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Detecting and Resolving Stalled and Stuck I/O Issues in SQL Server 200

Guest columnist Robert Dorr explores how the reporting tool in SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 significantly reduces the time it takes to identify and determine the underlying causes of stalled and stuck I/O operations.

Obtaining Query Execution Plans Through SQL Profiler Traces

Did you know that you can obtain the execution plans for your SQL Server 2000 queries using Profiler? It is an interesting concept, especially when you need to troubleshoot the queries on a system that you did not develop and cannot obtain source code for. SQL Server guru andy Dyess brings us the technique you can use to find those queries and execution plans.

Performance Tips Part 2

SQL Server 2000 is a self tuning, self balancing application that performs wonderfully under a wide variety of loads and conditions with a minimal of administrative tuning. However there are some things that you can do when building T-SQL code and working with SQL Server to maximize performance. Leo Peysakhovich brings us part two of his series looking at some different scenarios and how you can structure your code for better performance.

Hits and Misses

Squeezing every last bit of performance from SQL Server is an art and one that can be critical to your success as a DBA. New author Mike Metcalf has brought us a little nugget he learned at Devcon recently about procedure cache hits and misses.

A Case Study in Performance Tuning

SQL Server does a wonderful job of tuning itself, selecting the optimum query plans and in general performing very well under a variety of conditions. That does not mean the a good DBA cannot add value by setting up the system and ensuring the optimizer receives the information that it needs. New author Gordon Pollokoff brings us a short case study from a project he as recently involved in where a new application required a bit of tuning.

Indexes: An Overview and Maintenance for Performance

SQL Server for the most part will maintain itself, updating statistics, choosing optimal query plans, and requiring minimal maintenance to keep running. However to optain optimum performance, a real DBA needs to spend some time checking and tuning indexes, rebuilding them as fillfactors change. This new article from Desiree Harris looks at how you can perform some of these tasks to keep your server performing at the optimum level.

SQL Server: Compare Query Results - Part I

In the Database administration world, it is often necessary to run a query on the production box and then run the same query on the QA or UAT box and compare the results. In this article, I would like to introduce a method that takes advantage of an MS-DOS batch file and SQL Server utility, BCP.exe, to compare the query results executed on two different servers.

SQL Server: Blocking Problems

This article focuses on a common problem associated with conflicting locks: blocking. When blocking occurs, a single connection blocks all other connections from reading or modifying a particular piece of data. Learn here how to resolve these issues.

Index on multiple columns for performance

A short piece on indexing using multiple columns. For those of you that have 10 single column indexes, read a little about why you might choose to index on multiple columns.