What Query Plans are in SQL Server's Memory?

SQL Server memory is primarily used to store data (buffer) and query plans (procedure cache). In this article I'll show how much memory is allocated to the procedure cache (RAM). I'll explain how to determine what plans are in the cache and how often they're used.

Custom reports in Management Studio, using the Performance Dashboard

If you are using SSMS and SQL Server 2005 SP2, You've probably tried out the database reports that are available in the Performance Dashboard, and decided how useful they are, but did you know that you can create your own dashboard reports?

What Data is in SQL Server's Memory?

SQL Server memory is primarily used to store data (buffer) and query plans (cache). In this article I'll show how much memory is allocated to the data buffer (or RAM). I'll explain how to determine what tables and indexes are in the buffer memory of your server.

Making the Most Out of the SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard

The SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard is a new add-on to SQL Server 2005 that became available shortly after the release of Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005.

Parallel Statistics Update

Full scan statistics update can be slow and expensive on a large system, and a single update statistics job for a whole database can easily exceed an overnight maintenance window. This article looks at jobs that could update statistics on the system in parallel.

Not In v Not Equal

Is it better to use NOT IN() or <> in a T-SQL query? Ken Johnson had the question put to him and decided to investigate them both. Read about how these two functions perform.

Writing Faster T-SQL

How many times have you wished that your queries performed better? Performance Tuning is a bit of an art, but learning about new techniques and which things work help grow your knowledge. Jacob Sebastian brings us the first part of a series on writing better performing queries.

How SQL Server Chooses the Type of Join

How many times have you had a stored procedure run quicker in Query Analyzer than it does in the application? Mike Dillon tracked down one possible cause in this article.

To optimize the configuration of tempdb for performance,...

SQL Server Wait Events: Taking the Guesswork out of Performance Profil

This article introduces some techniques that will allow you to pinpoint exactly where the performance issues are in your system, so you'll know exactly where to spend your time (and money) in solving them.