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
6,131 reads
Performance and Tuning
Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2022
Learn about a new feature of SQL Server 2022 - Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization(PSPO)
2025-09-15
1,735 reads
How SQL Server 2025’s Optional Parameter Plan Optimization Works
SQL Server 2025 improved PSPO to handle multiple predicates that might have parameter sensitivity, and that’s great! I love it when Microsoft ships a v1 feature, and then gradually iterates over to make it better. Adaptive Memory Grants were a similar investment that got improved over time, and today they’re fantastic.
2025-07-02
Azure SQL Performance Tuning: Mastering Indexes, Partitioning, and Clustered Columnstore
Learn a few ways to improve performance in your Azure SQL Databases through better indexing, partitioning, and columnstore index consideration.
2025-06-09
3,448 reads
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.
2025-06-06
Improve Query Performance when SQL Server Ignores Nonclustered Index
Do you wonder why SQL Server ignores an index? Do you think about how you can deal with this problem? When you include too many columns in a query you decrease index selectivity. So, if you write a query like “Select * From …” the chance of choosing your nonclustered index will decrease.
2025-03-03
Partitioning Data in Microsoft Fabric to Improve Performance for Lakehouses, Warehouses, and Pipelines
Learn how to implement data partitioning within Microsoft Fabric to improve performance for Lakehouses, Warehouses, and Pipelines.
2025-01-13
SQL Server OPTION RECOMPILE for Simple Queries
Learn about SQL Server OPTION RECOMPILE and if used on simple, frequently executed queries if it causes excessive CPU usage.
2025-01-08
The Paradox of NOLOCK: How Dirty Reads Can Sometimes Be Cleaner
Every SQL Server developer has heard it: "Don't use NOLOCK in production!" But this common rule isn't as simple as it seems. Sometimes, what seems like a bad practice can actually be the right choice. Let's explain what NOLOCK really does in simple terms. When you use NOLOCK, you're telling SQL Server "just show me […]
2024-12-09
5,082 reads
Distributed Monoliths
What is a distributed monolith vs. a microservice architecture? Steve has a few thoughts today.
2024-12-06
158 reads
Blogs
T-SQL Tuesday #196 – Two risky career decisions I made
By DataOnWheels
The T-SQL Tuesday topic this month comes James Serra. What career risks have you...
T-SQL Tuesday #192: What career risks have you taken?
This T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by the one and only James Serra – literally...
T-SQL Tuesday #196: Taking Risks
By Steve Jones
This month we have a new host, James Serra. I’ve been trying to find...
Forums
would it be so terrible to install ssms on a few user desktops?
Hi, ssms is free here. I can think of other reasons to do this...
I'm thinking about submitting some articles
I've written some documentation on using different Markdown types of files on GitHub. It's...
Not Just an Upgrade
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Not Just an Upgrade
Question of the Day
Restoring On Top I
I am doing development work on a database and want to keep a backup so I can reset my database. I make some changes and want to restore over top of my changes. When I run this code, what happens?
USE Master BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' GO USE DNRTest GO CREATE TABLE MyTest(myid INT) GO USE master RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACESee possible answers