A Guide to Application Memory Tuning

Working with memory in SQL Server and tuning your server for optimum performance gets more complex all the time, especially with the availability of 64-bit platforms. New author Paul Mu brings us a short guide to using the /3GB and PAE switches along with their implications for your server.

Large Object Data

Dealing with text, image, and other large object data types can be confusing for many people, in all aspects of working with them. However one place that is important is performance. SQL Server MVP Simon Sabin brings us a few thoughts on improving performance with these columns and the Text in Row setting.

A Technique for Determining the I/O Hog in your Database

Performance Tuning can be as much an art as a science when working with SQL Server, but there are many fine techniques that can help you get started. New author Michael Morin brings a great new technique helping you get started on determining where the heavy I/O users are in your database.

Performance Tuning Stored Procedures

Stored procedures are a great way to encapsulate code and reuse it in many places in your application. But when you have a performance issue, how do you know which part of the stored procedure is giving you problems? Steve Jones takes a look at a few techniques for diving into stored procedures and identifying problem areas.

Analyzing Memory Requirements for SQL Server

The second in a series from Adindam Banerjee on server performance and capacity planning. This time Arindam takes a look at the memory requirements for SQL Server.

Beware of Search Argument (SARG) Data Types

Performance tuning often seems like it can be more of an art than a science. However there are a number of fundamentals that can help you tune most of the queries that you will write or have issues with their performance. Don Peterson brings us a look at how he tuned a query in the real world to avoid a conversion that can cause a query to run slower.

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Using ITWIZ.EXE to Automate Index Analysis

This process uses ITWIZ.EXE the command line version of the Index Tuning Wizard. SQL trace file information is stored in a table on production then transferred to a non-production server. ITWIZ is then run against the transferred trace data resulting in a UNICODE SQL script. This script has index creation and deletion information as well as script parameters in a remarks section.