Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 2

In order for a transaction to meet the requirements of ACID, locks are employed to insure data integrity and multi-user access. The scope, or number of rows held by a lock, is referred to as Lock Granularity. This month, we will begin by introducing several different types of lock modes employed by MS SQL.

Finding Duplicate Indexes in Large SQL Server Databases

One important component of tuning a large, heavily used database, is to ensure that the tables are indexed optimally: enough indexing, but not too much indexing for the application you are running. There are rules of thumb about index tuning, but the entire issue is so complex that there's no "silver bullet" solution that will work for every case. However, in tuning indexes we can generally say that it's not a good idea to maintain duplicate indexes on the same data. SQL Server does not provide checks to prevent duplicate indexes from being created, as long as the names are different

Are UDFs Harmful to SQL Server Performance?

SQL Server 2000 introduced user-defined functions (UDFs), and they were immediately hailed as a great tool for encapsulating repetitive code, as well as allowing you to perform more complicated processing directly in an SQL expression. On its face, that claim is valid. You can certainly improve readability and maintainability with UDFs. But cleaner code will be cold comfort if your queries bog down and lock up your server.

Performance Monitoring by Internal Fragmentation Measurement

It has not been clear to what extent fragmentation, either internal or external, truly affects the performance of your SQL Server 2000 databases. New author Koby Biller discusses some of the impacts that it could have and has a free tool for download that can help you determine how fragmented your disk truly is.

Controlling Transactions and Locks in SQL 2000 and 2005 - Part 1

A look at controlling transactions and locks with hints and snapshots in SQL Server 2000 and 2005.

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Optimize SQL Server hardware performance

Tuning SQL Server for performance is in many ways like constructing a house. You must find a suitable location with rich soil, build a solid foundation to support two or three levels, install the electrical and plumbing, finish the walls for painting and decorating, and finally conduct ongoing maintenance.

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