUDE lists, unnecessary fill factor settings, misuse of SORT_IN_TEMPDB, over-aggressive index maintenance – and the myth that heaps are a shortcut to speed. Features real examples.

Confession Time: I Never Taught You About B-Trees.

I work with databases for a living. I teach people, and I help them via consulting. And as far as I can remember, I’ve never written something about how b-trees work.

Why Your Index Isn't Being Used? - Reading Execution Plans to Find the Real Culprit

Built the index, but SQL Server still scans the whole table? Learn how to read execution plans and find exactly why your index is being ignored.

Why use a Composite Index in SQL Server

SQL queries can take a long time to run, especially on large tables if not properly indexed. Full table scans can be costly operations when all a user wants is to fetch a few rows based on multiple columns and a WHERE filter. How can we properly index our tables to support multi-column queries?

A Big PK

Managing Underused Indexes in SQL Server Availability Groups – Part 2

Knowing the usage from all workloads is definitely better than focusing on only the primary or a single secondary. But what if I want to make more informed decisions, incorporating row counts, size, and index columns into this output?

Why Indexes are Important Beyond Faster Execution of Queries

Learn how indexes can help you with more than just querying data.

Using Heaps

Index Scans and Table Scans

There are several things that you can do to improve performance by throwing more hardware at the problem, but usually the place you get the most benefit from is when you tune your queries. One common problem that exists is the lack of indexes or incorrect indexes and therefore SQL Server has to process more data to find the records that meet the queries criteria. These issues are known as Index Scans and Table Scans.